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Wow – what an addictive, dark, and twisty read! I was completely hooked from the very first chapter. The tension between Hannah and Sophia was so cleverly written – the glamour, the lies, the envy, and the secrets lurking beneath the surface kept me glued to the pages.

I loved how the story played with my expectations. Just when I thought I knew exactly where it was heading, the rug was pulled out from under me with another shocking twist. The unraveling of Hannah’s past and the truth about Sophia was brilliantly paced and full of suspense.

The beachside setting added so much atmosphere – all that perfection and beauty hiding something sinister underneath. This book has everything I love in a psychological thriller: unreliable characters, jaw-dropping reveals, and a dark, chilling undertone that stayed with me long after I finished.

If you enjoy thrillers that make you question who you can trust and keep you guessing right up to the final page, this one is an absolute must-read x

The premise of S. E. Reed's upcoming domestic thriller The First Wives is pretty fun: Hannah is a crypto billionaire's wife, twin mom, and a trad wife Insta influencer. You know I love influencers and social media in fiction, especially in thrillers. Her billionaire husband is gone half the time for mysterious work reasons.

She becomes friends with Sophia, who moves in next door. Sophia is sad because her billionaire husband also has a second family, so he's gone half the time to be with them.

The First Wives has so many things I like, including influencer fakes and backstory secrets, all in an upscale lifestyle-p0rn setting, but unfortunately, the story's going exactly where you think it's going to go, right from the start.

I sometimes say that something is off with a mystery's pacing, but I can't full explain why it didn't work for me. Here, I can. We kept discovering another twisted action from Sophia, and then Hannah would be shocked for a minute, and just go about her life. Man, it sure is weird that the next-door neighbor got plastic surgery to look like me! That she snuck into my kids' school! That she said she was moving to the UK, but now she's in her bikini drinking wine at my house with my husband! Oh well, time to pick the twins up from school. It's so weird.

I know this is a popular style, but I personally don't really like the flash-forward opening in thrillers now. It's that scene set either at a police station or a funeral, in which an unnamed character references  another unnamed character's tragic and mysterious death. I don't like this, it's way too close to the Unmentionable Secret Plot Device, but even worse because in a prologue, by definition, I don't know or care about the characters involved (yet?). This opening style is so popular, I know I'm in minority here, but just write "thriller" on the cover, we don't need a vague flash-forward to tell us someone's gonna die in a thriller.

So when readers get to the dramatic murder scene, we already know who's going to die. It's been pretty clearly signposted because this book is, you know, a murder thriller, which took a lot of the tension and stakes away. I also though the ending felt rushed -- after a sloooooooow buildup, for ages, then she just shoots the guy point-blank, no sneaky evidence-planting or establishing and alibi or anything, then off-stage lawyers clean it all up. If that was an option this whole time, then the stakes are even lower. Oh well.

The First Wives by S. E. Reed was such an amazing read! From the very start I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. The story pulled me in right away and kept me turning the pages until the very end. I honestly hated for it to end because I was enjoying it so much. This was my first book by this author, and now I can’t wait to read more from S. E. Reed. An absolute must-read!

Hannah and her twins live with Court - Hannah’s billionaire crypto currency dealing husband in a large beachfront home. As an influencer Hannah takes brilliant photos of her children, but never of her husband, at his request. When Sofia moves in next door the two women quickly become friends until it seems that Sophia seems to want to be Hannah, physically and in every other way. Even stranger things occur and Hannah realizes all is not what it seems when it comes to Sophia and Court. Really enjoyed the friendship aspect of this story, as well as the twists, although I did see a couple coming.

Hannah and Sophie are married to wealthy men who travel a lot for business. they become friends when their husbands are away on business. when Hannah's life begins to unravel, Hannah feels like something is off with Sophie...

This adult thriller follows Hannah, a trad wife influencer and her new mysterious neighbor Sophia.
Hannah and Sophia are married to very wealthy men who frequently travel for business. Their friendship develops while their husbands are away.
Hannah is a successful influencer with millions of followers.
She is also a loving mother of young twins. Sophia is mysterious-working in the art world. She also spends much of her time studying Hannah and her family. Sophia moves in the shadows-but why??
Hannah's life unravels quickly after befriending Sophia.
While she's thrilled to have a friend who understands the billionaire lifestyle, something feels "off." Is Sophia after her husband Court?
Is Court really taking business trips?
How well does Hannah know her husband?
Hannah slowly starts questioning everything about her life and marriage.
This fast-paced thriller takes the reader on an intense journey! Buckle up for this book!
Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC.

I'm a little torn on how to rate this one. The First Wives started off ok but felt a little predictable and moved a little slow. Turns out, it wasn't actually as predictable as I thought and the twist did catch me offguard! My bigger issue though is that this is definitely a "that's supposed to make sense?" kind of story. Best example is how you've got a man who is so over the top cautious that he won't allow you to have a housekeeper, but he's ok with a neighbor you just recently met basically moving in and taking care of your kids for a couple of weeks? Why didn't that raise a MUCH bigger red flag? Those kind of things just kind of nag at me a bit.

I do appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
What a book! Hannah is married with two children and keeps posts of her perfect life. A new neighbor moves in and they quickly become friends until Hannah finds all her lies etc— but unknown to her is a more disturbing revelation to be revealed that will break apart her perfect world! How will she deal with that?

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

Thrillers involving the rich are such a guilty pleasure which is why I requested this book. The writing style is very readable which makes it such a fun read. The book drops you in the middle of a story and it definitely leaves you with some questions. I thought it was so interesting that the main character is a social media influencer and its very intriguing to see all the behind-the-scenes work she does to fake her perfectly curated life.

