"Dear Second Husband explores the complexities of womanhood and particularly motherhood, showcasing love beside ambivalence, devotion beside the untamable desire for freedom. These stories are taut domestic dramas that bring into beautiful, painful clarity the fears and ambitions of women who long to be as loud on the outside as they are on the inside. A joy to read from cover to cover."

Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw

"Blistering and buoying, the stories in Susan Finch's incandescent debut glow like phosphenes behind closed eyes long after the light is switched off and the book put away. Stalkers and bridesmaids, skinny-dippers and suburban moms—here are stories inhabited by characters you can't escape, and won't want to."

David James Poissant, author of The Heaven of Animals and Lake Life

"Dear Second Husband is a masterful exploration of love and motherhood, capturing tender moments that oscillate between hope and darkness, paying unflinching attention to both the bittersweet nuances of disconnection and reconnection and the subtle warning signs of abuse, those slippery moments that are often overlooked but carry the weight of disastrous consequences. Finch lays bare how our futures are encapsulated in moments weeping with song."

Brenda Peynado, author of The Rock Eaters and Time's Agent