What a wonderful debut. HAPPY WIFE is a fast paced story that kept me engaged and entertained. There are some great twists which surprised me. I would recommend this book.


Many thanks for my gifted copy.

This was a fast-paced book, centered on Nora, who is hoping to increase her standing in the community after marrying a much older and wealthy man named Will. She is under pressure to gain some respect from Will's inner circle by throwing him a birthday party, which goes well until Will seemingly disappears after. While the entire book is told from Nora's POV, it alternates between the present timeline and various times within their romance that led up to this point.

Nora is a believable character, though the whole romance might make you suspend your disbelief a bit. I liked the way we got to know her better through the events of the past, though I do wish we could have gotten to know Will a bit better too from those flashback chapters. There was also something about them only having been together for a year that didn't quite sit right with me- it felt like it should have been longer. The mystery in the book moves quickly, though there were definitely things that came up at the end that I thought could have been solved earlier. I appreciated the authors giving us a choice of red herrings as we tried to figure out what was going on with Will. The end of the book was a little abrupt, but I thought it worked with the rest of the story.

Overall, fast read with a decent mystery, though not sure how much it will stand out after I move on to other books. Worth a read, though. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked from the beginning. The MCs are really enjoyable. The plot is full of twists and turns and definitely has summer vibes. I love a book with secrets and this novel definitely had some juicy ones. Thank you to the authors, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC of Happy Wife.

The only reasons why this book didn’t get a 5th star from me was the fact that it was very heavy on the Florida wealth multiple times throughout which seemed a little unnecessary and the relationship between Nora and Marcus was a little off for me. But those factors in no way deter me from sharing it with others and reading this again in the future and 🫶🏻

Add this to your vacation TBR! Happy Wife is a fun, twisty ride full of messy characters, country club drama, and red-flag relationships you can’t look away from.

Nora, a 28-year-old working at a bougie Florida club, suddenly marries an older lawyer—then he vanishes after his birthday party. From there, it’s secrets, gossip, and plot twists galore.

It slows down a bit toward the end, but overall it’s an easy, entertaining read perfect for poolside or beach days.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam for the ARC!

I inhaled this book! It was so fun and twisty and suspenseful and perfect for summer!

It had short chapters, a current timeline and a past timeline, a very likeable FMC, and lots of rich, secretive characters. The atmosphere and the plot had me so INVESTED.

This comes out at the end of the month, and you’ll need this on your summer tbr, because this is the perfect beach read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

Loved this drama crime book. Excellent characters you could see in real life. Way too much money, but it’s ok to dream. Overall, writing was good. Couldn’t wait to read this book.
Thanks to author, publisher and netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. Twisty domestic suspense that was juicy and kept me engaged. Fast read.

I actually loved this one- very gone girl, but kind of easy to get the twist early on. There were a few things that threw me off and made it interesting. There are multiple timelines adding to the mystery, and I actually really loved the main character. This one was a super fast read and was well written.

2.5 stars

Main Characters:
-- Nora – 28 years old, married to Will for less than a year, they met at the country club where Nora worked when she helped Will’s daughter Mia, has not been accepted as a part of the wealthy community in which they live
-- Will – 46 years old, wealthy attorney, well-loved in the community, father to Mia, owns a law firm with Fritz
-- Este – Nora’s best friend, married to Beau, lives next door to Nora and Will, also not very accepted in their community but she doesn’t care what other residents think of her
-- Autumn – event planner for high-end events, Nora hired her to plan Will’s birthday party
-- Fritz – Will’s law partner, he and Will went to law school together and inherited Fritz’s father’s firm
-- Constance – Will’s ex-wife, does not like Nora, has lost her “standing” in the community since divorcing Will
-- Marcus – local chef, owns a restaurant, good friends with Este and Beau

This story starts well. As it begins, Nora plays hostess to her first social event as Will’s wife, having hired the local event planner to organize a party for Will’s 46th birthday. The party doesn’t go off perfectly. Someone spills red wine on Nora’s white dress. Will and his business partner Fritz are overheard arguing.

By the end of the night, Will and Nora head to bed happy when Will gets a call from his 14-year-old Mia. She left her favorite sweatshirt on the boat at the dock. Can Will get it for her? Will tells Nora to head up to bed and that he’ll be right back, and she falls asleep before he returns.

The next morning, Nora assumes Will left for work early. When she doesn’t hear from him for a couple of days, she’s angry that Will didn’t have the courtesy to let her know but assumes that he is again embroiled in work. It’s not until Fritz shows up at their home to complain that Will missed an important meeting that Nora realizes something is wrong.

