I was very excited to read this and was then disappointed by the negative reviews about the ending. I liked this book quite a bit, not as much as her previous books but it was still enjoyable. It reminded me a bit of Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty - even down to the Australian setting. Things I liked: the backstories weaving into the present affecting the perceptions of the characters and the pacing was well done. Things I didn't like: some characters felt incomplete to me and I wanted to hear more from them. Over all, this was an easy and fun book to read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Stephen Aston is a well-regarded heart surgeon in his sixties and he's about to be remarried. The only challenges are that he's still married to Pam (his wife of 35+ years who has Alzheimers and lives in a home) and his two daughters are older than his soon-to-be-wife and shocked by the wedding announcement. But are these really the only challenges?
Ms. Hepworth takes us on another twisty and interesting trip as we get to know the Aston's - Stephen, Pam, daughters Rachel and Tully, and of course, The Younger Wife. Almost everyone in this book has some issues and secrets (and they are serious secrets). The book tackles a number of them (domestic violence, rape, kleptomania, eating disorders, and Alzheimers, to name a few). Some are addressed more deeply than others (kleptomania, for example), and I think a greater focus on domestic violence would have made the story a bit stronger.
The story is primarily told from the perspectives of Rachel, Tully and Heather and they all ended up being likable characters. Ms. Hepworth also beautifully captures the heartbreak of having a family member with Alzheimers.
While I wasn't a big fan of the ending, The Younger Wife was overall a 4 star read for me and, as always, I can't wait to see what Ms. Hepworth writes next!
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read The Younger Wife in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Younger Wife!

Rachel and Tully are sisters adjusting to their mother's rapidly advancing dementia as well as getting used to the idea of their father's much younger soon-bo-be wife, Heather. Pamela is Rachel & Tully's mother. All of these women have secrets. They suspect their father/ex-husband/fiance may have secrets, too, but surely they would be more sure about that, right?

I really enjoyed getting to know each of these characters individually as well as seeing how they interacted with one another. The book was pretty propulsive but I was frustrated by the ending. 4 stars.

Good story!

Description
From the author of The Good Sister, the breakout New York Times bestseller and “stunningly clever thriller” (People), comes Sally Hepworth’s latest novel of domestic suspense about the tangled vines of family secrets.

"Smart, suspenseful, brimming with secrets. This is Sally Hepworth at her unputdownable best."––Kate Morton, New York Times Bestselling Author

THE HUSBAND
A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself.

THE DAUGHTERS
Tully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money.

THE FORMER WIFE
With their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the
truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

I had both an e-Arc and an audio Arc. They were slightly different and I am so curious to know which segments from which copy ended up in the final cut.

This was such an engaging book. There are so many family and relationship dynamics at play. It wad twisty but so subtly that all of a sudden you realize you're somewhere totally new in your thinking. So good!!

This book is Sally Hepworth at her finest!!!

A big family drama book with lots of twists and turns!! Loved it!!

Stephen is a handsome heart surgeon and is dating Heather who happens to be younger than his two adult daughters. Stephen is also still married to their mother.

Hepworth will keep you on the edge of your seat with dropping little hints that make you think one thing then you change your mind with another hint. A hot water bottle, names in a piece of paper and a candlestick will all play important roles in this thriller!!

Can’t wait for the next Sally Hepworth book!! This one did not disappoint at all!! I received an early digital copy.

Wow, Sally Hepworth just keeps getting better and better. I thought I had this story totally figured out and then with just a few paragraphs my jaw dropped and I was totally blind sided. I can't wait for her next book.

Decent enough, but didn’t really grab me.

Stephen, a successful doctor is getting ready to marry Heather, a young woman who is close in age to his two daughters Rachel and Tully.

The story is basically about Rachel and Tully getting to know Heather and coming to terms with their father’s separation from their mother whom has dementia. They slowly unveil secrets from Stephen’s past and begin to question if they really know their father.

There really isn’t a ton that happens. We learn some back story to Rachel, Tully and Heather’s lives, which is incredibly heartbreaking but I feel like the author kind of just glossed over such serious topics. Trigger warnings for sexual assault and miscarriage.

And then there’s the ending… super confusing and made the whole book not really make sense and feel kind of pointless. However, I heard that Hepworth altered the ending prior to publication, so hopefully she changed it for the better.

I was expecting a thriller (it’s more of a domestic drama) so that was disappointing. I do think Hepworth is a talented author but I’m not sure if I’ll be rushing to read her next one.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t know whether I have been spoiled by the clever plot twists in most modern suspense novels, but this was a bit of a let-down for me. I was expecting more from the end… there was nothing really to “figure out” and there was no big pay-off at the end. A couple of the mysteries (Fiona Arthur and the hot water bottle) were not really wrapped up in a satisfying way. The book leaves some very interesting things to think about gaslighting, but I was generally expecting more. It also wasn’t particularly suspenseful.

It was well-written and a page-turner. I enjoyed the characters, though some of the mental challenges among the three main female characters were a little painful. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’d necessarily recommend it.

