Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. The story was very drawn out and the massaging bits were confusing at times. This one fell flat with not much suspense.

For Worse was a book I was so excited to read. It was very slow to start and the suspense was lacking. I didn't feel that sense of foreboding or excitement, also it does take a while before anything truly happens.

Ellie has had enough. Her husband has outdone himself this time and she's determined to leave him...again. With help from an online forum of women, Ellie finds there might be a unique way to call it quits. Wowzer, this debut thriller was absolutely fantastic. I had no idea where the story was going to go and loved the unpredictability. With many intriguing characters and so much suspense, I can't wait to read what the author writes next!

Ellie is feeling hopeless, she wants to leave her super controlling husband but is having a hard time because her vision is going. That is the basic premise of For Worse by L.K. Bowen.

Ellie needs him to survive, to take her places, and to help her. Feeling like she may be able to leave this time, she joins a support group for divorced women over fifty, hoping to find friendship and support. And she does. She finds more than that.

I enjoyed parts of this book, but what did not draw me in as much was the chapters that are the messages from the chatroom, so much of the story takes place within the messages on the boards and I had a hard time focusing.

Here is the synopsis:

Ellie is leaving her husband … again.

After twenty-two years of marriage and an unsuccessful separation, she can’t take it anymore. On the surface, she has a picture-perfect relationship. Jeff has been a steadfast spouse. But what seems like loyalty is in reality an obsessive desire for control. Ellie is slowly losing her sight, which means she needs more and more assistance, and Jeff will stop at nothing to ensure she feels helpless and reliant on him alone.

Desperate to escape her psychologically abusive marriage, Ellie turns to an online chat room full of like-minded women in the throes of divorce. Despite their anonymity, these women quickly become Ellie’s closest confidantes. The chat room is a refuge, a place to which Ellie can retreat for solace and support.

Jeff continues to be manipulative and cruel, using Ellie’s failing vision to gaslight her into questioning reality itself. Desperate for freedom, she sinks deeper into the online world, and is drawn into the dark web, where she discovers a group of women with a shocking solution for ending a marriage.

This is out now!

Gosh. I so wanted to like this one, and while I'm thankful to the publisher, author, and Netgalley, this one wasn't for me.

…pulls the reader into a dark web of sinister plots for marital revenge.”
Don’t give up on this slow-burn suspenseful debut thriller because it will keep you alert as the story develops. There are several unexpected turns pulling you deeper into the dark web after Ellie seeks advice from a group of sarcastic women online.
Ellie has been married to Jeff for 22 years. She has suffered a degenerative eye disease which leaves her relying on her husband for help. With his gaslighting skills, he leaves her feeling incompetent with his constant control and questioning her capabilities.
I felt pity for her as she tries to leave but then returns to suffer more. His obsessive control drove me nuts.
Ellie was a believable and tough character. Excited this was a debut with superb writing.
Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this incredible ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Set in 2018, this is the story of a woman who’s had enough. Ellie and Jeff have been married for 22 years - they have a daughter in college, Hannah, and a very strained marriage. Jeff isn’t physically abusive, but his constant control and psychological abuse has pushed Ellie to the edge. She has a degenerative eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which allows her only see what’s directly in front of her, like a person looking through binoculars. Jeff constantly puts her down about it, gets angry when she runs into things, and seems put out when she needs help with things.

Ellie left him once before, got her own apartment and was living a happy life, but eventually she went back to Jeff and the misery that is her marriage. Not sure if she’s able to get the courage to leave a second time, she joins an online chat group called Divorced Women Over Fifty (DWOF). She meets a lot of women in her situation, but the revelation of an imposter in the group has her reeling. It’s then that the DWOF moderator sends her to the dark web.

After getting a VPN and a secret browser, she then heads to a group called I Am The Walrus (IATW). She starts chatting with a new, more rowdy group, when she finally realizes that this is a group of women who have killed or who want to kill their husbands. Is this the answer to her problems? Could she even go through with something like that?

