This was a really engaging, entertaining read. I’m trying to figure out what category it fits into; it’s categorized as “domestic suspense”. To me, it was equal parts mystery and family drama. It touches on anxiety, how much what happens in our childhood affects us as adults, and also asks the question of how well do you really know someone? It’s strange because even though it ended on a bit of a question (I’m trying not to give any spoilers), I felt satisfied with how the story wrapped up. There were also parts that made me laugh out loud and the family at the center was so relatable. I’ll end with a quote: “perhaps the very worst people still had some good in them. And perhaps the very best had some bad”.

Thanks to NetGalley for this copy! I really enjoyed it. I will post this review to my Instagram book blog soon!

Sally Hepworth has done it again. Told from three POVs - Tully and Rachel (sisters) and Heather (their soon to be stepmother, who also happens to be younger than them both) - we get a slow burn story of a family, centered around the patriarch, who the women all adore. Right?

The ending was INFURIATING (!!!), I want solid answers! But the more I think about it, the more I like that it leaves you wondering what the real story is.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well paced and the characters were fully formed. I would enjoy reading other work by this author in the future.

This book, about a father trying to get married (while his wife with dementia is still alive) was....fine. I wasn't blown away by it. It was VERY predictable, and the foreshadowing was silly and elementary. There was little actual suspense.

I was not a huge fan of the ending, and I think it actually did a disservice to survivors of abuse, but that's just me.

Stephen is marrying Heather, but he clearly can't because he is currently married to his first wife, his daughters mother. His first wife is in a memory care facility and he can easily divorce her. Of course, his daughter believe in "til death do us part" and can't get on board with this marriage.

Tully and Rachel do not trust Heather and know she's a gold digger. They keep putting in effort for their dad, but are convinced she is not right for him. When they get their mom from the care facility for family events, their mother seems worse off then they expected because she keeps eyeing their father as abusive and doesn't want to be around such a dangerous man. Of course, her daughters know the truth, that their parents had a perfect marriage. Or did they?

This book is filled with suspense. In the end, Stephen still loves his first wife enough to invite her to his second wedding. Is he hoping for one big happy family event? Is that what he gets?

If you're a fan of Liane Moriarty and haven't read any of Sally Hepworth's books yet, you will definitely enjoy them. Hepworth writes taut, fast-moving domestic suspense that will keep you interested in what happens to the characters. The present-day prologue in THE YOUNGER WIFE sets the stage for flashbacks to the past year in the various characters' lives, leading up to a satisfying conclusion.

This book is told through the perspective of two sisters and their fathers much younger fiancée.
The girls mother is in a care facility for dementia and starts having outbursts regarding their father that leads the sisters to question the type of man their father is.

This story grabbed me right away, but I was so let down by the ending.
…so let down

Sisters Tully and Rachel are blindsided when their father, Stephen, announces that he is getting remarried. Stephen is in his 60's and is still married to their mother, Pamela, who was recently placed in a nursing home for advanced dementia. Also shocking, Stephen's new fiancee, Heather, is younger than Rachel and Tully. Why would Heather want to marry an older man, if not for his money? As the sisters get to know Heather, their own personal secrets bubble to the surface and they start questioning their father's actions. Heather, also has her secrets, and isn't sure if she's making the right decision by marrying Stephen. Told from multiple perspectives, we know someone has been killed at Stephen and Heather's wedding, but who was killed and who did it? And what are the characters hiding?

Like Hepworth's other novels, the characters have complicated back stories that are slowly revealed throughout the story. I wouldn't call it a true suspense since the reader is clued in pretty early how the story is going to end. Im not sure how relevant some of the character's side stories were to the overall plot. I also think that there might have been too many issues tackled in one story with the abuse, rape, kleptomania, anxiety, and alcoholism.

Overall it was a quick read. I read it one night of insomnia. It's fairly fast paced with short chapters and not too many characters to keep track of.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for this advance reader's e-copy. This novel is set to be published in April 2022.

While I was worried about reading this with all the psychological and trigger warnings (binging/purging, gaslighting, physical abuse, psychological abuse, kleptomania, etc), this book ended up being FANTASTIC and I am so glad I stuck with it and finished it. Another "out of the park" book from Sally Hepworth.

Sally Hepworth is one of my favorite authors. All of her books have been fantastic but this new book is the best of them all for me. This book has suspense, family, love and forgiveness and is a real page turner with characters that I won't soon forget.

The novel begins at a wedding by an unknown narrator. It's a great beginning and sets the stage for the rest of the book. The story is told by three different women in alternating chapters that both give us their family history and current information in their lives.

The main characters are:

Tully and Rachel are sisters. They are close but still have secrets that they keep from each other. Tully is married with two children and she is a kleptomaniac - Stealing things not because she couldn't afford them but because it made her feel better. Rachel is a baker who is proud of the cakes she makes and decorates but she has a secret from her past that has kept her from trusting men.

Heather is the woman that Stephen plans to marry. She is the same age as his daughters and is trying to be accepted by them. She frequently drinks too much but is sure that Stephen will protect her and they will live happily ever after. The daughters are convinced that she is a gold-digger by wanting to marry a man who is so much older.

