The Wife Who Knew Too Much by Michelle Campbell is a mystery that I received for a review by Netgalley.
.Tabitha is a hard working divorced women that rarely gets any breaks. Her ex-husband is a felon and is stalking her. While he was in prison, Tabitha divorces him and meets Connor who is the love of her life. Connor leaves and Tabitha doesn’t hear from him for a few years but shows up one day where she is a waitress. The mystery begins here.
This plot has many twists and turns and brings many lives together to solve the mystery. A places the plot is a little predictable but then takes a twist to keep you guessing. Thank you Netgalley for a very good read.

Tabitha never got over her first love Connor. She never left the small little town they grew up in. Until one day Connor comes home and she falls right back in love with him. Only to find out he married a wealthy overbearing psychotic woman, Nina. Tabitha falls hard. Timing is everything and soon Nina is found dead, but suddenly Tabitha finds out not everything as it seems. Nina has written a secret diary and it says on the first entry if anything should happen to her Connor was behind it. As Tabitha moves into a new kind of lifestyle with lavish and extravagant things she’s never known before she starts to wonder if what a wife knows can kill her.

I was sucked in from the moment I opened and read the first page! I really liked how she told the story from Tabitha’s POV and also from Connor’s POV. I loved all the twists, turns, romance and unexpected drama from all the character’s bad choices in their lives. While some of it I had a hard time connecting with the characters, I just had to know how they came out in the end with it being a first love. I am a huge fan of all this authors previous books. So I was super delighted to get a ARC in exchange for an honest review. I would like to say thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for giving me a copy.

DNF-I can't get past the main character, Tabitha. The character is immature and the storyline did not draw me in enough to continue. The cliché descriptors and phrases made the overall tone of the book read more like a YA book than adult.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love Michele Campbell, her summer suspensions are always on an excellent stage and with diverse and extraordinary characters that bring the story to life. Excellent book full of intrigue, good romance, secrets and greed. A setting with excellent details transports you to be part of the plot. Fast paced, full of betrayals, passions, wrongdoings and a good ending. A good read for summer, light but with intensity. Thank you Net galley for the opportunity to read and review with my honest opinion, that are only my own.

I liked this book because you get to read two sides of the story. The first view point comes from Nina, a wealthy, beautiful, and powerful woman. The second view point comes from Tabitha, a waitress with a sad past. Nina always hosts a Fourth of July party, which has some fireworks of its own, and I don't just mean the kind in the sky! I was trying to solve the mystery and wondering who could be trusted through the entire book. This is the perfect read for summer!

An entertaining thriller that deals with first loves and extravagant new lifestyles that are intoxicatingly dangerous!

<i><b>”When you run with the wolves, don’t trip.
—Proverb”</b></i>

This book wasted no time grabbing my attention! A diary notation, written by a wife who is convinced her husband wants to kill her, for her money.

<b>”People said I was a gold-digger.”</b>

Nina is one of the wealthiest women in New York. It wasn’t that way until she married her super rich and much older husband, Edward and she inherited everything after his death.

The handsome and enigmatic Connor is penniless, until he meets and marries Nina, twenty years his senior. She showed him a whole new world...money, private jets, fancy cars, a huge house filled with staff. Sounds ideal, except for the corporate backstabbing, betrayal, controlling wife and constant distrust.

Then Connor runs into an old girlfriend...the one who got away. And all those wonderful and happy memories come back. But is true love worth giving up the lavish lifestyle he’s become accustomed to?

This is my second read by this author and I enjoyed both...another author to watch for!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Michele Campbell, for this free digital ARC, in exchange for my honest review!

<b>My Rating: </b> 4.25 ⭐️’s
<b>Published:</b> July 28th 2020 by St. Martin's Press
<b>Pages:</b> 336

<b>Recommend:</b> Yes!

@MCampbellBooks @StMartinsPress
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Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

PUBLICATION DAY: July 28, 2020

Solid summer thriller!

PLOT SUMMARY:
Nina Levitt has just married a much younger, extremely handsome man named Connor. After years of being unhappily married to an abusive, yet uber rich man, she has inherited his vast fortune and is finally free to marry for love. But is all as perfect as it seems in this new romance? When Nina is found dead, what will the repercussions be? Did she commit suicide? Or is there something more sinister afoot? Connor’s ex girlfriend Tabitha is drawn into this web of lies and deceit and will need to determine the truth before it’s too late.