I do have a few complaints about this book. The eye condition was a cool thing to add, but it also made things very convenient to explain. This woman goes to the dark web and then is shocked that there’s a group of killers? How clueless can a person be? The daughter really didn’t even need to be a character - I suppose it added a layer to the marriage, but she was hardly in the story. Finally, I figured everything out before it happened. Like, EVERYTHING, so I got no shocking surprises. There were some good parts; this was fast enough to read in a sitting, it kept me invested, and the Beatles references were awesome (each chapter is named after one of their songs). I don’t think I’d read it a second time, but this was a pretty decent book and I’d definitely try the author again! 3.5 stars, rounded up for being a debut.

(Thank you to Blackstone Publishing, L.K. Bowen and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on April 2, 2024.)

Thanks to #NetGalley and #BlackstonePublishingfor the book #ForWorse by #LKBowen. I loved this take on wanting out of a bad marriage. It’s was suspenseful, exciting and tragic. I love the chat room communications and the women involved with their lives and outcomes. It left me needing more!

A solid debut!! I thought the plot was well executed and the charcters uniquely curated. It didn’t take me long to get through it(about a day and half). At times it was hard to read due to content but other than that I thought it was a great fast-paced psychological thriller!

Solid debut thriller! Ellie is making her second attempt at leaving her marriage of 22 years. She has a degenerative eye disease and is slowly losing her sight and becoming more reliant on help to function in her world. Her husband, Jeff, is not the help she needs. He is emotionally and psychologically abusive, he gaslights her, and shockingly puts obstacles in her way, at home, knowing she is struggling to see. Ellie finds a supportive online chat group of other women experiencing divorce. She feels safe to share her woes with these other women. But Ellie will also discover a group of women on the dark web who inform her that there is more than one way to end a marriage. This book was impeccably plotted and pretty addictive to read. Thank you Netgalley, Blackstone Publishing and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on April 2, 2024

I reviewed this for Booklist and enjoyed it! It is a slow-burn thriller but is fast-paced, making it both engaging and terrifying for the reader. Ellie's sociopathic husband is truly frightening, and her journey to escaping him (or not?) is a wild ride.

A solid debut thriller! It did take a me a minute to get a good pace going on this one. It is a slow burn and I was thrown off a bit by the chat room part. I didn’t realize that they were still popular. Unless maybe on the dark web? Or gaming ? Anyway I think when this is finished some of the formatting issues will be tied up and it’s going to be easier to follow. I look forward to seeing what this author has in store for the future. Definitely on my radar

It’s hard enough to read a lot of ARCs because the formatting is a mess but it’s impossible when a book includes articles, texts, transcripts, and/or social media posts.

Ellie has had it with her overbearing and controlling husband Jeff. After one attempt of leaving him, she has been convinced to return, but still unhappy, seeks advice in an online chat room for divorced women. We follow her, in several timelines, from the time she first met Jeff, to the present, and her inner struggle of how and when to leave him, all the while chatting with her new group of friends, who seem to have her best at heart…or do they?

Since this was described as Wait Until Dark meets Gone Girl, I was expecting a thriller. Nothing really suspenseful happens until about halfway through, and it would have been better with some foreshadowing in the beginning, because I was wondering if this was just a domestic drama with a lot of chatroom text.

The writing is very good, it was cinematic, flowed seamlessly, and I enjoyed the humor and wit. The characters and relationships felt very real. I appreciated the representation of a main character with a disability, which is a major part of the plot. I also enjoyed all the Beatle song references in the chapter titles.

Important not to oversell this as a thriller, but it does have several twists and jaw dropping moments.

This is a well-written domestic drama with elements of suspense (but not a thriller), and some enjoyable twists.

Got this debut “thriller” from NetGalley and figured I could use a break from the crappy-rom-coms I had been reading recently. It was a risk. And I got a crappy-thriller instead.

I think this book would have been really good and groundbreaking back in 1999.

A 50-year-old woman has been married for 20-plus years and is intent on leaving her emotionally-abusive, gaslighting-asshole husband. Chapter perspectives vary between a divorced-women-over-50 chat room, the chick, her husband, and their adult daughter.

