I loved Kimberly’s book Three Days Missing and was so excited to read Dear Wife! I started it last night and finished it last night, it was such a quick, devouring read. I wasn’t into the way the two different storylines were played out and I think it’s because I read too many books like this that I felt it was this book had been done before. Missing wife, hidden secrets from spouses... it seemed all too familiar. I still really loved her writing and how addictive it is which didn’t make me dislike the book. A solid suspenseful read!

Drop everything you are reading and pick up a copy of Kimberly Belle’s latest novel of psychological suspense, Dear Wife. I am a big fan of Kimberly Belle—I’ve read all of her books. This one is the best yet!

About the Book

Beth Murphy is on the run… Of course, that isn’t Beth’s real name. That’s something she will take with her. She has to, if she wants to stay alive. Beth has been planning this for months—her escape. It’s the only way to get away from her husband and his abuse. And Beth knows if he wants to, he’ll be able to find her. Sitting in a McDonalds meeting a stranger, Beth begins to set her trap. A false trail—enough to distract her husband and allow her to get away.

Hundreds of miles away, Jeffrey Hardison returns home from a business trip to find his wife missing. He doesn’t think much of it at first, he is more annoyed with the state she left the house in and that she booked a late work appointment without telling him. Or did she tell him? Jeffrey is the first to admit he hasn’t been a great husband to Sabine. His irritation mounts as he realizes that Sabine has vanished, leaving him as the prime suspect. Now, with all fingers pointed at him, he can’t believe Sabine got one over on him.

And then the police become involved. Jeffrey isn’t telling the truth about his marriage, and they are onto him. Meanwhile Beth continues to run. But all hope isn’t lost, Beth finds some unlikely allies and may be able to hide in plain site. That is, until Sabine’s story makes national headlines…

A woman on the run, a man with something to hide, and a police officer who will uncover the truth.

Reflection

I can’t say too much about this book because the twists are THAT GOOD. You may think you know this story. You may think you have it figured out. You would be wrong. If there is one think I’ve come to love about Kimberly Belle’s books, it is that she always has another ace up her sleeve. There’s always more to the story, and you’ll just have to read and find out.

Onto less spoiler-y topics, I have to say Beth’s chapters in particular had me glued to the page. She is truly a woman desperate to escape, and she’ll do anything she can to get away. I really was on pins and needles as Beth ran, and I was fascinated by the characters she interacts with along the way. I won’t say who they are, but there are some really fascinating people that Beth encounters—both good and bad! I think readers will be captivated by Beth’s story.

Jeffrey is also a bit of a puzzle! He’s that rare husband who admits he treated his wife poorly, but also you can’t help but feel a bit for him. Sabine really pulled one over on him, and her sister is there to rub it in at every turn. Jeffrey is guilty of a lot, but how much did he know about Sabine’s disappearance? And what lengths will he go to in order to find her?

Twisty and delightful—I won’t say any more because I refuse to spoil even a moment of this book!!!

Thank you to Park Row for my copy. Opinions are my own.

I received an ARC of Dear Wife, but wasn’t able to read it until now and wowww, loved it! I read The Marriage Lie also by Kimberly Belle a few years ago and loved the twist- this book was no exception! I was trying to put the pieces together as I went, and figure out how the different perspectives connect- and it finally all clicked and came together 🙌🏼 such a great psychological thriller that FINALLLLLY got me out of my rut! Add this to your list, and let me know what you think 😬 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Full body chills!

Dear Wife is a juicy page-turner that keeps you in suspense and guessing up until the very last twist. There are clues scattered throughout the book and I'm the type of reader who latches on to every little detail, trying to figure stuff out before it is revealed, but even when I thought I had my "aha!" moment, I wasn't fully correct in my prediction. When the twist hits you, it's an "Oh My God!!" moment. I can't say much about it without completely spoiling the book but READ THIS! It's worth every minute.

We meet Beth, our main narrator, who is on the run from her abusive husband. She has changed her name and her appearance to match. Beth has all the signs of an abused woman - her husband is not only physically abusive but mentally and emotionally abusive as well. We then meet Jeffrey, the husband who is on the lookout for his missing wife and Marcus, the detective assigned to the case. It is a whirlwind, filled with suspicious characters that make you wonder whodunnit and trying to figure out what in the actual hell is going on.

Dear Wife is beautifully pieced together and incredibly easy to follow. Again, I really liked the twists and turns - it's a wild ride. I also really enjoyed the writing style and how on Beth's side of the story, it was written like a letter to her husband. It was a different experience altogether which made me feel like I was right in there with her.

