The Other Woman by Jane Green

Meet Linda, the mother in law from Hell, in The Other Woman by Jane Green. Ellie meets Dan who is so tied to his mother that the reader can see the problems coming. Ellie desperately wants to be part of a warm, loving family since her mother died at 13 and she and her dad are somewhat estranged since he has remarried and has another family, but Linda takes over the wedding to the point the only thing Ellie has a say about is her wedding dress, not that Linda didn't try to take that away from her as well. It goes downhill from there.

Linda is a constant point of contention in the marriage, and Dan just will not stand up to her, never supporting Ellie in the hell she is going through with his mother. When Linda ends up holding Ellie's baby before Ellie even sees him after an unplanned ceasarian delivery, that is THE.LAST.STRAW. Or it would have been had not Linda totally disregarded Ellie's directions and ends up falling with little Tom when she should have left him alone in his crib after he had gone to bed.

The injuries to little Tom heal but not the anger Ellie has toward Linda. And Dan doesn't support her...again. This erodes their marriage, and Dan leaves...and goes back home to Mama.

No one tells a domestic story like Jane Green, and I suspect she mines a lot of her stories from life experience as I have read quite a few interviews with her. Viewed as founder of the "Chick Lit" genre, her books are always entertaining...and at turns, humorous. I have read nearly every book she has written, and I am working on making that every book as I approach the last two I haven't yet read.

Born in London, Green worked for many years as a journalist, writing women's features for The Daily Express, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan and others as well as turns in public relations for film and television. She is the author of many bestselling novels, including Straight Talking, Jemima J, Mr. Maybe, Bookends, and Babyville.

The Lifetime Channel adapted three of her books -- Tempting Fate, To Have and to Hold and Family Pictures -- that aired in 2019.