Stephen - a well respected doctor and father to Tully and Rachel. His current wife has Alzheimer's and is being cared for in a nursing home when he decides to divorce her so that he can get married again.

The three females who tell this story are keeping major secrets from each other -even Stephen has some secrets. When Rachel finds a hot water bottle filled with money in her mother's possessions, she and Tully start trying to find out the family secrets even though it may change their lives.

This book has it all - love, family, suspense and forgiveness. It's a book that you won't want to put down. The writing is wonderful and the story will introduce you to characters that you won't be able to forget. This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

When I think of a thrilling read, I think of books just like this one, that gives all the feels and can satisfies just about every reader's heart. This is a perfect books to snuggle up with on any day.

Grabbed me from the first chapter and kept me interested throughout! This is a great pick for fans of "Big Little Lies."

Stephen, in his sixties, introduces his two daughters to Rachel who is the same age the daughters are. The three women have issues and addictions. Stephen divorces his current wife who has dementia and plans to marry Rachel.

We follow the three women with their issues. We hear of a Fiona Arthur, who is she? Something happens at the wedding. What happened?

Great read with many questions asked throughout. Unusual ending. I liked the author’s note explaining how she came up with a plot point.

Many thanks to St. Martins Press and Netgalley!

Great book until the end! The ending was so abrupt and rushed I thought. All the buildup about the wedding fiasco and Fiona, and just really no solid good ending to all of it!

The beginning of this book sucks you in right from the beginning, but sadly it ends rather flat. I wish there had been more of a storyline with the younger wife and husband.

Thank you @netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first book by this author and I must say, it was okay. The premise sounded good so I decided to read it. The book started with suspense and had me wanting more. The characters were likable to a certain extent and some characteristics the author gave some of the characters didn’t quite fit the story in my opinion. I think some characters could’ve been left out. The plot was suspenseful. What I thought the outcome was going to be turned out to be much different. This one was an easy read but not explosive in my opinion. All in all, I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️

In The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth, a father’s engagement to a much younger woman leads his two adult daughters to shocking discoveries about the nature of their parents’ marriage and their father’s true character. The Aston family appears perfect from the outside. Stephen is a handsome and successful heart surgeon. Rachel has a successful home baking business. Tully is married to a lawyer, has two young sons and lives in a beautiful, dream home. Yet there’s a major source of sadness in their lives: their mother Pamela suffers from Alzheimer’s and has recently moved to a nursing home as her condition has deteriorated. She no longer remembers her family. To top things off, Stephen has divorced Pamela in order to marry the much younger Heather, the interior designer he and Pamela hired to renovate their home.

The story begins at the end. An unidentified older female narrator attends Stephen and Heather’s wedding. Pamela also attends and she wanders around during the ceremony acting oddly. After the ceremony concludes, the wedding party goes to another room to sign the registry. From that room, the narrator hears a young woman’s scream and “a dense, meaty thud.” We don’t find out what happened or the identity of the narrator of the initial scene until the end of the book. The rest of the story leads up to that moment.

It turns out that each family member has a secret that prevents them from living a full life. Rachel, Tully and Heather are the alternating POVs. Over the course of the novel, Rachel, Tully and Heather are each are forced to confront their secrets and work to move beyond them. In the meantime, Rachel discovers that Pamela hid a secret stash of money and tries to figure out why. She discovers that her father is not the man he appears to be.

I very much enjoyed this book, reading it in no time. I liked it a lot more than Hepworth’s previous book, The Mother-In-Law, which I enjoyed but thought had major flaws. The Younger Wife worked for me on every level. It’s a combination of mystery and family drama that works beautifully. The characters are complex and interesting and the relationship between the sisters draws you in. A big part of the book is the evolution of the sisters’ relationship with Heather, which starts out somewhat hostile but evolves into a friendship. The characters’ individual secrets are intriguing and plausible and it was satisfying to watch them deal with their issues and come out on the other side.

When we finally find out what lead to the scream at the wedding, I thought it made sense and was satisfying.

There were a few things I didn’t like but they didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. It was annoying to not know the identity of the mystery narrator at the wedding, who returns periodically to move the wedding scene along. That felt artificial and manipulative. I was also annoyed to never find out the villain behind Rachel’s secret. I suspected who it was but that was never confirmed, a major omission. Another minor complaint was that Rachel’s new delivery person seemed too good to be true but there was never any indication that he was anything other than what he seemed.

The characters were relatable, and getting insights to them with varying narratives worked well. The gray ending left the reader hanging, in my opinion, but I am sure that was the intent.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stephen Aston is getting married again. However he's still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he'll take care of that easily, by divorcing her. His adult daughters are not pleased.. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she's a golddigger and after their father's money. Heather has secrets that she's keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen. With their mother unable to speak for herself, 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. But will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses... in all of them?

Wow! I think this is the best book I have read by Sally. I love the pace of the story unfolding. The back and forth to the wedding and past was good. It kept me guessing. As far as the characters go, I did not like Tilly very much. As the book went on I liked her a little more. I really liked Rachel. She's easy to be drawn to. I was pulled into her individual story. I definitely recommend this book.

Big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! This book comes out in April 2022 and can be pre-ordered now.

This book will not disappoint! I stayed up late to finish this one. The characters had such different personalities and the story kept me hooked right up until the last page.