The Last Wife
J.A. Baker
Pub Date: Mar 27, 2023
Bold wood Books
Thriller
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion,
It took me awhile to get into this book, however, I really liked it.
This story has a creepy vibe to it. It is told in two parts. Part one is told by Fiona and the second part is from Multiple points of view. The locals know their secret?
5 stars

In The Last Wife, Neil and his wife move to Winters End hoping for a fresh start and to put the past behind them but things quickly begin to spiral and why are there no other wife's living in the street. A fast paced and riveting physcological thriller that I read late into the night with all the doors locked. It made me paranoid and gave me chills. The characters are all crazy and the settings described perfectly to make you feel like you are living the story.

A dark and extremely creepy story that makes compulsive reading. From the start, every character we meet made me feel uneasy and on edge. I was pulled in so deep I couldn't stop reading. This is my second @jabakerauthor and has added he previous books to my ever-growing TBR too.

Having to move to Winters End, a small isolated town, this should be a great time to have a fresh start. But when the locals aren’t welcoming Fiona goes out of her way to uncover the town's secrets.

This narrative was a slow start and I had to push through. But once I had this picked up and I could not put this down. There are so many strange and unsettling scenarios in this that it had an atmosphere of creepiness.

I wasn’t too keen on the character of Neil as I felt he was constantly in denial and this frustrated me but this simply added to the narrative. This novel is split into two parts with the first told from Fiona’s point of view and the second from multiple and again, this added to the narrative and atmosphere of the book.

Overall this was a great book but I would recommend to any reader that if you are struggling with the beginning keep going as it is worth it.

Extraordinary, simply extraordinary. The Last Wife starts out relatively calm and peaceful. You’re getting into the story, understanding the reasons why Neil and Fiona have taken the drastic move to a tiny island called Winter’s End. A few chapters in and you find you’ve edged forwards in your seat, read a few more chapters, you’ve edged forwards again and before you know it you have become that “Edge of your seat” cliché. Honestly though this really is edge of the seat stuff. You hit a certain point where you just want to yell at them to LEAVE! This place is weird, the people are weirder and boy does J.A.Baker know how to create a creepy character, a gripping plot and twists that you just wouldn’t believe.

I admired the tenacity of Fiona. She knew something was off and she didn’t want to just leave it. Why is she the only wife? where the heck have all the others gone? Were there any others?

Neil however wound me up for a good portion of the story as he was trying to see the good in everyone and everything. He was quite dismissive of Fiona’s feelings and just painted on a chirpy face. I feel deep down he did know that perhaps Fiona was right but he just couldn’t face any more upheaval after everything they’d given up to move to Creepy Ville.

The Last Wife will keep you awake till the wee small hours but it’s worth every single hour.

The title and cover design sparked my interest.

I was interested in the characters, and wanted to know what would happen to them. While this was a thriller, something about it felt comforting to read. I think that was to do with the setting - the cosiness of the setting felt like an escape to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Well, this was a humdinger of a very dark psychological thriller. Fiona & Neil have left the mainland to start again on a remote island in the North Sea. Winters End has few inhabitants & not many of them are friendly. Or female.

Told in two parts, our couple are confident that they have escaped their past & need only look forward. How wrong they are. This standalone is written in an atmospheric style & is almost menacing in its tone.

A very clever tale & had me doubting myself constantly. Highly recommended.

This was my first ever book by this author and I was pleasantly surprised! The writing, the deceptive language, and the mind games that are all wrapped up and all around in this book were fascinating. It is written in such a way that as you read you can’t help but wonder if the author has just taken you by the end, and you, an unsuspecting and trusting victim, are being led somewhere very, very much astray, but you realize it only when it is already too late.
Creepy, so creepy and so twisty, and full of crazy people – and makes you think twice for a few days after reading this book every time you look at those around you who you think you know. Do you REALLY know them?
I will be looking forward to more books from this author!

With so many disappearances, it’s hard for this little island not to be noticed. People in small towns stick together. So when she doesn’t get answers to her questions, Fiona knows something is very off. Is it just paranoia on Fiona’s part, or something much more?

This took me a hot minute to get into. Fiona’s ruminating got to be a bit repetitive, and I just wanted out with what she wouldn’t stop fussing about so we could get onto the storyline. But, alas, the reader finds out, and the storyline turns dramatic and a bit of a roller coaster.

I confess that I don’t know what the title has to do with the book. But I don’t judge a book based on the title, and this turned into a fun read. Baker is great at creating creepy vibes, not just with the island, but with the inhabitants as well. Once the storyline picked up, the pace was steady, which made for an enjoyable read.

This book definitely had you guessing what was going on. In my honest opinion, some scenes in this story were a bit long and I ended up skimming through those scenes. As for Neil, his character was a coward ignoring reality. The ending was disappointing to me. It left you with so many unanswered questions.

