I received an ARC audiobook from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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I enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to at the beginning. Jane is a unlikeable yet very likeable character. Her secret was not as crazy as I thought it was going to be. There were several twists in this story. Very Gone Girl-esc but not SOOO twisted. Maybe it is because Rachel Hawkins has done young adult mostly and I liked her books in the past but I enjoyed this. It was easy to listen to. In fact I binged half of it today to finish it when I had originally planned on finishing it tomorrow. The narrators were good. I enjoyed that there were different voices so I could tell who was the point of view at the time. Only downside to the audiobook side is I couldn't reference the dates in the two main points of view. Man remind me not to meet a Bea in my life.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins was a modern day throw back on the classic story of Jane Eyre but so much better. I listened to the audiobook that was narrated by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne and Lauren Fortgang. This was the first book that I have read by Rachel Hawkins. I was impressed with the way Rachel Hawkins managed to keep the plot suspenseful and was able to add twists at all the right moments. I can’t wait to read more books by her. The characters in The Wife Upstairs were well developed but not particularly endearing. They were perfect for this book, though. I was drawn into this mystery thriller right from the beginning and had trouble turning the audiobook off. It was fast paced and held my attention from beginning to end. I had been unable to predict the ending. I did not see it coming and it was so good.

Jane was a twenty-three year old woman who had spent most of her childhood in the foster care system. Those experiences had helped her become good at reading situations and judging people. Jane was wise beyond her years but not in a good place financially. She had recently arrived in Birmingham, Alabama from Arizona. Jane carried a secret around with her. She avoided friendships and personal involvement as a result. When she arrived in Alabama Jane found a job as a dog walker in a wealthy neighborhood. Thornfield Estates was an affluent gated community with lots of identical looking McMansions. Soon she built up a pretty good business. It wasn’t that these housewives couldn’t walk their own dogs it was just that they could afford to have a dog walker. Over the years, Jane had gotten good at spying things of value that would not be missed. Jane used those skills to take things from the homes of her dog walking clients. These small trinkets, that Jane was able to slip out of the houses of her unsuspecting clients, supplemented her income. One rainy day, Jane was out walking one of her client’s dogs when she nearly collided with a very handsome man pulling out of his driveway. This was how Jane met the notoriously handsome Eddie Rochester. Jane was smitten as soon as she glanced into his green eyes and was met by his charismatic smile. Over time, Jane and Eddie became involved with each other and Jane moved into his beautiful home. They eventually became engaged. Eddie held secrets close to him, too. What really happened to his wife and her best friend? Only Eddie knew for sure but he kept that secret hidden from all.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins was truly a suspenseful mystery thriller. I was so glad to have had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook published by Macmillan Audio through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I loved that it was inspired by Jane Eyre, but not at all Jane Eyre. The pacing was a little off for me and at time Jane's action didn't match up with her normal character in this book. I would love to read more in the future by this author.

I liked this modern, Southern iteration of Jane Eyre, how the main female character wasn't as innocent as the original character she was based upon was, and especially the changes, updates, and twists this author implemented, creating a familiar yet interesting interpretation of the classic Gothic novel.

I requested this audio on netgalley with curiosity after seeing it as BOTM and also seeing it all over instagram from other fellow readers. This was my second audiobook and it was SO GOOD! I was very impressed with this audio and felt like I could follow along very easily. The characters were perfectly developed and the plot was hooking. I felt myself thinking about this audio book when I was not even listening haha. I feel bad for the main character Jane and everything she was put through. There was so much backstory with Eddy and B throughout the story. In the end it all came together and I was impressed because there were so many plot twists after plots twists. I would definitely recommend this audiobook to anyone who wants a good thriller!! Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for letting me have the chance to listen and review this audiobook!

Here’s something you should know about The Wife Upstairs and then quickly forget. It’s a modern twist on Jane Eyre.

