Learn to Handle ‘Husbands and Other Sharp Objects’ with Courage and Humor [REVIEW]

Laughter helps Marcy Hammer navigate everything from divorce and new love to sticky-fingered in-laws in Marilyn Simon Rothstein’s Husbands and Other Sharp Objects. (Photo courtesy Pexels)

Family can drive a woman crazy if she doesn’t have good humor and great friends to support her through each new episode of life’s little dramas. Thankfully, the heroine of Marilyn Simon Rothstein’s Husbands and Other Sharp Objects, Marcy Hammer, has no shortage of either. 

Lake Union

The last time we saw Marcy, she had split with the Bra King, her husband and father to her children, Harvey. (If you want to find out why, read Rothstein’s previous novel, Lift and Separate. But let’s just say she had good reason!) Sure, she handled the crises with more than her fair share of snark, but a girl’s got to have a way to cope. Yet that isn’t where her comic misadventures ended.

Now Marcy has a new beau named Jon, a guy who is as smart and handsome as he is doting, which is just what she needs at this point in life. However, watching his soon-to-be ex-wife with another man doesn’t sit all that well with Harvey, who would love to get back in Marcy’s good graces.

As if he isn’t a headache enough, enter Marcy’s headstrong daughter, Amanda. She takes after her father and loves to drop bombs on her poor unsuspecting mother too. The latest one is that she is engaged to marry Jake, one of Harvey’s lawyers. Since Marcy actually likes Jake, this should be great news… right? Well, it would have been if she didn’t have the misfortune of meeting Jake’s over-the-top, kleptomaniac parents. But hey, at least they’re Jewish!

Husbands and Other Sharp Objects is an uproarious novel that is full of heart, even as it tackles thorny subjects and sticky situations. With this second book, Rothstein once again does what she did so well in her debut novel. She makes us take a look at what it means to get older and why each of us needs to periodically reevaluate our lives and redirect our steps if necessary. Yet she does all of this with laugh-out-loud hilarity that keeps us turning the pages while wishing that we all had a best friend like Marcy.

Fans of novels like Olivia Goldsmith’s The First Wives Club, Iris Rainer Dart’s Beaches or Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series will undoubtedly love Rothstein’s work and the inimitable Marcy Hammer. That’s why this novel is the perfect gift for any woman who has ever had a family, planned a wedding, or found herself starting a new chapter in life just when she thought the ending to her story had already been written. If you love to laugh, commit the name Marilyn Simon Rothstein to memory. She infuses each page with joy!

Marilyn Simon Rothstein
(Photo by Sarah Tew Photography)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is the author of Husbands and Other Sharp Objects and her debut novel, Lift and Separate, a finalist for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award.

Before writing her first book, Marilyn owned an advertising agency in Connecticut for more than 25 years. But her writing career actually began at Seventeen magazine.

Marilyn received her master of arts in liberal studies from Wesleyan University and a master of arts in Judaic studies from the University of Connecticut. She earned her degree in journalism from New York University.

She grew up in New York City and married a man she met in an elevator. She invites you to follow her on Amazon, Facebook and Twitter.

HUSBANDS AND OTHER SHARP OBJECTS
By Marilyn Simon Rothstein
302 pgs. Lake Union. $14.95

Purchase Husbands and Other Sharp Objects at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Barnes & Noble.