PROS and CONS:
Did someone in Nina’s inner circle kill her? Or was it suicide? You’ll have to read it to find out! The pace moves along quite nicely as down on her luck Tabitha resolves to find the answers to this question as her life is now caught up in this whole controversy as well.

I found Connor and Tabitha’s love story a tad unbelievable, as well as the timeline for everything happened. It was all just a bit too convenient. These issues took me out of the story, and I had to work to get back into it. Tabitha seemed to make bad decisions after bad decisions, and I always find this type of character to be quite frustrating.

There were quite a few twists and turns, and the ending ensures everything is tidily resolved.

YES or NO:
This one is a MAYBE - if you’re new to thrillers and love reading about the uber rich, then you’ll enjoy it!!!

3 Stars

I want to preface this review with the fact that I've read dozens of thrillers, especially around this topic. I also read this at the same time as some other thrillers, so I already forgot what happened.

Overall, this is very generic for me. If you've never read a thriller before, I would read it. Nothing really memorable and nothing to attach me to the characters. The whole "will do anything for money" plot is just kind of old.

After reading A Stranger on the Beach, I was super excited to get the ARC for this book.

With an ironclad prenup, it seems ridiculous to cheat. But that's exactly what happens. She had evidence that he is. BUT - Nina is convinced that he's trying to kill her.

It's very suspenseful and makes you keep reading to find out what will happen next.

If you are a fan of thrillers - this is for you.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me a copy of this book to read. I really liked it! I flew through it. It had short chapters which I love because it kept me turning the pages. It had just the right amount of action and mystery to keep me intrigued.

This story is about Tabitha, a woman from a small town who doesn't have much to her name and works as a waitress in a restaurant. In her youth she had a relationship with a guy named Connor who came from wealth. As their time together fizzled out, he moved on to bigger and better things, marrying an older and extremely wealthy woman. In present day, by a chance encounter at her work she runs into Connor and falls in love all over again. Except now he comes with some shady secrets. It seems his wealthy wife has died, apparently by suicide and Connor is set to inherit her fortune. This could mean happiness, and not to mention wealth, once and for all for Tabitha, but the pieces of Connor's story just don't seem to add up and she ends up tangled in a web of deceit and lies.

I will say that I had the villain and the ending figured out relatively early on. The twists weren't major and it was mildly predictable but there was enough action in the story that I was thoroughly entertained throughout! I enjoyed Michelle Campbell's writing style and have enjoyed other books from her as well. This is a quick read and will be a great summer thriller!

Please. Everyone STOP trying to be Gone Girl. Gone Girl is Gone. It was great, I get it. But Y’all gonna make this genre gone if ya’ll don’t stop. Be gone with that mess. GONE, girl.

Shortest Summary Ever: Tabitha Girard remembers that summer when she was 17 and completely in love with Connor Ford - handsome, rich, and all hers. For a summer. Now she’s in her 30’s, waitressing and handsome Connor is sitting here. The one who got away. In her restaurant. But he’s married to Nina, a mega-wealthy, powerful woman. But their attraction is undeniable... thus begins a romance rekindled and when Nina takes her own life it seems like everything will now come together for Tabitha. So why is it all falling apart?

My thoughts: Ugh.
I don’t cherish giving poor reviews but I’m going to be honest. The description of this book is so wrong. It’s more romance-y than mystery-y (new word points for me). Without spoilers I can say this - I despise stupid, foolish, naive but pretty female leads. They are annoying, and that was Tabitha.

(Uh-oh, I’m on a roll here) It’s clear from the tone the reader is supposed to feel for Tabitha, but that’s not the actual experience for me. She’s kind of an awful person. Connor has to swoop in to make her happy? Nooooo. And he’s kind of a jerk. The other is that the wife Nina doesn’t seem that neurotic or controlling to me as the jacket description claims (duh, her husband IS cheating), so her death was confusing. I felt bad for her but the writing seemed to assume the reader would be happy for Tabitha?

The redemption was that it was a fast read and the story did advance, though just not in any believable way for me. I just couldn’t get on board with this one.

All my reviews available at scrappymags.com

Genre: Chic Lit/domestic fiction.

Recommend to: If you can suspend a lot of disbelief, if you’ve pined for “the one who got away” this might be more enjoyable. It is a quick beach read.

Not recommended to: if you dislike weak female protagonists.

Thank you to the author Michele Campbell, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my always-honest review.

This is my second book by this author and probably my last. The writing style felt very amateur but this author has written several books. The main guy was such a jerk and the whole time she pines for him and we are expected to do the same? I didn’t get it. And on top of that the main character just asked the most dumb questions. I just couldn’t take this book seriously.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of The Wife Who Knew Too Much for my honest review.

