This is a quick easy read. I found it to be predictable in places. I didn’t like any of the characters either.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Suzi doesn’t know how she got here. From a successful job and a happy marriage, to an isolated country cottage with a resentful husband. Struggling with the isolation, she is desperate to reach out, but mistakes have a way of repeating themselves... So when strange events start occurring in her home, her fear is immediate - is her past catching up with her? Or is there more to mysterious new neighbour Nora than meets the eye?

Now I apologise for the vagueness of that description but if I’m completely honest I wouldn’t really be able to do any better. Partly because there is very high risk of accidental spoilers, but also because this is perhaps one of the most difficult to describe books I’ve ever read. There are three narratives, all female, and especially at the beginning it’s very difficult to work out how everything connects and what is actually happening.

Now the big reveal of who everyone is and how they tied together was supposed to be a major twist in the book I think, but unfortunately it was quite easy to work out a lot earlier than intended. But that isn’t to say that knowing in advance ruined the twist, as from my perspective it was quite enjoyable to watch everything fall into place for both the reader and the characters.

This is a very difficult picture of you because obviously there is a limit on how much I can say without accidentally giving away some of the twists, as there were several along the way. What I will say is that some of the twists were better than others, and towards the end especially there was some things happening that were just far too improbable - suspension of disbelief is one thing, but at times this became almost absurd.

The characters as well were bit of a mixed bag. I didn’t really like any of them, I found them all to be quite irritating and a lot of their actions I just couldn’t understand. But this isn’t to say that it wasn’t an enjoyable book. It’s strange really, the plot was bizarre and the characters hard to relate to, And yet I still found myself quite gripped, And I guess in that sense it shows the true talent of the author to keep you intrigued in a story that by all rights you should of wanted to put down.

All in all, I’m not entirely sure what I think of this one. I read it very quickly, it only took me a day or two, and yet it wasn’t until the end when I realised that I actually enjoyed it. Because of the confusion, I have to say that I would definitely try another of her books, if only to clarify whether I’m actually a fan or not!


Disclaimer - I was provided with an advance copy of this novel by NetGalley. This has not affected my review in any way and all opinions are my own.

I adored this book and it had me absolutely hooked from the first sentence! What a fast and compelling read. Engrossing story told from three different perspectives that kept you on your toes the entire time! This got me out of my reading slump. Thank you Claire McGowan for writing such a fabulous book! Five huge stars!

So many twists! Nothing is as it seems. I couldn't put this down! Claire McGowan has crafted a near perfect thriller and deftly keeps the pace with multiple narrators. You can feel the snowy English countryside closing in as the tension grows. Such a satisfying novel, right down to the very last line! This the first novel I've read by Claire McGowan, but I certainly look forward to reading more. So few thrillers deliver- this one does!

The Other Wife was definitely an interesting read. Most of the twists were very predictable, but it was still very fun (if by the numbers). I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to read these kind of thriller books, especially if you enjoy some of the books that have come out in recent years told by alternating points of view and with unreliable narrators. At times it feels very derivative of some of the popular books of this style (such as Girl on the Train), but in a way that kept it enjoyable and kept me reading.

What I especially appreciated in this novel was the realism in the portrayal of the abusive relationship that Suzi was in. Her husband's slow escalation and use of psychological abuse (coercive control) was very real, but what I really appreciated was that Suzi herself was not a saint. This is often lacking in stories of abuse, which portray the victim as a saint rather than a real person who makes real mistakes but still does not deserve this behavior. I found Nora to be slightly less realistic but I still appreciated the progression of her character and was glad that both women wised up about the men they were with.

Overall this is a simple book that, while not groundbreaking, is very entertaining.

This was a solid domestic thriller with enough twists and turns to keep it interesting until the end.
Suzi, one of our main characters, is in a tricky situation, pregnant and in a relationship in which she is being subtly controlled. As you learn more about her you realise that there’s more to her and to her neighbour than meets the eye. Although some of the characters are not hugely likeable, as mentioned in other reviews, I was pulled into the story and to where it may lead. I also grew to understand many of the character’s actions as the plot unfolded, meaning I did grow to like empathise with the main female characters by the end.
The author pulls you into the story, leaving a few clues and references along the way and revealing just enough each time to shock and keep you guessing until the end. I enjoyed this book and will be going to read more of McGowan’s books.
Thank you to netgalley, the author and publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

A domestic thriller with plenty of twists and turns. However the varying narratives did not appeal to me and I found some of it very unbelievable. If you are looking for mindless entertainment this may be your cup of tea. Remember just because it wasn't necessarily for me it may appeal to someone else.

