Jennifer Coburn, The Wife of Reilly

The Wife of Reilly

Jennifer Coburn

Strapless, Jan 2004, $12.99, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0758206267

When MBA accounting executive Prudence Malone meets her three friends in a New York restaurant she stuns them with the news that she is engaged. Sophie, Jennifer, and Chad point out that she cannot be someone's fianc e since she is already married to the kindhearted Reilly. Prudence explains that when she visited Ann Arbor to attend a football game at her alma mater; destiny came too. She met her college love Matt amidst the 100,000 plus at the stadium. They made passionate love and agreed to wed though he is unaware that she already has a spouse. Prudence asks her three friends to help her find a wife for the nice Reilly who she admits deserves better.

Jennifer finds the I Love Lucy type scheme fascinating and is in, but Chad rejects the notion she has no obligation to take care of Reilly especially after they divorce. Sophie fails to commit either way though she knows she will help her pal. As Prudence seeks her replacement, Matt makes demands and Reilly acts bewildered by his wife's behavior.

THE WIFE OF REILLY is a screwball chic lit (is that an oxymoron?) comedy that makes no sense, but is so much fun to read. The perils of Prudence will keep the audience laughing as every venture she tries to pull off seems more like Lucy and Ethel working at the candy factory. Though her accounting partnership seems out of reach for this dizzy dame, fans will appreciate Jennifer Coburn's very amusing tale of a wife finding a spouse for her husband (need I say more).

Harriet Klausner