REVIEW: SECRET LIVES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES by Josie Brown

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My Review:

Fans of Desperate Housewives are going to gobble up SECRET LIVES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES by Josie Brown.  What happens with the gated community of Paradise Heights will leave you wanting more by Brown.  Lies, backstabbing, cheating and carpooling wrapped together with some interesting female characters and one DILF makes for a page turning story.  I loved this novel for many reasons...who doesn't like getting carried away in the gossip of suburbia, who doesn't love sex, lies, scandal.  You may know how the story is going to end, but not how they all ended up there!  I promise this will be a guilty pleasure and hopefully your new favorite show come Fall!!!  See below for details about Secrets Lives being piloted for TV!!!

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

Suburbia is a jungle, filled with lots of vicious creatures.

Take the Paradise Heights Women’s League board. Lyssa Harper should have warned golden-haired DILF du jour Harry Wilder what he was getting into when she invited him to meet the mommies who run their suburban, gated community. At least he brought cupcakes. Since meeting the former Master-of-the-Universe turned stay-at-home single dad, Lyssa has been his domestic Sherpa, teaching him the ins and outs of suburban life. She just didn’t realize her friends would show up at his house unannounced with casseroles, leopard-print bikini briefs, and plans to rearrange his kitchen cabinets.

The truth is, if Harry and his wife, the neighborhood’s "perfect couple," can call it quits, what does that mean for everyone else? Lyssa’s husband, Ted, is a great father, but he pays her Pilates-pumped momtourage more attention than he does his own wife. Her friends gossip about the neighbors while ignoring their own problems: infertility, infidelity, and eating disorders.

When Harry sets boundaries with his new fan club, he is exiled from the neighborhood’s in-clique. But Lyssa refuses to snub him. What she never expects is the explosive impact her ongoing friendship with Harry will have on her close-knit pals—and on her marriage.

Josie Brown

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Jerry Bruckheimer and Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives

NBC Greenlights Soap/Thriller Drama Pilot Produced By Jerry Bruckheimer

By NELLIE ANDREEVA, DEADLINE | HOLLYWOOD, Wednesday June 13, 2012 @ 12:15pm PDT

NBC is kicking off the 2012-13 pilot season early with an off-cycle pilot order to The Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives, an hourlong project from Jerry Bruckheimer Television, writer Sascha Penn and Warner Bros TV.

Inspired by Josie Brown’s 2010 novel that takes on life love, marriage, infidelity and friendship in suburban California, the project is described as thriller/dramatic soap that centers on a murder and the secrets and lies within a tightly woven group of three couples and their families exposed in its aftermath.

Penn, Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman will executive produce, with KristieAnne Reed co-executive producing. Casting on the pilot is starting now, with filming slated to begin in the fall as part of new NBC topper Bob Greenblatt’s strategy to transition to year-round pilot production. Last year, NBC ordered four off-cycle pilots, one of which, Save Me, was picked up to series for next season.

Secret Lives, which marks the first pilot order for Penn, was originally set up at ABC last season. It was a passion project for Bruckheimer and Littman, so when ABC passed on it, the two sent the script to NBC. NBC brass expressed interest if WBTV was able to secure a release from ABC, and when that happened, NBC gave it a pilot green light.

Secret Lives reunites Bruckheimer TV with NBC, where the company had a 1980s pro wresting drama executive produced by Dwayne Johnson in development last season with a put pilot commitment. On the feature side, Penn, repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment, has spec sci-fi actioner The Ditch set up at Warner Bros and another spec, action/thriller Gone, is being financed with Simon West attached to direct and Pierce Brosnan to produce.

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Jerry Bruckheimer Soapy Thriller Gets Pilot Order at NBC

The project is based on Josie Brown's book "Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives," with Sascha Penn on board to pen the project.

12:41 PM PDT 6/13/2012 by Lesley Goldberg/ The Hollywood Reporter

(Photo subject : Jerry Bruckheimer)

 

 

NBC has greenlighted its first pilot for the next season, giving the go-ahead to a soapy thriller from Jerry Bruckheimer.

Based on Josie Brown's book Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, Bruckheimer will executive produce the project under his deal with Warner Bros. Television. Sascha Penn will adapt the material and exec produce alongside Bruckheimer Television's Jonathan Littman;KristieAnne Reed will co-exec produce. The project originally was in development at ABC.

Secret Lives is described as equal parts thriller and dramatic soap about a murder and the secrets exposed in its aftermath. The project comes after Bruckheimer's drama pilot Trooper,starring Mira Sorvino, was passed over this pilot season at CBS.

Penn is repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit

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PREVIOUSLY....

ABC Buys Soap/Thriller Produced By Jerry Bruckheimer

BY NELLIE ANDREEVA, DEADLINE | HOLLYWOOD, Friday October 7, 2011 @ 4:35pm PDT

EXCLUSIVE: ABC has bought Secret Lives Of Husbands And Wives, an hourlong project from Jerry Bruckheimer Television and writer Sascha Penn. Inspired by Josie Brown’s 2010 novel that takes on life love, marriage, infidelity and friendship in suburban California, the project is described as thriller/dramatic soap that centers on a murder and the secrets exposed in its aftermath.

Penn, Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman will executive produce, with KristieAnne Reed co-executive producing. This is the second consecutive development season in which Penn is adapting a book to the small screen. Last year, he wrote Confessions Of A Back-Up Dancer for the CW. On the feature side, Penn, repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment, has sold his spec sci-fi actioner The Ditch to Warner Bros and another spec, action/thriller Gone, to the Chinese company Hollywood Movie Works, with Pierce Brosnan producing.

This is the fourth sale for Bruckheimer TV this season. The company previously landed put pilot commitments for a 1980s pro wresting drama executive produced by Dwayne Johnson at NBC, a Navy SEALs drama at ABC and a procedural about a mom-turned-New York State Trooper at CBS.

UPDATE: As of 6/12/12, NBC-TV has greenlighted the pilot for series development. More news to come...