Fiona and her husband, Neil, are trying to start their lives over in a new area where no one will know about their past sins. They end up in Winter's End, a small island off the Baltic Sea. The only way on or off the isle to the mainland is by ferry. They were in such a rush to move, they didn't bother to research anything about the town. Fiona saw the house online and they both took the ferry to see the home; then they bought it. The next thing they did was get rid of everything they didn't need or had any use of; they had to downsize for their small two bedroom home.

Upon arriving, Fiona gets a terrible feeling about the Island, but as usual, Neil ignores her concerns. She's the realistic one of the couple. That's how he almost got them thrown into jail, because of his reckless spending. He always needed the newest and best of everything no matter the cost, let alone never wondered how they had the money to pay for things. Fiona was an accountant for a family owned company when she realized how much credit card debt he'd racked up for them, she started taking an extra $100 a week to cover the interest. Neil just saw money in the account and spent it before she even knew. He may have caused this problem, but she was complicit trying to keep them in their large home with the bills paid. In the end, after 3 years she'd stolen $60,000 dollars. They fired her and gave her a month to pay the company back instead of criminal charges. Neil, the coward, let Fiona take all the blame when they told their families because they needed to borrow money until their home sold. Her parents helped along with his sister, Kate; his parents turned their back.

Exiled by their families, having no one but themselves and their online jobs, Fiona starts noticing strange things. Their first day there, they get a letter of warning, telling them to go back where they came from with dog poop is thrown at their front door. Neil thinks that it's just kids doing pranks. That afternoon they meet a few people who warn Fiona to leave if she wants to survive.

When the couple go to the local pub, they tell her she's not welcome there and spills hot tea on her, before pushing her when a brawl breaks out. Neil still refuses to see reality. When Fi go out for a walk and loses time, Neil becomes frantic and goes looking for her; only to find something that makes him think differently about everything. He saw a woman dead in the sea. But everyone denies it. That's when she tells Neil everything she's found out from the local priest and an old lady down the street. There are no other women on the Island other than Fi, an 80 year old lady-Honnie, and a crippled woman living with a lovely man. But there are other concerns like the cemetery is full of women and very few men, all recently dead in the past year. Then there are the benches that surround the Island, each one has a gold plaque to remember the women "lost" at sea or dead because of an accident.

When Fiona doesn't come home from visiting Honnie one day, Neil panics. He knocks on everyone's door asking for help and they all ignore him; refusing to open the door. His "pals" want nothing to do with him. That's when he realizes that everything Fiona had said to him about the Island was true. Used to having his wife take care of everything, he's on his own and doesn't know what to do.

Can he put together the clues in time to find her? Or will his ignorance of life be his downfall?

Neil and Fiona have moved to a remote island called Winters End in the middle of the North Sea. They are escaping some things that Fiona did to pay for what Neil had done. They live in a small home and both have jobs working remotely.

They soon realize that there are only men at the pub and other places. Touring the cemetery, Fiona sees a number of graves of young women who have died in the last 2-3 years and she is very curious about it. She meets the priest of the local church and asks questions that he seems uneasy to answer. He suggests she meet an older woman who’s family has lived on the island for generations. She seems to know a lot but is hesitant to say too much. But Fiona is determined to find out where the women have gone and why. She doesn’t want to be the only wife on the island.

At first, this story seems to be about a woman who is fretting too much about her new home and I couldn’t help but think she was just looking for controversy. I was so wrong! The more Fiona probes, the more danger she stirs up until there is a dreadful event!! Wow! This was scary and it makes me wonder if some people are born evil or their lives turn them that way. Don’t miss this one!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I did enjoy this thriller that's set in a small island setting. The atmosphere is richly described and opens the story to many eerie possibilities. The characters do feel real, their emotions feel real and honest. And there is a nice buildup to the story, it drags you in bit by bit. For me, it wasn't an instant hook into the story, so the prelude didn't really grab me, but the first few chapters slowly grabbed my attention as the atmosphere of the island came to life.

The writing is a little wordy at times. A lot of my favourite authors are wordy writers, so I can forgive that. However, I did catch a few times in the book were the wordiness was basically repetition of a thought or a description. This happened more in character internal monologues. Those moments did pull me out of the book sometimes. Fortunately, the atmosphere of the island drew me back into the story quite quickly. But I do wonder if some readers will be put off by the wordiness, for while it's used to give more depth to a character's state of mind, it can also hold up the story a little.

Many interesting, and chilling, characters await you on this island. They are not a welcoming bunch, and that adds to the atmosphere. It may not be the intention of the author, since this is set after Covid, but when reading this story it transported me into the thrillers of the nineties. The atmosphere, the people, the situations, had that feel for me. I loved nineties thrillers, so maybe that's a bonus!

The conclusion of the book felt a little underdone, especially compared to the rest of the book. I do think people will find it a satisfactory ending, but there are elements that are skipped over that I wish were more detailed.

Overall, I did have fun reading this, so thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a free copy of the ebook for an honest review. All views are my own

This book was so good! At first I thought it was going to be like every other thriller, but it changed my mind. It was very dark and creepy, and I read it in one day. I loved it!

