I had heard so many wonderful things about The Wife Upstairs and was extremely excited to receive an audiobook copy.

I loved the twists and turns. The characters were so well thought out and the plot maintained its gripping pace from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed this one!

This was an interesting mystery, thriller with shades of jane Eyre. Jane has left behind a secret in Arizona and is now living in Alabama. The job she has taken is not her dream position, but the only thing she can find at the moment. She is walking dogs for the wealthy inhabitants of Thornfield Estates. She meets up with a handsome, widower (at least that is what is assumed as the body of his wife has not yet been recovered after an incident on their boat). They become friendly and one thing leads to another, finding her engaged to Eddie Rochester. She works hard to fit in with the society wives and once she has a ring on her finger, she thinks she might have made it. But, Jane can’t get over the vibe in Eddie’s house. She is hearing noises and Bea’s presence is seen everywhere in the way she decorated the house. She created and launched a hugely successful business which is now worth millions, yet it seems like she might have stolen some of her ideas from her old friend and neighbour. Then there is the issue of being blackmailed by her previous roommate/landlord. There are a lot of secrets, will we ever learn the truth?

This was an enjoyable thriller that I read and listened to in one day. The writing had a great flow that kept me interested. I wanted to find out what was happening next and which secrets would be revealed. This was an interesting story, different from other thrillers I read. When I mentioned Jane Eyre at the beginning, I will say that that comparison is a bit misleading and was a stretch for the most part. There was a great build up to the story, but once I hit the middle of the story, it raced to its conclusion. There were several twists along the way and the final reveal was a shocker. I did think the end was a bit too quick to wrap up and left me hanging somewhat, but overall, I was quite happy with this story. Remember though, this is fiction, so there will be spots where you will need to suspend belief somewhat. I did a read/listen with this one and I enjoyed both modes of this story. The narrators, Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang gave engaging performances that added to my enjoyment of this story. I always enjoy audiobooks that have more than one narrator as I can identify with the various POVs. Well done. I definitely recommend this one.

So disappointed in this one. I love Jane Eyre, and was so excited for a modern, thriller take, but this just disgraced the original tale, especially the use of "Reader, I..." Not clever, just gross. The characters are unlikable (is this a thriller trope? Can we get rid of it?), the reveals superficial, and the plot sloppy and unsatisfying. I got it as my BOTM and received a complimentary audio, but there was sooo much swearing that I couldn't stick to the audio and read most of it. Do not recommend.

<i>Review copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review<i>

A Dogwalker with a secret past finds love with a recent windower. Then we learn his wife may not be dead.

A similar plot to other popular thrillers but I really enjoyed the writing and pace of this book. The narration was great too. Read it in a couple quick days and look forward to more books by this author.

Really liked this one! I had seen too many spoilers though and figured out what was going on before the reveal.

The narrator of the audiobook was great. It was an interesting story and the twist was done well. I’d definitely recommend this book.

Review: 4/5. I have been so excited to read this after seeing numerous reviews and getting this from BOTM and audio from @netgalley. I’ve never read Jane Eyre so I did go into this blindly and I can’t say I’m disappointed at all. I will admit I was surprised by pieces of the book and assumed correctly in others. This was a suspenseful thriller and definitely had me staying up late to read or listening any chance I had. The characters were written so well and the style of going between characters was perfect for this book. I will be recommending this one to friends!

Audiobook Review: The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, Author; Narration by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne and Lauren Fortgang
(A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press published on January 5, 2021)

4.25 Stars.

Audiobook narration, flow and production: Grade B+. Quite an effective team effort in the portrayal of contrasts and incongruence - the inner thoughts (foul-mouthed, untrustworthy, utterly unlikeable trailer trash) against the external social presentation (gracious, unassuming, smart, classy) of the protagonist.

(I noted some residual audio interference in the ARC.)

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"Southern Manors, a lifestyle brand". A dog-walker, a West Coast recent transplant to the deep-south, meets a dashing young man in an Alabama posh, gated community. The young man, himself a transplant from Maine, happens to be a widower, loaded, admired in social circles.. His wife, Bea, a successful lifestyle influencer and businesswoman, was lost along with her best friend, Blanche, to a recent boating tragedy, never to be found, presumably trapped deep among dead tree branches in a nearby lake, a once-lush forest deliberately inundated.

Inevitably, they fall in love - she of dark secrets, more of a desperate urgency to pull herself out of destitution rather than affection; he with his own motivations, equally saddled with demons in the closet.

Then she meets "Bertha's" friends, - and perceives noises in the manor where she lives with the man, now her fiancé.

And what Jane discovers, in a wicked 180 degree twist by the author, is far from what, to that point, the reader shall have been all geared up to conclude.

