Mia James almost has it all…At thirty, she is a successful photographer with the craziest but most loyal friends in the world and a wonderful life in a picturesque village. The only things missing are a husband and a brood of kids. Love happens when you least expect it, her mom always says.An appointment to show her photography portfolio brings her front and center with Jack Barnes, a gorgeous, successful Manhattan businessman. Mia is smitten, and they marry less than a year later. Unfortunately, the marital bliss she craves never shows up.Jack, the controlling absentee husband, has a someone else is occupying his mind and bed. Mia has no idea until a chance sighting reveals the real Jack with his mystery woman.Payback is definitely in order and way overdue. With a little help from her friends—and a lot of Merlot—Mia is on a mission to take Jack down.Hilarious speed bumps, hiccups, and crazy calamities along the way could turn Mia’s ridiculous plot for payback into a chance for unexpected friendships, and real love.Payback and a Bottle of Merlot, Book One, in the Like Sisters series, is a romantic comedy novel that will appeal to fans of chick lit, women's fiction and humorous books. Like Sisters is a laugh out loud series of best friends, hot guys and the right amount of steam to have you anxiously waiting for the next book.There are no cliffhangers in this series, but since the characters carry over, the books are best read in sequence.Like Sisters Romantic Comedy Series#1 Payback and a Bottle of Merlot#2 Insecurity and a Bottle of Merlot#3 Destiny and a Bottle of Merlot#4 Intrigue and a Bottle of Merlot#5 Desire and a Bottle of Merlot
Bria Marche has spent most of her adult years living near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a member of numerous writer’s organizations including, Fiction for All, Fiction Factor and Writers-Online.
Along with writing, she also enjoys many forms of art, especially creating tangible objects herself. She loves to travel worldwide and is an avid bicyclist.
I'm not sure how to begin. "Thank God it was free?" This book is purely fairy tale and only happens when a woman fantasized about changing her life.
The relationship with Aaron was a complete farce. I wanted to skip over their dialogue because it was like listening to high schoolers flirt.
Reggie the dog pops up out of no where and apparently, he isn't a toy poodle like I imagined. Still not sure what kind of dog he is...
Hooking up with a hot camp counsellor, and screwing him in the woods with a sprained ankle, then him being a perfect gentleman, but then staying friends? Are you insulting my intelligence?
And the ex wives hooking up with the mistress for revenge and this smoking hot model is actually not a snob but kind? No...I'm sorry. That does not happen. Ever. Not even if she was Tyra Banks.
This is a book written from the mindset of a high school girl scorned by her boyfriend. That's the best way to describe it. It's a good read if you like real life fantasy without anything going wrong, but realistically, just not a good story overall.
I found this book very far-fetched and juvenile. It was poorly written and did not really have a natural flow to it. The story was also dragged out and might have been better if it was a short novella. With that being said, it was actually an entertainingly funny read. The overall concept was intriguing and was a great story on how women scorned can be vengeful. The plot is also very similar to the movie, The Other Woman...
2 ⭐⭐ - Meh! ============== Heroine is annoying, stupid and cheats on the guy who has loved her since high school with a guy she just met and still hides the fact from him. She has the nerve to be jealous of seeing Aaron with an alleged other woman. WTF! Very silly revenge plan and the story continues in the next book, which I will not read.
This book was AWFUL. It was poorly written, and I swear, if I saw the word "moaned" or "shaft" one more time, I was going to scream! By the end, I was just laughing my head off at the romantic scenes. I am usually a lover of any book with a dog in it, but poor Reggie was just an afterthought. "Oh yeah, time to walk the dog." (Spoiler ahead...but not really because it's pretty obvious) Mia and her friends are petty and bizarre, and how realistic is it for you to become immediate and fast friends with the ex-wife and current mistress of your slimeball husband? Couldn't stand this book.
I found this novel on the Kindle Store for free and so I thought that I would give it a try. This novel is a lighthearted and fun story to read, it isn't serious and has a few funny moments in it. The main character Mia is very well developed and described in this book (which can be read as a stand alone book) and her group of friends are all very likeable and relateable. It is a rather girly book, which does contain some real life situations that some might be able to relate too.
Man these free Kindle reads are not that great - but they're free and quick and easy and great to fill in between runs to the library. Once again this one had some glaring grammatical/word use errors. Had a decent premise (who doesn't like a revenge story?) but a bit overdone - especially the Aaron storyline.
Oh no. OH NO, was this bad. How bad, you ask? So, impossibly bad.
