I have loved Sally Hepworths previous books so was thrilled to dive into this one. Her writing is the perfect level of suspense for me- an entertaining combo of family drama, mystery and intrigue. She keeps you turning the pages while also giving you the details I often long for in the "thriller" genre.

I especially enjoyed how she incorporated so much into this one- romance, addiction, parenting struggles, aging parents, and more. While I did see the ending of this one coming, that didn't stop me from fully enjoying my reading experience.

Sally Hepworth's books never disappoint and are quickly becoming my go-to "get back into reading" recommendation, and I highly suggest adding this one to your 2022 TBR list!

4.5/5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my gifted copy.

I have loved every Sally Hepworth book I have read. I pick them up and I quickly finish them. They just flow for me and I am always intrigued by the plot. The Younger Wife is no exception.

This is the complicated story of Stephen and Pam, their daughters Tully and Rachel, and Stephen's girlfriend, Heather. Are you with me so far? Stephen is about to marry Heather who is a bit younger than his daughters. He is a fine upstanding man in the community who is a doctor and is about to divorce his wife Pam, who has Alzheimers, to make this possible.

Are Tully and Rachel ok with it? Oh - there is so much Tully and Rachel are not ok with.

This book just keeps going with the complications and twists and even a murder (Let me just say it has something to do with the sacristy and a candlestick...) and I just hung on for the whole ride. In classic Hepworth style - it is written with humor and snark and great plot. I am pretty sure you will love it.

Wow! This is spectacular novel with impactful, scandalous opening scene at the wedding, slow burn- character driven- balanced pace with impeccable psychological character analysis which powered by three narrators who are suffering from different mental health issues and look the part by hiding their struggling pasts.

And the mind blowing conclusion of the story made us remember we’re reading another remarkable story of ultra talented, extremely brilliant author!

For 2021, her novel “good sister” was on my top 3 favorite thrillers list and this one already guaranteed its place at my top 3 thriller reads of 2022! ( you may think it is early to decide but when you get the taste of great literature you already know other books can hardly outshine its brilliance)

The story starts at the wedding ceremony of charming and successful doctor Stephen Aston. He marries with a beautiful and very young woman: actually she’s at his half age and she’s even younger than her two daughters. But who cares the age when you find your real soul mate?

An uninvited guest narrates the opening scene: she might be middle aged woman and till the first half we don’t learn who she’s and what her intentions to attend this wedding. But it seems like she knows a lot about Stephen and her family.

Then we realize Stephen’s ex wife Pam also attended the wedding and after Stephen and his new wife tell their wows, she follows the couple to the back alongside with daughters and grand kids. Then a young woman’s scream cuts the entire cacophony! The celebrant reappears as her face is ashen and her pantsuit is covered in blood.

Then we go one year back to witness Stephen’s dinner with her eldest daughter Tully and younger daughter Rachel to introduce them his new girlfriend/ soon to be wife Heather !

They met when he hired her as interior designer to remodel their house he was living with his wife Pam. But as soon as his wife Pam’s dementia deteriorated, he reluctantly sent her the nursing home where she still lives without recognizing any of her family members. Thankfully Heather gives her entire support to console the poor/ heartbroken doctor and now Stephen declares he’s gonna divorce Tully and Rachel’s mother to marry his beautiful girlfriend.

Of course her daughters find this decision too soon and get suspicious about Heather’s motives: she might be a golddigger who is after his father’s money.

As we read the POVs of three women we realize both of them deal with serious issues, keeping secrets from each other.

Tully’s husband lost his money to a real wrong investment : they can loss their house and everything they cared for. But Tully hides more serious mental condition till her teenage years just like Rachel who never dates with anyone, acting gluttonous to cover another traumatic secret about her teenage years. Heather’s mental state is also fragile because she lies about her past and her family and dear Stephen is so worried about her alcohol consumption level.

In the meantime we return to the present time and learn what happened during the wedding ceremony.

This is amazing psychological thriller keep you hooked up till the end! I liked how the author wrapped up the entire execution! She’s fantastic storyteller!

No more clues! I already gave too much away! I highly recommend this unputdownable read by giving my shiny five stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

I loved this book! I wish I'd had the time to read it all in one sitting and I was frustrated when I had to work or was literally too sleepy to hold my eyes open. The dynamic between Stephen and Pam, the parents of Tully and Rachel, and then the new wife Heather. Each person has their own issues and Sally Hepworth dives into each one. Hepworth wins again with this novel with the twist at the end. Just when you think you know what's going on....

thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book in advance.

Sally Hepworth is the queen of suspense and this newest book proves it again. It will keep you interested until the very last page, and that’s a hint to make sure you read the epilogue!!

Sisters Tully and Rachel have their own demons to face and their dad announces he is going to divorce their mom who is in a home with advanced dementia, and marry Heather. Who is younger than Tully and Rachel. After some odd things happen, and a hot water bottle with $100,000 makes an appearance, Rachel becomes obsessed in finding out why their mom had so much money hidden.

The ending was good!!! Revenge? Vindication? A selfless act?

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of The Younger Wife. Being the first book I’ve read by Sally Hepsworth I wasn’t sure what to expect. The description really is what drew me in. This story is packed with so much suspense and emotion. You find out very quickly that every one has a secret they are desperately protecting. Stephens daughters are suspicious and accusing from the start. This will keep you guessing until the very end.

I wish I could have liked this more but I think I am slowly getting over these so-called "unputdownable" (is that even a real word??) books. I predicted the ending and I hate when that happens.

Sally Hepworth has a true talent for crafting characters who practically leap from the pages as full-formed people. Throw in a whodunnit that soon challenges all your immediate guesses, and you have a story that's truly unputdownable. Another easy-to-recommend title by one of my favorite authors.