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In a cynically vague adaptation of a Charlotte Brontë 1847 classic, YA and romance author Rachel Hawkins pens a gem of a contemporary adult fiction thriller as she brings to life modern versions of Brontë's Jane, Rochester, Blanche and Bertha, and the Thornfield estates, with such an explosive (literally) and inconclusive finale, perhaps leaving room for a sequel.

A relatively short, gripping and thoroughly enjoyable read!

Review based on an Audiobook ARC from Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book, but the mystery aspect did fall short for me. The premise is a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" meets a man that is wealthy and wants to fit into this world. His previous wife was considered dead after she disappeared for a long time after a tragic accident.
The mystery aspect is that the wife's disappearance comes back to haunt the boyfriend and he starts to act odd and distracted.
I did enjoy the characters and the premise of the story. Seeing the traditional, stereotypical rich lifestyle is always entertaining.
I honestly maybe would have loved the backstory more than the actual story. The best friends situation was so intriguing for me.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC. This was my 1st complete audiobook I’ve gotten through. It usually doesn’t hold my attention but this one did. I liked the narrators and the story full of twists.
Jane, who is the neighborhood dog walker, ends up falling for the guy in the neighborhood whose wife and wife’s best friend just recently died....just when you think you have it figured out, the story completely changes direction.

The beginning of the story started out so strong, I was hooked, as Hawkins builds up our protagonist and introduces many of the key characters. What starts out seeming like it could be just your everyday woman dealing with the Stepford Wives around her quickly grabs your interest with Jane’s quick wit & snarky inner monologue & banter with the other characters she comes across. Her sections of the book were my favorite by far.

This made me realized I’m not sure if I’d ever READ Jane Eyre before, but with this not being the first retelling of this story in 2020 one of my goals for 2021 will be to read the classic story ASAP.

All the characters, secrets, and lies came together in this unstoppable audiobook - I devoured it! Twisty psychological thrillers with incredible surprises, in the end, tend to be my go-to for audiobooks! The narrator was perfect for Jane's character, she made the story for me with her tone & fit this snarky writing style SO good!

A HUGE thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the chance to read this title!

The Wife Upstairs : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thank you @netgalley for the ALC of this book.
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This story is one that you won’t be able to put down, it captivating and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what’s gonna happen next .
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I’m this story we meet Jane who’s running from her past, seeking a new life of grander . She found the perfect man , but she soon realize that the he’s may not be who he say he is and someone from his past is looking to disrupt her new life .
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The author does a great job with character development , I had a pretty good idea of who each character was . The writing flowed And the story was great even if the characters are not that lovable .
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If you love The last Mrs Parrish and Gone girl then you will definitively enjoy this book. I wasn’t too fond of the ending, but 🤷🏾‍♀️

Jane serendipitously meets Eddie, a recent widower, while working as a dog walker in the elegant neighborhood of Thornfield Estates. For Jane, this lavish life is enticing compared to the mediocrity she is trying to leave behind. Life with Eddie seems too good to be true and the mysteries that surround the disappearance of his wife seem to simmer right around their budding relationship. As things move quickly with Eddie, Jane discovers suspicious details about what really happened to his wife and the events leading to her disappearance.

The Wife Upstairs takes a sinister spin off of the classic tale, and I was easily engrossed into the story. I thought the novel was well paced, even to the point where I found myself questioning how fast Jane was able to embed herself into Eddie’s life. As their lives became more entwined, I found my expectations clashing with the events. Regardless, the twists near the end had me on the edge of my seat!

I had the opportunity to listen to the audio version of The Wife Upstairs, and I thoroughly enjoyed the listening experiences. The narrators’ hints of accent were perfect for this southern set novel, giving flair to the character’s various personalities while also maintaining an easy to comprehend pace. I would definitely recommend the audio version of this novel!

The Wife Upstairs is a contemporary Southern gothic twist on Jane Eyre, about a dog walker named Jane who grew up in foster care. Jane meets a rich, lonely widower named Eddie Rochester when he almost hits her with his luxury car. He then hires her to walk his dog Adele, and a whirlwind romance quickly follows. But secrets in both of their pasts soon complicate things, and as they are revealed the story takes many dark turns.

The story is told from 3 points of view: Jane, Eddie and his missing, presumed dead wife Bea through her diary entries. The audiobook narrated by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang really helped give each character their own voice and personality. I breezed through the story in 1 day because I couldn't put it down! I loved the witty social commentary and creative throwbacks to Jane Eyre and the fast moving story line that I never could have predicted. The ending was shocking and mysterious, and every bit as exciting as the rest of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. Southern styled retelling of Jane Eyre. Lots of fun and some nice twists.