I did think the way she suddenly became best friends with Sophia during their first meeting was unrealistic and cheesy. There's also the cliche in thrillers of mentioning past events or people without elaborating as a way to create tension which I found to be annoying.

When Sophia starts acting cartoonishly mean and suspicious on literally their SECOND time hanging-out, Hannah literally forgives her the next day like HUHHH? She cannot be that desperate for friends. Not only that, when she becomes sick, she (and her paranoid husband who refuses to hire a nanny) literally is fine letting Sophia take care of their kids? They never have questions to how Sophia conveniently has time to do all this? Also Sophia somehow is able to call Hannah's manicurist on her behalf without Hannah knowing??? Hannah also discovers that Sophia has left comments on her Instagram in the past despite claiming that she didn't know Hannah was an influencer and Hannah never calls her out on that??? I just found all of this to be unrealistic.

The plot twist was unexpected and the ending did get significantly more interesting, hence the rating. I thought this was a quick and fun thrill as long as you're willing to ignore any inconsistencies.

Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t hate it, but I don’t particularly love it either. It start out strong and then the story just went crazy. There was never really an explanation for Court’s behavior? I guess you don’t need a reason to be crazy, but I felt like there was no depth to his character. I’m so confused on why Sophie married him? And stayed married to him? By 85% I was skimming to get to the end.

2.5 STARS

The First Wives is a great drama full of twists.
Well written characters and a storyline that shocks and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Took me a little while to get into it but worth the wait.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

Yowzers! The First Wives is so deviously twisted, it's downright deranged. S.E. Reed packed the punches in and didn't hold back on anything.

The story follows Hannah, an influencer, and her husband Court, a crypto guy. They, along with their twins, live in a beachfront mansion. When Sophia moves in next door, Hannah's stable and predictable life starts to crumble. The ups and downs of their friendship leaves Hannah questioning how much of her carefully crafted life is indeed real and how much of it is her yearning for what she was lacking growing up. As more truths about her marriage come to light, how far will she go to protect her children.

The head spinning pace makes it easy to get caught up and binge read. It's a story of family and friendships. Most of the characters are likable and fun. There are many twists and a shocking ending. This was an amazing thriller, and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the advanced copy

This was a fun popcorn thriller! Two neighbouring women living seperate lives. lines get blurred when confrontations and truths come to life. Pretty standard thriller layout, twists and turns some you may guess others may surprise you!

The first wives is fast paced and you can definitely read in one sitting!

Thank you to storm publishing for the netgalley gifted copy!

Publish date : September 24th

I was so intrigued with this one, but it was so predictable and just ended up flat for me. The plot didn't deliver any shocking twists. It's an easy read for sure but it just didn't hit the mark for me.

As a fan of S.E. Reed’s YA novels, this adult thriller did not disappoint!

The story follows Hannah, a trad wife influencer whose life begins to unravel upon the arrival of her new neighbor, Sophia. The pacing and writing style made this a fast read, which I’m always eager to find in a thriller. Not only was the mystery engaging and kept me turning the pages, but I loved Hannah’s character arc and the heartfelt family and friend relationships she explored throughout. I’m looking forward to seeing what Reed does next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC!

Two women live in neighboring beachfront mansions. One posts carefully curated photos of her enviable life. The other watches from the shadows, learning every detail of that life, waiting for the right moment to destroy it! Wow fantastic psychological, chilling, thriller! This book had high suspense, murder, mystery, intrigue, great characters, and a few shocking twists! The story was very interesting! I highly recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

such a wild ride!!! i could not put this book down!!! it was utterly fantastic!!! 5/5 stars without hesitation!

Another fantastic story from the mind of S.E. Reed. I’ve loved all her YA novels and was excited to see her take on an adult suspense/thriller.

This suspenseful story sucked me right in, and I devoured it in just a couple sittings. I almost immediately thought I’d figured it out, then was certain I’d gotten it wrong, then discovered I was right all along. And the ride to find that out was worth every delicious minute reading. Something I’m really into when it comes to thrillers is motive, and this really delivered for me because there were still plenty of twists and turns beyond the main reveal. It looks like a sequel is on the horizon, so I look forward to my next binge-Reed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC.

Hannah is a trad wife influencer married to Court. He travels for business a lot but when he is home they basically spend every day making sure his needs are covered. One day a new neighbour arrives, Sophia. Sophia pretends to be Hannah's friend but it's all a cover. Sophia is obsessed with Hanna and wants to have her life... or does she?

If you love spicy thrillers then this is for you!

I don't know if this is what people refer to as spicy, but this novel is essentially some sort of semi-erotic story about a submissive trad wife and her abusive husband. It contains explicit descriptions of positions, body parts, use of the F-bomb as a verb, and even weird mentions of abusing women with a belt.

There was a lot of telling and very little showing. The twists were every trope out there. This is not necessarily bad and I enjoy a good thriller written in accessible language. I simply think there was too much spice for me to truly get into the story and perhaps I inadvertently skimmed through and missed some of the depth.

Influencer Hannah McMillian has the perfect life. Beautiful home, adorable twins and a husband who is totally in love with her, when he is at home that is. The fact that Court is also a billionaire goes some way to making Hannah’s life idyllic.

When the empty house next door gets a new resident, Hannah is keen to find out who has moved in. Soon the neighbours become good friends, with Hannah showing Sophia the neighbourhood and all the best places to shop. Then one or two things start to give Hannah cause for concern. Is Sophia the ideal friend she claims to be or is there a more sinister motive for her wanting to be Hannah’s friend and neighbour?

Not the most captivating read of this genre, it took a long time to get going, and then it just became a little too predictable. Good, solid writing that flowed well, just went to waste on a mediocre plot line.

A perfect beach read when you need to relax and not have to think too much.

2.5*

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing.