The Bitter Truth

By: Shanora Williams

Narrated by: Sable Lyn, Roderick Ross

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

An upstanding political candidate. A determined stalker. A shattering lost weekend. Amid the clashes and intrigue of the campaign trail, to what lengths will the elegant, all-too-devoted wife of a seemingly incorruptible politician go in the name of love, loyalty, and ego?

From breakout Tiktok star Shanora Williams, a propulsive, sexy, rich-people-behaving-badly thriller for fans of Kellye Garrett, Sally Hepworth, Liv Constantine, Eliza Jane Brazier, and Tarryn Fisher.

For Jolene “Jo” Baker, the least she can do for her adoring husband, Dominic, is give unwavering support for his North Carolina gubernatorial run. He is not only the love of her life, he's also helping her prove that she's far more than just a pampered trophy wife. With huge crowds showing up at Dominic’s speeches and the polls consistently in his favor, she's never been happier to stand proudly by his side...

Until she and Dominic start seeing the same, strangely ominous woman turning up all along the campaign trail. Until their tour starts becoming a nightmare of botched events, crucial missed information, and increasingly dangerous “accidents.” Suddenly Jo can't get any answers from Dominic—or understand why he is acting so paranoid and terrified....

What Jo can do is start digging into his past—one she's never really questioned beyond his perfect image and dazzling accomplishments. What results is an alarming series of events that leave her baffled: Good friends turn into enemies, truths are revealed to be lies, and all clues lead back to one secret, shattering weekend that changes Jo’s entire life. With her world splintering into pieces, can Jo risk trying to set things right? Or will hiding the bitter truth by any means necessary destroy her as well?

©2024 Shanora Williams (P)2024 Recorded Books

Love a Good Thriller!

Didn’t like the narrators, but loved the story! It was engaging and kept me guessing.

It’s a good book, but…

I am worried that my review will be deleted, but I really hope that it won’t because I feel like I can do give my honest feelings and opinions about this book in a respectable way.

Number one, there are so many things about this book that I love. I really relate to a lot of what Jolene thinks and says… marriage is hard, especially with the food, and then the politics and her husband being absolutely horrendous. She did not agree with everything he was doing, but had also gotten somewhat shady herself over time.

I guess I relate to the aspect that life turns you into something or someone that you never thought you would become. The writing is creative and keeps you guessing; I just think the writing is very clever.

However, I have to somewhat defend my own culture and race, and say that I feel that the author not only loves tea, but really doesn’t love white people. And that’s fine, they don’t have to. But if I wrote a book and negatively pointed out another race repeatedly, I would be dragged through hot tar. The only white person in this book was a disgusting racism… numerous other comments were made against the “white man”,, and yet I’m a white woman funding this author. While some of these comments and complaints regarding white people may be completely warranted, I just don’t know where it’s getting us. Are we trying to get more cohesive or are we trying to just turn one race against another? I could have listened to this book and never have thought about the race aspect until I heard the negative comments, regardless of what another race is known for or has been associated with, I can’t say a word, but another race can say anything and write anything to paint a certain demographic, but this is acceptable. To generalize an entire race based on a few experiences.. I just don’t understand how this is productive to forming and more cohesive society. if all were after is revenge and segregation, this book definitely accomplishes that.

And I do have to say the film female narration is absolutely horrible. Weird pauses; it sounds like she is reading… just not my favorite.