About the Book
Is their love powerful enough to overcome a betrayal that shook the foundation of their marriage? Lina and Phil Hunter have been together since they were teenagers. Twenty-five years later, they have successful careers, three teenage children and a beautiful home. Phil also has a baby with another woman, the by-product of a four-month affair. This is a story of second chances, loyalty and redemption as the Hunters try to put their lives and family back together.
My Review
I have been really looking forward to the sequel of A White Picket Fence. That book captured me, and I’ve been itching to know how Lina and Phil are doing. Rocked by infidelity in the first book, the story picks up after Phil’s ex-mistress has their baby. Lina is trying her hardest to accept her unfaithful husband back into their home, but Kim (the ex) is doing everything in her power to make that hard to do. Swimming Naked tackles a lot of issues in here, and I did enjoy reading this. I was once again captured by the characters and Branchflower’s writing style flows so easily and really brings the characters to life. I will say that while Phil made me so angry in the first book, I might have disliked him more in this one. He came across very arrogant and demanding – with Lina and even his own children. I do credit the author for making me feel so much during both her books that I’ve read and I definitely can’t discredit a book because one of the characters comes across as unlikeable – that’s just reality. So even though I did enjoy this book and would recommend, especially if you’ve read A White Picket Fence, it also left me just a tad disappointed. Phil’s constant harping on Lina as though she was the one who stepped out on their marriage really bothered me, and while I was happy to see a few times Lina stood her ground, her obsession with Phil got to be a bit overdone, as did the sex scenes. Again, I do like the raw reality this story brings – marriages are hard, parenting is hard, people make mistakes and others are left to pick up the pieces – but something just fell short for me. I will definitely read more from Laura Branchflower in the future though, because her talent is true.
4 stars
