Excellent book. Family drama that I love. Characters real.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

I didn't think Sally Hepworth could get any better than her last book. AND THEN SHE DOES THIS?!
This family has some major issues and I loved divulging into each and every one of them. Hepworth, Sally girl, amazing. 6 stars.

Finally! This is the mystery I was waiting for! The way the story develops had me hooked and I found myself staying up late reading to find out what would happen next. I can’t wait for this one to come out so I can tell everyone to read it. By far the best mystery I’ve read all year.

I really, really wanted to love this book. I've read some rave reviews, and it does have four and half stars on GoodReads, AND it's in my favorite genre. There was a sweet twist at the end but it just wasn't enough to salvage the rest of the book, in my opinion.

Rachel and Tully are the young adult daughters of Stephen and Pamela Aston. In recent months Pam has been moved to a care facility due to her mental decline, and Stephen has found himself falling in love with Heather, the interior designer he hired to fulfill Pam's vision for their home. Now Stephen seems to be expecting Rachel and Tully to embrace Heather with open arms, despite the fact that he is still married to their mother. Both girls are dealing with their own anxieties and foibles: Rachel is eating her feelings to cope with a sexual assault that happened when she was a teenager, and Tully just found her husband lost a majority of their savings and they will have to sell their home. Oh, and she's a kleptomaniac as well.

The book opens with Stephen and Heather's wedding, which ends with someone getting bonked on the head with a candlestick, although the author doesn't divulge who was hit until later in the book, and the reader won't find out who wielded the weapon until nearly the end. Chapters are told from differing perspectives and the wedding day/fallout is interspersed with the background stories. Into the midst of all this high drama falls a hot water bottle stuffed with cash and a note, a new deliveryman for Rachel's business, marital troubles for Tully, and suspicions of domestic abuse aimed at Stephen.

I really didn't connect with any of the characters in this novel and honestly wanted to shake a couple of them in hopes of dislodging the denial they were clinging to like a life raft. The writing itself is skillful and the many layers of the story are woven together well. The twist at the end had my head spinning a bit and doubting my own perceptions, which, in retrospect, was likely the point.

Ahh all the twists and turns are delicious! I'm not going to lie, I was afraid this book was going to be obvious when I read the first couple chapters, but it actually moved at a steady pace and stayed really interesting! Fun thriller read.

Thanks for the ARC netgalley and st Martin's press!

Let me first start off by saying I absolutely adored this book. The Younger Wife, had many different elements and layers that easily made you so attached .

The character development was just so much more in this novel than I have ever read before. Sally Hepworth, had a way of humanizing these people that made you feel so personally connected to each one of them. I absolutely adored both Tully and Rachel. Both of them had skeletons in their closet which made them HUMAN and not just characters in a novel. I could easily find myself hanging out with both Tully and Rachel.

In a weird way, I also liked Heather but I wont give too much away on that one, you are going to need to pick up this book yourself and draw your own conclusion!

The plot was steady and easily draws you in. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line. The twist at the end was one you will not see coming!

I finished this book in one sitting on a lazy Sunday evening. I would highly recommend this book to other thrill lovers!

Obsessed- could not put this book down! I have fallen in love with every novel Sally Hepworth has written lately and this did not disappoint.

When Tully & Rachel's father decides to divorce their mother who has dementia to remarry a younger woman- they started looking into his past and other relationships. Reading the whole book, you think you know Stephen (the father), but oh my goodness-- the end changes everything. So good!

I just could not stop reading this book. I finished it within 2 days! Very addictive and a great ending. I highly recommend you pick up this book as soon as you can

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts about the book.

I find Sally Hepworth’s characters charmingly imperfect like all of us. There’s a lot of reality mirrored in her writing, and The Younger Wife stays true to her style.

The title says it all - it’s about a new younger wife, and of course she’s close in age to the daughters, but it doesn’t stagnate on that fact. The story nicely turns into whether you can trust what’s happened. Did that really happen? Is what I’m remembering really true? The daughters come with their emotional baggage well-packed, and it all fits together nicely for a well-presented and interesting book. The epilogue is absolutely one of the best and fitting endings - the circle is completed!

Review of Advance Digital Galley

When celebrated heart surgeon Stephen Aston announces he will divorce their mother and marry interior designer Heather Wisher, his adult daughters, Rachel and Tully, are stunned. Their mother, Pamela, suffers from dementia and is in a care facility. For their father’s sake, Rachel and Tully try to push aside their misgivings and work to establish a relationship with Heather, who is their age.

The wedding day arrives and the guests, including Rachel, Tully, and Pamela, assemble at the church. But something unexpected occurs and tragedy results. But none of the guests knows exactly what has happened in the sacristy.

Who is hurt? And how? And, more importantly, why?

