Received an ARC via NetGalley.

I was expecting a fun beach read but with rich, unlikable characters. But I really liked Nora and the main characters. The story was engaging but it wasn’t just an empty beach thriller. I was surprised by how invested I got in the story and the characters. It was also witty too. Definitely enjoyable and I’ve already recommended it to friends.

Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores’ Happy Wife dives into the glittering dysfunction of an ultra-wealthy Florida enclave, serving up a slick cocktail of domestic suspense, social satire, and mystery. On the surface, it sparkles with everything readers expect from the genre: a whirlwind romance, a high-society scandal, and a sudden disappearance. But while it delivers tension and glamor, it doesn’t quite break new ground.

At the center of it all is Nora Davies—a 28-year-old trying to survive in Winter Park, Florida, a place where legacy wealth and tax haven transplants coexist in quiet snobbery. Nora doesn’t belong. She waits tables at a country club, scrapes by, and watches the rich from the outside. Until Will Somerset walks in. He’s 46, a well-known attorney with a teenage daughter and a freshly inked divorce. Their whirlwind courtship is straight out of a modern-day Cinderella tale, and when they marry, Nora seems to have secured a fantasy life she never thought possible.

But then Will vanishes the morning after his extravagant birthday party—one Nora threw to show her devotion and celebrate their supposedly solid life together. The fallout is immediate and brutal. Winter Park closes ranks. Nora, the outsider-turned-wife, becomes a pariah overnight and the prime suspect in Will’s disappearance. The book flashes between the fairy-tale romance and the chaos that follows his vanishing act, gradually exposing cracks in both the marriage and the community.

The setup is solid, and the concept has bite. There’s a compelling, almost voyeuristic thrill in watching a glittery world unravel from within. Lavender and Shores do a good job capturing the pressure-cooker environment of performative wealth: the parties, the polished appearances, the unspoken rules of exclusivity. There’s no question Happy Wife is playing with juicy themes—power, appearances, marriage as transaction—but it doesn’t always dig deep enough to make those ideas stick.

The mystery at the novel’s core is serviceable, with enough tension and misdirection to keep readers engaged, though the big reveals lack true shock. Readers who have been around the domestic thriller block will see some of the turns coming. There are breadcrumbs everywhere, and while the authors try to pull off a slow-burn suspense, the plot sometimes feels padded by repetition—especially the frequent reminders of Nora’s outsider status and the cruelty of the social elite.

Nora is a complex but uneven protagonist. Her vulnerability and desperation feel real, and her fight to clear her name makes her easy to root for. But some of her choices don’t fully align with the stakes of her situation. She often reacts rather than acts, and while this might reflect her overwhelmed mental state, it occasionally robs her of agency. The supporting characters—particularly the cliquish, contemptuous neighbors—tend toward stereotype. They’re effective as obstacles but lack the dimension to make them truly threatening or memorable.

One strength of Happy Wife is its pacing. The first half moves slowly, laying groundwork and building atmosphere, but the second half shifts into gear and doesn’t let up. The authors know how to ramp up tension when it counts, and the final chapters deliver a few satisfying moments—even if they don’t fully surprise.

At its best, Happy Wife works as an escapist read that scratches the itch for high-drama, high-stakes fiction. It’s less successful as a layered exploration of class, power, or identity, despite its ambition. The commentary is there—it just doesn’t resonate as deeply as it could. Readers looking for complex psychological insight or narrative innovation might walk away underwhelmed. But those in the market for a glossy, fast-paced mystery with rich-people problems and secrets behind every gate will find plenty to enjoy.

Bottom line: Happy Wife is a stylish, bingeable thriller that delivers surface-level thrills and social tension in a high-gloss setting. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s readable and dramatic—perfect for fans of domestic suspense who want a front-row seat to a marriage imploding behind mansion doors.

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.