Bookouture

I stuffed up big-time when reading The Second Mrs Strom by Kaira Rouda. It wasn’t until the very end I read the note by the author and she mentions taking Paul Strom out on a second outing following his appearance in Best Day Ever. Do’h!

I LOVED that book (it’s my fave of Rouda’s) and realising that would have given this so much more context. This opens with Paul narrating and he’s surprisingly loathsome straight off… in Paris elbowing other tourists out of the way and literally telling them to “Shoo!”. Had I realised he was the same character we loved to hate in Best Day Ever I would have understood that Rouda had no intention of us liking him or finding him more palatable. Of course if my memory was better I might have recalled his name or some of his backstory (which he shares here). But alas… I read this with fresh eyes and found myself somewhat agog at his smug arrogance.