Ok. Wow!

I'm writing this review at 3 AM because I just couldn't put this book down until I finished it. This was definitely the perfect book to start off 2021 with. The Wife Upstairs is filled with twists and turns that leave you hanging on to every word because you just HAVE to know what happens next.

This is my second Rachel Hawkins book, the first being <i>Royals</i> which while thoroughly enjoyable, is so different a genre from this one that I was skeptical about it going in. Boy was I wrong! Fantastic writing and a great plot - I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a page turning Thriller/Suspense.

The Wife Upstairs. A retelling of the classic Jane Eyre, which I have not read yet. A very enjoyable read. A good thriller/mystery to start off the new reading year.

Set in Alabama, The Wife Upstairs tells us the story of Jane, her past, her current life working as a dog-walker in a very fancy neighborhood, up until she meets Eddie, one of the residents at Thornfield Estates, and she gets involve in Eddie's life and learns more of the mysterious disappearance of Eddie's wife Bea, and her best friend Blanche.

Unexpected twists, and intriguing characters, fast-paced, and a well worked setting. The Wife Upstairs has all the good elements expected in works of this genre, however, for me, it lacked that intense ending I was hoping for. A good proposition in plot, but the hype did not go high enough for me. Something else missing for me was more on the back story of Jane's past in Arizona and what she did to her foster dad, and also more on Eddie's past.

Overall, I enjoyed The Wife Upstairs, kept me entertained, the writing was engaging, and it was an easy and fast read.

Thank you to the Publisher St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the Advanced Free Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book! Will keep you up reading and reading! It’s definitely a must read and one of my top choices so far this year!

What a twisty, turning tale this book ended up being. The characters started out likeable enough and I thought I knew what was going on. And then people's true personalities started coming out and I had no clue who was who and what they were up to. Motives? Anyone's guess! And I loved it!!

Everyone had their own agenda and I was kept in the dark until the shocking, satisfying ending. When I got to the last page, I have to stop and ponder what I just read. I love when authors can do that for me.

I highly recommend The Wife Upstairs! It will keep you on the edge of your seat and it will be a story you will not soon forget.

This book is an interesting southern gothic suspense thriller. What it is not is a new take on Jane Eyre. The author uses the names of the main characters and touches on certain plot points of the Bronte classic but it is quite different.

I did not find the characters likable but I don’t think the author intended them to be. They are, however, enmeshed in a story that kept me reading. The first clue that I had this was not Jane Eyre redux was the language and that Jane was a bit of a kleptomaniac.

Jane is really down on her luck having come up through the foster program. She is staying with an unsavory man who she knew previously (but not so early as for him to know her real history.)

Jane is a dog-walker in Thornfield Estates. This is a very rich area in Birmingham, Alabama. She is both captivated and repelled by the individuals who live there and wants to be one of them. Luckily, she meets Eddie.

Eddie lives in the finest homes in the Estates and buys a dog so Jane can walk it. Eddie is also a widower whose wife, Bea, drowned in a lake with her best friend. Problem is, neither of the bodies have ever been found.

We get to know Jane and Bea fairly well. Eddie is shown by how others view him until the very end of the book. Of them all, Bea, was the most interesting to me.

The book was interesting to read and, once I got over comparing it to Jane Eyre, I enjoyed it for the suspense and the plot.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.

“The Wife Upstairs” is a modern retelling of “Jane Eyre.” I have not read “Jane Eyre,” so I can’t speak to the correlation between the two books, but I can say that I enjoyed “The Wife Upstairs” for its twists and turns. The story follows Jane, a girl who has gone through the foster system and gets worse for wear. She becomes a dog walker in a small gated community and meets Eddie Rochester, a recent widow. They fall in love, but the police have yet to determine how Bea Rochester died, and the mystery begins to unfurl.

The story had some great twists, and although some may have been predictable, there was one that caught me by surprise. As I mentioned, I didn’t read “Jane Eyre,” and so it is hard to know if the plot twists are parallel to the source material, which would likely make it less enjoyable. The characters had a lot of baggage, and there’s some history that was never really unpacked. I thought Bea was a fascinating character, and I almost wonder how the story would have unfolded if it were from her perspective. I am interested in reading “Jane Eyre” to pick up on some similarities and differences, and therefore it is a bit challenging to make a comparison without knowing more.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy a thriller. I enjoyed it, and I think it is because I had no prior knowledge of the original story. I would recommend it mostly to people who haven’t read “Jane Eyre” because I think they would enjoy the novel’s plot twists and thriller aspects.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Rachel Hawkins for the advanced copy and the opportunity to review this novel.