Sadly I struggled with this book. I just found I was unable to engage with the characters and found the plot a little weak.
I didn’t finish either.
Other people might find it a good read. Sadly not for me

I really loved the sound of this book and was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately I feel the story started out too slow and was hard to follow. The several character POV’s confused me and were so similar and dull it was hard to follow who was who. The second half of the book was a better than the first but it just wasn’t for me I’m afraid.

(Also posted on my GR account!)

DNF @40%

This book has three different POVs and one weird 3rd person POV from a detective that might be involved in the future parts of the book.
That's one too many POV.

POV aside, the writing didn't give me anything interested. There's no varieties in three POVs that I fail to realize which POV I was without referring back to the name in the chapter.

This is fun thriller to get sucked into. In the beginning, the shifting between characters and their POVs is confusing, but comes together in the first quarter of so of the book. Then things really get going and the bizarre twists and turns just keep coming.

I really ...really.... wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I thought the story started out too slow, hard to follow, etc. I did however like the twists and turns! The second half of the book I thought flowed a little better than the first.

Plot is Suzi and Nick are married and Suzi has done a bad thing. She had an affair and is pregnant and under the roof of a cottage in the middle of 'no where' and living with husband Nick who is controlling and jealous. Suzi decides to reach out to her one neighbor Nora .. and slowly she started to reveal her secrets to her new friend the problem is ...does Nora know? But how?

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of the book for an honest review.

The Other Wife by Claire Mcgowan

The Other Wife is a creepy domestic thriller complete with remarkable characters and unexpected plot twists and all which keeps the reader spellbound and wanting more.

I quite like the multiple POV style of writing which seems to be the technique of most writers today.

This is a fascinating style as it takes out the monotony of the narration and allows the readers to get an insight into the depths of the various characters and their underlying emotions. The story covers gas lighting, coercive control, manipulation and other forms of emotional abuse which has become very common today.

Suzi is pregnant and has moved to an isolated farmhouse to supposedly protect her crumbling marriage with her jealous, manipulating and overly possessive husband Nick. Nick justifies his behavior as he thinks that Suzi deserves this as she cheated on him.
When Nora moves into the only house nearby, Suzi hopes she has found a friend and confidante. But is Nora really who she says she is?

The third character in this narrative, Elle leads an apparently perfect life. Her husband’s betrayal however spins her out of control and she will go to any extent to protect her marriage.

These characters’ lives look unrelated but in reality are intertwined with one another in a web of secrets, lies and deceit until they realize that they have more in common than they ever imagined.

This unexpected turn of events keeps the flow of the narrative gripping and Claire delivers a taut and absorbing thriller. Touching on topics of emotional abuse, Claire’s choice of figurative language and the build up of the story line all add to the essence of the narrative.

Domestic thriller meets The Scarlet Letter! I loved the vibe of this story - nice English countryside. Though the jealous husband trope can get old, I thought it was well done in this book. The book felt both plot and character driven which was very refreshing.

Unfortunately I just couldn’t get excited about this book! I tried but the characters just fell a little flat and seemed rather boring to me. The storyline didn’t leave me wanting more and I craved that big twist that makes you go “wow”. Don’t think I’d recommend this one...

A solid thriller. I felt the main characters were smart and capable and really cared about their fate. Very well written and insightful.

This is a domestic thriller that had me guessing and trying to put all the pieces together before the end of the stunning conclusion. There were tons of great twists throughout and it reminded me a lot of "The Other Wife" but not in a copy-cat way but a kept me enthralled way. Suzi and Nick move to a very secluded area and Suzi has some secrets that she wants to share. Maybe she can share them with Elle...except Elle has plenty of secrets of her own.

Publisher’s description: She’s a total stranger. But she knows who you are…

Suzi did a bad thing. She’s paying for it now, pregnant, scared, and living in an isolated cottage with her jealous husband, Nick.

When Nora moves into the only house nearby, Suzi is delighted to have a friend. So much so that she’s almost tempted to tell Nora her terrible secret. But there’s more to Nora than meets the eye. It’s impossible—does she already know what Suzi did?

Meanwhile, Elle spends her days in her perfect home, fixated on keeping up appearances. But when her husband betrays her, it unravels a secret going all the way back to her childhood. She’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to him, even if that means murder. After all, she’s done it before.

Caught up in their own secrets and lies, these strangers will soon realise they have more in common than they could ever have imagined. When a shocking event brings them together, their lives will never be the same again.
************
Claire McGowan’s “The Other Wife” plays on a common theme of a woman scorned, but in this case, there are three women and we’re not sure at the start who is the scorned and who is the scorner. I had a difficult time following the story until about a third of the way through, which is one of the things that knocks the rating down a bit.