I'm not your usual thriller/mystery reader, however, I wanted to read something outside of my usual picks and Dear Wife stood out to me as a great opportunity to do so. Let me say that I tore through this book quickly! Kimberly Belle really kept the momentum going with the short chapters and shifting perspectives.

Beth is on the run, but it's not entirely clear who she's running from - and that's the point. Shifting between characters, Belle builds tension. Jeffrey, the resentful husband, returns home to a messy and empty house. His wife, Sabine, isn't answering her phone and hasn't responded to any of his or her sister's messages. Where is she? Cue Marcus, the seasoned detective who is skeptic of the feigning concern of Jeffrey. Marcus is gritty and annoyed, but also, where's his wife? She'd alluded to but never heard from. Meanwhile, it's discovered that Sabine has had an affair... I'm telling you, there were a lot of moving pieces to this story, but nothing was difficult to keep up with. But, back to Beth... who is she and why is she running? You'll have to read to find out and I'm telling you, it'll probably take you more than one guess to get it right!

Great read, highly recommend.

Dear Wife is a creepy, twisted ride! I was immediately captivated by this story told in alternating viewpoints. I thought I had it figured out but Kimberly Belle proved me wrong! Pack this one in your beach bag!

This plot had me guessing all the way through, making up theories, and I was still wrong!
The story of two missing women, both abused by their husbands, had several point of view, all of which were very convincing and the narrative skillfully worked all the elements of the story together to create an explosive ending.
I enjoyed reading this book, however, I couldn't help comparing Beth to the protagonist of Anna Quindlen's novel, "Black & Blue", who also escaped her husband and lived under an assumed identity. Something rang more true to me in that book and her story stayed with me a long time after I finished reading.

I would still recommend this book to readers as a good example of suspense and crime drama.

Holy moly what a story!!!! At first it seemed like your usual husband beats wife, wife disappears, husband is blamed and wife reappears until it wasn’t. All of a sudden the story took a turn and I had to go back and re-read that page in case my eyes played a trick on me. I don’t want to give anything else away so find this book and read it!!! You won’t be sorry!!!

Just Wow! What a twisted story! A story that kept me guessing to the last few chapters. Without giving anything away, the ending will reach out and shock/grab you. Get ready for a intriguing and suspenseful ride!
A must read for anyone that is a lover of psychological thrillers. Kimberly Belle really brings this one home.
Many thanks to NetGallery, the publisher and author, Kimberly Belle, for the privilege to read “Dear Wife.” I cant recommend it enough. I read this book in one day, couldn’t put it down.

I couldn’t put this book down! I was enthralled from the first chapter. You think you know what this story is, and then it goes in a different direction. A page turner with incredible mystery.

Beth is on the run from her abusive husband. Jeffrey’s wife has just gone missing. Marcus is the detective investigating the disappearance. These 3 view points lead us down a twisty and suspenseful trail of lies and cover ups. Is Jeffrey the man Beth is running from? If not, how are the two stories connected? I did figure out part of the storyline fairly early on but there were still a few twists to keep me engaged until the very end.

Thank you to Net Galley and Park Row Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of this compelling page turner in exchange for my honest review.

Unputdownable-ness: High
Ugly Cry Potential: Low
LOL: Low
Steaminess: None
Character Development: Good
Originality: Medium
Quality of Writing: Good
Intellectual Depth: Low
Emotionally Trying/Hard to Read: Easy Read

This book!!!! Too bad I have a job, because I didn't want to put this one down. Thank goodness for a lazy Saturday so I could finally finish it. The story and characters were so so compelling. This book will keep you reading, so you should go get it now! The ending just blew me away. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. This is a new favorite book!

Dear Wife flips between Jeffery's search for his missing wife, Sabine and Beth as she fights to escape her abusive husband and build a new life. I love this kind of story that keeps you asking questions and figuring out the missing elements of the plot right until the very end!
Highly recommended!!

*I received an advance reader's edition from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Dear Wife is a thriller that keeps you guessing, has plenty of twists and was definitely a page-turner. We are introduced to a missing woman/a woman on the run, and the people who were "left behind", including a husband and a police detective who is investigating this case.

For about 75% of this book, I was very engrossed in this storyline and the main characters. I was interested in learning more about each of these characters and I enjoyed the multiple points of view narrative. Belle definitely succeeded in keeping me guessing until the end, but unfortunately, I felt disappointed. I felt like I had put a lot of energy into a person and storyline that didn't end being flushed out. It is hard to share this review without giving away the plotlines and/or spoiling it for anyone so I am trying to be vague.

