This book had me from the beginning! I had so many questions and was trying to put the pieces together but I did not expect that ending! It was a perfect pace for this avid reader. This was a great book- well written and intriguing. I didn't want to put it down

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

I am a fan of Nina Laurin regardless of what she writes. Her writing is always crisp. While I envisioned this twist coming, it was still a wild ride. It always amazes - and humbles me - the depths women fall to when struggling to obtain perfection. This book perfectly summed that curse. I loved it. Definitely recommend it.

Quick read! Super easy to get into. I liked it, I just didn’t love it.. it felt like there was something missing for me. But overall, an enjoyable read!

Wow - what a surprise in the middle of the book! Totally didn’t expect it - the best kind! Creepy - creepy good!!!!

A fantastic thriller with resists and turns all over the place!

Claire is Professor Byron Westcott’s second wife, living in the shadow of his successful and famous first wife Colleen who died eight years earlier. Not only does Claire live in the house Colleen decorated and sleep in the same bed she once did, Claire has to cope with their home filled with Colleen’s artwork that Byron just can’t bring himself to part with. Soon Claire becomes sick of feeling like she’s a guest in this relationship and starts to dig into the death of his first wife: a supposed suicide. But Colleen’s body was never found...

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys dark thrillers. It starts out like any generic domestic thriller but it’ll soon have you on the edge of your seat, wondering if what you are reading is the truth or not. A great unreliable narrator and a believable plot. I loved this book!

The Starter Wife by Nina Laurin 🖤
Thanks @netgalley @nina.laurin and @grandcentralpub for my ARC
Publication date 11th June 2019
‘He promised till death us part. Then she disappeared’.
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A really intoxicating and fast paced thriller. Perfect for fans of psychological and mystery thrillers. Thoroughly enjoyed this and would love to read more form this author.

First, the good: Nina Laurin has an engaging writing style. The characters were believable. The premise of this one had promise - it could have played out in a really interesting way. I'd try out another one of her books.

And to explain the two-star rating: This one just didn't work for me. It's tough to explain why a thriller missed the mark for me without giving it away, The plot felt like it was all over the place without actually going anywhere. There's a rape scene that was really unnecessary, and I wish hadn't been included. I hate giving ratings beneath 3 stars - I know authors work so, so hard - but by the 80% mark I was just speeding along, waiting for this one to be over. And the payout - the ending - didn't satisfy me in any way. Maybe I missed something that others will love here, but this just wasn't a mystery for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nina Laurin and Grand Central Publishing for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Claire begins to get suspicious of what her husband is up too, so she looks up the story behind her husband’s missing first wife and finds out that she disappeared in suspicious circumstances. Claire is getting phone calls with no one on the other end and e-mails that scare her. One of those phone calls a woman answers and knows more about Claire than she should; is Colleen, his first wife alive and looking to get rid of Claire?

This book was not at all what I anticipated and I LOVED IT! This book had be turning the pages like nobodies business! I wasn’t quite sure what was happening and why it seemed like there was a lot about Claire losing it. I was suspicious of all the characters in this novel and I wasn’t sure if I liked any of them all that much. I loved how much suspense there was throughout this novel and I found myself rooting for one character in particular. I loved the darker atmosphere of the novel and the chapters that you didn’t know who was writing made it even more fun to try to figure out! I loved how twisted this story was and I hope there is more twisted stories to come from Laurin! There were so many little twists throughout this novel that leave you gasping for breath while you try to speed read the ending! I can’t say too much without giving away any twists, so do yourself a favor and read it!

Out June 11th!

This is my favorite genre as I love a good flawed character/unreliable narrator, secrets, lies and duplicitous acts (not sure what that says about me but oh well--it's fiction)! Claire is obsessed with her professor husband, Byron and his first wife, Colleen whose drowning was ruled a suicide but still remains suspicious. As she attempts to unravel the past, she suspects there are nefarious actions directed against her as friends and family members seem to conspire against her. To whom can she confide her thoughts? Is she crazy or is her husband really the philandering man she believes? Twisty and fun, this is a roller-coaster ride of the most bizarre kind!

4,5 STARS happily rounded-up.

Claire can't help but feel like she's living under the shadow of her husband's first wife, Colleen. She needs to some digging on this woman who died under strange circumstances. Colleen is reported to have jumped into the water one night as a suicide attempt. Her body...it just vanished.

