The One Day You Were My Husband

by Rosie Walsh ★★★★☆

In The One Day You Were My Husband, we're introduced to narrator Carrie Cole. The year is 2010, and she has just married Johan Kullberg on a beach in Thailand after a brief, whirlwind romance. But before they can even begin to fully enjoy life as a married couple, armed men storm the beach of their resort and escort Johan away.

Fast-forward to 2022. Carrie is a former surgeon who left practicing medicine when her twins were prematurely born in 2016. She's happily married to Robin Carghill, a philanthropist who came into her life just as she was finally getting over the shock of what happened between her and Johan. The pair have carved out a loving and supportive partnership, replete with all of the insanity and joy of parenthood.

When Carrie begins to feel like she's ready to return to work, she arranges a trip to Stockholm to interview with her old surgical mentor. In the process of planning for that trip, the impossible happens: she stumbles upon a property for rent on "Roof" (an Airbnb-equivalent site), and the proprietor is none other than Johan. Not only is he alive, but he's back in Sweden...yet he's never even had the decency to reach out and let her know.

It's appropriate that Clare Leslie Hall, author of Broken Country, provided a jacket blurb for the book. There are certainly some crossover themes between Broken Country and The One Day You Were My Husband, mostly notably an intense romance that abruptly ended, unanswered questions between the couple, and the opportunity for a reunion later in life. Carrie is conflicted on whether she should reach out to Johan, and also whether she should tell Robin she has located him. On one hand, she was left with no explanation and no closure from her time with Johan, and that destroyed her for a long time. On the other hand, she has moved on, and is happily married. As she says, "Robin knows all about Johan and me. He knows I healed, eventually, that I came to hate the man for all he put me through. And he knows that I fell in live with him, Robin Carghill: honest and loyal in all the ways Johan had failed to be." Like Frank in Broken Country, Robin is a solid and loving husband, and so it's difficult to read about Carrie's inability to put her past behind her, not to mention the spark of attraction for Johan that still burns deep within her.

Despite her best intentions, the unknown draws Carrie like a magnet, and author Rosie Walsh spends the remainder of the book building the tension of what seems certain to be a reunion between the pair while also adjusting the reader's point of view. Through flashbacks, we're treated to a look-in at the intensity of the connection between Johan and Carrie, and the details of what led to his apprehension on the night of their wedding. We understand why the abrupt end was so difficult for Carrie (beyond the obvious), and we come to see Johan in a more nuanced light. We also start to learn more about Carrie and Robin's backstory.

Walsh builds suspicion around most of the supporting characters in the book; Carrie is not certain who she can trust, and with good reason—many of them have lied to her. The book toes the line on going too far with misdirection and revealed truths, but it stayed within an acceptable boundary for me, and I ultimately enjoyed the story. It didn't match the magic of Broken Country, but fans of that story will probably also like this one. While similar, The One Day You Were My Husband is uniquely its own tale, and there's plenty to like about this thriller/romance.

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Quick Facts

• Title: The One Day You Were My Husband

• Author: Rosie Walsh

• Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books

• Release Date: May 19, 2026

• Format: Ebook

• ISBN-13: 979-8217060467

• Pages: 362