Adira has it all: she’s intelligent, savvy, and beautiful, with a successful small business and a handsome husband. So why on earth does her husband need one mistress, let alone two? Adira finds a steamy email exchange between her husband and Jocelyn, and she can’t stop herself from contacting the other woman. When Adira and Jocelyn discover the existence of a second mistress, Julianna, they hatch a devious plan to infiltrate the relationship and get the philandering husband back on track.

This fast-paced domestic suspense novel kept me turning the pages with its entertaining storyline and short chapters. When the twist came… whoa! I did not see that coming at all! There is some sensitive content contained in childhood flashbacks, so definitely heed the author’s trigger warnings if the subject matter upsets you. It is pertinent to the plot and handled sensitively but may be distressing to some readers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

The Other Mistress is like a soap opera. I appreciated the trigger warning discussion in the beginning; I'd love it if more authors did something similar. Here's the deal...Adira will leave you scratching your head. She doesn't make good decisions, and you may not relate or understand her. This is still a good book in my opinion due to the entertainment factor and the ending. Thanks for the advance review copy.

I could not wait to get my hands on this one!!! I was jumping for joy when I got the email that I was approved for Shanora Williams’ new book.

Adira’s husband has been more distant lately. She finds out that her husband is having an affair. She tries to get proof by going through his phone. But she stumbles upon a woman’s name that is not the woman she thought he was sleeping with. There’s more than one??

When one of the mistresses offers Adira a perfect plan to get him back, Adira can’t say no.

I was a little disappointed when the book took a twist near the end. I was hoping it wasn’t going that way, but it did. It had such a strong, strong start. I couldn’t put it down. Despite the turn it took, I still enjoyed it. I was just expecting something different.

There are a few triggers in here. Before you get started please read the excerpt from the author at the beginning to make sure you’re okay to keep reading.


Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for a DRC. The Other Mistress is available June 27.

The author's note prepared me to deal with some dark topics, but WOW some of it ended up being tough to read. This first 25% started off really strong! Adira is a rich and successful business owner and her husband Gabriel is cheating on her with TWO women. Adira decides to confront the second mistress. I flew through this book, I really wanted to know what the heck was going on. The pacing slowed down in the middle and the final twist fell a little flat for me (I think because the content was a little triggering). Without spoiling, I wish the reveal was different.

I did love the writing style, I will definitely pick up another Shanora William's book.

Thank you so much Kensington and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Adira-Smith Cortez believes her husband, Gabriel is cheating on her. She has become concerned with what Gabriel spends his time with when he is away from their home. Curiosity takes over one day pushing Adira to follow her husband in which she gets the shock of her life and learns Gabriel is seeing another woman. Adira does an investigation of her own and grows to hate the woman is cheating on her with, Juliana Garcia, a popular makeup artist in Miami. Adira is a self-made millionaire who has faced adversity and has helped her husband financially. Adira feels betrayed when discovers her husband’s infidelity with two women: Jocelyn and Juliana. Jocelyn knows that Gabriel is married while Juliana is clueless and naive. Adira reaches out to Jocelyn who is interested in meeting with her face to face. Adira has no idea the personal vendetta against Gabriel for breaking their affair off. Jocelyn wants Gabriel to pay for what he did and what Adira wants all to herself again. This book took me on a rollercoaster ride. The ending was unexpected, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Stellar writing from Shanora Williams.

Adira Smith-Cortez is a successful millionaire who loves her husband Gabriel, but is tormented by the fact that he is cheating on her with not one, but two women: Jocelyn, a club owner, and Julianna, a celebrity makeup artist. Jocelyn offers Adira a plan to get Gabriel back by befriending Julianna through a fake identity and causing them to split up permanently. However, as Gabriel's lies start to add up, Adira's obsession with the plan leads her down a dangerous path, and she must decide how far she is willing to go to keep Gabriel and her happiness.

Given that The perfect ruin is one of my favorite books, I had huge expectations going into this one, especially given the premise, but unfortunately it did not work out for me. I couldn't connected to the main character, and that's usually the most important aspect of the book for me. It was entertaining throughout, but the ending reveal completely lost me. I'm sure it'll work for some, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.
Overall it was an interesting time, but nothing too memorable.