I was very excited to get an ARC of this book. It was more mild than I anticipated based on the other reviews but I really enjoyed it. It was an easy read that kept you wanting more. The twists and unanswered questions were great! Very well written and not at all predictable.

This was wonderfully narrated and such a journey! The Wife Upstairs makes you not trust any character and question everything! This audiobook was a wonderful accompaniment to the ARC I won from a sweepstakes. Well done!!

Jane is not really satisfied with her life as a dog walker for the residents of the exclusive suburban Birmingham community known as Thornfield Estates, but she somehow manages to tolerate her lot in life pilfering items from her rich clients until she can figure out what she wants to do with her life next. That is until she meets Eddie the sexy and recently widowed resident who lost his wife Bea in a tragic yet unsolved accident in which she is presumed dead along with her dear friend Blanche. Soon Jane goes from dog walker to vying for a spot as the new Queen Bea in her gated community. But the past soon rears its ugly head once Blanche's body is found and Jane is left wondering if Eddie is really her prince charming and if he had a hand in Bea and Blanche bizarre disappearance. If this book sounds intriguing to you, the story will be enhanced by the narration. Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, Lauren Fortgang, were excellent narrators, I was wondering why there were three but each character needed a distinct voice because their stories were so different and the accents needed to be authentic which played a crucial role in my enjoyment of the book.
I really enjoyed The Wife Upstairs. The book is told from three perspectives Jane, her fiance Eddie and his presumed dead wife Bea through a diary in the style of Southern Gothic Literature of which I am a huge fan. The novel hit my favorite tropes of Southern Goth Lit which is to shine a spotlight on the seedy parts of society which on the surface seems ideal. Hawkins accomplishes this by taking the reader into the unsavory inner thoughts of each of her characters using wit and sardonic humor to disguise her social commentary on issues such as classism. For example, at times I could not really tell if Jane really loves Eddie or if she just loves making those suburban Birmingham Bitches in her neighborhood mad at her come up. It seemed as if her feelings are equally yoked. In sum, I found The Wife Upstairs to be filled with messy characters and delectable secrets just how I enjoy me thrillers.

I thought the narrators did a good job with the book, but The Wife Upstairs seemed a little silly and generic for me. I enjoy a good thriller and hadn’t read Jane Eyre since high school, but felt this book spent a lot of time dropping names of luxury brands and fed into a stereotype of what a wealthy Southern woman is like. The ending was quick and exciting, but it also left me feeling that there were no good guys in this story, only an abundance of shallow and unlikeable characters. More drama than thriller, in my opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook in exchange for my review.

This was an interesting twist on the Jane Eyre storyline! I really liked that this was a contemporary timeline, and I enjoyed the addition of the rich neighborhood, not a secluded mansion.

Jane is the dog-walker for a rich neighborhood. This area is full of women with nothing better to do than sit around and gossip about everyone else. When Jane bumps into Eddie, the two hit it off, and Jane becomes a kept woman, trying to fit in with these suburban housewives. As the mysterious accident of Eddie’s previous wife and friend turns into a murder, Jane begins to suspect that she is in more danger than she can handle.

I liked Jane’s personality in this one. She’s sneaky and has a ton of secrets she’s trying to balance. I loved the way she handles situations, and I found her to be conniving and quite observant. Everything about her worked really well in this story!

The plot was a solid thriller storyline. It was interesting and had some twists and turns that kept me intrigued. I found it to be somewhat predictable, but I still enjoyed it!

I listened to the audio version of this book, and I thought it was really well-done. There are multiple narrators, which created a great story! The narrator for Jane did an excellent job. She had a great cadence and her inflection and emotion while reading was perfect.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It was a fun twist on a classic story, and I didn’t want to put it down!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this mystery/domestic thriller!

I wish promos focused less on the retelling aspect as I haven’t read Jane Eyre and that’s actually what kept me from reading it sooner. I had the impression I needed to have knowledge of that book to enjoy this one, which was so not the case!

This book took me on a wild ride complete with twists and turns! It was a mix of suspense, mystery, thriller and overall shocking!

It is perfect if readers enjoyed Behind Closed Doors or The Last Mrs. Parrish.!

I do wish the ending was a bit more ironed out, I had to rewind a few times because things moved too quickly and it felt rushed to the point where the reader was missing parts.

It was a fantastic fast paced thriller that has you questioning everything!

** The audio quality on Netgalley is DEPLORABLE. I have submitted multiple emails sharing how bad the quality is and there has not been a solution. I am glad I received the opportunity to read this ARC from another venue.

The audiobook narrator was fantastic.

The audiobook on netgalley receives 0 stars. The book itself receives 4 stars!