Two best friends, one recently dead and the other trying to understand how this woman could possibly have committed suicide. Rebecca meets her friend, Nicole's husband Richard at the funeral and is immediately taken in by his charm, his grief, and his incredibly handsome looks. When she meets his daughter, Olivia and hears about the newlyweds and their life together, she begins to question things as she has correspondence from Nicole that seems to contradict what Richard and Olivia tell of their relationship. But as Richard worms his way into Rebecca's heart, she must weigh what she feels and what she suspects. The book gets darker as the novel goes on with some unexpected twists you won't see coming! If you are a fan of psychological thrillers, deceit, and abuse (you don't have to like the qualities to like the book), this is a good one!

The Second Wife, WOW Sheryl Browne has done it again, this is a fantastic psychological thriller that had twists in it I had not given a thought to!
Rebecca and Nicole are best friends although they haven’t managed to see each other for three years they have still kept in contact through letters and messages. Rebecca receives bad news from Nicole’s husband that she has died in what is thought to be a suicide death, Rebecca knows her best friend and is fairly sure that she would not have wanted to end her life at that particular moment and decides to try and get to the bottom of it. Richard, Nicole’s husband is very accommodating and this enables Rebecca to dig deep.
This was a book I completely loved and the twists took my breath away as they were not on my radar and a breath of fresh air to thriller reads in general. The characters are a mixture of nice, not so nice and downright evil. Love, lies, manipulation and betrayal rub very strong through this edge of your seat thriller.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

5/5 stars for The Second Wife! This thriller had me staying up way past my bed time to find out what would happen next. Very few books feel “real” enough to give me a pit in my stomach and this one did - in the best way possible :)

If you love a good thriller - buy this book now!!

Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley, who provided a free ecopy in exchange for my honest review.

When Rebecca heard that her closest friend, Nicole had committed suicide, she is shaken. She doesn't know what to believe. Her strong friend who had just married the love of her life, after having left an abusive marriage, could have felt desperate enough to commit suicide, is something Rebecca finds difficult to stomach.

She goes to the funeral and meets Richard, Nicole's devoted and distraught widower. Before she knows it, her own life is taking a course, she had never expected.

An interesting page turner, however I felt there were some rather unbelievable plot twists, without giving away any spoilers which made it a bit unbelievable for me. I tend to enjoy dark books which feel completely plausible.

Still a good read, which I'm sure a lot of you will enjoy.

This book was one of the best I have read in a while - lots of twists. I did have to read the end a few times to be sure I understood, great characters and plot. Highly recommend!

The Second Wife by Sheryl Browne was a great read. I didn't see the twist coming at all. It's is story of love , trust, friendship and betrayal. Characters that you hope that karma will come back to bite them and others that you feel sorry for. It is a fast read, told from various points of views and times. Everything you would expect from a psychological thriller.

Rebecca has returned to the UK for her best friend Nicole's funeral. She is adamant that Nicole did not kill herself as she has been told. She meets Richard, Nicole's second husband after leaving the first after an abusive relationship. Richard is charming and perfect, but Rebecca knows better from letters that she has received from Nicole. She finds herself moving in with Richard and his daughter Olivia with plans to find out the truth.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

This is my first book by Sheryl Brown and it had me hooked from the first page. This novel will have you questioning who is the bad guy/girl and who can be trusted. Nicole is a damaged but yet strong woman. Her first marriage was to an emotionally and physically abusive man. It took years to make herself whole and strong again. Enter a new man in her life Richard. He makes her feel so beautiful and desirable and wanted. She is convinced he is perfect until after they marry and his daughter seems determined to make Nicole's life hell. Nicole's story ends tragically. Enter her best friend Rebecca who is determined to find out the truth concerning her friends death. Immersing herself into Nicole's previous life to find out the truth and get vengeance for Nicole. But is she immersing herself too much? Could she be falling under her best friends widowed husband's spell? Will Rebecca be the tragic second wife or will vengeance be served? I finished this book in a day and a half. I will highly recommend this thrilling novel to everyone. Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for my honest review.

