Good Husband Material by Trisha Ashley

James is everything Tish has ever wanted in a husband – she’s married a man who even her mother approves of. He’s handsome, dependable, and will make an excellent father – unlike Tish’s first love, the disreputable Fergal. Her teenage sweetheart abandoned her for a music career and now lives a typical celebrity lifestyle. Fergal broke her heart – James helped mend it. Now, they’ve bought a cottage in the country.

The next step – kids and a lifetime of domestic bliss. Well, that’s the plan. And even if James has a slight tendency to view the village pub as a second home, their relationship is still in pretty good shape after seven years of marriage. So why is marriage to Mr Rightf making her long for Mr Wrong?

I have thoroughly enjoyed Trisha Ashley’s last two books so I was eager to get her next book Good Husband Material. The cover is very similar to her other books it seems to be a signature look for this author which is great because you know it is her book before you even see her name and personally I love the cover it looks very cosy and appropriate for Spring not that our weather seems to realise it is now spring!

The book began at a very slow pace with the storyline slowly developing and the main character Tish gradually growing on me.  Tish and Fergals romance comes to an end when his career takes him off to America where Tish doesn’t feel it is the right time to follow. With Tish heartbroken and having other family issues it was James who then took her hand and married her and began to create a life together. It isn’t until they move to Tish’s dream cottage in the country that cracks begin to form in their relationship which then isn’t helped by the new arrival to the village, Fergal.

As fast as my hatred grew towards bad boy James my love for the lovable and independent Tish began to form. Although she seemed very blind as to the goings on around her at first she soon became a very strong and capable character who was intent of making the right decisions, I was hoping that at some point in the book Tish would finally wake up and smell the roses and kick James to the curb! As you can tell there isn’t a single nice thing I can say about James character so the author has created the perfect bad boy.

Although the main part of the book is told around Tish’s point of view at the end of each chapter we get a headline from various articles about Fegal and a paragraph or two from him so we slowly get to know his character at the beginning of the book so that when he does make an appearance we are familiar with him and personally I think this was a great way to introduce his character.

The book covers infidelity, romance and hidden secrets all which keep you gripped throughout the whole of the book. I had my suspicions about certain things throughout the book and so I couldn’t wait to get to the end to see if I was right. I was very well behaved and didn’t take an early peek!

This is another favourite of mine from Trisha Ashley.

Paperback                Kindle

We have Trisha Ashley with us today to answer some questions for us.

1)  What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

I was living in the middle of a town when I wrote the first draft and doing a bit of the Good Life thing – baking bread, making jam, growing herbs and fruit – while dreaming of living in the country.

      Then I wondered what would happen if I took a couple who appeared on the surface to have a rock-solid marriage and to want the same thing, and moved them to the country cottage of their dreams…or the heroine’s dreams, anyway.  So I did that and major faultlines in their marriage soon started to appear.

2) I loathed James in Good Husband Material, you definitely created a bad guy there.  Is he based on anyone you know (I sure hope not!) and do you find it hard to write bad characters.

      The first version of this was written a very long time ago and there is a touch or two of a friend’s truly dreadful husband in there!  It’s fun writing the bad characters and the strange thing about some men who behave badly is that they really don’t understand why their wives/partners can’t just forgive and forget their little foibles.

    

3)  Through a couple of your books now there have been characters who are authors, other than this do you ever put any more of your own characteristics into you characters?

Often my main protagonist will be an author or an artist of some kind, because those are the sorts of occupations I’m familiar with.  But I write in first person from the heroine’s viewpoint and I have to get to know her and what has formed her character before I begin writing each book. Looking at the world and reacting to it in a way totally different to the way I would do myself is the major excitement in writing the book.  My characters often surprise me.

       They say your first book is autobiographical, but if that’s so, then I probably got it out of my system long ago – I’ve written at least one book a year since I was eighteen.

4)  Are you working on your next book and is there a little teaser you can give us?

I’m just doing the edits for Wish upon a Star, which will be out later in the year, before getting back to the ideas for the next one.  I haven’t so far released any information about Wish upon a Star – it was such an emotive book to write that I’m still hugging it close – but it is set in the village of Sticklepond and the star of the title is a little girl called Stella with serious health issues.

5) What was the last book you read, and would you recommend it?

The advantage of being an author is that you often get to see other novelist’s latest books long before they hit their shelves!  I’ve just read Margaret James’ romantic comedy The Wedding Diary, which is out in May and great fun (if they make a film, the lovely dog in it will be the star, I guarantee it) and have started Carole Matthews next one, Calling Mrs Christmas, which I  know I will love just as much as her previous ones.

6)  Are you a kindle convert?

No, although I can see their advantages for readers who travel or commute a lot.  I do love the look, feel and smell of a brand new book, and to see them lining my shelves like so many treasures.  Apart from that, I have a degenerating eye condition that mean I do too much staring at a screen already, while writing!

7)  If you were stuck on a desert island, what would be your three must-have items?

Actor Rufus Sewell and an endless supply of pencils and paper would be nice.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, I can not wait for Wish Upon a Star to be released later this year.