Why forget it? Because these are not Bronte’s characters, and this is not her story. Consider her classic the spark that lights the fuse of this 2021 thriller, and then just sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

The Wife Upstairs is the exact opposite of whatever a slow-burn novel is. The action never drags and almost moves so quickly that it flies fairly close to insta-love territory. Our main character Jane (natch) is a dog walker in a gated Alabama McMansion community. Her means and looks are simple, though she aspires to live a life of more glitz, glamour, and gold. Fortunately she meets Eddie Rochester (wink) and the sparks fly although he recently lost his rich entrepreneurial wife to mysterious circumstances.

Despite the publisher’s description, I found the atmosphere to be more Bravo TV than gothic. No complaints there, just a management of expectations. The audiobook has a multiple narrator format, which I always enjoy. If I have one quibble, it would be that the female voices are fairly similar and indistinct from one another. With a setting in Alabama, you’d expect at least one of them to have a drippy southern drawl, but there really isn’t a twang to be heard.

While it seems I’m slightly less enthusiastic than some other early readers, I’d still recommend this book to suspense/thriller fans. 3.5 stars rounded up for the pacing and surprises.

I purchase this book as my December Book of the Month selection (as an early release pick) but I also was given the audiobook arc from Netgalley. Thank you so much for the opportunity to review the multi-narrator audiobook. It was a lot of fun!

The fact that this was a Jane Eyre inspired story really intrigued me! I could not wait to dive in and I read the physical book while listening to the audio for a very well rounded and entertaining time! I do recommend this one, as of ALL the reimagining or inspired stories, this is definitely a fun one!

If you haven’t read Jane Eyre I would definitely encourage you to give this a go! You do not need prior knowledge or even general understanding of it. You don’t need to like one to like the other and I would argue that you may even like it more going in with a fresh perspective, as it is a mystery novel.

The Pros:
-It was different enough from the original classic novel to keep me intrigued by the mystery.
-It was dramatic! A lot is happening. There are a ton of secrets and gossip in this rich little neighborhood.
-FULL of unlikeable characters from the oblivious and self important rich people, to the bitter “have-nots” and the exploitive outliers. I love reading a book about people like that! At times our main character Jane is so snarky and judge mental, other times extremely hypocritical and other times you feel for her because she has had a rough time of it... but you still kind of want to shake her, ya know.
-The author paid homage to a few iconic lines and I did find that to be cute and clever.

If there is one thing I can implore you to do, don’t take this too seriously. It isn’t suppose to BE Jane Eyre. It’s a mystery/thriller and it succeeds at that so well.

The Cons:
-Mostly, the pacing issues bothered me. Something pretty important to character development would happen and it would b sort of skipped by.
-At times, mostly with Jane, I found myself confused by her actions. They didn’t line up with the rest of her personality.

Those bits took me out of the story a little but it definitely did not slow me down or make me have less of a good time. This is Rachel Hawkins’ first adult novel, I believe and I am really excited to read more adult books from her, in the future.

I'm honest I'm always skeptical of retellings of classics, especially a classic like Jane Eyre that's been revisited so many times. Hawkins however actually delivers a fresh new take while paying complete homage to the original text and characters. In this Thornfield we're visiting the housewives of the rich and Mr Rochester meets Jane the neighborhood dog-walker after almost hitting her with a car. Like the original, the quickly fall in love but there's an even higher level of suspicion and suspense since the former Mrs Rochester disappeared on a boat outing with her best friend and murder might be the explanation to their vanishing. Narrators Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, Lauren Fortgang do a wonderful job capturing each character as they spiral around each other with their dark secrets slowly closing them all in. Not to be a spoiler, but I can definitely get down with this ending and less passive Jane.

“You never know what secrets are hiding behind closed doors...” - cover tag line.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the audiobook edition of ‘The Wife Upstairs’ by Rachel Hawkins in exchange for an honest review. It was narrated by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang and has a running time of 8 hours, 40 minutes at 1x speed.

