Slip of the Tongue is the type of book that I could have easily read in one sitting, except it hurt too much. I knew before going into this one that it had the potential to rip my poor heart to shreds and leave my stomach tied in knots, and it did. While I needed to take breaks from reading it, I was still left thinking about the characters and the story during those breaks, wanting to get back to it, needing to know what was going to happen, but also apprehensive about what was awaiting me.
The book is told entirely from Sadie Hunt’s point of view. I felt as though I knew her. I could feel her pain and sympathize with her situation. She thought that her marriage was rock solid. Her husband had always been doting, loving, and had made her feel like she was the most important person in his life. She had never had a reason to doubt his love for her or his devotion to their marriage…until one day, he changed.
Sadie’s near perfect marriage was crumbling before her eyes, and there didn’t seem to be a damn thing that she could do about it. Her husband, Nathan, didn’t seem to be the same man that she married. Her once attentive husband had turned into a cold, distant, hurtful man who didn’t even want to be in the same room as her. Despite Sadie’s efforts to find out what provoked Nathan’s change in behavior, she couldn’t get him to open up to her. Her frustration was palpable.
As Sadie was spending more and more time alone, she was finding the attention that her new neighbor, Finn, was giving her to be soothing. It filled a void that her husband had left in her. What she was lacking in her marriage, Finn was offering up to her in spades. And while she realized that spending so much time with Finn was dangerous and wrong, she couldn’t help but be drawn to the man who wanted her so much.
I’m steps away from my apartment when the door to 6A opens behind me. “Sadie.” Finn’s urgency echoes in the hall. I stop. Nathan hasn’t said my name with that much emotion in a while. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he says. It may be the wrong man. It may be the wrong apartment. But I got my wish. There is someone waiting for me after all.
My heart and my mind were all over the place with this book. I was beginning to question the behavior and motives of each of the characters, not really knowing who was genuine and trustworthy. I could understand why Sadie would be tempted by another man. Her husband was never home, leaving her with the cold reality that he might have found someone else. I was angry and hurt right alongside of her. I wanted to yell and shake some sense into her husband so that he would finally just talk to her, tell her what the hell happened and how they could fix it. While I was sympathetic to Sadie, I also knew that she wasn’t blameless in all of it. But while Sadie was waiting for answers, for any indication that Nathan wanted to save their marriage, she was finding comfort from another man.
“He’ll regret pushing you away, though, when he realizes I’m here, waiting to catch you.”
As I was pulled deeper and deeper into this book, I was unsure of how it would all end. I’ll admit that I was sitting on pins and needles for the duration of the book, but the author never really gave me a clue, an inkling of where she was going to take the characters and their story. I was left wondering, stewing, and worrying about their fate. I wasn’t sure if it would have a happy ending. I wasn’t even sure what that happy ending would look like. I’m not the type of reader who needs the coveted happily ever after, I just want a book that makes me feel, is realistic, and stirs up my emotions. Slip of the Tongue gave me everything that I could have hoped for and more.
*5 Stars
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