This is not your typical domestic thriller, it sure starts out as one but then BAM!...completely catches you off guard - that horrifying twist at the end, like a slap in your face. I remember just blankly staring into space afterwards. I loved that there was no elaboration on the utterly shocking final reveal; is left to the reader's interpretation, making you go back and re-read those early inexplicable/odd occurrences that happened to the protagonist in order to put the pieces of the puzzle together. If you do that, you'll just feel even more unsettled.

This book kept me alert all throughout and super invested until the end. The first half gives us major "The Wife Between Us/The Breakdown" vibes, and the second half -where it seems like the protagonist's attempt to learn the truth might bring her to a sinister end - is just a pack of explosive revelations, one after the other. The book suddenly veers off into a direction you were never expecting.

The Starter Wife is an absolute must-read for fans of domestic thrillers. As much as it messed with my head, it was so much fun to go through. It'll most definitely spark different reactions from readers, and I am so looking forward to knowing what other people think.

This is a twisty thriller from Nina Laurin. The Starter Wife will have readers questioning. Claire falls hard for professor Byron, despite their age difference. Second wives always have to deal with the first wives, but Claire’s situation takes it to a whole new level. What she heard was death by suicide for Colleen may not be the case at all.

Claire Wescott has put her past behind her and is living the life she always dreamed of, married to a man she loves, working towards a literary career and planning to start a family. The only problem in her perfect life is living in the shadow of her husband’s “starter wife”, a woman he still loves but may have killed. When strange things begin to happen to Claire, she starts to investigate her husband, determined to find out if the man she loves is guilty or if the rumors are wrong.

Initially, this book read like so many other suspense books but an unexpected twist turned everything I thought I knew upside down. Nina Laurin’s story of domestic bliss is a great read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys good story telling.

I have picked up a lot more suspense books over the last year and I think they might be one of the hardest genres to write even if it doesn’t seem like that at first glance. The author has to create mystery and suspense without confusing the reader. The Starter Wife was on the confusing side of the equation. It was hard to follow in but if you stick with it the story will start to come together. It kept me engaged to the end of the book but the story about Claire was slightly annoying and fell a little flat for me, Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whoa! What a tailspin! This book was quite engrossing and a page-turner. I found myself thinking I had the entire book figured out, then something else would change and I was back to wondering. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this new release; I enjoyed every moment of Claire and Byron’s tale. I look forward to reading many more from this author in the future.

The Starter Wife is a dark twisted thriller. This one will keep you flipping the pages until you finish it. I can't wait to read more from this author.

The premise is one you may be familiar with; a younger, attractive, insecure second wife, a charismatic older university professor whose popular with his young female students and a first wife who committed suicide, disappeared but was never found. Then the second wife starts looking into what happened to the first wife...
The story that follows however is full of mystery, suspense and unexpected plot twists. The story is complex and deceptive. The ending so dark and twisted.

People are never quite what they seem.

So I feel like I should start with a disclaimer that I read this book while recovering from oral surgery and on some very drowsy inducing meds. That being said I felt this book was very hard to follow. There were pieces that drew me in and made me want to learn more, but overall I just couldn’t get into it.

Wow—this was quite the page turner! I was on the edge of my seat as I sped through this book, anxious to find out what happened next. There were definitely some shocking and unexpected twists!

. The starter wife is about Byron a college professor and Claire his 20 something wife. There is suspension that Byron killed his first wife Colleen. Her body has never been found. Edge of your seat suspense.

The concept of a younger second wife living in the shadow of the first wife is not a new one. However, Nina Laurin's The Starter Wife felt completely fresh and utterly thrilling. While Claire fits the description of "unreliable female narrator" extremely well, her character was complex, intriguing and so obsessive that I couldn't stop reading about her. I couldn't put this book down because it had hooked its claws into me and I had to know what was going to happen next. And that twist? I didn't see it coming! The twist was incredibly well-crafted and totally unexpected. Laurin's writing is impeccable: each of the little details provided foreshadowing of what was to come. After I finished reading it, I went back and reread some portions more slowly. Laurin provides the reader all the clues but they are clever and subtle, which is why the twist is so shocking.

I really enjoyed this one! Smart, thrilling and very well-written, I have to check out Laurin's other books now!