I will say that I often feel this way with thrillers so I may just be the wrong kind of reader for some of these types of books. I am a person that likes in-depth characters and knowing the backstories on them. In order to create the "thrill" in this sort of genre, there is usually a big switch up which does usually surprise me but often makes me feel underwhelmed with the story as a whole.

I can see why this will work for many readers and the style of writing is definitely engaging and fast-paced. Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

This was my first Kimberly Belle book, but it will not be my last!!!

The characters are awesome (even the horrible, evil ones), the plot was well thought out with lots of twists/turns, murder, domestic violence, cheating, stealing, everything that makes for a GREAT book!

Well played Kimberly, well played!!!! Had I not read any of the reviews, I probably would not have seen it coming.

I am looking forward to more Kimberly Belle books in my future!

#netgalley #kimberlybelle #dearwife #lovedit

Many thanks to NetGalley, Park Row, and Kimberly Belle for the opportunity to read and review her latest novel - 5 stars for a fabulous, twisty read that you will not be able to put down!

Told from the point of view of 3 characters - Beth is on the run from an abusive husband; Jeffery returns home from a trip to find his wife, Sabine, missing and himself as the main suspect; and Marcus, the detective investigating Sabine's disappearance. Are Beth and Sabine the same person?

There are wonderful characters in this book and you will never see all the twists coming. Plus the ending was perfect! Highly recommended for a great read!

This started as a decent mystery/thriller. There's a woman on the run, there's a woman missing, you're made to assume that they're one and the same. Sadly it just didn't work that way for me and I was able to figure out the plot a lot quicker than I should have been able to. The characters are very single layer, there's really not that much to them, and they don't really hold my interest. Also, because of the way this was downloaded onto my kindle the formatting got messed up, so it didn't flow as smoothly as it should have been (all the 'f' had extra spaces after them, so instead of after it was af ter). There were also a few instances of whoever the character telling their part, instead of using I or me, ended up using their name and it went third person. That just seemed like an error though. I am annoyed that even though we're made to care about Sabine and we find out what happened to her, we don't get any follow up to any of those characters of the story. We spent the first half invested in her, and then it's an "oh well, here's what's what." I just don't think it was planned as well as it should have been.

If you're anything like me, you probably roll your eyes and heave a giant sigh whenever you hear a new book being called ‘the next Gone Girl’. Don't get me wrong, Gone Girl is fantastic, as are many of the novels that are compared to it, but few of these comparisons actually ring true for me. But Dear Wife, the latest psychological thriller by author Kimberly Belle, happens to be a book that has a definite Gone Girl vibe.

Jeffrey Hardison returns from a business trip to any empty house, and at first, he thinks nothing of it. His wife Sabine is a successful real estate agent, so it's not uncommon for her to be gone for most of the day. However, when she fails to come home that evening, he begins to worry, and when she still hasn't shown up by the following morning, his worry turns to outright fear. Sure, he and Sabine have been having a few problems in their marriage, but the idea that she would leave him is something Jeffrey absolutely refuses to consider. Instead, he becomes convinced that something awful has happened to his wife.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a woman known as Beth Murphy is intent on starting a new life for herself. Walking out on her old life isn't something she decided to do on the spur of the moment; instead, it's something she's been planning for the past year or so. She's determined never to go home again, so she's had to come up with ways of keeping herself under the radar. Fortunately, Beth is an extremely intelligent woman with razor-sharp instincts who has had to learn the hard way how to keep herself safe, so it's highly unlikely she'll make a stupid mistake.

The story is told in alternating chapters from both Jeffrey's and Beth's points of view with a few chapters from the perspective of one of the detectives assigned to investigate Sabine's disappearance thrown in for good measure. This style of story-telling might make you think you know exactly where the narrative is going, but don't allow yourself to be deceived. Nothing is as it seems on the surface, and even the characters you're convinced you can trust are hiding some deadly secrets that won't be revealed until you reach the final page.

If violence is something you'd rather not encounter in your pleasure reading, Dear Wife may not be the book for you. It's not that Ms. Belle uses graphic descriptions of physical violence all that often, but it's clear from the very beginning of the story that certain characters are prone to violent outbursts, and the role these outbursts play in the overall plot is quite significant. I can't say more without completely ruining the story, so proceed with caution if you think this is something you might find distressing.