Years ago I enjoyed Rachel Hawkins’ Hex Hall YA series and so was intrigued to read her first novel for adults. It is a modern retelling of ‘Jane Eyre’ though with some unexpected twists.

Jane had grown up in the foster system and recently moved to Alabama. At the opening of the novel she has been walking dogs on the posh Thornfields Estate for a month. She’s not a very likeable character though pretends to be all sweetness and light. As a narrator she is quite upfront about the envy that she feels towards her clients and happily helps herself to small items when in their houses to keep as souvenirs or to discreetly pawn.

Then one day while walking one of the dogs she meets the dishy Eddie Rochester and her eyes bug out in delight, especially when she learns that he is not only wealthy but a widower. Ka-ching! When they first meet he doesn’t have a dog, but he quickly adopts a rescue and employs Jane to walk her. Score!

Jane learns that Bea Rochester and her best friend had died in a boating accident, their bodies never recovered. While Jane’s dreams appear to be coming true there are niggles like her ex-flatmate threatening to reveal information to Eddie about her past. Then a body is found ....

I won’t say more in order to avoid spoilers though the title and link to ‘Jane Eyre’ is somewhat revealing. Still, Hawkins did have plenty of surprises to reveal.

Jane is clearly a survivor and her calculating behaviour in order to win Eddie and to be accepted by the desperate housewives of Thornfields was linked to this. Her snarky inner dialogue wickedly subverted the tropes of the passive heroine of the classic romantic suspense novel. Aside from ‘Jane Eyre’, elements of the plot did also bring ‘Rebecca’ to mind, though again Jane is no demure unnamed narrator in the shadow of her predecessor.

In terms of the audiobook, its three narrators voiced the chapters assigned to Jane, Bea, and Eddie. I am not that familiar with the work of these particular voice actors though I felt that both Emily Shaffer and Lauren Fortgang at times were reading quite quickly. It may just be due to their being American.

Still when Emily Shaffer is speaking as one of what Jane describes as “this crew of Stepford Wives”, she perfectly captures the higher register of their little-girl-like voices.

Overall, I found ‘The Wife Upstairs’ a fresh retelling of a Gothic classic that I couldn’t put down, completing it easily in a day.

As an advance reader, I look forward to seeing how others respond to it as well as recommending it to friends.

This book had my mind going through so many different scenarios trying to figure out what happened to B. Is B alive? Did Eddie kill her? Did she kill her friend and leave? I honestly could not figure out what happened. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen I was shocked at what did happen. This whole book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I was able to finish this in two days and I didn't figure out the ending until right before.

Jane is not who you think she is. Everyone in this community that she inserted herself into as a dog walker thinks that she is Jane. However, she has a dark past that she is running away from. By stealing from her clients and living with John, who she met in foster care she is hoping to save up and change her life and leave everything behind. That is when she meets Eddie. Jane sees this as an opening to finally change her life for the better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for allowing me to listen to this and give my honest review.

This is already one of my 2021 favorites. I was on the fence about this book in the beginning but once it took off, it really took off! I stayed up for hours reading this because I could not put it down. I had no clue what would happen next and was pleasantly anticipating every twist and turn. I really hope Rachel Hawkins continues to write adult thrillers because she is now an auto-read author for me. The narrators also did a phenomenal job of bringing this story to life.

This book surprised me. I have read a lot of books with titles including the words “wife” or “upstairs” this year, but NONE have won me over… until now!

THE WIFE UPSTAIRS is apparently a retelling of Jane Eyre (sorry to say something I know nothing about), so if that means something to you great! For me it was all about the rags to riches story with multi layered mysteries throughout. At the center is Jane, a cunning dog walker and aspiring rich housewife. Amongst her pursuits Jane finds herself amidst sticky community drama and a police investigation.

As the star of this book, Jane demonstrates a different level of perception and intelligence that can only be learned from a rocky and traumatic childhood. She picks up on the slightest of details others overlook that give her a silent advantage over those who try to control (or harm) her. Witnessing this level of awareness propelled me straight to the blockbuster conclusion!

