This is my first Tarryn Fisher book. I have heard and seen many great reviews of her books, but I am thinking that maybe I should not have started with this one. The psychological thriller really messed with me and I am still not recovered. Perhaps that was the author's intention, but I'm not super excited to go back and read her backlist... Don't get me wrong, the book was good enough, but I wasn't mentally prepared for this super twisty journey.

3.5 stars

Imagine your husband has two other wives.

You’ve never met the other wives, and because of your “unconventional arrangement “ you only get to see your husband on THURSDAY.

You don’t even know their names until one day, by chance, you find mail addressed to Hannah.

You get curious.


For the first 50% I was completely intrigued as “THURSDAY” explored her feelings. Her husband, Seth has told her that he loved his wives all differently, but equally. But, what does that mean? Who would he choose if he had a gun to his head? It’s impossible not to compare...

She just HAS to find out more about each of the other two wives. Do they share her same insecurities?
How does Seth’s life differ on MONDAY, and TUESDAY? I would’ve liked to hear more about that.

BUT, despite an original premise, and a strong start...it ended up being just a “middle of the road” psychological thriller by the end because once the truth is revealed, it just wasn’t as interesting to me, as the first half of the book was.

Thank You to Netgalley, Harlequin-Graydon House Books and Tarryn Fisher for the digital ARC I received in exchange for a candid review! This title will be available on Dec. 30, 2019.

This was a wild ride! I read the whole thing in an evening. Our narrator, Thursday, is a nurse and the wife of Seth, a man who also has two other wives. He splits his time between the three, so Thursday only gets to see him one day a week, and she’s never met or even learned the names of the other two. When she finds a receipt in his pocket with a woman’s name, could it be another wife? Can she help tracking the woman down and befriending her anonymously?

The first half of this book is really solid. Tense and twisty and dark. The second half is more uneven, and I didn’t love all of the plot choices. But it definitely held my attention, and I already passed it on to someone else who also read it in a day. So I think it’s got the potential to grab readers who loved Gone Girl or Girl on the Train, etc.

The premise of this book was great. I haven't really read anything concerning a polygamous relationship and was intrigued how Seth had created his existence with 3 different "wives". Everything seemed very tightly woven and although not overly believable it was definitely entertaining. Until the end. I really hope the author/editor have time to re-work the ending before this is released. There is so much potential for a fun, twisty ending but it did not work for me the way it is. I do appreciate the ARC of this from Netgalley/Graydon House and would definitely read other novels from Tarryn Fisher as I enjoyed her style of writing.

This book was AWFUL.
Filled with weak, vindictive women there is absolutely zero redeeming value in *any* of the characters. Especially not Thursday, the main character. Try as I might and no matter how hard I looked, Thursday is just a horrible human being. Right from the first chapter you can tell how childish she is when the husband comes home for dinner and she walks into the kitchen in a way to give him "a little hip with dinner."
Gross.
Shouldn't it be "fries with that shake" or "a little leg to go with the lamb"?
Either way, it's immature, lame, and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. And that's within the first few pages, folks!
Further, the work promises to be a fast-paced thrill ride. It isn't. Instead, the reader is left feeling like *they're* the ones going insane and let down at every turn. Our "hero" is also a constant disappointment, resulting in a lingering headache of "ugh..." Top that off with a bunch of spelling errors littered throughout the work and we almost have a migraine on our hands.
So dear readers, if you are looking for a book that portrays women as psychotic, unhinged, vindictive, immature, yielding no common sense whatsoever, and just horrible human beings, then The Wives is definitely for you. If, however, you want your hero to have some small shred of humanity with at least a tad bit of redeeming value then RUN. Don't walk away from this terrible novel.