Mia's shitty husband is verbally and emotionally abusive, a liar, a cheater, and very secretive, and all her friends and family hate him (there is no good explanation for why she married him, or why he married her). I expected a cute girl power book where Mia tells the other woman that Jack is a jerk and a liar and they tell him to fuck off. Instead, Mia and her horrible friends team up with Jack's ex-wife to concoct a cruel and elaborate plan to involve the other woman in a twisted scheme that will cost Jack his job. Meanwhile, Mia herself cheats on Jack, starts dating another guy whom she didn't have any romantic feelings for from high school until age 33, and then lies to his face about cheating -- despite everything Jack has done to her. The sex scenes read like a virgin who read one issue of Cosmo and doesn't know how condoms work. The only good thing about this book was that it ended.
This was my very first book of Bria Marche. The story was epic and I am so glad I purchased the book via Amazon. I put away everything else to finish this one off. From the very beginning it was super exciting. I loved Mia and her friends so very much. Being betrayed by your husband, while he pretends to the whole wide world that he is happily married is a terrible situation. Mia getting to who her husband really is and how her friends stand by her side is great. The value of true friendship, love, honesty and understanding are the most important values described in the story. Aaron is a guy whom all the girls in this world would love to have. It was super exciting to read each chapter of the story on how they plan to unveil the truth and how everything ends in a wonderful way. Thoroughly enjoyed the story!!!!
I think it was a good thought to think but not to write. It was very passive-aggressive, somewhat immature, there was cheating both ways and way too much alcohol. I was seriously with her mom, she needed an intervention because that is what seemed to make her world revolve. I am not a prude by any means but I am disappointed in myself that I finished the book because of all of the above.
2.5 nonsensical stars.How a wife could put up with the dismissive mistreatment and not realize something was seriously amiss is beyond me. Additionally his supposed reasoning for needing her as his wife to maintain professional legitimacy does not pass the smell test since he kept her sequestered away in two separate worlds never the tween shall meet! Silly meandering plot IMO.
Urgh. This book is awful. The female protagonist has these monologues all over the place but you don't know if she's thinking them or constantly talking to herself because the author never bothers to tell you. What a twist! The writing is juvenile at best. I hated it.
Note: there are both positive and negative things in this review. Just have to keep reading.
Might as well start off by saying that if you have seen the movie “The Other Woman”, which was fairly entertaining by the way, then you don’t need to read this book because it’s pretty much the same.
For me the book started off well enough. Once you got to know Mia, Jack and Aaron you kind of know where this story is headed and while it is cliché some authors have been able to spin it in interesting ways. I wish this was one of them but sadly not.
I was onboard with this story up until the overnight camp out. From then on everything seemed to be really rushed and thrown together as if trying to meet some story deadline or something.
Like all of a sudden here is this Max person whom Mia doesn’t really know, I mean they are practically strangers. Ok I get it they are thrown together because of Mia’s accident, that is all well and fine but after the fall from hell and being in that much pain who the hell is thinking about sex?! I don’t care how attractive a person is, the pain would be a mood killer for sure. Second problem with that scene is it doesn’t seem like something Mia would do. She is portrayed as this sweet and smart, careful person who doesn’t make rash decisions. And what further blew me away was it just wasn’t a one night stand that you could say was brought on by a very vulnerable emotional state but she goes home with him and does it again and then all of a sudden she is majorly in love (like almost can’t live without him stuff) with this man?! And then there is the whole “now I have two wonderful men in my life what do I do” situation thrown in there. But how does she even have Max, when she doesn’t keep in contact after that night? Of course then Mia has to choose the man that has been right in front of her face the entire time waiting for her like an obedient pup. The whole Max thing was just unnecessary. The passionate scenes lacked the passion. It was like it was written by someone who had studied to become a nun all their lives. They also just randomly pop up after things have been moving along steady or one could say boring and then boom! Let’s through some romance to spice it up again so the reader doesn’t relax into a lull of sorts.
There is one nitpicky thing I found annoying- yes I understand by the title that there would be drinking. There was ALOT of drinking. What bothered me was the characters driving after they had been drinking. Each time the characters got together it was more than a bottle of wine and a few beers and then they would drive off. I thought that was a little irresponsible. Could have always made one person the sober driver, of course they could each take turns being the sober one.
I could totally see how a current wife and ex wife could band together for revenge but not that quickly and certainly not with the mistress. It wasn’t believable. Especially with the mistress doing a total turn around from I’m a beautiful spoiled rich model to let’s all be besties! That doesn’t happen in a matter of hours.
By the end of the book I was getting annoyed with Aaron and his over the top I’m the perfect man routine. I know it was to show the difference between Jacks dark and self centered attitude and Aaron’s sunshine and lollipops type of charming and caring positive attitude. What’s with the whole need to get to know Aaron more? They’ve known each other, what, their whole lives and now she needs to get to know him? Meanwhile both of them have already planned their happily ever after without having their first kiss. Who does that?