This one is being called the best thriller of 2021 by quite a few people already and I would have to agree. All thrillers from now on is going to have really big shoes to fill.

This is said to be a Jane Eyre retelling which I can’t say for certain as I haven’t read it. But we are introduced to Jane. And Jane has quite the secret. Jane meets Eddie. Falls in love but then some mysterious info surfaces about his recently deceased wife Bea.

And that’s all I’m giving you. Read this. READ THIS. I did a readalong with the audiobook from @librofm and my ARC from @stmartinspress (thank you to both for my gifted copies!) and I couldn’t stop. This.one.is.amazing.

4 stars! I loved Jane Eyre so I was excited for this modern re-telling. Jane is a dog walker looking for a better life. Eddie is a recent widower, a very wealthy widower. Jane thinks she’s found her better life but everything in Thornfield Estates may not be what they seem.

This book has it all-sex, murder, deception, twists and more twists! It was a fun story that anyone will enjoy whether you’ve read Jane Eyre or not.

Thank you to #Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced e-Arc of #thewifeupstairs!

BOOK REVIEW: THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, by Rachel Hawkins

A twisty domestic thriller that is equal parts step-ford elitism, southern charm and scintillating secrets simmering just below the surface. Drawing from Jane Eyre, Hawkins added a much needed update to her Jane who is equally flawed but with grit and an edge that gives her substance and a character I can relate to.

In The Wife Upstairs, Jane settles in Birmingham, Alabama in an attempt to leave her past and recreate her narrative while battling past traumas and bleak finances. As a savvy and resourceful dog-walker to the rich, Jane creates a niche for herself blending. Enter, Eddie, recently widowed man and heir to his late wife’s southern living design empire. Both attempt to fit in and navigate the uppity gated community bursting at the seams with estate homes, luxe vehicles and wardrobes filled with bored step-ford wives waiting for things to happen. As if the tragic deaths of two of their own prized femmes, Bea and Blanche, aren’t enough!

While Jane settles into her newly fashioned life - OK, the life of Eddie's dead wife - she is haunted by her ghost. Despite the risk of popping her own bubble, she then sets out to unearth what really happened to a wife and her friend who just won’t stay 6 feet under.

Clever and sharp-witted writing is complimented with crafty character development including Jane and her calculating and wily sense of feminist intuitiveness. The Wife Upstairs has the drama of ‘real housewives’ highlighted with sickeningly sweet southern coo’s and a fast paced domestic thriller that readers will sink their teeth into. Full of “who done-it’s” and “while I never” readers can’t help to root for its opportunistic and flawed protagonist while also drooling over Eddie in the process. Almost made me forget all about those pesky dead wives!

Thank you Rachel Hawkins, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Well, this was quite an interesting read to say the least. Granted some of the "plot twists" were expected but the story also had some good ones that were not as easily predictable. I enjoyed the overall story and found the writing was interesting and kept me engaged until the end. I enjoyed watching to see how crazy these characters were actually going to get and I wasn't disappointed. The excessive personalities and actions of these characters really made this book for me. It was fun, entertaining and I definitely recommend.

I haven't read Jane Eyre, the novel this one is based off of, so I'm not sure how similar it is to the original.

This is my first book by Rachel Hawkins. It will not be my last.

This book had me going in circles. Who did I trust and who did I think was a possible cold blooded killer. So many ways it could have went. Could have happened. This is not an emotional story. Not really. It's a murder story. The murder of one and possibly two women. Best friends from an early age. Two couples in a very rich neighborhood. Two grieving men. Two dead women. One dog walker. Who did this horrible thing?

When Jane started working as a dog walker for the rich people in the Mountain Brook community she had no idea how much her life was going to change. In just a few weeks she was going to go from being a nobody. A dog walker. To meeting and possibly marrying a very wealthy man. A very wealthy good looking man at that. Jane has lots of skeletons in her past. She's been running from who she was. Now she hopes to be able to stop running. To have a home and place she can feel safe. What could possibly stop her now?

Eddie lost his wife, Bea. She drowned along with her best friend Blanche. Eddie seems to be handling things ok. Not to distraught over anything. It's only been a few months when he meets Jane and they begin a relationship. But Eddie has secrets. Eddie has lots of secrets that he does not want anyone to know about. Did he do something that night. The night when his wife and her best friend died? Or is he just an innocent man who honestly loved his wife? Or is he a manipulative man who was doing some shady things? Just who is Eddie?

