I enjoyed this story. I felt it was an easy light read even though there were a lot of heavy topics in the story. Sally Hepworth does a great job writing about mental health issues in her characters. The three main characters in the book were battling their own demons and it wasn't a story of the "wicked stepmother". This book and The Good Sister are 2 of my most favorite books that I have read in 2021..

The only thing I didn't like and I find a lot of author's doing this in their newest book is adding something about COVID-19. I find it annoying and unnecessary to have it added into storylines. Reading is an escape and bringing up COVID-19 as we are still in the pandemic ruins that escape.

⭐️⭐️ Problematic. We can do better.

We are introduced to the Aston family on the day that patriarch, Stephen, is marrying Heather, his much younger bride-to-be. Aston daughters Rachel and Tully aren’t too happy about this, particularly because their mother is suffering from dementia and Stephen divorced her even though they had enjoyed a seemingly loving and happy marriage. During the ceremony, tragedy strikes. But who is hurt, and who is to blame?

I was hoping that this domestic thriller would be a great palate cleanser after consuming some heavier material. I try to pick books that I think I will like and I take no pleasure in writing negative reviews. Unfortunately, all it did was leave a sour taste in my mouth.

I almost never include *SPOILERS* in my reviews, but in this case it is necessary to explain my issues with the book.

The main issue with this novel is the ending. It suggests that a woman who has suffered past trauma may be incapable of distinguishing between reality and her imagination. Suggesting that a victim of past abuse might be so damaged and so “crazy” (the book’s term) that she would hallucinate future abuse and no longer be able to trust her own judgement or perception is beyond insulting. Here, all three female characters are portrayed as unstable and second guess themselves about whether or not a close male family member is abusing them or not. The fact that the reader is left wondering whether there was actually abuse or whether the ladies were overreacting at best or delusional at worst is not a “fun” plot twist. Rather, it flies in the face of the me too movement and everything we have been working towards since then in terms of believing women and empowering them to speak out. And not only is the ending problematic, I just didn’t buy it. There were so many red flags flying above this guy that I couldn’t see straight.

This book wants to be like Colleen Hoover’s Verity but it’s a far cry from it. You can pick a better book than this to support. Trigger warnings for physical abuse, assault, rape, kleptomania, and dementia.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. This book is scheduled to be published on April 5, 2022.

This review will be published on November 19, 2021 on Instagram and Goodreads. @sanfranliterarygal

I loathed and loved the ending. Bravo Hepworth - creative and bold move. Can’t say I saw it coming which I found refreshing and frustrating. Heavy topics dealt with but boy the ending was something else. Hepworth definitely pulled a fast one, again BRAVO, I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.

Something Happens at the wedding of an older man and a younger woman, attended by the man’s adult daughters and his dementia-suffering ex-wife.

We go back in time and see the run up to the wedding through the eyes of the two daughters, Tully and Rachel as well as Heather the bride. All three women have their secret traumas which they deal with in different ways. Tully shoplifts, Rachel bakes and eats her feelings, and Heather has spent years disguising her working class origins.

Pam, the ex-wife, also has a secret: she has filled a hotwater bottle with nearly $100,000 in cash and two names: Tully and the mysterious Fiona Arthur. When Rachel discovers this, she sets about sleuthing to find out who Fiona is and why her mother hoarded all that cash.

While the novel is certainly intriguing, I found it difficult to understand the tone and I wondered if that's because it’s Australian. It felt like it was maybe meant to be comic, though it wasn’t really funny. The traumas of the women are taken seriously but seem to be rather simplistically explained and solved. Stephen, the patriarch, is the catalyst of the mystery and is something of a blank sheet, deliberately I think, because he is interpreted by the women through their own lenses. I liked that the resolution was ambiguous but it also made me cringe a bit.

Overall, an ok book and while I’d probably read other novels by Ms Hepworth, I wouldn’t seek them out.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

In The Younger Wife, the narrators slowly become unreliable as secrets leak and personalities show true colors when stress rises. Each character deals with the pressure differently, expertly showing how stress dictates your mental health. Ultimately, this brain fog causes the characters to question if the events were actual or imagined. As for the mystery, the clues aren’t crystal clear, making the tale murkier - in a good way!

I'm truly a fan of Sally Hepworth's writing style. Her short chapters entice me to read “just one more” as the slow burn mystery builds. And I love her sharp-witted dialogue, which offers a chuckle in between the tense moments.

Unlike some of her previous novels, The Younger Wife’s ending is a bit ambiguous. I buddy chatted this book for #NetGalleyNovember - thanks, @bookybethw and I think we each had a different theory of the truth. I started the book chat feeling that I liked, maybe not loved, the book. But as we chatted and unraveled the theories, I truly appreciated how stress, past trauma, and family dynamics all play into our mental health. As a result, I decided to bump my rating by .25 stars.

I highly recommend this book for a book club or buddy chat! You’ll want and NEED to discuss this book! Put this on your TBR for Spring 2022!! Well done, Sally Hepworth!!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc. I expected good writing because I have read books by Ms. Hepworth before, and I was not disappointed this time either. The characters were great, even if they weren't always likable, they had real lives and foibles. If you like getting to know the characters in a book, you will love this!
The story was really good, even if it was rather heavy-handed in trying to convince the reader of one thing (no spoilers). However, I'm not sure how I felt about the ending. even though I can't imagine what ending would have satisfied me!
The After the Wedding part was confusing and left me with more questions than answers. This would make this a great book for bookclubs, so people could discuss their theories about what it meant. If (like me) you don't have anyone to discuss it with, you might be left dissatisfied! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. Definitely worth the read, but not a book I will rave about.

This was a psychological thriller that moved along at a good pace and well developed characters. Drama ensues at a wedding and the deception and confusion that pervades the family dynamics comes to an unfortunate tipping point. The author does not shy away from topics that are traumatic and hard to write about such as rape, abuse, PTSD, intimidation, and gaslighting. I loved that I didn't have the end figured out and was pleasantly surprised. Sally Hepworth has another best seller with this psychological thriller. I recommend this novel for those who love messy family dynamics and surprise endings.

Sally Hepworth brings us yet another domestic suspense story filled with lots of family drama and twists and turns throughout the book. This book will keep you glued to the edge of your seat guessing right up until the end. Sally Hepworth has a knack for developing sophisticated characters and plots that unfold sooo beautifully one detail at a time until all the pieces of the story fall into place. A real page turner to be devoured and not to be missed!
Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Publishing Group for providing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

This was alright. It just wasn’t my cup of tea as I did not really love the family drama aspect. This will appeal to fans of the authors previous work. I think people will enjoy this because it is full of drama.

4.5 dramatic stars

This is my sixth Sally Hepworth book, and she continues to wow me with her domestic drama. Her characters are so well developed and seem like real people with realistic flaws!

In this tale, we have two sisters – Tully and Rachel – and their father. He’s about to get married again to a (you guessed it!) younger wife. Tully and Rachel’s mother is currently in a facility for dementia but still has a part to play in the story!

I really liked Rachel in this book, she is a master cake baker and seems to really have her life together. Except for the fact that she hasn’t dated anyone for 20 years.

Tully has some issues, but I loved how devoted she was to her family. Her husband’s managing of their money has led to some serious problems for them and that doesn’t help her anxiety.

Then we come to Heather, the younger woman, and I was prepared to really dislike her, going after an older man with money, classic case, right? Leave it the author to write a character that got my sympathy rather than my ire.

The book opens with things going very wrong at the wedding and then we flash back in forth in time to get the pieces of the story, building up to a very interesting conclusion. The final parts of the book caused me to question what I had just read, and my fellow readers interpreted things differently than I did!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for this Advanced Reader's Copy in return for an honest review.

Tully and Rachel's father announce to his daughters that he is getting remarried. Problem number one his new wife to be is younger than Tully and Rachel (his adult daughters). Problem number two, their father is still married to their mother who has dementia! As Tully and Rachel take in the news and try and find out what Heather really wants with marrying their father, other complications occur.

I was really excited to read another Sally Hepworth psychological thriller because she always does an amazing job writing about complex characters with complicated issues and this book did not disappoint. Issues such as domestic violence, binge eating, and kleptomania are to name a few in this book. I really enjoyed seeing Tully and her sister Rachel get closer in their relationship towards the end of the book. This was a page turner, Hepworth's writing was twisty and mysterious.
However, the ending was a big lackluster compared to her other novels and it wasn't a big revelation like I thought it was going to be.

Overall really enjoyed the book and seeing the character development and what was going to happen next. Also loved that the ending of the book was based off of a real incident that happened in Hepworth's life.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

I enjoyed this story very much, up to a point. The story is told from the view point of three women, sisters Tully and Rachel, and Heather, their dad's soon to be new wife. Heather is younger than the sisters and to marry Heather, their dad, Stephen, divorced his wife and the mother of his daughters. The wife, Pam, had no say in the matter because she's living in a care facility due to quickly progressing dementia.

So, yeah, Tully and Rachel are suppose to welcome new step mommy with open arms. Heather is excited to be marrying Stephen, but she's way out of her comfort zone. Everyone has issues, including little toddler Miles, Tully's son. Secrets abound and things aren't helped by utterings by Pam, which may or may not have any connection to reality.