The book begins with an untitled chapter showing us a female character moving away from a house on fire. We don’t know who she is or how old she is, but we can tell that she is intentionally walking away and probably had something to do with the fire. When she sees Sebby calling to her from a window, she runs back. We don’t yet know who Sebby is in relation to her, but she clearly did not intend for him to be in the house.

Then Part One begins with rotating chapters between Nora, Suzi, and Elle. Nora has just moved in to a cottage home in a remote area, where she lives across from Suzi. Nora is alone but seems confident. Her chapters are narrated in the first person. Suzi’s chapters are also in the first person, but she is narrating to an as-yet unknown person (not her husband) with whom she clearly had a relationship. She is afraid of her husband, Nick. She worries when he has arrived home early and she isn’t dressed and hasn’t started dinner. Elle is the most insecure of the three characters. She constantly worries that something has happened to her husband when he is the slightest bit late coming home from work. He does his best to allay her fears when he arrives but expresses concern that she’s “going funny again.” For good measure, the author throws in a handful of chapters about Alison, a detective constable, with a chapter heading of February and either “three months later” or “two months later” in relation to a body found frozen under the snow. There are also a few chapters near the end about Maddy, which I believe are meant to hint at a big reveal, but I had already figured it out by then.

The narration in these chapters seems to have been set up to help keep the characters straight, but because the author is trying to keep the secrets secret, the male characters are almost all referred to with pronouns, so it took me a while to be able to keep the women straight. I kept flipping back to remind myself which one was which. In terms of “time,” we know that Nora and Suzi are in the same timeframe since they are neighbors, and Alison’s chapters always follow Suzi’s so Alison is a few months in the future, but we don’t know when or where Elle’s chapters take place, so this was intentionally but unnecessarily confusing — even knowing the ending and the who/what/where of all the story lines.

About a third of the way through the book, at the end of Part One, we start to see the connection between Elle and the other two women, and that’s when the book starts to make more sense and get interesting. I figured out many of the secrets long before they were revealed, but this was still a solid 3.5 star read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This title is scheduled for release on October 24, 2019.

The Other Wife is the first book by Claire McGowan that I have had the pleasure to read. This book defiantly kept me on edge and turning the pages. There were twists and turns, some of them, I did figure out, but some I was totally blindsided by.
The Other Wife is full of lies, deceit, betrayal and lots and lots of secrets. Most, if not all, of the characters in this book, I disliked in the best way possible. I believe that Ms. McGowan’s goal was for the reader to find most of the characters abhorrent, and in my opinion, she achieved this goal.

The Other Wife is well thought out, the writing was solid and flowed well. Unfortunately, there were some implausible parts to this book, and I felt this distracted from the overall believability, but you will have to decide for yourself.

This story is told from different timelines and multiple points of view, all expressed by the female characters, Suzi, Elle, Nora, and Eleanor, that this story revolved around. Hearing from all these different characters could get a bit confusing. But maybe that was the intent of the author, to keep us on our proverbial toes. However, there were times I wanted to shake these women and say, “Really, what is wrong with you.”

Elle is the perfect wife with the ideal husband to go along with the quintessential life. However, things are not always what they seem to be on the surface. On the other hand, Suzi’s life is a mess, most of which, in my opinion, was her own doing. Her husband, Nick, is controlling, selfish, and belittling.

Under the guise of working on their troubled marriage, Nick moves them out of London to a remote cottage in the country. Suzi is feeling very isolated and unhappy, but as luck would have it, Nora moves into the cottage next door, and they develop a friendship of sorts. This is when the book gets interesting, but that is where I will have to end my review. No spoilers for my review.

The Other Wife is a bit of a slow burn. Ms. McGowan sets the scene thoroughly for this domestic thriller, and her character development is utterly devious. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. I feel that I must mention there is an element of spousal abuse in this book, so if this is a problem for you, steer clear of this book.

*** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. ***

The Other Wife is a domestic psychological thriller that will have you guessing until the end. This is my first novel by Claire McGowan, and I was pleasantly surprised. She did a wonderful job spacing the story line and revealing twists.

Set in England, Suzie and her husband move to a small isolated town. The only neighbor around is watching Suzie closely. Marital lies, betrayals and secrets… who is telling the truth and who is who they really say they are?

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological thrillers. The Other Wife is a pleasant, easy read.

Thank you, Net Galley, for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.