Apparently I'm one of just a few who didn't care for this book. It started out okay but it turned to the ridiculous. It was obvious (although it tried not to be) and I felt like I was watching a soap opera or a Lifetime movies (I apologize to those who love both of those - my mother was one, just not my thing). The only character I liked at first was Nina. Connor and Tabitha, ugh. Truly horrible, stupid, and lame. I don't know how many times I rolled my eyes at them or the story. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest opinion. I'm sorry I couldn't like it.

This is not my first time reading a book from this author and it definitely won't be my last! I read this book in a day because I did not want to put it down. "It becomes clear that what a wife knows can kill her." I was wrapped up in the story. Betrayal, love and second chances.

Michele Campbell did it again with this suspenseful Hamptons-based summer thriller. I flew through this un-put-downable beachy read. This book gave me serious The Last Mrs Parish vibes.
Without giving too much away, I can tell you that while I personally did suspect the real culprit from about 30% into the novel, I was surprised by several turn of events leading up to the final reveal. I am not someone who is disappointed by guessing or spoilers, because part of the fun is getting to that point where they are revealed.
Overall, Campbell did it again with this one. I enjoyed last summer's suspenseful thriller, A Stranger On the Beach, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed this one.

I did not care for this book. I feel like Michele Campbell has the ability to come up with interesting stories but she struggles to execute her plotlines. The story wasn't fleshed out much. It was forced and choppy. Not only that, but the entire time I was reading this I felt as if it were written by a young adult or someone who hasn't had much life experience. The characters were naive and immature, especially the narrator. Tabitha is the stereotypical "dumb girl" in the scary movie...you see their mistakes coming and can predict that she will make the wrong choice every time. She never learns! I got very irritated by the ridiculousness of the situation. It just wasn't realistic. I rated her last book, A Stranger on the Beach, a bit higher, so I wouldn't say I dislike her writing completely. I would just go into her books knowing that the drama is contrived.

Michelle Campbell’s books are great summer thriller reads. This book was no different. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the twists and turns throughout the story. It was certainly a fast read. I felt as though the ending became a bit apparent too early on for me, though. I would still recommend for a good beach page-turner!

I loved this. It took me about a 1/4 of the way into the book to really get into it but then I couldn’t put it down! It had a Megan Miranda vibe. The author swapped points of views and characters quite often which made it a bit confusing at times but all in all a good book with great twists and turns.

#37 The Wife Who Knew Too Much by Michele Campbell

#thoughts This was a quick thriller, that was entertaining. However, so many of the characters were lying throughout the entire book, that even at the end when everything was supposed to be explained, it still felt unsettling to me or maybe unfinished,
because no one had been reliable. Several parts I found to be very ridiculous as well. Would you sleep in the mansion of your new husband’s newly deceased wife’s bed of 20+ years, without him there, with pictures of her everywhere, as well as all of her personal items like makeup and clothes still in there place? For me, that’s an absolute NO. Obviously I have mixed feelings on this book, but am thankful to @netgalley for the ARC.

Summary:

Connor was Tabitha's first love. They had a whirlwind summer romance as teenagers, but his family forced them apart when they found out due to Tabitha's low social status. Now, several years later, they meet again and fall back in love. The only problem is that Connor is married - to a fabulously wealthy woman named Nina. Their prenuptial agreement states that if he initiates divorce or is unfaithful, he gets nothing. Connor asks Tabitha to be patient while he figures out how to separate from Nina and still secure some money. But Tabitha can't be too patient, because she is pregnant.
And then, all too conveniently, Nina is dead.
Her death is initially ruled suicide, but there are many suspicious aspects of her death. The investigation that follows leaves Tabitha frightened and unsure of whether she can really trust the man she loves.

Review:
A tale as old as time - wealthy spouse dies under mysterious circumstances, those who stand to benefit most from their death are the key suspects. Unfortunately, there was not much unique about this story. While the twist at the end did take me by surprise, it didn't make a whole lot of sense or feel very realistic to me. I also felt that the character development was seriously lacking (and I recognize that thrillers don't require the most deeply developed characters, but just a little more personality, please!) That being said, this book was well-written and held my attention, which is ultimately what makes it a 4 for me. This was my first Michele Campbell book, and I would give more of her books a chance! I recommend this book for fans of Megan Miranda and Lucy Foley. The Wife Who Knew Too Much will be available to the public on July 28th 2020!