(With thanks to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read & review early!)

One of my favorite reads of 2021 to date! This book kept you guessing unt the end and the characters of Tully, Rachel and Heather really kept you invested. Tully and Rachel's dad Stephen is marrying a much younger woman (Heather) but they start to suspect that their father is physically abusive. On Stephen and Heather's wedding day someone is injured. Who and why? Are their fears about their dad correct? Highly recommend this book! Much thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and author for an advanced readers copy of this book!

A fun twist on the “dad is marring someone my age” trope. She returns to the dementia plot of her (unrelated) earlier book for the mother. It really literally kept you guessing until the end. Was the dad abusive? Odd things happen but are they as they appear?

I read it in a single afternoon at the beach.

Omg!!! This book is a must read, top 2021 book for me!!! Rachel, heather and Tully are a trifecta you don’t want to miss out on!! Highly recommend and so happy I got to read an early copy!! Huge book hangover!!

Loved it! Tully and Rachel are faced with their father’s upcoming wedding….to a woman no older than them! Oh, and did I mention his wife (and their mother) is still alive? What a whirlwind! This book had me turning pages late into the night! Really enjoyed!

A great psychological thriller! Sally Hepworth's books never disappoint. Tully and Rachel are sisters who fear that their dad has been abusing their mother, and now his fiance whom he is marrying too quickly in the sisters' opinion. Their mom, suffering from dementia, is still living!

When almost 100K is found in a hot water bottle the questions just pile up. Add in one sister who had been raped as a teenager, and another who is a kleptomaniac, and you'll think how much more dysfunctional can this family get?

I was so incredibly excited to score a digital arc of The Younger Wife last month. So, thanks for that @netgalley and @stmartinspress. I loved Sally's last novel "The Good Sister." Sally is a really good writer - she gives different voices to her characters and is a crisp and efficient writer. I read The Younger Wife in one day. Sadly, I cannot recommend it. While the writing is good, the story is just not a good one. Is he an abuser or is he not an abuser? Is he gaslighting all the women or are they hypersensitive, paranoid women? It's just not a story I want to read. I've seen a lot of good reviews for this one, but those themes are not interesting to me.

Sally Hepworth's latest novel, "The Younger Wife," has ALL THE TWISTS AND TURNS! Any fan of domestic suspense, unreliable narrators, and unexpected events will adore this novel.

Heather is about to marry the man of her dreams - Dr. Stephen Aston. There's just one problem: He's already married. His wife has dementia and Stephen plans to divorce her and marry Heather. He figures his current wife may not even realize what's happening, and his two adult daughters are less then thrilled. Their soon-to-be stepmother is their age. What does she want with their father? And why does their mother keep mentioning what a bad man their father is? Can they trust what she says when they know she has dementia?

I thought I had it all figured out, but I was very wrong. I knew that at least one person in the book had to be a psychopath, and at least one other person had to be 100% grounded in reality, but I honestly couldn't tell which person was crazy and which was sane. At one point, I think I started questioning my own sanity!

This is a book the reader will NOT have figured out before the ending is revealed. I was shocked, and that's saying something for a person who reads a ton of suspense and mystery novels. If you want a twisty book with red herrings, this is the book for you!

I really liked this book…until the very end which seems to come only for shock/twist value. I mean…then what the heck happened in the church, and were ALL these women wrong and, quote, crazy. The ending is a hard no for me, hence the harsh rating, otherwise it was a no-brainer 4 or 5 stars.

This was my first Sally Hepworth book and my first thought when I started reading it was that it was another novel using the formula of a different character in each chapter. That formula is getting old. And since each character was told in the third person, there is no need for it.
Because there was no resolution at the ending, it left me completely unsatisfied. I wondered how they could go on with their lives. Textbook anti-heroines.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

9781250229618

352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: April 5, 2022

Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Women’s Fiction, Family Dynamics, Relationships

The book begins at the wedding and then we go back in time one year to when Stephen Aston meets his bride. He and his wife Pam are redecorating their home and hire Heather. Pam is suffering from early onset dementia. Their two adult daughters, Rachel and Tully have their own issues. Rachel was raped at 16 and has not been able to date or have an intimate relationship. Tully is a kleptomaniac, married to a lawyer with two little boys. She just found out that her husband Sonny invested their money poorly and lost all their money.

The story is fast paced, and the characters are well developed. The characters are all flawed to some degree. The scene of Tully stealing in the hardware store was funny but sad. It is written in third-person point of view except for the wedding portions. These are told in the first-person point of view by Fiona. I loved this story. It made me question who was right and if anyone was abused. If you like dysfunctional family relationship stories with a twist, you will enjoy this one too.

I enjoy Sally Hepworth books and this one was no exception. As families' go the Ashton family has a LOT going on in their past and present, which does it make it a bit hard to relate to the characters. There's past tragedies, financial problems, medical and mental issues, etc. It was an enjoyable, if unbelievable, easy read and I appreciate the chance to read it before release through netgalley.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth tells the story of Stephen Aston who is getting married again to a woman younger than his children. Problem is he is still married. His wife is in a nursing home with dementia. Stephen is very family oriented. He knows his adult daughters will love Heather. In a family that looks perfect from the outside, secrets start to unravel. Soon it is evident that the perfect family had many issues.
The perfect book for a weekend read. I was hooked from the first chapter. What I would think was happening would be something different. Hepworth’s research into kleptomania was evident and the descriptions of the feelings and emotions that go along with it was very well written. As I read the last page, all I could think was wow did that just happen. Thank you to the Sally Hepworth, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.