"The Woman in My Home" by Kerry Fisher

An audio book.

Cath (57) hasn't been in relationship for 21 years. Her husband Andrew had been a womaniser. She has a pool and gym in the house. Her new boyfriend who'll move in is Robin, who started from nothing. Robin's ex-wife is Chloe, who's allegedly making the sale of their home difficult. Sandy, Cath's 32 y.o. son, distrusts him.

Rebecca's husband Graham bankrupted the family so they're separating. They have children Eddy (7) and Megan (9). Her mother lives in a bedsit after a financial issue years before. Her sister Debs (who's with Jason) is expecting. Rebecca's looking for work. Out walking she meets Doris/Dolly (80), mother of Kath, who needs help after breaking her ankle. They get on well until some jewellery disappears.

Cath invests £50k in Robin's Spanish property development. He proposes to her. They go on holiday to Deal. He disappears for a night. He says he doesn't like being distrusted.

Rebecca's children prefer to be with Graham. While she's in Cath's house a woman knocks, saying she's Amy, that Robin was with her on the night he was missing, that she's been in a relationship with Robin for 5 years, and that he's not to be trusted with money. Rebecca flirts with Sandy. We learn that 13 years before, Robin swindled her mother out of £200k. She's engineered this way to get revenge. She gives Robin a month to return the money otherwise she'll tell Cath everything. Robin frames Rebecca, making it look as if she's stolen jewels. He tries to borrow more money from Cath. Sandy moves out to try reconciling with his wife. Rebecca tells Cath her suspicions, thus losing out on the blackmail money. She tells her mother and sister. Sandy returns to his mother, the reconciliation failed. He repeats to his mother his doubts about Robin. Cath begins to have doubts. She visits Amy, who gives more details. They visit the house he claims his wife is delaying the sale of. Moira, his mother lives there. She severed contact with him a decade before. Amy and Rebecca visit Cath at her workplace (the section is from Cath's 1st person PoV) and Cath believes them. She chucks Robin out - he disappears from the book. Cath finds Rebecca a job - house-sitting a big house. The kids like it. Sandy does the gardening each Saturday. She has Sunday lunch with Dolly, Cath and Sandy.

I didn't believe that someone as supposedly able as Cath would fall for Robin, even though after audio novel, the author says she's heard of such cases. Language-wise, it's common for an emotion to somehow move through the body - e.g. "A wave of irritation wrinkled through me"

Other reviews

• firefliesandfreekicks (I found Cath to be unlikeable, and somewhat of a snob. ... I wished there had been more oomph behind the comeuppance of the character who deserved it. After everything else, that fell decidedly flat for me. I expected more “thriller” from the ending – like how would the person react?)
• Goodreads (rating 4.00, 1,905 ratings)