Bea is Eddie's wife. Blanche's best friend for many years. Bea loved Eddie and her best friend. Blanche was having some problems with her own husband, Tripp. This story is about love. Loss. Murder. Survival. Relationships. Trust. Honesty. Lies. Deceit. And moving on. What really happened to Bea and Blanche that night? One a boat. In the lake. In the middle of a dark night? Was it an accident? Murder? Did Eddie do it? Did Tripp? Or is it all a lie?

I really liked Jane. She's a refreshing character. A survivor of sorts. She's had a tough life and found a way to make it. I didn't like Eddie, Bea, Blanche, or Tripp. I didn't like many of the women from the area. They were kind of nice to Jane but in the end they truly only saw her as the dog walker. That's my feelings anyway. This is an ultra rich area. In Birmingham, AL. I have been there many times. The area surrounding Mountain Brook and Smith Lake. I spent many summer at Smith Lake as a child. To think it's in a book now was pretty neat.

This is one very good book. I can see it happening. The things that happened. The people in this neighborhood being who they are. It's got enough twists to keep you guessing and in the end you will be surprised. In the end things may be just exactly what you thought. Or it may not be anything like you thought. What happened on that lake, in the middle of the night, when two women died?

Thank you #NetGalley, #RachelHawkins, #StMartin'sPress for this ARC. These are my own true thoughts about this book.

5/5 stars and a very high recommendation to all!

The Wife Upstairs is a well-crafted story that is full of characters you are trying to decipher. Jane, the central character, has a shady history that she is trying to avoid. She starts walking dogs for rich people in a private subdivision, where she covets their lives and imagines what life would be like if she was one of them. She gets her chance at the meeting of Eddie, a recent widower whose wife is presumed missing and drowned after an accident. Eddie and Jane start playing house with a speed that would be questionable without an understanding of Jane's past. In fact, a lot of Jane's actions work so perfectly because of her backstory.

There are a lot of clever observations on the class differences between Jane and these rich people, and Jane's comments on her the Thornfield Estate houses full of expensive things was fun to read. I could immediately see the particular southern style of decorating in just a few carefully-selected words. Eddie's late wife Bea became a millionaire after creating a company that will remind you of a lot of those Southern Female Centered brands and make you smile without making fun of them. I like trying to figure out the twists, but I really like when I do not figure them out, and The Wife Upstairs packed some great surprises.

This book is is a modern retelling a classic that I will not name because spoilers, but I think setting this familiar Gothic tale in a domestic story of suspense was a great choice. I would love to read more retellings like this, where even though I knew the basis story, the twist was still seriously surprising!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

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

One word....Wow!!! This book has it all. Twists. Turn. Jaw dropping moments. I’ve seen reviews compare this to Jane Eyre. And as someone who unfortunately has never read that book, I didn’t know what to expect. But all I know is that this is definitely now in the top books that I’ve read! Definitely need to read more from this author!

Jane walks dogs in the classy Thornfield Estates area. She hates the rich, entitled women she works for, but this is the only way for her to make some money. One rainy morning, she steps into the street to admire a house as a car shoots from the driveway, hitting a light pole, to miss hitting her. The driver, Eddie Rochester, stops to check on her and invites her in for a cup of coffee.

Jane is impressed by the size of the house but the decor is not to her liking. Eddie explains that his wife, Bea, was recently lost when she and her best friend, Blanche, went out in the boat one day. Neither woman was found and it is assumed they drowned. Bea was quite wealthy and owned a company called Southern Manors.

When Eddie asks Jane out to dinner, she is delighted to accept. Before long, she ends up moving in with him. The gossipy women in the neighborhood aren’t impressed by Jane joining their group, however Jane does all she can to fit in. Will they accept her as they also accept the deaths of Bea and Blanche?

What a ride! I wasn’t impressed by Jane and felt that her deceit would catch up to her. I had to laugh at her too because she has some sticky fingers. Little did I know that I had seen nothing compared to the real deceit going on in this book. It is filled with all kinds of things going on that left me not only shocked but laughing at the same time. This is a keeper.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4.5 Nothing As It Seems Stars
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free-A Quick Review
From the very start, I was caught up in the story, the characters, and the intrigue. The blurb lets you know from the first tease what to expect and it delivers every step of the way.

Even if you are well versed in the classics, reading this gives you much to enjoy with a fresh take on things. I certainly did.

I really enjoyed this seductive and twisty domestic thriller. The three point-of-view characters Jane, Eddie, and Bea each add a new interesting layer to the story which remains fast-paced the whole way through. It was very hard to put down! I think the thing that most pleasantly surprised me is just how clever Jane is. Several thrillers I've read in the past couple of years rely on the main character being bland and naive for the story to work but Jane is more than anyone bargained for and I loved it. If you're a thriller fan, don't miss out on this one!

