“The wife you know doesn’t exist.”

Luke’s wife is a hero, but she’s also now missing. Luke is persistent on finding her at any cost. The past unravels at a furious speed and he can barely keep up.

This book is a very fast paced and quick thriller read. It’s packed with action and secrets, make it a page turner.

I did find areas to be a lot drawn out, and I’d catch myself skimming until I reached dialogue sometimes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC to enjoy before release.

Loved how fast paced this book was, I was hooked from the very beginning! There was a lull in the middle of the book, but the last 30% of the book really made up for that. It was my first Chad Zunker book, but definitely won’t be my last!

What a great story. This was a quick page turner, I finished within a few hours. This ended with a twist I didn't see coming. I anticipated the protagonist Ashley was running from a domestic abuse situation but was so wrong. I love her character and the lengths she is willing to go to protect her family.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in return for my voluntary and honest review.

I think there will be plenty of people that like this one. The beginning is a good way to set up the story, and the writing is readable and flows pretty well. I didn't find myself gravitating towards the story or characters, though. It is a DNF for me at 10%. I would consider putting this in the library, as I think may thriller reader would like this one.

This is the first book I read from this author and I love his writing style ! First person POV all throughout, fast paced. As Luke went on a quest to find the truth, every twist revealed made me want to know more ! The end is bittersweet in my mind, but still, I loved it !

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. The short chapters - PLEASE KEEP! This is the best in books (for me), but I also feel for most people. I was looking for a different kind of mystery/thriller and I like the FBI plot line in this. The characters had their unlikeable moments for me, but that didn't deter me at all.

-This is exactly what you need if you wanna treat yourself to some mind-blowing mystery thriller w/o the good ol' murder thing.
-Missing spouse, FBI, fake identities, a corrupt government, all in all a pretty chilling 2-3 hours max read although with a few loopholes
-It started out pretty strong but then thru the middle it kinda got boring but not in the "wtf nothing's happening" way but rather in the too much information dump way if ykwim but then things picked on again it ended pretty strong so I've no complaints regarding that.
-I truly do not have anymore thoughts about it w/o spoiling things. It was a pretty short read anyway.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book! Quick, fast paced, and an easy read.

What if you found out the wife you love is not the person you think you know? What lengths would you go to to find out the truth and find her?

What if the wife you know, doesn’t actually exist?

Luke Driskell must question everything he thinks he knows about his new wife after she mysteriously vanishes with her young daughter….

After rushing into a burning day-care center to save the eight children trapped inside, Ashley immediately becomes a local hero and a social media sensation.

Then, she disappears from the hospital before she can even be released, and vanishes into the bitterly cold night wearing only a thin hospital gown.

With no trace of their whereabouts, Luke makes a plea to the Public for help-and offers a substantial reward for any information that can help reunite him with Ashley and his young stepdaughter, Joy.

Little did he realize that his wife is extremely private for a reason, and he has just put a target on her back.

Luke begins a dangerous cross-country pursuit of the truth, and his family, which will ultimately test a vow he made to Ashley when she accepted his proposal.

This was my first time reading Amazon Charts bestselling author Chad Zunker and I devoured the quick and engaging 205 page story in one sitting!

The writing is a bit simplistic, and let’s face it-a woman with second degree burns on both arms and her neck, would be unlikely to walk out of a hospital hours after she is admitted 🤦🏻‍♀️ BUT it reads like a fun, two hour action movie that I might watch on the screen, so I just went with it, and enjoyed the show! 😉🍿

I got David Bell vibes with this one, so if you enjoy his work, you may want to give this author a try! I would definitely read more of his work!

3.75 ⭐️ rounded up!

Available February 27, 2024.

Thank You to Thomas & Mercer for the gifted copy provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

The Wife You Know by Chad Zunker was good. I have read most of his books and really enjoyed them. This one follows the new trend for the main character to talk to the reader – To include the audience in the mystery and story.
Widower Luke Driskell meets and marries Ashely – who has a daughter Joy. Luke is happy and really enjoying his life.
Ashely runs into a burning Day Care which puts her in the media -- So she disappears with her daughter.
Luke goes looking for her and Joy but finds out she never existed.
He goes looking for her. He was mostly clueless and stubbled around. The end was farfetched.
I like the way Mr. Zunker writes. This one was not as good as many of his books. I do think it is worth a read.

What happens when the wife you thought you married and knew, turns out to be a completely different person. Meet Luke Driscoll. He's a widower who didn't expect to fall in love again. That is until he met Ashley. Ashley has a daughter named Joy that Luke accepts as his own.

One day Ashley saves children when she rushes into a burning day care. A video of her saving the kids went viral. Ashley has to spend the night in the hospital so Luke goes home to take care of Joy. While he sleeping that night, Joy disappears from her bed and Ashley disappears from the hospital.

