The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

Have you ever watched or read something and thought "This gives (blank) a bad name"? That's what The Girlfriend is. It's dramatic and thrilling, but damn, it gives women a bad name. I'm hoping that the readers of this book are primarily female, because if not, women, we are doomed.

Laura is a successful career woman with a nice house, comfy lifestyle, and a dreamy son, Daniel. There are things that cold be better, like her marriage, but she's happy; and from an outsiders perspective, she has it all. The outsider in this case is Cherry. Cherry is Daniel's new girlfriend. She comes from the other side of the tracks, but she has dreams, and those dreams involve finding a man with money so she can live the life she's always dreamed of for herself. The first time Laura meets Cherry, she thinks Cherry is just nervous. But the more Cherry comes around, and the more she discovers about her, the more she begins to think that Cherry might have other plans in mind for her son. When Cherry plans a white water rafting trip for her and Daniel, a curveball is thrown into everyone's lives. Daniel is thrown from the raft and left in a coma. Laura sees this as her chance to remove the gold digger, and after months of Daniel not improving, she tells Cherry that Daniel passed away and that only family was allowed at the funeral, and he was cremated, so there is no gravesite to visit. But Daniel finally comes around. Laura lies again and tells him that Cherry left him long ago. But Laura's lies are coming back to haunt her, and it might cost her more than she's willing to give.

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If that sounds like the plot to a bad Lifetime movie, you're probably right. I'm sure I've seen this in a movie format at least ten times. It's not much better in book-form. The big issue I have with Laura is her lie that Daniel died. He was close to death, yes, but he didn't die. I understand that she wanted this time with her son, what she thought could be his last days; but what type of person do you have to be to say that your own flesh and blood is dead. And not just stopping there, but going even further to say you already had the funeral and that he was cremated. This takes thought. It wasn't some off-the-cuff white lie; this is a full blown, hell in a hand basket type of lie. But Laura isn't the problem. Cherry is.

The thing that made this difficult was Cherry's treatment of her mom, Wendy. Wendy became a single parent when Cherry's father died suddenly. Cherry likes to think of how her dad was selfish enough to not leave them any life insurance. She complains that her mom has a dead end job at a supermarket, buys clothes and food on discount, and spends her money buying DVDs. She doesn't see that her mom has worked from the bottom as a cashier to the top as one of the managers. She doesn't see the discounts as a ways for her to have more money for Cherry. She doesn't understand that the DVDs are her way of escaping because she's given everything in her life to Cherry. At one point, she even wonders if her mom has life insurance and if there was a way her mom could accidentally die. And the worst thing is she hits her mom. Only one in the book, and she feels some guilt about it, but I am not giving her any room. She does not understand what her mom did for her, and that is one thing that I hate.

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She also wants to destroy the relationship between Daniel and Laura. She does this by extending her vacation with from just a weekend to a whole week. She also plans the life-altering rafting trip during the weekend of Laura's birthday. She also does other little things: ruining a painting she she bought for Daniel and implying Laura was the cause of it; saying Laura pushed her in a pool during a blackout at a BBQ. She has manipulative written all over her. She plays the victim in every situation, and Daniel falls for it every time.

Cherry eventually learns that Daniel is still alive and that is when she goes full-blown crazy. Part of me wonders if the accident hadn't happened if Cherry's true colors would have shown. She did seem to care for Daniel, but she definitely has psychopathic tendencies, and anyone who's watched an episode of Criminal Minds know that psychopaths can't love. But that lie is definitely what sent her from possessive to full-blown crazy.

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The thing that I think is the worst, and that I feel was pushing it too far, is when Cherry kills a puppy. A sweet, innocent cocker spaniel puppy. She knew that Laura had a cocker spaniel as a child, and she also knows that Laura is the reason she lost her job as a real estate agent. She after killing the puppy, she sends the dead puppy to a person working with Laura, effectively losing Laura a very important account and probably future accounts. Nope. Just nope, nope, nope. That is too far for me.

The book was predictable on many accounts, and too far out of the realm of possibility on others. It was a bit of a let down, but definitely makes me happy that I don't have any Cherry's in my life.

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Rating: 2/10
Author: Michelle Frances
Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery