My Review of “The English Wife” by Lauren Willig

It is just so amazing that Lauren Willig , Author of “The English Wife” is able to weave a tale with different genres and a colorful cast of characters. The genres of “The “English Wife” are Historical Fiction, Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery and Suspense.There are some surprising twists and turns. This is a captivating and intriguing novel.

Lauren Willig describes her characters as complex and complicated. There are secrets, lies and betrayals. There are strange identities. Is everybody who they say they are? What is the truth? Does it take a murder or disappearance to set the truth free? There is a divide among the haves and have nots, and the rich and poor. There also is a division of American Royalty and British Royalty. What a combination. There are rumors of infidelity and adultery. There is a replica of a house in America that is also in London.

The press is known for fabricating tales, but is also sometimes regarded as the gospel of truth. Why is it that people love to gossip and look into the flaws of other people?

Can knowing the truth be better than living with a lie? Kudos to Lauren Willig for masterminding this story with so much detail. I would highly recommend this mysterious and suspenseful novel for those readers that appreciate all the above genres. I received An Advanced Reading Copy for my honest review.

With 'The English Wife', Lauren Willig does a superb job of capturing the era and setting. The characters' plights and their interactions feel real. I especially loved the dialogue, which I could almost hear being spoken.

So, yes, there are some great things about this book, but I didn't love it. I'll explain:

The story is told in alternating timelines, giving us distinctly different side-by-side stories rather than one as a whole. We have the "present" timeline, taking place in 1899, with Janie as the standout main character. In the second timeline, we go back to 1894, with Bay and Georgie as the main characters. Within these two separate stories, we have several subplots and a lot of characters moving in and out. All the activity and shifting timelines takes away from the main focus of the story. To me, it all felt scattered.

While there are a lot of separate issues taking place, the pace is actually quite slow. The two stories converge about 3/4 of the way through the book, and this is when the pace picks up. I found the last quarter of the book much more enjoyable, as the focus narrowed and we stayed within the present timeline.

If you're looking for a historical family drama, and you don't mind alternating timelines, then give this one a try. My complaints are specific to me, and it truly is well written.

This is a pretty fun read - reads like a Wuthering Heights or Rebecca. But it was a tad too predictable to be successful. And the characters were a bit overdone (mother is too hateful, cousin too flighty, husband too angelic, Jane too timid - until shes predictably not timid at all). It kept my interest though and was well written.

Bayard Van Duyvil has the perfect life. The sole male heir of an old Knickerbocker family he has a beautiful English wife, for whom he's recreated her ancestral home on the banks of the Hudson, and two beautiful children, three-year-old fraternal twins Viola and Sebastian. But there are rumors that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. Why would Bayard and his wife Annabelle hide themselves away in Cold Springs? A beautiful house is no excuse to being a recluse when New York society thirsts for your lifeblood. Soon New York society will get exactly what it craves when during a lavish ball to celebrate Twelfth Night Bayard is found with a knife in his chest and the name Georgie on his lips while his wife has disappeared. Everyone believes that the rumors about Annabelle and the house's architect at true. She has murdered her husband and absconded with her lover! The only one who doesn't believe the salacious lies all the newspapers are printing is Bay's younger sister, Janie. She is expected to keep calm and wait for the scandal to die down. But it pains her to see Annabelle's name dragged through the mud, they didn't know her like she did. A chance encounter with a reporter from The News of the World, a Mr. Burke, leads Janie to form a tenuous alliance with a man who represents the scandal rags that are pulling her world apart. Before too long Janie realizes that perhaps she didn't know Annabelle or even Bay. But with the tenacious and increasingly devoted Mr. Burke helping her she will get to the bottom of her brother's death and perhaps solve the mysteries of his life.

Having first read Lauren back in 2007 a short time after her third Pink Carnation book, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, had hit bookshelves I don't want to claim I'm an expert on her writing, but I have been along for the ride for a decade now. She's even one of the reasons I decided to start my blog! While I have loved reading every single one of her books, finding characters to love and to hate, ones to root for and ones that I long to see fall flat on their faces, the greatest joy was seeing her mature as a writer. When she wrote her first standalone, The Ashford Affair, back in 2013 she tapped into something new. Her writing started to move beyond the dual timeline narrative where despite troubles everyone gets a happily ever after. While I am a fan of this wish fulfillment in writing sometimes I feel that it's unsatisfying. That it doesn't actually reflect the world around us. Sometimes I don't want everyone to get a happy ending. This was very much showcased with That Summer, Lauren's 2014 standalone which might just be my favorite book she's written. Here Lauren had matured to a point that she was willing to kill off characters that we, the readers, had very much fallen in love with. Thankfully after going a little darker Lauren didn't reign it in. She continued this exploration of the underbelly of humanity in The Other Daughter and now in The English Wife. Sometimes good intentions lead to death. Sometimes love can't conquer all. Sometimes there are secrets that will out no matter what. As for me, I loved every second of the seedier side, it's like Gossip Girl 1800s.

If there is one linking thread through Lauren's work it would be her love of Shakespeare. Of course, seeing as he helped forge the very language we all use he could be considered important to every book ever written, but with Lauren it's special. I dare you to count the number of times her characters have had their mouth's stopped with a kiss as Benedick does to Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Here though we've reached a whole new level wherein Shakespeare seems another character in the story. Annabelle and Bay meet in London where she is working on stage in a musical evisceration of Twelfth Night at the Ali Baba Theater. If the play's the thing, Twelfth Night is the thing in The English Wife. Bay meets his death on Twelfth Night, their palatial recreation of Lacey Hall is renamed Illyria, and Bay and Annabelle's children are named after the hero and heroine of the play. But the references aren't just about infusing The English Wife with a bit of Annabelle's homeland via Shakespeare. The play itself is filled with confusion, merriment, love, gender, orientation, romance, and thankfully not a random lion like in As You Like It. These are themes that are all seen in Annabelle and Bay's story. Lauren has mined Shakespeare to help not only create a mirror to her story but to show the universality of it. I could quote Shakespeare here, but instead I feel like quoting Battlestar Galactica, "All of this has happened before and will happen again." Humanity has a basic universality to it. The building blocks are all the same. Shakespeare knew this and so does Lauren. Sure, everything is a tale as old as time, but it's how you go about telling it that makes it unique.

While Shakespeare is classic, there's another author to whom this moniker belongs that The English Wife shares some DNA with and that's Daphne Du Maurier. I'm going to say this right out, there is no one like Daphne Du Maurier. Therefore when any book that is mildly Gothic and has a house starts throwing around comparisons to this unparalleled author I just want them to shut it. Because whatever they have written will be a disappointment because comparisons are nothing more than a marketing ploy. The book won't deliver and you'll spend all your time wondering why you're just not re-reading Rebecca. When I read The English Wife back in August there were obviously no reviews yet. No one proclaiming that The English Wife is in the least like Du Maurier. Nothing to taint or sully my initial impressions. Therefore I was wonderfully surprised that the denouement of the book set during the inquest and a subsequent blizzard trapping our cast of characters at Illyria felt like a modern interpretation of Du Maurier. I'm not sure if Lauren purposefully set out to do this, because most attempts fail in the execution, and yet, here she is, bucking the odds. What I think helped is that instead of going for the big similarities, she started small, with Giles Lacey, Annabelle's cousin from England, who happens to share a name with Maxim de Winter's brother-in-law. Though THIS Giles would be mortified that I called him small! Instead of reminding me of Rebecca's former in-law, he reminded me of Rebecca's cousin Jack Favell, and in particular George Sanders's portrayal of him in the Hitchcock film. From there it snowballed into other similarities to the book and Hitchcock's adaptation, but always still being Lauren's voice. How Lauren has mastered this, I do not know, but she gets a tip of my hat.

Yet that isn't the only doffing of my hat that I must do in reviewing The English Wife! Now this isn't a brag, or even a faux humble brag, the fact is I'm just really good at figuring out plot lines. Be it a procedural show or a whodunit, I will solve it so fast that you won't know what hit you. A recent example of my weird "gift" was when I was watching Big Little Lies. Now I hadn't read the book but in a seven episode miniseries I was able to put ALL the pieces together and proclaim them as fact before the end credits rolled on the first episode. Six more wasted hours later and I was proven right. Sometimes to try to make things harder on myself I'll tune into a show halfway through and see if I can figure out what's going on without any exposition. Ironically Elementary has proven to be the easiest to crack. Now I think you can see why I like character driven stories that are quirky. Humor goes a long way to fill plot holes. So why am I going on about this bizarre quirk of my analytical brain? Because when someone actually pulls one over on me I feel this need to give them a standing ovation. In The English Wife I was so involved in two of the reveals that it's like Lauren smacked me upside the head with the biggest one and I didn't see it coming. At all. Bravo Lauren! It's like there were these shining motes of dust alighting on Bay and his wife and their marital woes and I was linking a to b to c and going ah yes, I see how it is, and yet I didn't see! It was there, looming right around the corner, and it pounced and got me. If Lauren were a lion I would be a goner.

The English Wife is a tale of smoke and mirrors. It is a fable of wealth and power set during the 1890s swan song of the Gilded Age. It’s a mystery, a romance, a coming of age story and easily one of the best books you’ll read this year.

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil have the kind of elegant, enchanting life that most only dream of: he's the head of an old Knickerbocker family, she’s the daughter of an ancient and distinguished English lineage. Their romance in London, intense, speedy, and illicit, was the stuff of which fairytales are made. Now they reside at Illyria, a fantastic reproduction of Annabelle’s childhood manor home, with their precious and precocious three-year-old twins. But there are nasty undercurrents churning in the waters of that house by the Hudson. Rumors that she is having an affair. Whispers that his relationship with his glamorous cousin Anne is perhaps closer than it should be.  The talk only adds to their allure and invitations to their costume ball for Twelfth Night are highly coveted. Then Bayard is found dead and Annabelle can’t be found at all. She is presumed to have drowned, pushed into the river by her angry husband moments before he committed suicide. Now there are more whispers and rumors, nastier stories in the papers and the gossip exchanged over drinks at all the most fashionable places destroys what little reputation the family had left.  Bay's sister, Janie, who found his body and heard her brother’s last words, determines to separate fact from fiction. To that end, she enlists the help of News of the World reporter Burke to uncover the truth; She’s certain a third party must have killed both Bay and Annabelle and she wants him to find the proof.  The more she learns, however, the less sure she is about what she believes. Anabelle and Bay were not who they seemed. But drawing strength from the memories she has of them, will she have the courage to become whom she was always meant to be?

AAR staffers Maggie Boyd and Shannon Dyer got together to  discuss their opinions about the book.

Maggie: I have to start by saying all the words that spring to mind when I think of this tale: Addictive, mesmerizing, engrossing. The English Wife is all of those things and more. I believe this book will be the standard by which people measure all their other reading experiences in 2018.

What are your thoughts, Shannon?

Shannon:  I agree with you. I started reading, and I hated to put the book down. The stuff of daily life suffered greatly until I finished the novel.

Maggie: Yes, it should be a hit with a lot of readers. The heroines are what made it so great for me. Janie and her discovery of a backbone as the story progressed and Annabelle, who had grit to spare from the start; both totally delighted me. Who were your favorite characters in the story?

Shannon: This is definitely a heroine-centric story. I loved Annabelle from the very start, and Janie was quick to grow on me. At first, her passivity bugged me, but her evolution into a strong, self-assured woman made those early frustrations fade away.

Maggie: Yes, Janie is one of those characters that needs an arc in order for her story to have merit and the author gave her a fabulous one.

I really loved the cold, icy setting for this narrative.  The chilly, snowy backdrop echoed the knickerbocker world in which the story takes place. Anne, Janie, Annabelle and Viola seem the only spots of color in a gray and white landscape. They burned brighter because they burned alone but it also gave a sense of vulnerability to all their characters. I was always afraid someone would snuff their light.

What did you think of the setting?

Shannon: This is the perfect book for wintertime reading. I felt like I was really in the world Ms. Willig created, and I enjoyed every minute I spent there. I think the story would have had a totally different feel if it had been set in a warmer, brighter time. The wintery weather added an extra layer of tension to the narrative.

Maggie: Yes, for those of us in cold weather climes the book can certainly seem timely. I think, though, that the winter setting also reflects the frozen state of the people in the world the tale inhabits. Only Anne, Viola, Annabelle and eventually Janie move outside the lines prescribed for them. The rest are held stiffly in place by the rules of their society and the only feelings we see them express are cold ones. Even Bay is initially cold with everyone but Anne and Annabelle. He needs someone to bring fire into his life and the women do that.

One of the things that made this book so riveting for me was the mystery. I felt that almost for the totality of the tale I wasn’t sure who or what was behind it. There were so many secrets, some of which I guessed, some of which took me by surprise. I thought the author did a great job of doling out just enough information to keep the reader riveted but never giving so much you felt you had fully solved it all before the end. How about you?

Shannon: At the beginning, I thought I had an idea of where the author was taking things, and, while I was right about a few things, I in no way had everything figured out. I'm also glad the author didn't choose to have one really big twist at the end of the story that totally changed the way I viewed the book as a whole. Dramatic twists definitely have their place, but I think such a thing would have done this story a great disservice.

Maggie: I was glad about that, too. The romance could have been stronger here but in many ways, I was glad it wasn’t. I loved where the focus of the narrative stayed and given who Janie was at the start of the tale, felt the love story ended exactly where it should. A rushed HEA wouldn’t have been satisfying. How did you feel about the romance?

Shannon: The romance was perhaps the one part of the story I found less than perfect. In some ways, I would have rather Ms. Willig not included the romantic arc at all. It almost felt anticlimactic compared to the rest of what was going on. Everything else was so very satisfying, and I wanted the romance to feel the same way. And, while I agree with you that a rushed HEA would have been a bad thing, I can't get fully behind the way the author left things.

Maggie: This is definitely a DIK for me; I would give it an A. How about you?

Shannon: It gets a B+ from me. Had things been a bit different in the romance department, I would have gladly given it a DIK rating.

Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K

First line: “They say he’s bankrupted himself rebuilding the house—all for her, of course.”

Summary: When Bayard Van Duyvil is found dead with a knife in his chest and his wife, Annabelle is missing, speculation starts around the happy couple. Did Annabelle kill her husband? Who is she anyway? The whirlwind romance and quick marriage to an English woman brings gossip and questions to the New York society. Janie, Bay’s sister, is determined to find out who killed her brother and clear her sister-in-law’s name.

Highlights: I am a huge fan of Lauren Willig and her books. She can write a good mystery with well-developed characters. I really liked the character of Georgie/Annabelle. She has a twisted past that is slowly revealed through the story. Her relationship with Bay was one of my favorite parts. I enjoyed their interactions and the way that their relationship changed. The rules and etiquette of society were so annoying but I believe very real for the time. Divorce and gossip were game changers for people of the upper classes. The old money hated the new money. There is a plenty of detail about the period making it easy for me as a reader to understand and be transported into the story. The ending shocked me. I was not expecting the story to wrap up the way it did but it was perfect. As I read another review, they compared it to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I think this is a great comparison.

Lowlights: The switching between 1899 and 1894 got a little confusing at different points. I am not always good about reading the little notes at the beginning of the chapter detailing when and where the story is taking place. It is very important in this book. In the middle, the story seemed to hit a lull. It was all about building up to the climax at the end.

FYI: Another win for Lauren Willig! If you like this, check out her Pink Carnation series. They are fantastic.

Just Gothic enough to make you want to curl up under a blanket - it's a snowy, blustery setting and often frightening....but sort of snarky too. Part murder, part buried secrets, part illicit relationships...all in the superficial setting so valued by the Victorians. I read it on kindle and used the dictionary feature to pick up on some sparkly British terms, although most of the novel is set in New York. Atmosphere somewhere between Edgar Allan Poe and the Titanic. I just loved it.

Oh my, what a book. This started with a charming little love story, then changed, to a deep mystery with a fitting, though unexpected resolution. Truly interesting and thoughtful, but sad and touching, the story takes you through some difficult places. Very different from what I expected, a wonderful book.

<b>4 scandalous, intriguing stars to The English Wife</b> 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

The English Wife was off to a slow start for me, but once it picked up, I was glued to it. The Gilded Age is one of my favorite time periods, and instantly this book reminded me of a favorite book that Lauren Willig co-authored with Karen White and Beatriz Williams, The Forgotten Room.

Bay and Annabelle Van Duyvil appear to have it all, but when one of them is found murdered and the other is missing, all bets are off. Janie, Bay’s sister, sought the truth about what happened and befriended an unlikely ally, a news reporter. Janie was, in fact, my favorite character, as I watched her grow into her own, despite an overbearing and cold mother.