Unputdownable read. Loved it. Gripping and intense, brilliant storyline 👏 I couldn't guess the twist. Super shocking. Adira is a mystery to me until the end. Ending is superbly written. Highly recommended.

No spoilers in the first part of this review. You’re safe. If you scroll way way down, I included some spoilers because I just can’t not ask some questions. No synopsis here.

I sooo wanted to like this book. I really really wanted to. The first page started off deep and dark just how I like it but did not deliver in the end. The the middle 1/3 of the book, I’d say was slow for me. I wanted to shake the main character and I couldn’t understand the choices she made but it’s fiction. Fine. Then came the ending with the twist but it just did not work. I think the concept would have made a great thriller but the execution wasn’t there.

I also felt the conversations and writing to be clunky and could have flowed better. I did get this sense from this author’s other book, The Wife Before. I ended up enjoying that one more though and did give it 4 stars.

I do have to give props to the author for mentioning trigger warnings before you dive into the book. While I don’t have triggers, I think a lot of readers will appreciate this.

Overall, this book had potential but unfortunately ended up being far from what I was expecting. Because I did like The Wife Before, I will be giving this author another chance. I still plan on reading The Perfect Ruin.

SPOILERS BELOW

Scroll down if you have read this book because I have questions!
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Okay, first off, I don’t think this was a good representation of DID. I have read many books with DID being the theme of the twist but very few of these have been well executed. It is a really difficult subject to interject into a book and make it work.

Next, I feel that the ending just created more questions for me. For example, when Adira takes Julianna to Jessa’s and Gabriel calls, he calls Adira Jocelyn. Why not call her Adira?

Also, it’s just so unbelievable that a successful woman like Adira would pay a man so much money to pretend to be her husband for such a long period of time. That whole concept was weird to me.

Throughout the book, Adira refers to Gabriel as her husband. Does she pretend so hard in this make believe life she set up that she forgets her whole arrangement with him? Huh?

Julianna knows about Adira. She agrees to this set up they have going on, but does she not know what she looks like? She takes Adira on a spa day and shopping and mentions how she loves the silk brand. This short lived friendship was odd to me too. I don’t believe a wig fully can disguise someone you know.

I’m sure there are many more confusing holes in the story that if I look back on, don’t make sense. But I guess I’m in the minority because many readers gave this one high ratings.

Adira has built a business empire from the ground up, has a mansion, fancy clothes, and a handsome husband Gabriel. That is, until she finds out her husband has not one, but two mistresses. She plays private investigator and follows one to get more detail on the affair, then finds the other mistress Jocelyn. She confronts Jocelyn and they ultimately become friends to figure out how to get back at Gabriel. Will her obsession with finding information put her into more trouble than it’s worth? Read to see!

My girl Shanora does it again! Did NOT see that twist coming.

Thank you Net Galley and Kensington Publishing, Dafina for the ARC!

I was unaware that this book contained graphic depictions of child molestation and sexual assault; otherwise I would not have requested. I’m a huge fan of this author, I just cannot handle these particular triggers, so I encourage readers to pick this one up for themselves if they are able to read about this content.

TRIGGER WARNING: This novel contains violence and sexual abuse towards children. Shanora Williams did write a disclaimer at the beginning of the book, and I agree, this is not for the faint of heart.

The Other Mistress was NOT AT ALL what I expected. For thriller-aholics such as myself, this gripping novel by Shanora Williams will have you guessing until the last page, What an exquisite plot twist!

This is the second novel I have read by Williams, and I have loved them both. I am excited to see what she will come out with next!

This one started off a bit slow for me. The ending made it all worthwhile though. The pacing was to slow for me and this affected my rating.

I had read Shanora Williams previous 2 psychological thrillers and enjoyed them. It was a no brainer that I would read this one. With a title like The Other Mistress, I was already intrigued.

Adira is a successful Black woman. She is a self-made woman with a successful business. She's married to Gabriel and he owns a rugby team that she helped finance. They seem to be the picture of success, in love and in business. But as the title shows, Gabriel is not faithful and their picture of perfection soon falls. With short chapters this story keeps your attention and turning those pages until the truth (and twist) is revealed.