I had fairly mixed feelings about Sheryl Browne’s previous novels, The Babysitter and The Affair. They were enjoyable enough reads but felt like pretty generic domestic thrillers. Both seemed to have overwhelmingly rave reviews though, so I was clearly in a minority.

Despite another unoriginal title (please, authors, think of some more original titles!), I thought The Second Wife was quite a lot better. It was definitely a page turner, and while it’s obvious from the start things are not right, the extent of that takes time to fully emerge. When it does, it defies credibility rather a lot, but is still a good read.

The basic plot: Rebecca’s oldest, dearest friend Nicole, bearing the emotional scars of an abusive marriage, has married again - sensitive, caring Richard couldn’t be more different to her ex. Of course, Richard isn’t as perfect as he seems, and Rebecca is horrified when not so long after Nicole is found dead by her own hand.

Determined to find out what really happened to her friend, Rebecca is drawn into the lives of Richard and his daughter Olivia.

The story is told mainly from the points of view of Rebecca in the present and Nicole in the recent past, though there are also sections from other viewpoints. At times, especially nearer the end, I did feel confused as to whose section I was in.

It’s well written and, as I said, quite a page turner as you rush to find out what’s really going on - for most of the book I found it a definite step up from the previous ones, although towards the end it did lose momentum for me (not because nothing’s happening, plenty is happening, but I just felt less engaged) and the very end didn’t really work for me. I’m not sure what to make of it to be honest.

Overall an enjoyable read.

I found this story silly and did not enjoy reading it. This could actually happen to women caught up in affairs of the heart.
It was a sad story, and sorry but not for me.

Becky returns to Britain for the funeral of her best friend, Nicole, who has committed suicide. Although she kept in touch with Nicole through the years, she is surprised as she learns how much her friend had changed while married to Richard. Becky is welcomed into Richard’s home by him and his daughter, Olivia. He seems the perfect man and she is soon attracted to him. As she uncovers the truth about Nicole’s life, be prepared!

The unfolding of the story alternates between past and present and different points of view. Fast paced and engrossing, full of darkness and twists, fans of The Wife between Us, Unraveling Oliver, and others of this genre will surely enjoy this read. You’ll find yourself cheering for Becky and hoping that she is able to uncover the truth and seek some justice for her friend.

I am in the minority on this one--this book was just not for me. So cliche' and unbelievable and just plain unlikeable. The characters were ridiculous and the change of narrator was chunky and did not flow in my opinion. I would have been so grateful to have a read a more critical review on this book but everyone seems to have loved it and to me it was almost awful.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read.

I love Sheryl's books, she gets you involved from the very first page and her style of writing is excellent.

This is a fast paced psychological thriller with twists and turns round every corner and I cannot fault the skill of this author.

I can recommend this book to anyone who likes a good psychological thriller, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book and I look forward to reading Sheryl's next masterpiece.

Really enjoyed this fast paced & full of twists & turns I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller.

5* Cat & Mouse Stars

I really enjoyed this thrilling read. It is told from multiple voices, which I enjoyed because you got inside the minds of the characters and what they were thinking and plotting.

This is a book that will have readers turning the pages to find out what the next twist will be.

There were many twists and turns in this story. I was so invested in the lives of the woman married and associated with Richard. Quite early on in the story I had my suspicions about one of the twists, which will definitely shock those that have not figured it out.

The characters were very interesting, realistic and some of them very unlikeable. Your mind will work overtime trying to piece together the puzzle pieces.

You will be sucked into the charming and gentleman ways of Richard. Rebecca was a very strong willed woman who was not naive to the charming Richard. Olivia was such a master manipulator.

This was an excellent addictive read. I loved the writing, plot and pace of the story. The cover is also inviting.

Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC to read and review.

oh wow I just loved this fast paced and thrilling page turner!