For the first half of the story, I took a lot of things at face value, but couldn't help side eyeing how the two sisters could hide their secrets so well. How did their parents not know important matters in their daughters' lives. Each girl has some fuzzy and disturbing memories about both parents and eventually I realized we have a book-ful of unreliable narrators. What is true and what is not true?

The story had me captivated and I really looked forward to knowing what was going on. But in the end, I felt like I had entered a crazy house of mirrors and I'm supposed to pick out the truth myself? I'm not good at such open, pick your own truth kind of non resolutions and that's where I ended up being disappointed in the story. It's fun to wonder and guess and suspect but I don't consider if fun to never find out if my suspicions are correct. Still the journey to get to the end of the story was very engrossing, I just wish I knew where I was at the end.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Stephen and Pam have been happily married for decades and have two adult daughters, Tully and Rachel. But when Pam ends up suffering from dementia so severe she has to be moved to assisted living, Stephen quickly moves along to a relationship with his interior decorator Heather, a woman younger than either of his daughters. The book follows the three women as they navigate the tenuous relationship they’ve been thrown into while each also deals with their own personal issues. By the time Stephen heads to the chapel to wed Heather, each is questioning their realities and assumptions, and someone will end up being taken out of the church on a stretcher…

Based on the title, I assumed this was going to have a much stronger focus on drama between the daughters and the new wife and was pleasantly surprised it didn’t. I ended up reading this in one sitting and could not put it down. This is going to generate lively, maybe even heated, discussion in book clubs, let me tell you...

This is a well-paced domestic drama with complex, generally relatable characters and a whole lot going on. Perhaps too much. Every single character was going through some kind of major issue, and while Hepworth slid between perspectives with ease and made each woman feel very real, I can’t help but come away feeling like not enough time could be given to any one issue or woman because all three were going through so much. Rachel, in my opinion, was particularly shortchanged. I also wish I could have known more of Heather’s backstory, especially about her previous romantic relationships.

The Younger Wife is my second book by Hepworth, and in both I’ve noticed the romantic plotlines involve an all but perfect man who says and does all of the right things and accepts the woman no matter her flaws and quirks, with no questioning or hesitation. In the first book, I was willing to just go with it, but here it bothered me. Rachel’s arc either deserved far, FAR more care and attention, or it should have been left out entirely. The “easy” resolution would have been insulting regardless, but coupled with a problematic overall ending to the book, it feels extra uncomfortable.

(One could also make the argument that there is a second unrealistically understanding man in the book, depending on how one views certain events…)

This is a really hard one for me to rate. On the one hand, if you divorce (ha ha ha) the subject matter and messaging from the plot, this is very clever. I love the idea of casting doubt, creating ambiguity, and making the reader question everything they think they know, but I think this subject was shaky and loaded ground to do it on. I do think readers will be split on whether or not a certain someone is guilty, and I’ve already had a really great discussion with a GR friend about it. I just find it extremely difficult to slap a high rating on something I feel like a men’s rights activist could hold proudly in the air as an example of hysterical women and their “false” accusations hurting men. (As a note for those who don’t regularly read my reviews, I am just as quick to call out misandry)

I’m settling on 3 stars because honestly I really liked this one. Until I really, REALLY didn’t.

Sally Hepworth is a MASTER of DOMESTIC SUSPENSE/FAMILY DYNAMICS!

In the opening scene we find ourselves at a wedding, which is being described by an unnamed narrator, who confesses that she is a woman of a certain age, watching the man who still takes her breath away, marry a woman young enough to be his daughter.

Our narrator is shocked to also see Pamela in attendance. Married to Stephen Aston for 34 years, Pamela was divorced By Stephen, when she got dementia and was moved to a care facility, allowing him to marry again.

What a guy!

She is even more shocked when Pamela makes her way to the alter during the ceremony picking up a candlestick when she reaches the groom. There is a scream, a thud, and someone ends up covered in blood.

But, who?

REWIND to one year earlier…when Stephen’s daughters, Tully and Rachel, are meeting their Dad’s new girlfriend, Heather, at a luncheon, for the first time.

From this point on, the story will unfold from the alternating perspectives of these three young women-yes, the “bride to be” gets her say, as well as Stephen’s two daughters.

Is it love??

Each woman has their secrets-some from the past and others in the present, and we get to hear them all, in this FAST PACED, UNPUTDOWNABLE drama, until the past catches up to the present, and we are back at the scene of the crime/wedding.

The last 7% is where this book gets controversial. I read it with friends and we were divided on what we think the last chapters implied. No spoilers here-but how YOU interpret it-will determine how you feel about the ending. If you view it one way-you might be angry-if you view it the other way-as I did-you will be thinking-how CLEVER!