Sally Hepworth doesn't write purely mysteries. In general, she writes soapy female-centric novels with a mystery embedded. Not my taste, but I gave this a try because I did enjoy her last, "The Good Sister." Nope on this one, though. This story of a wedding where something goes wrong -- with blood, in the first few pages -- takes forever to unspool, and the characters all have capital S Secrets. Just too sudsy for me.

I'm a huge fan of Sally Hepworth's and have loved every book of hers that I've read--until now that is, which is admittedly a huge surprise since I started out reading The Younger Wife deeply engrossed and flipping pages as fast as I could. Hepworth is fantastic at writing family drama/suspense, and that's still true in this story of two sisters, Rachel and Tully, their father Stephen, a successful heart surgeon, Heather, his much younger fiance, and Pam, the girl's mother--she just happens to still be married to Stephen but has dementia, so he's met someone new.

Obviously, Rachel and Tully are not at all happy that their father is divorcing their very ill mother to marry a woman who is younger than they are. There are also some major issues going on with the people in the book: Tully is suffering from severe anxiety and seems about to lose it, Rachel eats and eats as a way to cope with a trauma that happened to her years ago, Heather is from an abusive childhood, and Pam is now saying horrible things about Stephen when she's lucid. And then there's the gaslighting going on, the domestic violence described in the book, the lies, the deception, the secrets, and the betrayals that all lead to a murder...

All these things make for a dramatic, suspenseful read told in alternating POVs by Tully, Rachel, and Heather (with a POV by Pam and another female interspersed throughout). Yet the ending...I was ready to give this one 4.5, maybe 5 stars until the end of the book, which I'm still giving 3 stars because I loved it until about the last 5% or so. It completely flipped it, and I'm assuming Hepworth wrote it the way she did to make it a twist no one saw coming but instead, it harms women who have any history of being abused, and I really wish the ending had been more carefully thought out.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

-Review posted to Goodreads and Twitter on 3/29/22, will post to Amazon and B&N on publication date

This book is set up ideally for me. We have two timelines. One present day, then one leading up to it. I absolutely ate this book up, and finished it in one day. That ending though😬 I don't know how I feel about it. It was probably a five star until the last bit.

This highly anticipated book coming out next year is in the realm of psychological thriller and domestic drama. This story takes two sisters, one ex-wife with dementia, and a father/soon-to-be husband to a younger woman whom is younger than his own daughters. Sprinkle in some dark family history, mind games, and money problems and you’ve got your self a supposed winner!

However, The reasons I could only give it a 3.5⭐️ was for the fact that I felt it wasn’t as fluid and cohesive as I know this author typically is! The beginning felt rather slow then towards the middle of the book it picked up. But the last 1/3 felt very rushed and didn’t tie up a lot of loose ends that had been brought into the story. I felt like there could have been a much more creative way to bring closure to the book after investing so much time in each of the storylines. And I really wanted some of the relationships to develop more before bringing an end to the story.

However, I did enjoy the varying viewpoints and the character development. I felt like the author kept me guessing, along with the characters, whether or not I could trust certain people.

I look forward to any and all of Sally’s books and I’m sure many will love this book!

Hepworth is a commendable writer and "The Younger Wife" was a good book. It took me a few pages to get into this read, but once I did, I didn't want to put it down. The characters were likable, or at least relatable, some a bit far-fetched. Overall, there was good character development and storylines tied together by going back and forth in time to explain the situations. I see many gave this book 5-stars, but I just didn't think I could do so. I really liked the story, but I found some of the situations a bit unrealistic or farfetched. Overall, I could recommend this book to any general reader.

Sally does it again. Sure, that sounds like a line straight from an old school newspaper, but this was definitely true. I've loved all books written by Sally and this was no exception. I spent a few days (okay, weeks) pondering what I wanted to write in my review because I just couldn't name the specifics. To be honest, I still can't. The overall feeling left with me when I finished was that I had just read a great book and it was extremely satisfying. I didn't expect this to happen the way it did, but it's definitely a book to recommend to all those that read thrillers!

Sally Hepworth is an auto-read author for me and while I didn't find this one as fun as her last couple, I still enjoyed it and found myself blowing through it in just a couple days. I will say I didn't love the ending BUT, I'm withholding judgement because I've heard she changed the ending in the finished version after hearing from readers that they didn't like this one (and I have to agree). I'll be very curious to see how the new ending differs and if it changes my opinion one way or the other.

What Is Reality? This is a phenomenal book that really brings forth the question: What is reality? In situations where you observe one thing but someone you trust says a completely different thing occurred - who can you trust and why? And what can happen if you trust the wrong person and/ or for the wrong reason? To me, this book worked quite well on all of these fronts.

Reading the other Goodreads reviews (briefly), it seems that there were massive edits in the ARC process. I can't speak to that. I can tell you that I originally downloaded the book way back in August 2021 - and only finished reading it nearly a full week after publication. (Such is the sheer volume of such reading I do.) I don't know if the back parts of the story - where apparently the subsequent editing was heaviest - were the edited versions or the original versions. What I *can* speak to is that *I* thoroughly enjoyed whichever edition of the story I read, and I thought this version did in fact work very well indeed.

