Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager has chosen Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores (Bantam) as her July Read with Jenna book club pick. In Happy Wife, a "prominent lawyer goes missing on the night of his birthday party in Florida, rocking the small community of Winter Park--and the townspeople are quick to suggest his younger wife is capable of murder," Today said.
"Happy Wife is one of those delicious, fun summer books that you'll open on the beach and never put down," Hager said. "The setting in a community outside of Orlando, with tons of secrets, is so much fun for the summer, and I found the women of this novel to be complex and interesting, while it being the type of mystery you can't wait to finish."
Lavender, a TV writer and producer, and Shores, who works in communications, wrote Happy Wife together over the course of a few months. Shores summarizes the book: "A young woman falls in love with a man who is older than her and his friends don't approve of the courtship or the marriage, so she throws a party in the hopes of winning them over, and the morning after the party, he's missing."
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The Compound by Aisling Rawle (Random House) is the GMA Book Club pick for July. Good Morning America described the book as: "The story follows Lily, a bored and beautiful twenty-something who joins a wildly popular reality show set in a remote desert. To win, she must outlast 19 other contestants by surviving in the Compound the longest, competing in challenges for luxury items like champagne and lipstick, as well as essentials to outfit their communal home, such as food, appliances and even a front door.
"When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she'll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams--but what will she have to do to win?
"The Compound offers a chilling, addictive look at how entertainment, control and survival collide when the cameras never stop rolling."