As for the payback and revenge plotting I guess I will leave that unspoiled as this review is long enough and I haven’t given my positive thoughts. Here goes- It takes courage to write something and put it out there for the public read and review. You celebrate the good and learn from the bad. Secondly this book has been one of the best edited books I have read on iBooks in a long time. There might have been mistakes here or there but I didn’t notice. I’ve read plenty recently where names of characters were misspelled or even confused with other characters. Punctuation, spelling and grammar were all over the place. It was refreshing that this book was put together better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Revenge, like the title implies, is the theme of this book. Mia discovers her husband has been cheating on her and even in his first marriage with the same girl! With the help of her best friends, Vic and Tina, alongside additional members of the team, Mia plots the perfect revenge tactic to use on Jack and in the most unexpected manner! It was a great read and I was very engrossed when I started reading it but started getting bored with frequent repetition, like Mia's thoughts on Aaron as the perfect man for her and especially of the term "Jack's demise. " Also, Jack's character was totally flat and unrealistic. His portrayal, even as a cheating husband, didn't carry enough weight. For him to have carried on cheating for that long without Mia or Karen ever suspecting on their own should indicate that he should have been a little nice to them at some point or the other in their respective marriages. Even his conversations with Mia seemed forced, like they just had to sound mean and egotistical. As for the friends turned sisters, they never had an altercation, not even once. Sounds a little too perfect for real life friendships. Personally, I feel the book was overly stretched, hence the repetition. It would have functioned better if it was shorter and more concise. There were a few punctuation mishaps and awkward sentence structures, but none of spelling. Still it was an easy, breezy read with some hilarious instances, and perfect for cozying up by the fire.
Meet Mia. She's a beautiful blonde who is married to a jerk named Jack. He's constantly spending the night in the city (without her). He doesn't care about her friends. He really doesn't seem to care about her at all. He's supposed to have split custody with his ex-wife, but Mia has never even MET his daughter that he goes into the city to see all the time.
Fast forward to the moment that Mia discovers the reason Jack is always gone late at night. He's got a hot mystery model that he's giving a LOT of attention to. Instead of immediately filing for divorce, Mia decides she needs some payback. Along with her friends Vic and Tina, she comes up with this outlandish scheme to bring him down. Somewhere along the way, they become best friends with Jack's ex-wife Karen AND the mystery woman and bring Jack the justice he deserves.
This novel was so fun! A lot of the reviews on Goodreads are pretty bad, but I happened to like it. To each their own I guess? I thought it was a cute, easy-to-read novel that really highlighted the friendship these women had. Sure, the scheme was probably a bit immature for women their age, and sure Mia's little side crushes were pretty predictable, but it was all in good fun. I would (and have) recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick, easy, fun read about a woman finding herself and a cheater getting caught.
I know a bottle of merlot is right there in the title... but my god there was soooo much wine!!! Ok, so I had mixed feelings about this one. As much as I hate cheaters, I feel like the girls went above and beyond with their payback... there has to be quite a lot of bad inside to be able to do that even in those circumstances. Why not just give the photos his boss let them know who he really is, let Sasha know who he really is without the grand scheming? I guess that would not a godd book make... Right through out we hear of Mia's dog... he is mentioned so many times, but it is impossible visualise as we are told nothing about him... not how big he is or what breed or even the colour of his fur... Then it's the other men in Mia's life... that's right I said MEN... Multiple guys... So of course there is the cheating ass of a husband, then the best friend who has always wanted Mia, flirted with Mia and "joked" about marrying and having a family with her (as a married woman, she should not have let this go on)... and finally there is Max, and I'm still unsure what the point of your affair with him was, truthfully makes Mia a cheater just like her husband, it doesn't matter if it was just once. Just being friends with Max would have worked. Overall, okay storyline however I think it would have been better as a novella and not dragged so long.
This is a fun story about Mia finding out her husband is cheating. Hard to believe but it really is humorous. I loved the way she decided to get payback before divorcing him. Mia calls in her two friends, Vic and Tina, to help with her plan. It gets even better when she pulls in his ex-wife and even his mistress!
Some of the things these women think of doing to Jack the Jerk (Mia's husband) are hilarious. Of course they have wine while meeting to hash out the details of plan. What would a meeting of friends be without wine? The characters are terrific. Mia is a very smart woman who is a professional photographer. Her skills come in handy to pull off the payback plan. All the women are very good in their fields which they make use of to get even with Jack. I wish I had friends like that.
If you're looking for a fun story I'd recommend this book.
Mia is distanced from her workaholic, controlling husband. Everyone keeps telling her that Jack isn’t right for her, no matter how much Mia defends his careless antics. After all, he wasn’t like this in the beginning. They can get back to the way things were. Right?