Normally I think thrillers are better suited in their physical form, but let me tell you this audiobook had me scrubbing the toilets just to have a reason to keep listening. It is easy to follow and the variety of narrators are excellent!

I am giving this a 4/5 SOS rating (scale of surprise)! Normally I consider myself to be quite the expert at guessing endings, but I was so wrapped up that I never even tried to guess the ending!

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins was an entertaining yet frustrating book. It was entertaining because it had lots of mystery, secrets and twists yet frustrating because I could not find a single character that I liked or even one that I wished well. They were all jaded, selfish, and frankly downright mean. I can't say for sure if this was intentional or not; but as a result, I was not sympathetic towards any of the rich and nosy millionaires or even the more down to earth low lifes. If this was intentional, it was masterfully executed. 

Everyone in this book had a secret to keep, motivation to keep it , and many had the means to do so. Parts of the story were too predictable (especially if you've read the classic Jane Eyre) but there were a few unique twists that I thought were clever. I felt like the characters were only superficially developed and the relationship between Jane and Eddie was forced, lacking depth and chemistry. 

For a quick thriller and a retelling of the classic Jane Eyre, this story will entertain you. 

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book for review.

In this thriller inspired by Jane Eyre, poor, plain Jane meets rich, handsome Eddie and they fall in love. But is Eddie everything he seems to be? He might know more than he’s letting on about the tragic disappearances of his wife and her best friend.

I have this huge internal conflict almost every time I finish a thriller lately. One part of my brain argues that I should avoid thrillers for awhile; that I’ve reached an authentic level of suspense burnout. Another part is well-aware of my stack of enticing thrillers waiting to be read and optimistically believes the next one will be the one that rocks my world completely.

It’s even harder when good friends and reading buddies love something that just doesn’t work for me.

So I come to you, hanging my head in shame, to say that I thought this book was just okay. You should absolutely look at all the rave reviews on it. I’m so often the outlier on these popular reads - just one unpopular opinion in a sea of so much praise.

Let’s start with the positives:

I thought this book was well-written and engaging. Some of Jane’s observations and her feelings behind them made sense to me and, at times, were even relatable. It was also fun to see a modern spin on some classic characters.

One of my issues may simply be that I’ve been exposed to mysteries since I was a little girl and I am finding it difficult to discover new stories that genuinely shock me. I figured out what was going on here early enough and, as usual, hoped I was wrong. I was disappointed to learn that I wasn’t. Aside from the retelling aspect, I didn’t feel this book did anything new or different within the thriller genre.

While I can handle a cast of abhorrent characters, I really struggled with how unlikeable Jane was. Perhaps if she hadn’t been based on Miss Eyre, I wouldn’t have found this so bothersome. So, despite finding some of her thoughts and feelings relatable, I was more often annoyed with her. I wanted to root for Jane, but I ended up not caring about what happened to her.

The ending could have brought this to another level, but I thought the conclusion was too convenient and anticlimactic. This final factor solidified my rating at three stars.

There you have it. For me, this was a run-of-the-mill thriller. If you choose to read it, maybe it will be an over-the-top one for you. I truly hope that it is.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my audio review copy. All opinions are my own.

I LOVED this one!

Both main characters are the perfect blend of sympatric & deranged. Their stories are very compelling separately and alternating between B and Jane made this one a very quick read. I listened to the audiobook and the narration made an already compelling story absolutely unputdownable! Having lived in a neighborhood like this in the south, I found her cast of secondary characters VERY realistic as they are believably cliquey and sweet, in a way that makes you want to hate them but you really can't.

My only critique of this book is that the idea of "the wife upstairs" literally being the situation was pretty unbelievable. I have a house with a large master closet, and is there space under the stairs that I might not go through frequently? Sure. Would I fail to notice if there was a full room behind it with a person in it? No. Especially no if it had an obvious key pad. Still, if you can manage the suspension of disbelief, it's a fantastic, one-sitting read.

