Nora's husband will disappears the morning after Nora throws him a birthday party. what has happened to will? Nora is determined to find out.

3.75 rounded to 4 stars

I love rich people behaving badly I’m a book, so this one was a good read! Set in a wealthy Florida community, Nora, a 28-year-old swim teacher, meets Will, a 46-year-old successful lawyer, when she helps his daughter at the club. A whirlwind romance ensues, and all is well until Will goes missing the night of his birthday bash. What happened to Will? The story is set in 2 timelines: “before,” giving a glimpse into Nora and Will’s relationship from the start, and “after” his disappearance. There are lots of characters, but I didn’t have issues keeping them straight. For some reason, parts of the book really seemed to drag for me; I can’t really figure out why, but it picked up the pace in the last hundred pages or so. The ending was a little predictable (and I don’t love when there is a lot of text explaining what happened- I feel like you should already know) and I think the younger broke woman/older rich guy trope is a little played out, but I enjoyed the book and would recommend it as a light, fun summer mystery.

Thanks so much to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book!

I really enjoyed this story. I love suspense and when it is so well done I cannot recommend it enough. This will definitely be one of those times. The plot was well written and the characters felt so real!

While well paced with interesting characters, I felt there were several missteps with plot decisions made which made it hard for me to end up loving the book. The end was a bit predictable as well.

I took a chance on this book and I really liked it! A fun domestic thriller (can domestic thrillers be fun??). The FMC turned out to be a really strong woman and that was huge for me. The ending was very satisfying!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This book's great pacing made things move quickly without losing the backstory. It was easy to keep up with the switches between past and present. There were just enough characters to make things interesting and colorful. This was a good story about wealthy people without making it a story about wealthy people. The final twist was unexpected but enjoyable. I look forward to their next novel.

Set in Winter Park Fl among the very wealthy, Nora gives her husband Will a 46th birthday party. He disappears that night so Nora and police are trying to find out where he is. Nora is only 28 so not accepted by the community. It is a really good suspense with a surprise ending. Explicit language.

Overall I enjoyed this book, although I felt like there were too many characters and I didn’t really get to know anyone as well.

Fast paced, easy to read and kept my attention!

If I could give this book ten stars, I definitely would. I could not put it down and kept telling myself "just one more chapter".. Well, that didn't happen. From the first page until the last, I was hooked. The characters were very relatable and well thought out and the plot, oh my, so good.. I'm not going to give the plot away, you'll just have to read Happy Wife for yourself.

I LOVED this book. I read 90% in one sitting, staying up way past my bedtime until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. Today, before I finished the last 10%, it hit me who the culprit was. I truly felt sad for Nora and couldn’t stop wishing she would get a different ending. I hope one day to read more of her story.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

This was a great read! For a book that was pretty shorty in pages length, it did take me a while to get through, though. I enjoyed the mystery but it wasn't the most thrilling book I've read, more like light suspense. Always love a good "rich people behaving poorly" trope mixed with a new younger wife/first wife feud! The PI element was fun and I actually liked Will a lot. Este was a great friend and I enjoyed all her funny moments.

“Happy Wife” by Meridith Lavender is a heartfelt, beautifully written story that captures the complexities of love, identity, and self-discovery. A quick yet powerful read—I couldn’t put it down!”

I’m a little jaded with suspense books, we’ve all read so many of them in the last few years, but this was a surprise from first page until last. I honestly did not put Happy Wife done and read it in one sitting. Greatly detailed and flawed characters were interesting and I was kept guessing to the end. Loved this book and will high,y recommends it.

Book review 📖

📜Happy Wife
✍️Meredith Lavender & Kendall Shores
📠Random House/Ballantine/Bantam
📚Mystery/Thriller Fiction
🗓️Pub date: June 24, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @randomhouse @ballantinebooks @bantambooksuk for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨Nora Davies doesn’t fit into her elite town of Winter Park, Florida. Working at a country club, she meets successful and recently divorced Will Somerset, and the rest is history, including the Cinderella-style wedding that follows.