Nora narrates the whole story, beginning with the night of the party, flashing back to meeting Will and the development of their relationship, and taking us through the investigation into Will’s disappearance. There is actually a lot to like about this story.

Will is relatively recently divorced. He meets Nora under not-so-ideal circumstances when Mia gets into a bit of trouble at the country club. He seems a little unsure how to pursue Nora, but there is clearly an attraction. I really enjoyed the flirtation between Will and Nora–even after they marry. They’re still pretty much newlyweds the night of the party.

“So how does it feel to be forty-six?”
“You mean officially closer to fifty than forty? Will you still love me when I’m fifty-six?”
“Of course”
“If my hair goes gray?”
“Salt and pepper hair? Sexy.”
“What if I start getting little white hairs in my ears?” he continues.
I feign disgust, pretending to gag. “Oh, ick. You really know how to flirt with a girl.”
He turns toward me, amused. “I didn’t know we were flirting.”
“Well, we’re certainly not now.”

I also like that there are a lot of characters who could be suspects. The authors did a great job creating suspicion over the course of the narration. As we learn more about Nora and Will’s relationship, we discover the cracks between the two of them as well as issues in other relationships with people outside of their marriage. I made a number of assumptions that were very wrong, which is really what I want in a thriller or suspense novel. I want to be surprised at the end.

That said, what really knocks the rating down for me is the pace of the story and some pieces of the investigation that I find hard to believe. In terms of pacing, again, it starts well. We know about 10% into the book that Will’s absence is suspicious. The back and forth between Will and Nora’s past and present helps build suspense…to a point.

I found myself about halfway through the book thinking it was just taking too long. Nora mentions early on in the book that Will regularly would disappear for days at a time, staying in a hotel buried in work. It makes it feel like Nora and Will have been together for several years at least, but it turns out they haven’t even been married for a year after a short courtship. How does she know what’s “regular” when they haven’t really been together that long? In fact, when Nora describes Will’s focus on work, she’s always walking by his home office. She never mentions him not being home for days at a time.

Almost every flashback reminds us what an outsider Nora is in the high-profile community. If the authors had opted to just change the timeframe completely, I think it would not have felt so drawn out. Start with the party and Will’s disappearance, shift to Will and Nora’s first meeting up to the present day, and then continue the story after the disappearance. I think this would have laid the groundwork better.

Because the book is only from Nora’s point of view, we don’t see anything related to the investigation unless it directly involves Nora. That drags things out a bit as well. A dual point of view might work better here. Maybe some of the backstory could have been from Will’s perspective. And I definitely feel like some of the investigation could have been told from the detective’s perspective without spoiling the mystery of what happened.

Finally, the resolution comes so close to the end of the book that it feels rushed. And without spoiling anything, I’ll just say the pieces of evidence that solve the mystery seem like things that would have come up a lot earlier in the investigation. It’s almost like they are included at the end just to create suspicion on multiple people that wouldn’t be suspicious if they were brought to light sooner. That feels like a bit of a cop-out to me, and the book overall is a miss. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Winter Park, Florida is the condensed setting of this mystery of a disappeared husband and how the wealthy cover the truth of nasty situations. Winter Park as a small wealthy community in the middle of the state is a nice zag from the usual Florida settings on the wealthy east coast. Nora Davies is an outsider and the new young wife of a wealthy lawyer who disappears. The elites suspect her of foul play and she is determined to figure out the truth. There are some mystery tropes to work through such as being stalked by a car, a corrupt police officer and a jealous ex-wife. There are some moments of hard-to-believe-they-are-doing-this when Nora and her best friend blow off steam with lattes, pilates and lots of wine. What really happens is a fine mystery but readers have to soldier through some silliness to get the result. Overall, Nora is a likeable character who we end up hoping she finds her best solution.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

-Murder
-Social Dynamics
-Wealth
-New Wife
-Florida

I ❤️ this book!

No spoilers here!

Nora Somerset went from being a swim instructor at the local country club to the new wife of Will, a charismatic and ultrawealthy lawyer in his mid-40s. Nora is in love with Will which makes navigating the sometimes difficult upper class and the obnoxious ex-wife and her difficulty moving on worth it.

After Nora throws Will “the party of the year” for his birthday, Will has gone missing and as time goes on and foul play is suspected both the ex-wife and the new wife are second guessing each others involvement. What happened to Will?

I know what happended to Will and I absolutely loved the big twist at the end - but you need to read this great novel to find out too! 