I will start off by saying that I am not a mystery/thriller reader. With that said I absolutely LOVED this book and I loved listening to it on audiobook!! This is a story of a young women (Jane) caught up in the murder mystery of two couples. You see the lives of five different individuals play out in multiple POVS. I loved that there was twists that you never saw coming for all the characters in this book!

I would rate this 4.5 stars. The only reason why the 1/2 start drop is because the F-bomb is dropped so many times in the book it made it almost uncomfortable.

Trigger warnings: Murder, alcohol abuse and infidelity.

I went into this book completely blind and had no real idea what I was getting into besides a psychological thriller. What I got was a little bit of a southern romance complete with a Real Housewives vibe. I also got a bit of unreliable narrators that pulled me in and made me wonder who to believe all throughout. The twists and lies all made this domestic thriller compelling and an interesting read that was told from 3 POVs.

I had the chance to listen to an early copy of the audio and the narrators did a terrific job of portraying the 3 POVs. This story is told mostly from Jane and Bea's POV with a little bit of Eddie thrown in. I would've liked to hear a little more from him, but this was a story strong on the female aspect.

Jane is a character that has come from the wrong side of the tracks. She is running from something but we never really get too deep into that. We do know that she doesn't come from much and she is trying to 'level up'. At the beginning of the book, she is a dog walker in an upper crust community. That is where she meets some of the "real housewives" of her neighborhood, as well as Eddie Rochester. He is a widow, but is still young and good looking and someone that the other women keep their eyes on. But when Jane catches his eye, their relationship quickly develops into more than either of them could expect. Jane's story is about what she came from and where she wants to go. Her POV is all in the present. Then we have Bea's POV. She was the wife of Eddie. Her story is about about the past. Who she is, was, and so on. So, what woman do you want to root for and what is Eddie's role in all of this. How did he become a widow and is there anyone that is innocent in this story?

The audio was a great listen and they did a great job with the story. I'm still not sure if I really liked any of the characters, but I really wanted to root for Jane, even when I knew what she was doing and the lies being told. Then there are the other main and supporting characters. I felt like they all could've come straight from a Real Housewives series. This is the book for all you Housewives lovers that like a bit of a thriller twist to your romance. It's entertaining, well told and will keep you on your toes.

What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The author has crafted a modern version of an homage to Jane Eyre with a little extra of the creepy factor. So many terrible people behaving in unimaginable ways. We meet Jane, who is the product of a terrible childhood spent shuffling from relative to relative and eventually spends time in foster care with some terrible families. She escapes emotionally damaged and both literally and figuratively a new person. She winds up in Alabama walking dogs for a community of Stepford wives who live in McMansions, all dress alike and rarely if ever have a kind word for anyone, even their besties. These are not nice women on their very best day. They all seem to live by the motto “ he or she who dies with the most wins”. Jane meets Eddie when he almost runs her over and in short time she has moved in and replaced his wife who mysteriously vanished with her best friend and both are assumed dead. And so begins the road to a whodunit with more twists and turns than a formula one race track. The narration is spot on and draws you in and from the first few moments.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio for sharing this audiobook with me.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins is set to publish on Jan 5, 2021. After hearing this was a modern day gothic retelling of Jane Eyre I was most definitely intrigued. It was good. I definitely enjoyed the ride. I guess some things but enjoyed the twist of things I didn’t see coming. I was given an e-arc of this by St Martin Press and an audiobook by MacMillian Audio and I can say that I liked the narration. It definitely added to the story. Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for advance copies in exchange for my honest review.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and Net Galley for the opportunity to listen to this dark and twisted reimagination of Jane Eyre. Jane, not her real name, is hired as a dog walker to the Thornfield Estates where she falls for Eddie Rochester who is getting over his first wife Bea's death, but Bea is alive in a panic room...Why? That is what the reader will find out in this tale of murder, lust, greed and fake identity, I enjoyed this listen very much. My only issue was the non linear jumping around of the various perspective s. A little hard to follow.