I so wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I just did not like Adira. A successful woman that wants a cheater? No. Just no. I wanted more for her. But then when Jocelyn joins in with her POV, we get to see who Gabriel is and what these women will do to save Adira's marriage.
With the short chapters, it was easy to keep my attention. I was intrigued at the beginning, but the middle lagged a little bit. I was tired of Adira and of Gabriel and his ways. Whether Adira knew of his shortcomings, I was not a fan of how much he just plain used her. The twist at the end I had already guessed and while it made sense, I was not the biggest fan of it going that direction. Simply because I had recently read another book with that aspect and it flowed better with the characters and pacing. This story took too much to get there, but it still was entertaining and kept me turning those pages.

With characters that aren't always likable and a past that pulled the whole story together, this will still appeal to many. The writing is engaging and the story will keep you on your toes. I liked the book alright, just wasn't my favorite.
Make sure to check the trigger warnings that do eventually play out.

This story unfortunately rubbed me the wrong way with the direction the story took. Everyone has a different threshold for these kind of things, but for me I didn't like what the main twist was doing and particularly the way the book ended.

I'm still interested in the author though so I would give another book from them a shot in the future!

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued at the start of this book because there was a warning about abuse in it. At first, I was a little confused by parts which seemed to be about someone other than the characters in the book, then, holy cow! It all came together. I did not see that ending coming at all!

I found this book to be interesting, but a bit confusing at times. I didn’t quite get why a wife was becoming so close to her husband’s mistress but, again, I did nor see the twist coming.

Thank you, Netgalley, for letting me delve into this one!

This is a tricky one to review. A very brief synopsis:

Adira is a successful business woman, heartbroken when she discovers her husband Gabriel is cheating on her with not one, but two other women. After running into one of the women, Jocelyn, they come up with a plan to get close to the OTHER other woman, Julianna, and break up her and Gabriel.

There's really not much more that can be said without spoilers. I admit for so much of the book I was so frustrated with Adira. How this smart, successful woman could be so stupid and make such annoying choices bothered me so much until the reveal. The twist is really a love it or hate it kind, but it worked for me, and made me want to go back and re-read certain scenes.
I really enjoyed the writing style and I flew through the short chapters. This was actually my first read by this author but I'll be sure to check out more.

Watch out all you women who think married men are a challenge, their wives have something up their sleeves. No matter how much money she has, or how beautiful she is, Gabriel has done something that would change the trajectory of his marriage to Adira. After finding out that her husband was having an affair with not one but two women, Adira decides to stay in her marriage. Of the two women he is seeing one, Julianna, has an even bigger role. He is in love with her. Adira decides to meet with the other woman Jocelyn and the two put together a plan that they hope will handle their situation. A light thriller with short chapters make it a very easy read. The only issue I had was with the characters. Although well developed and flawed, they just were not very likable. Almost like school girl problems. There are many twists and turns and the ending is definitely worth the wait.


4 out of 5 stars


Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Adira has it all - beauty, wealth, nice things, and a handsome husband. Her life is perfect. That is until she finds out he is cheating on her with not one but two women. But this isn’t just a typical story of a wife being mistreated. There’s lots of twists and turns and surprises along the way. Very entertaining!

The Other Mistress was a psychological thriller that ended in a way I was absolutely not prepared for!

The novel presents multiple points of views, which I always love to see! The one we hear from most is the main character, Adira, and we are taken through her relationship struggles with her partner, Gabriel.

I can’t give much more details since I don’t want to give anything away, but this is definitely one to read when it publishes in June!

The Other Mistress is my first read by this author which I picked up after reading the captivating synopsis and needing to know more and be warned this one will blow you away. I can see why this author has come to be known as an excellent mystery thriller author. From the intricately woven twists you won’t see coming to the complex and nuanced characters who are easy to feel connected to, this one isn’t too be missed. Perfect for fans of domestic suspense and drama. Overall, the story was easy to get lost in and made you want to read just one more chapter. The length and pace were spot on and there weren’t any parts which dragged or felt like filler. I loved the idea of the other mistress and it made me question what I’d do if I found out my husband was having an affair with not one but two other women. I’d highly recommend this absorbing, charming and fun to read story and will be keeping my eye out for more by this author.