This review could start one of two ways. I could give you the premise and my impressions or I can do what I am doing now. I will tell you that while reading this book, I could not help but think of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier or The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen - both of which I thought were excellent books.

Now, what was it about The Wife Upstairs that made me ponder over those other titles? Well, Jane is a dog-walker in a gated community. The community is rather elite and the women are quite snobbish. Jane definitely does not fit in, but meeting Eddie Rochester is about to change her life. She just might be able to become one of them.

Eddie has a story that he would not rather have to tell. His wife and her best friend have disappeared and is is assumed both women drowned. What is more is that a shroud of guilt is hanging over Eddie's neck. Nonetheless, Eddie and Jane hit it off and the two become a couple. However, Jane is constantly reminded of Eddie's previous wife Bea. She was an icon of sorts. For one thing, Jane often feels that the women in the community are constantly comparing her to Bea. Then there is Eddie. Something is not quite right, especially when she is fighting for his heart, knowing how much he loved and misses Bea every single day.

So Jane changes her appearance, her dialogue and inserts herself into every aspect of Eddie's life and the community. Will it be enough? Meanwhile, there is something eerie going on. Chilling actually, and that is the point when the previously mentioned titles came to my mind.

However, this book has its own edge, its own level of creepiness, deceit and mystery. As a matter of fact, the blurb alludes to a love triangle. Why is that? Well, you would have to read this chilling book by Rachel Hawkins so that you can get that answer. I would have loved to give this book five stars, but the conclusion threw me. Even so, this was a twisty read, filled with a variety of characters, many rather unlikable at best. The plot and its twists were rather captivating and definitely caught me by surprise.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

The narrator is always a big deal for me. I was able to listen to the narrator in this one. Still unsure about the ending & it makes the rest of the book meh to me. I like something a little more believable. Kept me guessing though!

I have never read the book Jane Eyre, and I don’t know the storyline to it, so I went into this book blind. My thoughts and opinions are on this book only.

I really enjoyed this book! Right from the start of the book I was hooked, and I did not want to stop reading it! I ended up listening to this book on audio and really enjoyed it that way. I really enjoyed the plot to this story, and I thought the writing was great. I loved the southern twist to this book, I thought it was a good touch. If you’re looking for a drama book with domestic thriller undertones, I recommend checking this book out!

Jane is starting all over again. Raised in the foster system, she was set loose on the world at eighteen with no help. Since then she has drifted, working minimum wage jobs and moving from place to place. This place is Birmingham, Alabama, and Jane is working as a dogwalker to rich people's dogs. The dogs are fine but Jane is not as impressed with the people. The women are smug and condescending to her and the men watch her with lustful eyes. She is starting to think about moving on again when she meets Eddie.

Eddie and Trip are the ones the women love to gossip about. Their wives were lost a year ago, presumed dead. Eddie was married to Bea, the woman who created a multimillion dollar company selling style to Southern women and those who aspired to the Southern life. Trip was married to her best friend, the two women having been friends since their school days. One weekend the women went to Bea's lake house and out on the boat at night. Something happened and they were never seen again.

Eddie Rochester is gorgeous, rich and charming, the kind of man who never notices plain Jane. But Eddie does notice her and before she knows it, is pursuing her. Soon Jane has moved in and the women who snubbed her now cluster around her. All is wonderful except for the questions Jane can't help but wonder about. What really happened that night? Were Eddie and Bea's marriage the fairy tale everyone thinks? And what is that noise she keeps hearing?

I listened to this novel. There were three narrators, one for Jane, one for Bea and one for Eddie. Each of them added depth and interest to the story although I liked the Jane narrator the best and she was the one featured the most.

This is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre and those who have read it will pick up lots of references to that wonderful novel. But those who have never read it will enjoy this title as a modern day thriller with lots of twists and turns that redefine the story from page to page. No one is exactly as they appear and some are very far from their public persona. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

Jane is a dog walker in the gated community Thornfield Estates. The residents are so rich, that no one notices if she steals a piece of jewelry or knickknacks when picking up the dogs. Everything changes when Jane meets the recently widowed Eddie Rochester. His wife and her best friend went missing in a boating accident, and their bodies were never found. Since Eddie is a rich, handsome man, Jane sees him as her ticket out of her thieving lifestyle. As Jane and Eddie fall for each other, the mystery around his missing wife begins to resurface. Jane soon realizes nothing in Thornfield Estates is what it seems.

As soon as I saw the title of this book, I knew it was going to be about Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is one of my favourite classic novels. Some knowledge of that book would be helpful when reading this one, to notice all of the references. However, it could also be read as a thriller on its own without reading Jane Eyre. Since I knew Jane Eyre, I had predicted what was going to happen at the end, but there was a twist I didn’t see coming.

This audiobook was great. It had three different narrators for the three different characters that narrated the novel. It made it easy to tell the characters apart since they had different voices. I sometimes find that I lose interest in an audiobook while listening to it and I get distracted doing something else. This one held my interest the whole time, and I never got distracted while listening to it.

This is such a great thriller!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this book. This is the first author I have ever listened to. It was great I truly enjoyed this book. Alot of twists and turns. Really enjoyed it

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Jane Eyre meets Gone Girl!

This book hooked from the first. I don't read a lot of suspense/thriller/mystery books anymore but I read this in a day. Jane's character really appealed to me and I really liked Bea's sporadic chapters, discovering the parallels between the two women. Interestingly, not a single character in the book is likable which is not something that would appeal to me usually but I ate it up. I expected Jane's past to be the main twist in the book but I definitely missed the mark there.

You don't have to know anything about Jane Eyre to appreciate this story. The nods to Jane Eyre tickled my fancy but aren't integral to the story.

The narrators were perfect!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for the audio ARC!