There's not much more I can say about the wondrousness that is Dear Wife without spoiling it for you. This is one of those situations where less is definitely more. So, if you love psychological suspense with mind-boggling twists, do yourself a huge favor and pick this up right away. You absolutely will not be sorry you did.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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Meet Beth Murphy, a woman on the run from her abusive husband. Her initial thoughts are worthy of a country-song anthem like Martina McBride’s “Independence Day.”

I hit my blinker and merge onto the Muskogee Turnpike, and for the first time in seven long years, I take a breath. A real, full-body breath that blows up my lungs like a beach ball. So much breath that it burns.

It tastes like freedom.

Kimberly Belle goes into exquisite detail about how Beth planned her getaway, what steps she takes along the way to bury her identity, and how and why she makes Atlanta her destination. What readers don’t find out is the name of her abusive husband—in Beth’s anguished musings, he’s you. As in, “you have three moods lately: offensive, enraged or violent.” Unlike the glamorous married life of the victim that Julia Roberts portrays in Sleeping with the Enemy, Beth’s former life appears pedestrian and brutish. But no matter, she tells herself: “Those days, like Arkansas, are in my rearview mirror.”

Alternating with Beth’s escape narrative is the story of missing wife Sabine Hardison. Her husband Jeffrey comes home from a four-day seminar to find his house empty. Let’s put two and two together: Beth drives away on Oklahoma’s Muskogee Highway, she meets an accomplice in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jeffrey and Sabine share a house on the Arkansas River: ergo Beth must be Sabine. That was my instantaneous hypothesis.

But niggly little facts and descriptions warred with my conclusion. Beth checks into a seedy hotel and does what every escaping woman does: she cuts her hair before she dyes it. Blonde, no more flowing brunette locks. She’s flooded with memories of her husband yanking her long hair although she admits that chopping it off with scissors is “a hell of a lot less painful than when you grab me by the ponytail and lift me clear off the bed.” Beth might clean the bathrooms of a similar joint one day.

Not exactly what my parents were hoping for when they paid for my college, but a better paying job, a job I’m actually qualified for, would send up a smoke signal you might spot.

Jeffrey’s wife is a high-powered realtor. She lives on her phone—a phone that rings into the night when Jeffrey calls it, which is most unusual. Should he call the cops, report a disappearance—tell them that his “wife missed her curfew?” Curfew seems like a suspect word. When Sabine’s twin-sister Ingrid can’t reach her sister on the phone, she storms into Jeffrey’s house and interrogates him. Ingrid is nothing like Sabine.

She is the angry, ogre version of Sabine, the kind that bathes in swamp water and gnaws on bones under a bridge. Her face is scored with pillow marks, angry purple lines in the shape of a cross.

Belle’s imagery is visceral and disturbing. The heated interchange between the in-laws is illuminated with sounds, smells, and bile.

Ingrid doesn’t trust Jeffrey because she and her twin are practically telepathic. She hurls accusations at Jeffrey, harkening back to an incident when he hit his wife: “Ingrid’s condescending tone burrows under my skin like a tick.” Belle’s imagery is visceral and disturbing. The heated interchange between the in-laws is illuminated with sounds, smells, and bile. Ingrid is stunned and scornful when she realizes that Jeffrey doesn’t even know the name of Sabine’s boss—did they not communicate at all? In contrast, the “you” in Beth’s story seems like a guy who knows every detail of his wife’s day. Consider the laborious process of Beth amassing a $2,000+ escape fund.

Ten and twenties mostly, siphoned from grocery funds, birthday and Christmas money, forgotten bills swiped from your pockets when you were passed out. Saving was a long, laborious process that took me almost a year to do in a way that you wouldn’t notice. I bought things on discount and shopped sales. I switched to cheaper toilet paper, coffee, washing powder. Ironically, I stopped cutting my hair.

How could Sabine—“a real estate broker, a really good one”—be a woman shopping sales and cutting her own hair? But there are too many coincidences: two women from the same part of the country, both abused, both missing? Kimberly Belle drops clues and hints with a surgeon’s precision. The mystery deepens, the tension ratchets up: it appears inevitable that Beth’s violent husband will not let her escape alive. Two questions prevail: “Where is Sabine? And who is Beth?” Will Sabine be found alive and will Beth survive if her husband tracks her down? Dear Wife is a terrifying page-turner with a conclusion that is entirely unexpected—I highly recommend it although fair warning, read it under bright lights.

Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle was a really good cat-and-mouse chase book about a woman leaving her excessively abusive husband. The multiple points of view keep you guessing until the super surprising ending. I really liked this book! This was my third book by this author, and she definitely is one that I’ll always make sure to pick up new releases for because they certainly deliver the suspense and action.