Nicola and Rebecca have been best friends for years. They may not see each other often but are always there for each other. When Richard, Nicola's husband whom she met and married quickly phones her to tell her she's committed suicide Rebecca can't believe it. Although she knows Nicola has had a tormented past she doesn't believe she'd kill herself.

Rebecca gets to know Richard and his scheming daughter Olivia planning to get to the bottom of what drove Nicola to take her own life. She finds herself falling for Richard and believes he can't have done anything wrong but as she delves deeper she finds things that shock her to her core...

A brilliant, brilliant novel which I just loved.

Books about 'the second wife' seem to be a common occurrence lately but I was pleasantly surprised by Sheryl's book. To a point, the plot is predictable but we are aware of this right from the blurb and the twists that come are so juicy that this really doesn't matter. Pretty much all of the characters are heavily flawed (just how I like them!) and incredibly addictive. I enjoyed the chapters from Nicole and Rebecca's POV and then later Richard and Olivia. This book is a real page-turner and I was totally invested in the story, despite how dark and twisted it becomes. I thoroughly recommend The Second Wife and will definitely be hunting out more books by this author!

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Second Wife by Sheryl Browne. I had read her last two books and was anticipating this third book, it was very, very good. Fast-paced and a good plot, the ending was a bit unpredictable. Thank you Sheryl for another great psychological thriller.

I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller with a splash of romance. Although Browne's writing didn't necessarily knock my socks off, I think she did a great job of keeping up a quick enough pace that I couldn't help but keep reading. This is a good book for anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller.

Rebecca and Nicole are very close friends, separated only by distance as Rebecca lives in France. Nevertheless they communicate by text, phone calls and email regularly, trusting each other with their most intimate secrets, advising and supporting each other as loyal, true friends always do. The only fly in the ointment is that Richard has a teenage daughter and she has some acceptance problems, is prone to over dramatising and is allergic to Nicole’s dog. She is also devious and manipulative. She plays her part exceptionally well in public view, but when the darkness of the night seeps in, she’s a shocker.
When Nicole marries Richard after a whirlwind romance, Rebecca is unable to attend their marriage at the very last moment, but true to form, Nicole tells Rebecca all about her gorgeous, courteous, handsome new husband and tells her that she is ecstatically happy. However when Rebecca learns that Nicole has died by her own hand, she is dumbfounded. It can’t be true; it is so out of character. She attends the funeral and offers her support to Richard, determined to find out what went so drastically wrong. She is tenacious, driven and will go to any length at all to discover the truth, especially when she catches hold of the local gossip.
This is a cleverly plotted dark psychological thriller about greed, jealousy, suspicion and pure evil intent. As Rebecca gets closer and closer to Richard, she can easily see why Nicole fell for his gentlemanly behaviour, easy charm and considerable charisma. She feels the fizz of attraction and momentarily enjoys the thrill of the chase. But all the time she knows that she must discover why her friend died. There are loads of twists and turns along the way and there are also some really great characters, both good and bad. And boy, are the baddies bad! They are really horrid. The stories of Nicole and Rebecca are told parallel to each other and this makes for a stark comparison. I kept turning the pages eager to find out how it all ended. I was hooked by the complexity of the story, which I enjoyed.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Bookouture through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you for my copy sent in return for an honest and unbiased review. It’s a good read and my review reflects this fact.

Wow, this is an amazing suspense filled psychological thriller. When Rebecca's long time friend, Nicole commits suicide shortly after her marriage, Rebecca wants answers. Rebecca becomes closer to Nicole's husband, Richard, while trying to figure out why her friend would have killed herself. She uncovers things that horrify her about Richards life that compel her to keep digging for answers. As the story continues, the twists and turns are so well written you don’t see them coming. The characters are interesting, the plot is riveting and there is a distressing undercurrent throughout that completely captivated me. I loved the way Nicole’s and Rebecca’s lives run alongside of each other and come together at the end. I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.