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth starts off with a tragic event at a wedding, the author then takes us back a year in time leading up to this wedding. Stephen Aston announces to his daughters Tully and Rachel that he is engaged to a woman named Heather, who is not only a few years younger than them, she is half his age. One problem, he is still married to the girls mother Pam, who is currently in an assisted living facility suffering from dementia.
The book is told in three points of view, Tully, Rachel and Heather, each one suffering from their own set of issues. Tully is about to lose everything because her husband made a bad investment. Rachel, who is obsessed with baking and has not dating anyone since she was 16, and Heather who has a dark past that she is trying to keep hidden.
I don't want to give too much away but it's a slow burn, great for lovers of family and domestic drama. The ending will have you thinking what did I just read. I've read a lot of Sally Hepworth's novels and can't wait for the next one!
Thank you to Sally Hepworth, St. Martin's Press, and Net Galley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thriller

Compulsively readable!

Rachel and Tully are sisters with problems. Tully shoplifts when life gets too stressful and Rachel bakes and eats due to a teenage trauma. Their mother is suffering from dementia and has just recently put in a home. Their father is divorcing their mother and marrying the interior decorator, Heather, who is the girl's age. Other events occur causing additional stress for the girls and then their mother will often make comments about Stephen, the girl's father, that indicate he is a bad man or hurt her. She also mentions a woman's name the girls have never heard before. Rachel asks her father about this person, but he deflects and she can tell he is lying. What is going on?

Stephen and Heather are getting married. They fell in love after Stephen's wife was put in a mental facility. Heather grew up poor, so marrying Stephen, a wealthy doctor, seems like a dream come true. But is it really? There are incidents when she has had a few drinks that result in injuries, but Stephen tells her she fell. Eventually, she sees a psychologist who convinces her that she is just reliving the trauma from her father's abuse. Heather's father killed her mother. She moves forward with the wedding and when they step into the sacristy to sign the papers someone gets severely injured or killed. The book begins at the wedding and we don't know what happens for quite awhile as the book hops backwards a year. The book then progresses with chapters written through the eyes of Rachel, Heather and Tully interspersed with the current events after the wedding incident. It was a unique way to tell the story and I was hooked right away.

I loved all the flawed characters and Hepworth keeps the tension ramped up throughout. It kept me turning pages and picking the book back up whenever I had a spare minute. There are a lot of mental issues that are brought up in the novel and if I have a critique it is that some of them are treated pretty lightly or happily resolved relatively easily. This was a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this novel.

I’m a fan of Sally Hepworth and I wasn’t sure if this one was going to miss the mark for me. I got about 40% in and BAM! I was hooked and couldn’t stop! Heather is an up and coming interior designer who is contracted by Dr Stephen and Pam Aston. During the renovations, Pam’s dementia escalates and the family makes a heart wrenching decision to put her into a care facility. Heather and Stephen find themselves drawn to each other, despite the fact that Heather is the same age as Pam & Stephen’s daughters, Rachel and Tully. I’ll leave the rest for readers to find out for themselves, who can be trusted and if there are truly good and bad traits in any person. This one will have you guessing until the very end!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The character development across the three points of view was really great and the little drops of mystery and secrets across multiple chapters made for an overall desire to want to keep reading to uncover the truth. I did have an issue with the overall light the women were painted in the end. But the novel as a whole was great. The short chapters made for a great pace and kept me wanting to just read one more chapter. I kept asking myself so many questions and trying to guess where it was going to go. Each character was so vastly different, but it was great to see how they could all intertwine. I’m still left questioning the truth at the end and keep changing my mind, but this took a twist I did not see coming! The overall theme this novel presents is one I haven’t seen often in a thriller, which made for a nice change.

Tully and Rachel have never been close, but when their father announces he’s getting married to a women who is younger than both of them, while still being married to their mother, they find themselves closer than they’ve ever been. They still haven’t even begun to process the quick declining health of their mother to dementia. While they both continue to deal with their own secrets and troubles, they’re hesitant to get to know their soon-to-be stepmom. Rachel stumbles upon a secret big enough to uproot everything she’s even known to be true, but she isn’t even sure she can trust her own gut. She isn’t the only one hiding a big secret, but could there be something more sinister going on?

4.5 stars

I was so excited for this one when I got the chance to add it to my shelf and it did not disappoint. I was hooked from the prologue and couldn’t wait to see how it unfolded. This book is told from multiple points of view and although the chapters are short ( which I prefer anyway) you were still able to be invested in the character development. You were always left wanting more at the end of each chapter but then just as happy to start a new one and get back to another storyline. As always check the trigger warnings, but this was easily one of my favourite thrillers of the year. Thank you NetGallery for this eARC!

This was an amazing book that totally captured my attention. I loved the slow burn, alternating POV’s and multiple twists.