This book has such an intriguing cover and it caught my attention right away. Flowers on a path leading up to a lighted house surrounded by dark. You know something bad is going to happen. A husband and wife try to start a new life on a tiny island. The residents are not welcoming, especially to women. A closed island mystery, the couple must both heal their relationship and find out what is going on with the island. I loved the author’s descriptive writing style. I could picture to scenes playing out and feel the emotions of the characters. A great story!

I have read quite a few books from this author before and again this is another good one. Set on an island off the N.E. coast of England, her description of the very changeable weather on an island is so lifelike that you are there with the characters. It slowly builds and builds and as the reader you are constantly trying to figure out what is going on, what has been going on and who is responsible for it all. Great page turner and great read too.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC to review.

This was much darker than previous books I’ve read by this author and that’s not a bad thing, in fact I found this an addictive read and finished it in a day. Very descriptive it’s a bit of a slow burner as we find out why Fiona and Neil left the mainland under a cloud to live on a remote island called Winters End, which only has around 100 inhabitants. Told mainly from Fiona’s POV and in two parts, the second of which is much faster paced and tense.

Briefly, having arrived at their new home Fiona and Neil are confident that they have left their troubles behind them and life will be good. They are soon disabused of that notion when the locals seem very unfriendly, particularly towards Fiona, and they are warned they should leave the island. But then Fiona realises there are very few women on the island. Why?

This was really quite dark and spooky and I found it difficult to work out just what was going on and why no one would tell them why they should leave. There were so many possible suspects and I didn’t guess the big reveal. I thought this was a very good and original story and I enjoyed it a lot.

Fiona and Neil have moved to the small offshore island of Winter's End. They are trying to make a new start after a life changing incident. Although cautious about this complete change, they are both willing to embrace a new way of life and get to know the locals. Unfortunately the majority of those on the island prove to be unfriendly and they also begin to receive notes warning that they should leave.

Well, this story, written from multiple viewpoints (although mainly from Fiona's) is definitely one which will keep the reader on track and turning pages. Although at times I found Fiona's narrative slowed things down slightly, it was more than compensated for by the sinister atmosphere created as events progressed. The islanders, with one or two exceptions, were a thoroughly nasty lot. Fiona is curious about the number of women buried in the local churchyard and that curiosity leads her into dangerous waters.
The Last Wife is a gripping and at times scary psychological tale and definitely one I would recommend to lovers of this genre.
My thanks to Netgalley, J A Baker and Boldwood Books for an ARC of The Last Wife in exchange for an honest review.

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This crime thriller is set on a remote island off the north-east coast of England. It follows Fiona and Neil as they have just bought a cottage on the island looking for a new start.

They both have a past they are trying to escape but as they explore the island, Fiona feels as if they are not wanted.

Investigating further she also realises there are not many women on the island.

What are they running from? Will they survive their new life on the island?

I found this crime thriller a little creepy and mysterious, with how Fiona feeling she was not wanted, and how the island’s inhabitants were very distant with them.

Fiona is a strong woman character, as she tries to unravel the truths behind the secrets of the island. She is keen to start a new life, so nothing gets in her way.

It seems like it could be quite lonely in this kind of environment especially when the people around you are acting as cagey as these characters were.

Overall, a creepy, mysterious crime thriller where a woman realises, she may be the last wife on the island.

Winters end should have been the perfect place for me and my husband Neil to start again. To leave the terrible secrets and guilt of our pasts far behind us. But from the moment we arrived in the small, isolated community, it becomes clear to me that we are not welcome here. That someone wants us to leave. I'm certain everyone knows our secrets - knows who we really are. But how can that be? Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me. Just like before.

It did take me a little while to get into this book, but once I was in, I was hooked. Fiona and Neil move for a fresh start to try and forget their pasts. But there aren't many women live on the secluded island called Winters End. Fiona soon starts to get letters advising her to leave the island before it's too late. The story has a creepy vibe to it. It's also told in two parts. Part on is told from Fiona's point of view. The second part is told from multiple points of view. My only criticism is that I wish that we had been told more about the townsfolks strange behaviour. That would probably have made this a 5 star read.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #BoldwoodBooks and the author #JABaker for my ARC of #TheLastWife on exchange for an honest review.

A mind-blowing dark thriller...

The married couple Fiona and Neil left their well-paid career and moved to an isolated island in North Sea called Winters End. Winters End should be their new page of life to leave their old, dark and secretive history. Sounds exciting, right? However, when this couple arrived to Winters End, Fiona felt something strange. She was trying to convince Neil but Neil did not show his interest but rather thought Fiona has been worrying too much.

Fiona noticed there were missing residents and visitors, mainly women. She did not feel welcome in this new place and she knew other residents were talking behind her. Until Fiona found out the monster...

I enjoyed the Fiona POV in Part 1. It had a slow start at the beginning but it picked up the pace in Part 2 which turned the thriller into a page-turner. If you are looking for a dark thriller to read, this should be stay on you TBR!