The Quiet Wife by L G Dickson

Epitomizing a wife who has always put her husband's needs and demands first Sheila has just retired from a job she loved and which she excelled at. She looks forward to a retirement as her husband has also scheduled his own retirement around hers. They had planned to spend more time at their property in France and had several ideas in the pipeline. All Sheila's dreams go up in smoke when she realises that John has no intention of keeping to his promise of retirement and that life for him is even busier than ever. He, like always seems to only hear what he wants to hear so that any complaint of which there are very few from Sheila's side is brushed aside as if of no importance. Sheila starts looking at other things which she is interested in and one is a History group but at home she is being swept into a scheme of baby sitting her grandson without a by your leave even, on a joint effort of both her husband and her daughter Caitlin. It is almost a passive bullying tactic which makes Sheila begin to realise that she has to assert herself or go under. A pleasant reminder that life does not end at retirement and that you are never too old to stand up for yourself even in a marriage of over forty years! Not being taken for granted is very important and this highlights this. Sent by Troubadour Press for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.