The anonymous chat room is the main focus here (hence, why I think this would have been better in 1999) and it becomes clear relatively early on that one of the chicks isn’t who she says (as well as who she actually is). Then things start happening IRL to the chicks and/or their husbands. Except, like, it GOES NOWHERE. Nothing happens. Certainly nothing thrilling or unexpected or interesting. Boo.

For Worse by L.K. Bowen is an intriguing and interesting debut title.
I enjoyed the compelling story and engaging characters.
I thought the writing was very well done and it’s a book that was brilliant from start to finish especially as it was a dark, and a gripping page turner that will have you gripped from the beginning till the end.

Thank You NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This was a slow burn with a bit of suspense towards the end. Most of this story entails a woman in her fifties struggling with the means and headspace to finally take that step towards divorcing her emotionally abusive husband. Told from both POV's, the reader is put smack dab in the middle of their roller-coaster of a marriage. I couldn't help but feel for the protagonist, having felt truly trapped myself in the past and the toll it takes on a person. This was a unique one that leaves its mark and takes what is a sad tale, and turns it into something sinister in its final pages. What really made this was not just the highly likable protagonist but the supporting characters whom she meets in a chat room for divorced women over fifty. They are brutally honest on their experiences and opinions and hilarious at the same time. I really enjoyed this one and give it four stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for this ARC.

I think this is a solid thriller for a debut author; I was sold on the premise almost immediately. The beginning felt a little rough and more of a romance than a thriller but it slowly morphs into being more suspenseful as we see through Elle's point of view how twisted her relationship really was. Once I got into the story I really enjoyed reading it and would definitely pick up this author's next book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy to read and review.

This book was hard to read, but very good.

Ellie is looking to leave her marriage after 22 years. But the psychological abuse is taking its toll. She's losing her sight, and her spouse is taking full advantage, spying on her, making her dependent on him, and setting booby traps in the house.

Ellie finds an online support group, but of course people online are not always what they seem. She gets drawn into the dark web and more unconventional support for ending a marriage.

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I'd like to rate this book 3.5 stars, which I'll round up to 4. It's a chilling, suspenseful, and well-executed psychological thriller that kept me on my toes. While it may not be quite reminiscent of "Wait Until Dark" or bear strong similarities to "Gone Girl," it offers a fast-paced and enjoyable domestic thriller experience, albeit with a slow start that initially resembles women's fiction and a deep dive into the dynamics of a marriage.

Now, let's delve into the heart of the story. Ellie's life takes a dramatic turn as she embarks on a journey to break free from a psychologically abusive marriage. At first glance, the narrative may not scream "thriller," but the meticulous exploration of Ellie and Jeff's complex relationship lays the foundation for an engrossing tale. The author carefully peels back the layers of their history, providing readers with valuable insights into the characters' psyches.

Jeff's character is masterfully crafted, and as we delve deeper into his psyche, our disdain for his controlling nature intensifies. The narrative also delves into the dynamics of other characters, particularly Hannah, shedding light on the challenges they face.

As the story unfolds and takes a darker turn, it is punctuated by unexpected revelations that ratchet up the suspense. While some of these twists may not be entirely surprising, they are undeniably satisfying, contributing depth to the plot. The true thriller elements of the story come to the forefront in the later chapters, transforming the narrative into an irresistible and gripping tale that keeps you glued to the pages.

The novel offers a meticulously crafted and mesmerizing read, complete with distinctive and intriguing characters. The plot is steeped in suspense, and the author's writing style is impeccable. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers that deliver unexpected twists and compelling character development, this book is a solid choice.

Overall, "For Worse" provides an engaging narrative that captivates you with its absorbing storyline. While it may not fit the typical thriller mold from the outset, the gradual buildup only adds to the overall depth of the tale. With its compelling characters, suspenseful plot, and the author's exceptional writing style, it forms an absorbing read that leaves you eager to explore more of the author's works in the future.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.