Book Review: The Infidelity Chain

The Infidelity Chain

Tess Stimson

Genre: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Adult

Publication: January 2008

Format: Paperback, 356 pages

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository

I didn’t have too much expectation with this book when I picked it up from the library. It’s not what I usually read – adultery. But, this book really surprised me. It was quite good and it’s really not what I've been expecting.

The story is about Ella who is married to Jackson while having an affair with William. William’s wife, Beth who was having a depression is starting to fall for Cate’s (her daughter) boyfriend, Dan. It’s a rather complicated story on affairs, adultery, and teenager’s transformation to womanhood. The Infidelity Chain was written in Ella, William, Beth and Cate’s point of view changing with each chapter. The shifting point of view wasn’t confusing at all. In fact, it was nice to see each of everyone’s points of view. Tess Stimson succeeds in making her characters interesting. I’m really glad that the plot line wasn’t a cliché. In fact, each of the chapter makes me frowned with surprise. The story line was really unpredictable. 

Book Cover’s Description

Ella Stuart has worked hard to achieve the perfect work-life balance: a high-flying career as a paediatric doctor, a charming husband, charity fundraiser Jackson Garrett – and in urbane PR consultant William Ashfield, a passionate, worldly lover. William is equally devoted to Ella, his mistress of eight years, and to his faded, troubled wife, Beth. He knows he could never choose between them; and is eternally grateful he’s never been asked. 

When tragedy strikes out of the blue, Ella’s carefully ordered life is abruptly derailed. Struggling to cope as the chaos spirals out of her control, unable to play the accommodating mistress any longer, Ella examines her long relationship with William, and finds it wanting. But her personal nightmare has repercussions for everyone linked to her. For William, who has to face his own demons and make the toughest decision of his life. For Beth, who is just beginning to emerge from the depression that has stolen the most precious years of motherhood. And above all for Cate, William and Beth’s seventeen-year-old daughter, whose transition from girlhood to womanhood is suddenly set to be a baptism of fire.