The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers

The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers – 352 pages

Book Blurb:

Phoebe recognizes fire in Jake Pierce’s belly from the moment they meet as teenagers. As he creates a financial dynasty, she trusts him without hesitation—unaware his hunger for success hides a dark talent for deception.
When Phoebe learns her husband’s triumph and vast reach rests on an elaborate Ponzi scheme her world unravels. As Jake’s crime is uncovered, the world obsesses about Phoebe. Did she know her life was fabricated by fraud? Was she his accomplice?
While Jake is trapped in the web of his deceit, Phoebe is caught in an unbearable choice. Her children refuse to see her if she remains at their father’s side, but abandoning him feels cruel and impossible.

My Review: 4 stars

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The Widow of Wall Street is the book everyone was reading in 2017. It’s a book I wanted to read but just never got to it. A friend in PR mentioned it to me, which lit a spark to read it. Boy I’m glad I did.

This page-turner of a novel is filled with drama, deceit, verbal abuse, lies, motherhood, marriage, white-collar crime, scandal, young love, manipulation and money. Sounds like this could never be real life, right? Think Bernie Madoff and you’ll soon realize that this is a loose interpretation of his story. This book is timely as Ponzi schemes have been and will continue to be around. It was interesting to see how they start and the emotional drama that goes hand in hand with the monetary risk.

Is money and success more important that love and honesty? How is the wife involved? Is she really naïve to her husband’s doings or is she equally red-handed guilty? These are questions that kept whispering in my ear as I read this. And the poor kids! Although the kids were quite different that the Madoff scandal, I still felt so sorry for them.

I think Meyers is a good storyteller, as the novel’s pacing was spot on and her characters came to life. I look forward to her next book, Waisted that comes out in May of 2019.

Quotes I liked:

Phoebe had become two almost-spectral things: a widow to a living man, and a childless mother”

– “What did she want most? “Honestly, all I need is for us to do three things in this world: take good care of our family, do good work we can be proud of, and concentrate on bringing out the best in each other.”