Gina and Rex are newlyweds and blissfully happy. Then Rex disappears while on a holiday in Spain with his brother and two friends. He headed out windsurfing one day and didn't return. Almost immediately, Gina realises that things aren't quite as they seem. The day before he disappeared, Rex withdrew a large sum of money that has disappeared with him (as has his passport). He has wiped all the history from his laptops at home. Strangers ring telling her that Rex owed them money. She discovers that he wasn't the highflyer at work that she thought he was.

If this was a thriller, Rex's secret other life would come out, Gina would find herself in danger and probably miraculously acquire the ability to fire a gun. Instead, being a chicklit novel, the emphasis is more on how Gina comes to term with her missing - maybe alive, maybe dead - husband and how she gradually learns more about his life and the secrets that they kept from one another. While we do in the end find out what happened to Rex, it's not the main point of the novel.

The central mystery in this book kept me reading although the characters let the book down for me - Gina is so hopeless, believing what she wants to believe and refusing to take any ownership of the situation that she's in. I also felt that some of the connections between various characters were overly forced for the sake of having one more secret to uncover. If there were half ratings I'd probably say 3.5 stars, but given that I devoured this book quite happily in a day, I am giving it four. ( )