Believable characters, a complex and astonishing situation, and tragedy all combine to create the tense story told in both the present and in flashbacks. It spins out in alternating viewpoints of the three girls, Rachel, Tully, and Heather. Turmoil is the watchword in this character study that is sure to keep readers guessing as the telling of the tale raises some unexpected . . . and quite troubling . . . questions.

Family secrets lie at the heart of the narrative; surprising revelations give depth to the characters while intrigue continually builds as the complicated tale plays out. Unexpected twists lead up to the surprising denouement and the revelation of an uncomfortable truth may change everything readers have come to believe.

The pace is fast and unrelenting; the book almost impossible to set aside as the suspense keeps the pages turning.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley
#TheYoungerWife #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by this author but I am going to check out every others book because I really enjoyed her writing style. I expected more of a thriller but it’s closer to a family drama with secrets and some mystery. I’m not sure if I like the ending but it’s definitely interesting. It was a quick read and I finished within 1 day.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tully and Rachel's mother Pam is in a nursing home with dementia when their father, Stephen, who is still married to their mother, announces he is marrying Heather, a woman the same age as his daughters. It turns out everyone in this family has issues.

This is my second novel from this author. I wouldn't call either of them mysteries but I did breeze through them quickly, reading this one in one day. I like a family drama where we are unraveling mysteries from the past but I didn't feel like the things that went on were as sinister as I would like. Still it was a good quick read and I will read more from this author.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Stephen wants to get married even though his current wife is in the hospital. His kids are mad at their father and the choices he was making. This book kept me interested from the beginning.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The book started with a mystery and the story evolved from the perspectives of the main 3 characters for the most part, which allowed not only the story to unfold but also gave the reader insight into all 3 of the women without revealing the twist at the end of the book...was he or wasn't he? One clearly did not know for sure, which makes for a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book. The opinions expressed are my own.
I have read other books by this author, and she is truly a master of suspense. This book involves an older man, Stephen, marrying a younger woman, Heather. He has to deal with the opinions of his two adult daughters as well as his current wife, who is suffering from dementia. By the way, they all have secrets they are not sharing with the other characters. I kept waiting to find out what is really going on and how will it end. Speaking of the end-that was the only part that threw me a little. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but I think the author meant for the story to end that way. She wanted to leave the reader with questions, instead of just wrapping up everything. I liked the book, but I prefer an ending that lets me know what happened. Everything was good except the ending made me want more.

The setup: Tully and Rachel’s dad is divorcing their mom, who is in a nursing home with dementia, so he can marry a woman who is younger than they are. As they get to know her, and prepare for the wedding, there’s a lot of drama. Family and personal secrets are revealed. As with most of Hepworth’s books, this kept me interested and turning pages until the end! I loved the story and writing style.

Stephen, an older, attractive, successful doctor has caused quite a scandal when he announces he is getting married again to a younger woman even though he still has a wife and when his 2 daughters suspect that the new woman in their father's life is probably a gold digger.

This dysfunctional family has it's share of problems, Stephen's current wife Pam has dementia, his daughters Rachel and Tully are struggling with their own issues as well. Rachel is still trying to cope with a rape incident that happened in her teen years while Tully is a secret kleptomaniac, but both are aghast when their father announces he plans to divorce Pam and remarry a younger woman who harbours her own harrowing past. When an old water bottle stuffed with a large sum of money and a woman's name on a slip of paper turns up connected to their mother Rachel sets to finding out how their mother came to have all this cash and who is the woman whose name is on that piece of paper. Meanwhile, Heather, the younger woman Stephen plans to marry is trying hard to win over Rachel and Tully but begins to have misgivings about the man she thought she knew when Pam begins to ramble on about Stephen having hurting her and a series of so called physical "accidents" both past and present seem to have occurred with Stephen being involved. This had me wondering of course if this was a case of wrongly accusing a poor guy of abuse or was he being pretty slick blaming his victims of being "clumsy" which abusers tend to do, but I had my gut feeling about the ending which left me slack jawed to say the least. This was truly a tantalizing and sometimes confusing read but pretty good nonetheless.

A thank you to author Sally Hepworth and NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I thought this book was a delight. The contents were at times heavy and serious, but it was a fast-paced page turner that kept me guessing. The characters were complex and interesting and I found myself rooting for all of them. A terrific read! I

Wow! What a twisty tale of domestic hardship. About to lose a home. Family secrets. Love the ending! This is a must read thriller that needs to be on everyone’s tbr list Thor 2022! Hepworth is the queen of psychological thrillers! Her books deal with everyday life issues with huge twists that make reading her books so enjoyable. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc of this book.

Like all of Samantha’s books I read this in two days. A physiological family drama. I was hooked right away. A story about a doctor who’s wife has dementia. He puts her in a home and promptly decides to marry his much younger interior designer. His two daughters have some reservations about this younger woman. But not all is as it seems. The girls start to suspect their dad may be an abuser. The girls are not without their own problems either. Good book! I don’t want to give away the ending so I end my review here - enjoy!