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this digital ARC! I absolutely loved it and I highly recommend this novel! Pre-order it in your carts now! Publication date: June 24th

Nora is the younger second wife of wealthy lawyer Will living a posh gated community in Florida. While dealing with the social politics of being the second wife in their social circle and trying to fix the cracks in her marriage Will goes missing. I liked this book it was a quick and entertaining read and kept me guessing about what would happen next. I think the character of Nora was well written and I liked her a lot more than I was expecting to going in. This as a 3/3.5 star read for me. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for honest review.

This was a nice fast paced thriller that kept me guessing the whole time. Really enjoyed the friendship between Nora and Este.
The other rich friendships tend to be fake theirs was real. Perfect summer thriller to read. Thank you to Ballantine and Netgalley for this ARC.

Even though all of Winter Park (Esme and Beau excluded) speculated on the happiness of Will and Nora's marriage due to the age discrepancy and her being the second wife, I truly believed that they were in love. Yes, there was opulence and Nora appreciated that she could go into a grocery store and buy whatever she wanted, but they both just wanted to be together. That is why they went to a bar for their first date. Why Nora treasured the paper straw that Hot Mean Lawyer put on her finger. I also thoroughly enjoyed the banter between herself, Esme and Beau. It was absolutely hilarious. Due to an unfortunate turn of events that changed Nora's life forever, she was determined to find out who did it and why. How Will was connected to Dean. Why Fritz and Will's relationship turned fractious and Will started working longer and longer hours. Will's lawyerly instincts won at the end as to determine who performed this terrible crime and why. The epilogue really tied everything together and Nora remained strong and ready to pursue her next steps in life. As she said, it would have been what Will wanted.

Such a fun one! If you like rich people behaving badly, definitely check this one out. You have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but this was a fun popcorn thriller, perfect to throw in your pool bag!

very good and funny! I also liked the romance even with age gap. It was interesting to see how this would play out

I received a copy for review and all opinions are my own. This book is a new favorite of mine! So many twists and turns at each chapter that I could barely put it down. Beautifully written in a way where it keeps you guessing but still gives you enough character development to try to guess where the story will go next, Happy Wife is a juicy thriller and a great summer read. I really enjoyed Nora’s personality and her friendship with Este. What a great summer read!

First of all, this reader loves it when an FMC turns out to be a strong baddie!
I liked the coupling of Will and Nora more than I thought I would. I typically love an age gap. This one was a pretty decent age gap (20 years), but I was able to look past that significant gap and enjoy them as a couple.
Will is a millionaire. Nora is a receptionist at a museum. So very different worlds.
Nora is working at a swim club and ends up dealing with Will's kid, Mia, and alcohol.
Nora meets Will when she delivers Mia to her Dad. They both have that spark, and very quickly, a relationship blooms, and BAM - he proposes.
As I stated earlier, the two come from different worlds, and Nora doesn't exactly fit in with the country club folks and has difficulty finding her place in that world.
The social dynamics in this book are exactly what you would expect.
Enter Constance, wife number 1, who is a horrible person!
Will disappears. Then we are taken on a ride to find out who killed Will.
A whodunit situation.
Our girl Nora has to step up and take her place. A coming into her own of sorts.
Has some twists and turns.
The plot structure is well done, and for the most part, the pace was great. I had a few places that I felt dragged out a bit, but the author quickly recovers.
Characters are fairly well-developed.
This is a great pool or beach read.
Add this to your summer TBR!
Happy Reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Nora Davies, 28, doesn’t fit into the wealthy world of Winter Park, Florida. She works at a country club and leads a quiet life—until she marries Will, a 46-year-old well-known lawyer who is recently divorced. Their sudden marriage doesn’t sit well with his ex-wife Constance, his law partner Fritz, or many others in town.

When Will disappears the morning after his birthday party, Nora quickly becomes the prime suspect—because, of course, it’s always the spouse, right? Fritz takes control, telling her to keep quiet and let the police handle the investigation. As rumors spread and pressure mounts, Nora realizes the only way to prove her innocence is to uncover what really happened.

This classic whodunit kept me guessing until the very end, making the twists even more enjoyable. It was my first book by Lavender and Shores, and I look forward to reading more from them (authors write independently but decided to write this novel together).

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for an early copy of Happy Wife. Honestly the cover does nothing for the book, I only looked at because of the title. The Book is very good, the flow kept going and it was easy to read. Este is the funnest character and friend I have read in a long time. I really liked Will and Nora, they were a great couple to read about. Really good story, you can picture every scene that happened. Keep writing ladies. Thank you again.