When Luke wakes up the next morning, he realizes that they are both gone. We follow Luke on his journey to figuring out what happened to his wife and step-daughter. As things unfold, he learns that he didn't know his wife as well as he thought he did.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a short, quick read. As I was reading, I was intrigued about who Ashley could really be and why her life was a secret from Luke. The events of the book escalated as I got closer to the end. As I read the book, I felt like I was on the trail with Luke. The ending was really good.

I would recommend this book and I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

This was definitely a fast paced book, but it just did not live to the thrill I thought it would be. It was just a goose chase and didn't see much of the wife. Also it did not feel like it was for a mature audience.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

At first I was excited to start the book, however it just turned into a wild goose chase with a rich (and arguably tone-deaf) husband. The story centered around him and talking to the reader. How can such a short book be so repetitive? Will he ever stop asking the reader questions?
I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately, just wasn’t for me. This was my first book by this author and honestly probably my last.
It seemed a little chaotic, yet underwhelming? All at the same time.
I kept waiting for the twists, but they just never came. We just kept throwing in new characters and describing details that served no part in the plot. The writing style and dialogue felt amateur and almost forced, which in turn just made the entire story feel pretty hard to come off as believable.
The wife in the story really doesn’t have much part in it at all, I wish there would’ve been more from her and her perspective, or something to make me care about her character. I didn’t feel any real connection to the characters overall.

1.5 stars rounded for being a quick and easy read.

Luke and Ashley have not been married long, yet Luke loves his wife and his three-year-old stepdaughter, Joy, as if she were his own. They are happy until a video of Ashley breaking into a burning school building to save some preschoolers trapped inside a room goes viral.
Ashley disappears, taking her daughter, leaving no information for Luke on where she has gone or why. Determined to get answers, Luke launches his own investigation to seek answers to his questions.
What danger does Ashley fear? Will he ever see his family again?
The book is written in the first person past tense PoV of Luke Driskell.
In the first few chapters, Luke went all hard-sell on Ashley, painting a picture of a kind, young woman, whose was all heart. But it was all Too Much Information, and it did nothing to endear her to me.
Luke, on the other hand, came across as a easygoing and nice person. Of course, I could have done without the flashbacks to his childhood.
I found it distasteful how, at one point, during his investigations, Luke introduces himself to an old landlady of Ashley’s as her brother. Couldn’t he have said best friend instead?
Again he goes on to tell her that he is estranged from his sister, then a few minutes later, offers to show the landlady pictures of his supposed niece. How did he get those pictures if the two ‘siblings’ are estranged from each other?
The story needed tighter editing. The flashbacks were detailed and mostly unrequired. I was interested in the story only so far as it concerned Luke. Ashley inspired no positive feeling in me. I didn’t care about her at all.
There should have been more scenes with the child to give us an opportunity to see Ashley as a mother, and generally more scenes with Ashley as well.
Luke’s detailed descriptions of his deprived childhood, the manner in which he proposed to Ashley, their dates, none of them were relevant to the story. The story lay in the present, and yet the author persisted in telling us far too much about the past.
Instead there should have been more scenes from Ashley’s point of view. The big reveal couldn’t hold my interest. Nor were the twists and turns exciting enough. I did feel that she could have taken him into confidence.
This one was a quick read, but not a memorable one.

The Wife You Know by Chad Zunker
Well, what a terrific find this book was. I have never read this author before but I love how quickly it sucked me in and how the whole book was written in first person of the main character Luke. It was very easy to follow and what I consider a very quick read.
Luke’s wife, Ashley and stepdaughter, Joy mysteriously go missing after she bravely rescues some kids from a burning preschool. The story is all over the news and social media along with a video of the daring rescue. Ashley has always been immensely private with her life and especially her past, even to Luke. After they disappear Luke begins his own investigation into what happened and eventually who his wife really is.
This story kept me hooked the whole way through. I will definitely look into other books by this author.

The wife you know was a thriller that made me feel like i was right in the book as an investigator. This book was awesome and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. I do wish i got more of an ending, but overall it was a great read.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Luke discovers that his new wife Ashley isn’t who she says she is after a heroic act goes viral and she goes missing. Can he learn her secrets and find her and her daughter before it’s too late?

I literally read this book in one sitting, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next! It has drama and twists and secrets and I loved it. Definitely add this one to your list ASAP!

This book was a quick, easy read. The story is a good idea in theory, but I felt it lacked details about the parts that made the wife’s disappearance more interesting. 2.5.

Another page turner from Chad Zunker. It’s well written, thrilling and impossible to put down. I highly recommend this book and every other book he has written.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the copy.

This was my first Chad Zunker book and it did not disappoint. I read the ARC on NetGalley in less than a day. It was a quick read that I did not want to put down.The book follows the story of Luke as he searches for his missing wife, Ashley, and stepdaughter, Joy. It is not only a thriller, but a story of true love and never giving up searching for the truth. I thought I had figured out the ending but the story kept building and giving more detail to surprise you until the last pages.