Cover Image: The Ex-Wives

The Ex-Wives

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Member Reviews

Well, you can certainly tell that Elana hasn't read many domestic thrillers. If she had, she would have recognized that her white knight in shining armor whose family pretty much runs a small town is probably not everything he presents himself to be. But by the time she realizes it, she is stuck. I was incredibly annoyed by how often she used love to explain away red flags. As a reader of a lot of domestic thrillers, everything felt very predictable.

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The description of The Ex-Wives had me intrigued. Elana is living the perfect life since marrying Jackson. He just wants to look after her and keep her safe. He buys her clothes, tells her she doesn't need to work and buys her a fancy car so he knows where she is at all times. He just omitted to mention his two ex-wives. When she tracks down the ex-wives they both have a story to tell which strikes fear into Elana's perfect life.
It completely grabbed me and had so many twists and turns it kept me guessing all the way through and I did not see that ending coming at all! I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

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Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great thriller, full of suspense and twists and especially turns. A recommended read.

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Not much I need to say about this book other than just....... Read It!!!!
I'm a harsh critic and very rarely give a 5 star review but I cannot find fault here at all.
It's a perfect edge of your seat page turner that will have you losing sleep as you'll want to read "just one more chapter".
A perfect thriller from #JennaKernan who has just gone to the top of my list of favourite authors.
#NetGalley #TheEx-Wives

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A gripping tale of what happens when you realise you don’t really know the person you married and about the strength of maternal love and how far a mother will go to protect her child. Really enjoyed this one. 5 stars!

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After Elana’s husband died in a tragic accident it left her alone with small daughter Phoebe and a continually mounting number of bills. Then she meets Jackson Belauru. Wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, after a whirlwind courtship she becomes his wife. It’s a dream come true. Marriage to a wonderful man who loves her and with a secure future for herself and for Phoebe. But she soon discovers it comes with a price. Because soon Jackson reveals his true nature. He is not only a nasty controlling individual, he seems to delight in psychological abuse. Jackson has been married twice before, to women with a child from a previous relationship, and after the divorce both children disappeared. They have neer been found. Fearful of what is in store for Phoebe, Elana plans her escape, but things don’t quite go to plan.

This is an excellent thriller. It delves into some dark topics and puts Elana through many unpleasant and impossible situations. Jackson is an absolute monster, a man who, along with his two brothers, was abused by his own father. Will she manage to escape and make a new life for herself and Phoebe far away from Jackson’s control? Well you’ll need to read it to find out. Having done just that, I can highly recommend it.. It’s compulsive page turner and gets a big four stars from me.

My thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Jenna Kernan for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This book had me hooked from the first page! I read the book in two days and couldn’t stop until I was finished! One of my favorite thrillers I have read this year! I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Oh SNAP!!! Jenna Kernan’s latest twisted Domestic Thriller NEEDS to be made into a Netflix series!!! So often I wonder how authors especially in this genre come up with their inspiration to create these stories. This is one of them where I would love to pick her brain!! I absolutely loved it and couldn’t get enough! You must go out and pick up this book. It is incredibly addicting, fast paced, oh so twisted, intense, action and drama packed.

Jenna once again reminds me why I am so thankful for being single and having no contact with my ex!! Oh Jackson was a sick, twisted, dark, controlling, and a purely evil man. So many times he pissed me off to the max and found myself yelling at my Kindle!

Oh ex’s are ex’s for a reason and if someone warns you about your soon to be husband you should RUN!!

Jenna incorporated a very interesting storyline focused around the Meninites. This aspect of the story was very educational.

This book had a little bit of everything for everyone!

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A slow build to the end.

The book starts out quite slow, and it takes a while to go anywhere. Having said that, once things start moving, you will find yourself unable to put the book down. The ending is explosive and worth the dragging parts of the story.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are
my own.

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This book was amazing ! I loved the whole marriage is forever vibe. I could not put this down . Definitely a 5 star for me. If you are into thrillers and mystery this is a must read

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This is a really fun thriller!
Elana is a widow with a young girl to raise. When she meets and marries Jackson, she thinks she’s finally catching a break. But she quickly realizes that her husband is not the amazing catch that she thought she landed.

This one has lots of fun twists, and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my complimentary review copy.

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There are many things to like about "The Ex-Wives." I primarily read thrillers and don't think I've seen Mennonite or Mennonite-adjacent characters. I thought many characters were unique and weren't your typical thriller characters. The book started to feel too long about 75 percent into it, and one character's actions/dialogue didn't make sense to me. Thanks for the advance review copy.

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My heart stopped a few times while reading this domestic thriller. THE EX WIVES by Jenna Kernan tell the story of a fairy tale gone wrong. What do you do when the man you married turns out to be a monster? Read THE EX WIVES to find out what one desperate mother will do to save her daughter.

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Tight, tense and suspenseful all the way through! Covering a difficult subject with many moving parts, we are treated to what terror feels like. Very good read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

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The Ex Wives is a tense domestic thriller. It absolutely gripped me and I read it less than 24 hours. No mean feat given how crazy my week was last week.