The novel tells the story of a polygamous family. Not a legal family in an area where harems are looked upon as something that fits a certain norm but on the west coast of the United States where marriages are between two people or they are not legal. Ms Fisher utilizes a woman named Thursday as the first person narrator and in so doing treats the reader to one of the most amazing character analysis I've read. Thursday is married to Seth, but she only sees him two days each week. The other days are divided up between Seth's other two wives. Thursday makes the point that she tolerates this arrangement because she is very much in love with her husband even to the point of living in an arrangement of sharing him with two other women. The other two women are kept confidential by Seth and no discussion is held about them or what they do in their time with their joint husband.
While doing laundry one day Thursday finds a note outlining a meeting for a woman named Hannah in one of Seth's shirts. Knowing the name Thursday decides to meet her and exchange ideas about their husband. She does so and also continues in the same vein meeting the other wife. Ms Fisher is a definite wordsmith and has no trouble getting her readers completely immersed in the plot and following the action with a great deal of interest. The ending is logical but not telegraphed and supplies a great capstone to an extremely engrossing and well written book.

*Contains spoilers*

2.5 stars

At first glance this is a thriller involving a polygamist family but underneath the surface it is a dark and twisted psychological thriller about the dangers of patriarchy and mental illness. I was immediately drawn into Thursday's narration. Her care and attention to detail, the ways in which she anticipated all her husband's needs, her competitive need to be loved best of all, and her burning desire to know the other wives created a fascinating window into the psyche of a woman who justifies her husband's blatant unfaithfulness. But at just over the midway mark, the story begins to loose steam. After a violent confrontation with her husband, Thursday wakes up in the hospital, and her unstable mental state is slowly revealed. But the plot begins to unravel at the same rate as her mental health, and it never gets quite back on track. I was left feeling unsatisfied with the fact that Thursday's deteriorating mental state was the explanation for the confusion and mystery surrounding the other wives. More ambiguity would have lent the second half of the novel some much needed intrigue. I felt there were some plot threads that were never fully resolved, and Thursday's unhinged mental state is too convenient an excuse to explain those away. In some ways, too, it feels a little stale. The same tropes that made the genre so popular a few years ago have become overused; the unreliable narrator, the alcohol and pills, the unfaithful husband and his beautiful new wife no longer deliver that zing of shock and surprise.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have a difficult time knowing what to rate this or how to describe it. If you would like to read it, read the back cover copy first and that's it.

It was quick enough to get into, it doesn't slow down until a little later in the book (for me, anyway) and then I struggled with a lot of "wait, what?" In a thriller/suspense/mystery book, saying "I don't really know what's going on or who is telling the truth" sounds like a good review, but in this case I found it to be a bit of a weakness. There isn't one sympathetic character (the father maybe) and no one is telling the truth. Like, even people who don't seem to be involved in anything tell lies. Perhaps that's realistic, but I prefer my thrillers tightly crafted. The truth of the situation seemed to change all the time, and not at the plot appropriate points, either. As the reader, I could tell the main character was wrong about some of her assumptions, but the plot doesn't follow up the clues with that truth quickly, it instead moves on to other things, but in a mystery or thriller I only want to be at most one step ahead of the narrative. I purposefully try not to guess twists and endings as I read, so if I figure something out I usually assume the author intended me to figure it out and is guiding me through the book.

There are triggers for pregnancy loss and possibly mental health issues.

A suspenseful thriller with many twists and an ending I wouldn't have predicted. It's difficult to describe without spoilers -- suffice to say that it's a story about marriage, jealousy and revenge. Beware the unreliable narrator!

Whoa! After reading the final sentence of this book, everything I thought about the main character just sort of took a nosedive. Tarryn has a way with writing a suspenseful story and creating tension between characters. This was a fast-paced book that I would highly recommend to fans of psychological suspense and psychological thrillers. Readers will empathize with the main character, Thursday, even though she is a bit of an unreliable narrator. I won't give away much of the plot because you just have to read it and find out for yourself. I am definitely in a book hangover state after finishing this. I don't even know how to put into words the shock I feel after finishing. Good work, Tarryn. I look forward to reading more of your books.

This book was a complete whirlwind. I have emotional whiplash from the endless twists and turns! I like when I can’t guess the ending of a book, but I felt a little lost in the spiral as the book went on. I also, as I tend to always do, started to get bogged down in the details and question the little things, like why would anyone agree to only see their husband once a week and share him with two other wives? I had other questions that were answered as the story went on, but this one nagged at me for much of the book and made me unable to identify with the narrator.

This was mostly a fun, fast read until the end. I was hooked from the beginning and read it in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. When done well, I love a good unreliable narrator, but I think it took the truth way too long to come out. It was all twists and turns for almost 97% of the book (I read it on my Kindle) and then the truth was finally revealed at the very end, which felt very rushed and was a bit of a letdown.