Can she stay with Mr. Wrong and be pissed off the rest of her life?
Mia was stuck in a loveless marriage but was still determined to make it work, until she catches him one day with another woman. The bastard wasted 3 years of her life and she wanted payback.
Over glasses of wine, Mia consoles and plans revenge with her best friends, Tina and Vic. Heck, she even gets the ex-wife involved.
I liked the premise of payback and the solidarity of sisterhood, but the story just wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. The plotting had a constant lag.
It took me about a year and half to read this book. I started when I was pregnant in 2019 and finished last night with a running toddler :D I think because I paused for long stretches of time the story would feel slow and confusing. However, it had really good moments. I enjoyed the cheesy romance moments Mia had with her love interests. I disliked the situation she was in with her marriage and the anticipation of when that would end is what kept me intrigued. I did feel that the ending of her marriage was rushed in the story and would of liked a bit more of the nitty gritty. I'm happy with the ending nonetheless. I commit to reading a series when I begin, and I'm debating to read the other stories. I got this story as a free read on bookbub, but now that I've read the first book series I'm curious about the other stories.
I didn't absolutely hate this book but I also didn't love it. It was written with short disjointed sentences and some things were added in unnecessary. I also thought the plot was kind of ridiculous. It was unrealistic and felt like forced.
Story of a woman who is unhappy in her marriage and seeks to "destroy" her husband. Tells of her friends and their support and assistance in an elaborate (and unrealistic) plot to bring him down.
If I was one of those who was able to stop reading a book once I've started, I would have quit on this one. The only reason I even had this book is because it was a free one I got from book bub.
Fun packed reverse RomCom which makes long term friendships all because of a lying cheating good for nothing arse. When Mia discovers her distant husband has been cheating on her since before they were married, she decides to get the ultimate payback which sets her on the road to find out what girlfriends are best at and that's revenge. I enjoyed this as a stand alone revenge comedy you don't have to think about it too hard I'm not sure if Mia made the right decision about her next true love but considering there's four more books in this series and Vic seems smitten on the mountain man I think we may see him again at some point.
When I've read a really good book, the characters or story stays with me. I'm not ready for a similar read, so choose something lighter; entirely different. This was my inbetween book. It was shallow, incredulous and peppered with unbelievable characters, especially Mia, the for want of a better word, heroine. The male lead was drawn as duplicitous and totally without morals, yet his company and colleagues are unaware of this. Again, unbelievable. I won't be following the further adventures of this merlot drinking gang.
This is my first read from this author and I really liked it! Its sad to say but I've had this book in my the for a long time. I'm so glad I decided to finally read it.
Mia is married to Jack and her marriage is faltering.. Things are very strained and Jack is a controlling arrogant twat. Mia knows something is wrong so she turns to her friends to find out what. Sometimes they are laugh out loud funny and then they are I can't believe she did that!!! All in all I really liked what happened and where the story went.. Jack got what he deserved.
The book seemed pretty rushed. By chapter 3, you knew what the main problem was and how it was going to be fixed. I feel like the book put so much effort into building up the break up between Jack and Mia and it was not justified in the two pages it had allocated to it.
I plan on trying out the next book, as I liked the characters in the book. We will see how it goes!
This was a nice wast Kindle read and while I did enjoy reading it, it was a bit far fetched so much that I couldn't get into the story line as much as I wanted to. The characters were semi developed, which made it difficult to relate to them at all, and the author glossed over the complexities of the relationship we were watching end. Aside from the friendships, all romantic relationships lacked any realistic characteristics. But for an entertaining read on the train, it kept my attention.
While I am not a vindictive person, I can respect what these women did in order to get back at an obvious douchey guy who deserves everything he gets.
It was a bit more telling than showing, like I was reading a list of what they were doing. Felt the new budding romances a bit rushed and unbelievable, but the end was hopeful and happy.
Easy, light, read - and made me want to get a bunch of my girl friends together and drink more wine and see each other more.
This book was very entertaining and a good read. (One after another, I find books with sociopaths! I did marry a cheating, lying, non-empathetic guy with several exes, but did I even notice the red flags? No!) Mia's husband was charming enough to fool the big guys, but not to deceive these women! They came together to break this predator! Well done! Naomi B.
The storyline was good, but the dialogue and some of the transitions...
Oh chile... the dialogue was terrible. Lol. But, but, but... the storyline itself was pretty decent. I liked where the story was going. But... idk. All the picture painting throughout the book and when it got to the critical moment, it was over in a mere few pages. Overall, it was cool, which is why I give it 3 stars. Wasn't the best, but I didn't hate it.