Note: I received a free electronic edition of this novel via Netgalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher St. Martin's Press, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

I found “The Wife Upstairs” to be a fast, page turner to read. It was basically a retelling of the gothic tale “Jane Eyre” but with a contemporary setting of the Deep South. I really wanted to love this book but in the end it fell flat for me. I just didn’t like any of the characters. They all had hard luck backgrounds so you could understand their connieving ways but I didn’t really care how things turned out for any of them.

I received a free advance digital review copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins is an fast-paced mystery/thriller that is absorbing on its own and even more enjoyable thanks to the many nods to Charlotte Bronte's classic Jane Eyre sprinkled throughout. The book absolutely stands alone so you don't need to be familiar with Jane Eyre to be caught up in the upper-middle class suburban Birmingham neighborhood where personalities and circumstances are not always what they seem to be. Still, my reading experience was enhanced by spotting the many references to Bronte's characters, setting, language, structure, and plot points that Hawkins incorporates. It also was interesting to see where Hawkins chose to deviate from Bronte and how she takes the story in new directions. Unlike Bronte's original, Hawkins provides scant information about Jane's childhood in foster care, and I would have liked to have learned more about the backstory of Hawkins' Helen Burns character.

In Hawkins' retelling, Jane is a 20-something dog walker in an affluent neighborhood, trying to make ends meet and escape her past, when she encounters the mysterious Eddie who lives in the largest home in Thornfield Estates and whose wife, Bea (short for Bertha), and her best friend Blanche recently have gone missing and are presumed dead after a boating accident. The story is full of twists and turns, unlikeable characters, and an unreliable narrator. In addition to the questions surrounding Bea's disappearance, many of the characters have mysterious pasts, contributing to the suspense that permeates the novel.

A lot of events are packed into the ending, which initially struck me as unsatisfying, but after reflecting on the story, the ambiguity seems fitting for the themes that Hawkins explores. These include issues of identity, love, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, and the story challenges the reader to consider the ramifications of the choices we make about how to present ourselves to others. The epigraph from Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (a prequel to Jane Eyre which tells the life of Mrs. Rochester, and which I now want to read, both for its own story and to see which elements Hawkins may have incorporated) says "There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about" and Hawkins' story shows that this sentiment can be equally applicable to life.

Jane is a broke dog walker working in Birmingham, Alabama’s wealthy gated community Thornfield Estates. No one notices Jane. They don’t notice as she lifts jewelry from their homes. And they certainly don’t care enough to ask if Jane is actually her name. But Jane’s luck changes considerably when she meets recently widowed Eddie Rochester. Eddie’s wife Bea tragically drowned in a boat accident. Jane quickly falls for Eddie and all he has to offer her. But Eddie is hiding a secret of his own.

The Wife Upstairs is perfectly gothic and atmospheric. Overall it made me feel so anxious and filled me with an overall sense of dread. I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire time I was reading. The story is told in the first person alternating between Jane and Bea. Jane drove me crazy. She constantly seemed to work against her best interests and she made terrible choices. Half the time I just wanted to scream at her to stop being so darn curious and run away! Bea, I could not get a read on. Although the story is based on Jane Eyre, overall it gave me such Rebecca vibes. If Bea was anyone in that story, she would be Rebecca.

Although the story perfectly captured the gothic vibes and truly captivated me, overall I felt it did not live up to the hype. It was a somewhat ridiculous story and I thought the ending was anything but satisfying. If you’re in the mood for an atmospheric page-turner, this is for you. But if you want an overall satisfying thriller, keep looking.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

Domestic drama that invokes the Gothic classic, "Jane Eyre" but set in modern day Birmingham, Alabama. This novel is full of totally unlikable characters and is fast-paced and hard to put down even as you know what is likely to happen with all the hints and similarities.

Jane Bell, a young woman with a secret past, now working as a dog walker in a fancy place. She wants to be part of the world in Thornfield Estates and finds her dream in Eddie Rochester. Eddie is a new widower whose wife is missing along with her best friend -- both presumed dead. He's rich on his dead wife's money and finds Jane easy to fall for and he overwhelms her with a whirlwind romance. But wait! As Jane tries to fit into the new neighborhood and cultivate all the southern charm necessary to succeed in those social circles, there are some nagging inconsistencies and many questions about what really happened to Bea and Blanche.

I was enjoying all this well enough but started worrying way too soon about what was going to happen at the climax and conclusion. I knew I would be disappointed and I totally felt cheated when I got there. I think that the resolution ruined it for me. I can't say more due to NO SPOILERS. I don't feel that anyone got what he/she deserved.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-book ARC to read and review.