While the ending wasn’t what I wanted to happen, it suited the storyline. Overall, a tantalizingly suspenseful historical! I binge read this one!

Thank you to Lauren Willig, St. Martins Press, and Netgalley, for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The English Wife will be published on <b>January 9, 2018.</b>

This was a good story that took place in 1899 in New York and England. The plot was interesting, but, confusing at times. The chapters alternated between before and after the murder of a beloved brother, son, father , husband and lover. The story was a great “who done it” , but, it was difficult to follow at times. There were many extra stories that were unnecessary and confusing and added nothing to the storyline..

Very good Historical Romance suspense with intrigue,mystery,deception ad twists.
Really held by interest with the characters and story.

Bay Van Duyvil, a wealthy heir to a New York family, is found murdered at a house warming in 1899. His English wife, Annabelle, is missing. Is she another a victim or did she murder him and flee the scene leaving their twin children behind? This is the mystery and the story is told mostly in flashbacks. We learn how Bay and Annabelle met and the history of their relationship.

Bay's mother is a nightmare who is only concerned about appearances. She calls all the shots in the family. His sister, Janie, is so controlled by her mother that she can barely say, "boo" although she develops an interesting relationship with a newspaper man throughout the book. His close confidant, cousin Anne, is going through the unthinkable, a divorce. All of them are at the party. You are left to wonder if and how they are involved.

This is really not my kind of book. It's really a gussied up romance novel and not what I would consider to be historical fiction. Still it has some surprises but a lot of it is pretty cliched. If you like romance in your stories, this is probably right up your alley. There's plenty of that.

Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

The book opens with Bayard Van Duyvil found murdered on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball and his English wife Annabelle is missing, presumed drowned. Bay's sister, Janie, is instrumental in solving the murder.

Although the story had a nice 'gilt age' flavor, the book moved with ebbs and flows as the story is told, surging forward and then dragging back.

2.75☆ rounded up to 3☆

I loved the premise of this story and there was some great unexpected twists. This book had enjoyable characters and a good mystery. I also loved the romance.
Now to the things I disliked; this book was really slow to me and super sad at points. Maybe it’s just because I am in a difficult place but this book could not hold my attention at times and just kind of made me feel down. I liked this book overall, I just wish it wasn’t so drawn out.

I think some people who enjoy a nice historical read would enjoy this book and I am interested in the author’s future works.

Great read, I would definitely recommend if you like murder mystery and romance. The reason I didn't boost the star rating was because it was kind of a sad one for me, unrequited love hits me in the feels. Did I mention- this book definitely does not fit your typical historical romance model. I know that I kept assuming I knew the answers to the love affairs, secret identities, and the whodunits, and I was surprised at nearly every turn (but I could just be really horrible at guessing ;)). The book alternates between past and present (essentially pre and post murder) and between two ladies directly associated with the victim, Janie and Georgie. I won't say anything more about the plot so I don't inadvertently give anything away, but I will reiterate- it's a good one!!

Haven't finished the book, found the writing tedious and the storytelling slow. Not sure I'll pick it up and attempt to finish.

I loved Lauren Willligs pink carnation series. This book was a little harder to get into. I did like how Janie was determined to find out what happened the night her brother and sister in law died, even though she was pretty much neglected by everyone in her family. She believed that a murder/suicide wasn’t possible. The switching back and forth of the storyline was a little annoying at times when I really wanted to know what happened next at some points.
Finding out everything in the end just seemed to make everything sadder. Bay and Georgie loved each other but she couldn’t give bay what he really needed and he wasn’t able to live openly as a gay man. Janie got the truth but I don’t know if it made her feel better. At least she found love and is finally able to live her life in a way she wants

Some aspects of this novel, I really liked. Sadly several others I did not. I could not really warm up to the characters and the story was at times a little tedious and confusing. I might try this one again at a later date, maybe it's me and not the story. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This might be my favorite non-Pink Carnation book Lauren Willig has written. The jumping back and forth in time worked extremely well in this case, the characters were compelling, and it was just a really fun read.

Great story with enough twists in the tale. A very interesting perspective of life in the early 20th century.