The main character, Elena, left me pleading for her to run after so many red flags kept rearing their head. I knew that when she was trying to escape only part way through, it wouldn't be that easy and I was rooting for her to get herself and her daughter out of such a situation. I had an absolute hatred for the husband, knowing sadly a lot of his actions were something that type of awful person would do. The power and manipulation he had over Elena, his family and the whole town in general had me fuming.

Due to the sensitive topics throughout, please check trigger warnings before adding to your TBR

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Loved this book. Got me gripped from the start and such a great crime mystery with lots of twists and turns and at the end of each chapter I just want to read on, could not leave this book down. So well written and such a great story and very well told and the story just unfolds page after page with a great end. Would really highly recommend this book as a fantastic read.

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The Ex-Wives by Jenna Kernan is a tale of two halves of a psych thriller.
Let me try to explain.
Elana is an interesting character. It’s obvious she is desperate by nature, which causes her to make some bad decisions. But she really has no idea how bad her choices are.
Until one day, she does. And she makes a decision to extricate herself from a dangerous situation. What follows for the first half of the book is a cat-and-mouse game of Elana trying to leave and her husband foiling every plan.
Does he do so knowingly, or is it coincidence and he’s just that controlling? You’ll have to decide for yourself.
The second half of the book ramps up the tension and the pace. The reader feels Elana’s urgency as the danger she is facing becomes more constant. At more than a few places, it appears that Elana will never escape.
I don’t want to give anything away (I say that a lot, I know), but the author does create a satisfying narrative that will keep the reader turning the pages, especially in the second half of the book.
I am not bothered by most things – I can remove myself from a fictional book and read “from a distance.” However, it should be mentioned that this psych thriller is heavy on the psych. And that comes in the form of extreme psychological abuse. There are also themes of spousal and child abuse.
Fair warning.
Ultimately, The Ex-Wives is a story about resilience and finding strength in the face of looming danger when the people you love most are threatened. Jenna Kernan has crafted a discomfiting tale.

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The Ex-Wives is a thrilling domestic thriller. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors. Jackson puts on his "party manners" for the world around him to see. However, nothing can be further from the truth. He wants you to see that he is charming, kind, loving to his wife and her daughter. In reality he is cruel, controlling, deceptive and abusive. Elana marries Jackson blind to the truth. In spite of being warned the night before the wedding she marries Jackson only to find out she has made a huge mistake. Elana does not know where to go for help.

The FBI comes to the house to question Jackson and Elena. She finds out that Jackson has been married to two other women each with a daughter that ends up missing. As Jackson becomes more obsessive about Elana, he is tracking her every movement by her phone and cameras throughout the house. At one point Jackson reveals to her if she ever leaves him, she will never see her daughter again. Realizing she can't put her daughter at risk, she takes counter measures to let everyone know the truth. One night everything escalates as she provokes Jackson, but will she be able to get out alive and keep her daughter safe.

Elana has no one to turn to not even the authorities. The whole town seems to be corrupt and under Jackson's control. This setting was perfect for this domestic abuse, isolating Elana so she would have no one to help her. This was a hugely intense drama. I liked how the story kept building until the twist at the end. This is a situation no one wants to find themselves in, but Elana decides to turn the tables and we can't help but root for her so she can extricate herself from this horrible life. While the subject matter is horrible this is wonderfully written, and the characters are well fleshed out. You can just feel how trapped and miserable Elana and her daughter are. Looking forward to reading more from Jenna Kernan.

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Firstly, credit to anyone who can craft a story, put it in writing and get it published, especially a thriller which has so many twists. That said, this wasn't my favorite. The storyline had potential. Controlling abusive new husband, with a dangerous past littered with missing children and unexplained "accidents". There were enough dramatic twists and turns to keep me reading on and the plot had good momentum.

However, I had two main issues. One, the characters felt like stereotypes with very little depth to them. The main character, Elana, comes across as weak and a bit hopeless. The husband - all knowing, all powerful and all cunning. I struggled to find them credible.

Second, I found the writing very repetitive. It’s like the author wanted to make sure we didn’t forget certain key details and took every opportunity to remind us. Yes, we know Elana came form a poor background. Yes, we know she needs to escape and is counting the minutes. Yes, we understand her daughter's safety is paramount and driving every decision etc Even allowing for the obsessive internal thoughts of a paranoid women, it was too much. In a nutshell, it was gripping enough, but not rushing to recommend.

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I normally don't read psychological thrillers because I don't really like to be scared, but I couldn't pass this one up. Our heroine, Elena, is married to the perfect man- a man who gives her everything she could ever want and cares for her 7 yr old daughter as his own. Only after the wedding does she begin to realize how abusive and controlling Jackson really is. Just as she begins to work up the courage to leave, Elena learns that Jackson has been married and divorced twice before, and that shortly after those women left him, their own daughters disappeared. Realizing that there's no way that she can outrun Jackson and keep her daughter safe, Elena must instead try to outmaneuver him.

This book definitely captured my attention, I couldn't stop reading! The ending seemed rushed, though. It left one important question/relationship unresolved, and introduced another character unnecessarily in the final pages. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this read! My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read, rate, and review this ARC. #TheExWives

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