Jane moves to Birmingham, Alabama to start her life over. She is a dog walker is an upscale neighborhood. She becomes involved with a newly widowed resident, Eddie. At first glance, he might seem like her prince charming, but Jane and Eddie both have a past that they don't want each other to know about. As their stories unfold, the mystery intensifies. It was an enjoyable novel with an unexpected ending.

I received a copy of this Audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This was a great audio book/book. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. LOTS of twists and turns through out. I highly recommend either reading or listening to this book! So good!

4,5 stars! Jane is an orphan who works as a dog walker in a rich neighborhood. Eddie Rochester is a millionaire who recently became a widower, and who meets Jane after almost running her over with her car. From that moment on, everything is *almost* like a fairy tale. But there are some dark secrets that threaten their happily ever after.

The Wife Upstairs is a retelling of Jane Eyre, which is one of my all time favorite classics. I wasn't sure how the whole idea of a "wife upstairs" could work in modern times, but it really, really worked! Filled with twists and turns, I enjoyed this thriller from the very beginning until the last page. I loved how different Jane is as a character from the original book, because it added an extra element of suspense to the story.

The narrators were excellent, it was truly a delight listening to their voices. I had only read one other book by this author, but it was a young adult story, so this felt like a completely different hand. I loved how she set the plot so I will absolutely read more of her books!

This was a little of a crazy train ride. I mean really?! But I could not put this one down. The appeal was real. Definitely a page turning ride.

The audiobook was well produced and well narrated. I loved where the story started and was excited for a Jane Eyre Thriller retelling. But it fell flat for me. It started off really interesting and fast-paced but the more I got into the book the more unbelievable it became. I was excited to where I thought the story was going to go but it was nothing like what I wanted and just felt like a rehash of every other Jane Eyre retelling. The writing was great and I would read more from this author.

Jane Bell may not have had the best of intentions, but she sure packed a whallop. New to the area and needing cash, she decides to become a dog walker in a tony neighborhood. It is there that she meets the man, a widower. He is handsome, aloof, mysterious and she sets her sights on improving her life by making a life with him. Little does she know that while she is stalking a husband, she is becoming prey herself. I actually listened to the audio version of this book - and Thank You to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this compelling tale. I had forgotten how much fun it is to be read to that I started looking for opportunities to get in the car and go for a drive. The audio was extremely well done and the voice of the narrator(s) was perfect in setting up this Southern mystery. Hawkins truly set up a great thriller with edge of your seat moments and an end I didn't expect at all.

"The Wife Upstairs," by Rachel Hawkins, really did not work for me for so many reasons, but mostly because I am so clearly not the right audience for it. By positioning this book as a modern take on "Jane Eyre," the author and her publisher set up literary expectations that "The Wife Upstairs" could not come even close to meeting. Perhaps without this flimsy classic novel framework (which really amounted to no more than the same character and place names, the plot point of a wife hidden away upstairs, and a truly egregious spin on "Jane Eyre"'s most famous line that was really the last straw for me), I might not have been quite so offended that what passed for character development was merely a listing of material possessions and descriptions of clothing and houses, or that the relationship between Jane and Eddie was completely unbelievable. It didn't help matters that I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, as I found the narrator's accent for the Alabama characters annoying and off-putting. I've seen that plenty of readers loved this book, and I hate giving it a bad review, but I think that readers who are expecting anything even approaching Jean Rhys' "Jane Eyre"-adjacent masterpiece "Wide Sargasso Sea" should give this one a miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in return for my honest review.

Wanted to love this one but it fell a bit flat for me. Narration and pacing was great but I read a lot of thrillers so could see this one coming from a mile away. A good basic thriller, but not my favorite. I haven't read Jane Eyre but this has me intrigued to do so and compare, so that's a plus!

RATING 3.5*
This book is advertised as a twist on the original Jane Eyre. Not being a fan of the original I will not hold that against an updated telling told from two points of view in a story where all the characters are unlikeable.

There are multiple cons in the story. Starting with the competitively wealthy, gossipy neighborhood women (loved the snark!), the smooth talking, good-looking Eddie from a questionable background that can also be an A, Eddie’s first wife Bea, who came from nothing and ended up a successful businesswoman, sort of besting her friend and copying her style, to “Jane” the dogwalker that ends up engaged to Eddie.

Though the story was enjoyable and predictable, there were parts that were too much, and I was unable to suspend belief to just enjoy the story, i.e., the way Jane meets Eddie by almost getting run over by his car and Bea being locked upstairs w/visits from Eddie to bring food while Jane is living downstairs.

Excellent Narration by Emily Shaffer; Kirby Heyborne; Lauren Fortgang.

Thank you #NetGalley and A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press for sharing this ARC of Rachel Hawkins’s The Wife Upstairs in exchange for an honest review.

What a great on the edge of your seat story from debut author Rachel Hawkins. Enjoyable writing style and interesting characters kept me turning pages as quick as possible. I have heard that the story is contrived from Jane Erye, but I have never read that book so those similarities are lost on me. A well-written first novel.

I enjoyed this story. It was well-written and had great characters. It alternates between the perspective of the three main characters and goes back and forth between time periods. The overall plot was a little disappointing, especially because it was supposed to be a retelling of Jane Eyre. Other than the name of the characters and the neighborhood I didn't see any resemblance to the original story. In fact, if I hadn't known it was a retelling I wouldn't have picked up on it. I liked the narrators that read for the audiobook, but it was hard for me to listen to because of all the foul language in it. I would recommend this audiobook for readers that enjoy a great Thriller!
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for an advanced copy of the audiobook!

This was a good, light thriller. The story had lots of twists and turns and even though I thought I had figured it all it there was still some elements of surprise. I have never read the classic novel Jane Eyre but this is apparently a loose retelling of the story.