I would definitely recommend this book and will be trying more of Tarryn Fisher’s work, but it wasn’t a book I’ll need to read again.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great thriller. A man with three wives known as Monday, Tuesday and Thursday - what more is there to say! The twists and turns will keep your head spinning! I totally didn’t see the ending coming!

Okay first of all, I owe Tarryn Fisher an apology.

I first discovered Tarryn because she is best friends with my favorite author, Colleen Hoover. They wrote a trilogy together, Never Never, and I liked it so much that I had to check Tarryn out. So I downloaded a trilogy of her books, but the first book did NOTHING for me. The main character was so unlikable that despite the fact that I paid for the trilogy I couldn't be bothered to get past book one.

So when I read the premise of The Wives I wanted to read it so badly but I was scared I would hate it.

I'm so glad I gave in.

This book is SO GOOD. I love a book that totally changes pace halfway through and has me racing through it because I have to know what the hell is going on. So is the case in The Wives, where I kept thinking I knew what was happening, only to be pretty shocked over and over again.

Tarryn, I'm really sorry I judged you. I am so happy I read this book. And I can't wait to dig into the rest of your books.

SO. GOOD.

The Wives is a tricky thriller and I had high hopes for it. In the first act of the book there was a transphobic comment that really upset me not only because it was said, but because it didn’t add anything to the story at all. The plot and ending were ridiculous, and not in a good way. The guy that all of these women are clamoring for is really crappy as a human being.
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

OMG this book. I haven't read a thriller in a while that I enjoyed as much as Gone Girl AND didn't see the twist coming. It's hard to review without giving anything away and I really don't want to give any of the surprises away. I read this book in two days and couldn't put it down. If you were in a polygamist marriage but didn't know the other wives what would you do to find out the truth and when you find out the truth you're whole world is turned upside down? This is a must read for all thriller fans.

I really wanted to like this. The first 40% of this book was really interesting. It was very fast paced and I was wanting to know more. But it definitely lagged in the middle and the ending was really disappointing. The author took the lazy way out to resolve everything. It's definitely a low 3 star rating, which is a bummer because I was definitely anticipating it.

CW: Assault, domestic abuse, loss of a pregnancy, abusive relationships, religion

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel. Thursday is a compelling character. The ending caught me off guard a bit.

I highly recommend this book.

The Wives is a clever and engaging mystery that held my attention from start to finish. The story was well plotted and though I didn't particularly connect to any of the characters, it made for quite an entertaining read!

Weeks after finishing this book and my mind is still f'd up! I mean seriously. The ending is what did me in....it came from left field and was totally unexpected. But of course, isn't that what we have come to expect from a Tarryn Fisher book anyway.

So, I'm not going to say much because....spoilers. But the first half of this book had me on the edge of my seat, wondering what the hell was going to happen. Then BAM!! Everything you thought to be true.....yeah, maybe not.....or were they. GAH!!!

Tarryn books are automatic go-to for me, so I really was not disappointed. You never know what you're gonna get with her books, and I love her for that!

I've been debating my rating......and I'm thinking because it is still hanging around in my mind (unlike some other books which I forget as soon as I move on), it's gotta be a 5 star read!

First I will preface, I am a BIG fan of Tarryn and I want her to win every time. I believe in her words and truly believe she was born to write. Her prose is defiant and there is a truth behind her method. With that said I was completely entranced by The Wives. The Wives was unlike anything I have read in suspense and I am a suspense reader. The plot was unique, engaging and the dynamic between the major players kept me on my toes. I was so PUMPED because this is the type of book you need…….however at a certain point “was” became the operative word. There was a turn of events that left me underwhelmed and I was honestly very sad about that. Thursday’s dribble became redundant and tiresome. The second half just wasn’t on the same level as the first half and I’m struggling with this because the first half was solid. Conflicted in my thoughts to say the least. I would still recommend because although I didn’t love the second half’s plot devices I still very much appreciated Tarryn’s written word. Based on the early reviews I seem to be in the minority as usual however those with a similar rating had the same conflicting issues as me. Overall 3 stars although a 3 star I would recommend.