✨The morning after a lush birthday party that Nora throws for Will, he is nowhere to be found. Messages and calls go unanswered. The neighbors in their uber-rich community have not seen him either.

✨Alternating narratives between Nora and Will’s rapidly budding romance and the lead-up to his disappearance, this book will have you racing to the finish line. A whodunit that will have you guessing at every turn.

✨I absolutely loved this book! The witty date-night banter between Will and Nora, the glitz of the uber rich sprinkled into an investigation, and the alternating timelines worked so well. Este wins friend of the year award (you never know when you’re going to need that friend to help you hide the bodies).
In all honesty, such an amazing domestic thriller—perfect for the pool or beach, and one you will be flying through. Read this now!!

#netgalley #happywife #meredithlavender #kendallshores #randomhouse #ballantine #bantam #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #summerreleases #thrillerfiction #readthisnow

Happy Wife was a great read. In a fairly common setup, a husband with a younger wife goes missing and we all have to decide who made him disappear. It was a little slower than I liked but the cast of characters all made excellent suspects. This would make an excellent TV miniseries! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Rich people are weird and this book proves it lol.

Happy Wife was such a wild ride in the best way. From the jump, I was hooked by Nora, a 28-year-old just tryna survive working at a bougie country club in Winter Park, Florida, and suddenly ends up married to a much older, recently divorced lawyer?? Like girl… what???

Their relationship is whirlwind-y and kind of fairytale-ish, but not in a soft and cozy way, more like a glittery, red flag parade you can’t look away from. Then Will straight-up disappears the morning after his birthday party (thrown by Nora, btw), and that’s when things really get juicy. The story flips between their romance and the aftermath of Will going MIA, and every chapter had me thinking I knew what was going on until nope, plot twist.

The social dynamics in this book were so entertaining. Think rich people being fake nice, PTA-level drama, and old-money gossip disguised as concern. I loved how the story picked at performative marriages, class divides, and what it means to be the “perfect wife” without trying too hard to sound deep.

My only complaint is that some parts dragged just a little and the ending wasn’t as explosive as I was hoping for. Still, the vibes? Immaculate. The characters? Messy in the best way. The tension? Perfection.

If you’re into mystery + domestic drama + watching the 1% eat themselves alive, this is definitely worth picking up.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for this ARC

Great job to both authors - Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores. This was a fast read full of mystery, suspense and a twist I was not expecting! I was so upset when Will went missing. Nora's life was just beginning to get better and then tragedy happens. Although I had an idea of who the culprit might have been, I did not predict the correct one. Never in a million years did I think it would be her!!

This was a great read although sometimes it felt like it was repetitive and dragged on a bit BUT the ending made up for it.

This was a 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for me! 😊

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from Random House via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. Honestly, this was kind of a lackluster thriller to me. It was slow and long. Many periods of not much happening, and a lot of the before seemed fairly irrelevant. I may be getting pickier, and also accustomed to more surprises, so I think I was waiting for some crazy reveal that didn't come.

What the author did well: the vivid descriptions of the insular and wealthy community. The character development was pretty decent also; we definitely get to know Nora and some of the supporting characters. On the other hand, some of the supporting characters seemed unnecessary (the rich lady who had an affair with the police officer, for instance).

Florida dramaaaaaaa! Even in books Florida is still Florida.

This story takes place in a very wealthy and small, tight-knot area of Florida (Winter Park) where a wealthy middle-aged lawyer goes missing.

This story mainly follows the trophy wife (not a gold-digger) of the missing lawyer as she tries to figure out what happened to her husband, following two different timelines. We see days leading up the him going missing and the days that follow.

This was a bit slowly-paced for a thriller, dragging at some point, especially when we meet new characters that I didn't find to be very important or fascinating.

The ending was satisfying, but I can see if being predictable for some readers. I know some people don't mind a super predictable ending, especially once you've read enough books in that genre (things can become predictable). It was a sensible ending, looking back at all the clues that lead to it, it was well done.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.