But read the other reviews too. Read the book. And decide for yourself.

Very much recommended.

Dr. Stephen Aston is getting remarried, and to a woman younger than his adult daughters. But then something happens.
This is a book of secrets and dysfunctional family. And I was here for it.

The book switches perspectives at the chapter breaks. I didn't mind this. It was interesting to see each character's thoughts. While I didn't think it was incredibly suspensful, I liked the plot and pacing. And I loved to dislike several of the characters.

Content: I can't give any without giving away some of the plot. Just know that if you are a sensitive reader, this might not be the book for you.

Sally Hepworth’s domestic suspense novel, The Younger Wife, begins with the wedding of Melbourne-based heart surgeon, Stephen Aston, a man in his 60s and Heather, a 30-something interior designer. It’s a big wedding, with Stephen’s two daughters, Tully and Rachel in attendance. The groom is old enough to be the bride’s father … well it’s an old story. But wait … there’s something really odd about this wedding. Stephen’s ex-wife, Pamela, is also a guest. Stephen insists that even though Pamela and he are divorced, she should attend as she’s still family. Pamela, by the way, is living in a care home with dementia. Backstory: Heather was hired for home renovations by Stephen and Pamela when they were still married. Shortly after Stephen met Heather, he put Pamela in a care home. A month after moving Pamela into the care home, he filed for divorce and announced his upcoming marriage to Heather. Alarm bells were going off in my head with this information. And I’m not the only one. Most of the guests feel uneasy about Pamela’s presence, and this unease is proved warranted when something goes horribly wrong. …


The novel segues to a restaurant dinner organized by Stephen. He invites his daughters Tully and Rachel and, there he introduces Heather as his fiancée. Tully and Heather are floored. They are still adjusting to the relocation of their mother to a nursing home, and they had no idea their dad was even dating. Tully’s first reaction to Heather is to assume she’s going to “destroy their lives.” Rachel plays a cooler hand, but both young women struggle to adjust to the news.

Under different circumstances, Rachel might have felt pleasure at this meeting. For example, if her father had started dating someone after mum died. A nice widow named Beryl, perhaps

The story moves from Stephen’s announcement up to the wedding. While both Rachel and Tully try to adjust to the news that they are shortly to have a young stepmum, both young women face other challenges in their lives. Rachel, who runs a bakery business from her home, discovers mysterious contents in her mother’s hot water bottle. Tully, who lives in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Melbourne, faces an uncertain future. Both sisters have ‘issues;’ Rachel, who doesn’t date, has never dated, tends to eat her feelings, and Tully has picked up a nasty little habit since she was 11. Rachel, unsettled by the news of the wedding combined with the contents of the water bottle, tries to ask her mother some questions, but it’s a roll of the dice when it comes to whether or not Pamela will recognize her children. As events roll on, Rachel and Tully begin to question every thing they know about their parents.

All the characters have secrets, and all of those secrets will be uncovered by the time the book ends. The story unfolds through the voices of an (initially) unnamed woman, Heather, Tully and Rachel. The Younger Wife is a page turner. I liked the relationship between the very different sisters. Yet while this story is highly readable, I had some issues with a couple of things. 1) Tully’s husband, Sonny, makes a MAJOR mistake (no spoilers) but Tully basically shrugs and that’s that. Of course, underneath Tully’s acceptance and nonchalance, it’s NOT ok, and this is evident by her later stressed out, self-destructive behaviour. Sonny is appalled by his wife’s behaviour, and Tully waits for the lightening to fall. But wait…. Sonny isn’t called to account for his actions.

2) Another issue I had was with the character of Heather. The choices she makes after one particular incident pushed credulity over the edge. Can’t say more than that without spoilers. One’s past makes one more vulnerable in certain situations and to certain relationships, I get that, and I agree, BUT when the evidence is irrefutable … c’mon. What sort of idiot accepts PILLS after YOU KNOW what the truth is? Heather’s behaviour makes her … well either NOT a credible character or not the sharpest tool in the toolbox (yes even taking her past into consideration.) Still, in spite of these flaws, I liked the way the author showed that the ideal family is sometimes rotten to the core. It takes being inside that family to know the truth.

review copy

The book opens in the present day with an unnamed narrator. Stephen is marrying his beautiful young fiancée. In attendance are his two adult daughters and their mother, his ex-wife. She lives in a care facility as she suffers from dementia. As the wedding party goes off to sign the registry, the ex-wife goes along. The guests hear a scream, then a thud. It is not disclosed at this time who the victim is or what happened. The story then goes back to the family in the past. All the characters are quite complex, the daughters have major issues that they now need to address. It was very interesting to see how the sisters’ childhood affected their lives. All the characters have secrets in the past and it was interesting to see them unfold.

Also reviewed at B&N under 1IrishEyes430 and Kobo under IrishEyes430