Woooweeee, I enjoyed the wild ride this novel took me on! The Last Wife is the second novel I’ve read from Karen Hamilton and let me say she writes unputdownable thrillers! There are so many well placed and unexpected twists and turns! I promise this won’t be a thriller you figure out quickly- in all honesty, I think most won’t figure it out until Karen Hamilton reveals it (I didn’t lol)! The Last Wife is a 5 star MUST READ summer thriller you will not want to miss! Karen Hamilton is now officially an automatic 1-click for me and I am already so excited for her next book!

I really enjoyed The Perfect Girlfriend. Graydon House puts out some excellent titles, and I was excited to receive an eARC of Karen Hamilton's latest.

Following the death of her best friend, Marie is trying to uphold the dying promise she made: to help her friend's husband, Stuart, protect their children. Resolved in her duty, heads in the community turn as Marie begins living with Stuart, and what starts as an innocent promise in the midst of grief turns into an unexpected pregnancy with a plethora of drama. Complicating matters is the mysterious return of an estranged friend, and the further Marie digs into why she's returned, the more she's convinced her intentions are more than what they appear to be.

There's a lot to unpack here.

Starting with the characters, Marie is a deliciously unreliable narrator. For the first half of the book, you don't know if she's obsessive with a dark secret or if she's telling the truth, and the circumstances around her decisions aren't that nefarious. I loved how Hamilton developed her character, and while I didn't like her at any given point in the novel, I found her interesting and tortured. Aside from her, however, none of the characters are remotely relatable. One dimensional or predictable or underdeveloped, I wasn't a fan of her husband--who definitely has his own issues with control and affection--the children, the community, or the other bit players. Everyone has a motive to lie and secrets to keep, and I loved the complex layers Hamilton brought to the plot.

However, what kept me from that five-star range was the disjointed feeling. Midway through, the narrative takes a sharp turn into mystery, switching focus from Maria and her complicated history (and present) with Nina and her family directly into a decade's old murder mystery about the fate of an ex-boyfriend. This might've felt more relevant if I believed Charlie held any more credence in her life than Ben, but the way it's structured to make you guessing Marie's reliability, I didn't get the sense that he mattered as much in the long run. Stuart was her focus, her desire to have a baby, and to have the gears shift into the destruction of her first love and the fallout from that event felt awkward. I got the sense that she needed an obsession, replacing them when her goal for said obsession is attained, but that was a flimsy rationale, and ultimately, I found myself wishing the plot had veered solely into the mysterious note sender territory and the effect it has on her new family.

Overall, Hamilton's exploration of grief, envy, and lost dreams is a gripping read with a cast of unlikable characters. If you like your suspense spanning the course of a lifetime with a suburban domestic flair, The Last Wife will be an excellent choice for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Graydon House for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Marie is a cringeworthy character. It’s hard to like a compulsive liar with stalker tendencies but by the end I was sort of rooting for her. This book had many twists and was a great read!

A story filled with lies. Who can you trust? Marie and Nina are best friends until Nina passes away with a terminal illness. Promises were made and secrets were kept or were they?

While it was up to the 25% mark before it got my attention, I did enjoy this one. There were parts I found a little drug out but overall it was a good read. I would definitely like to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Graydon House and Karen Hamilton for the opportunity to read The Last Wife in exchange for my review.

When Marie’s best friend, Nina, dies from a terminal illness, Marie takes it upon herself to honor Nina’s dying wish to be there for her family in any way. What Nina never knew is that Marie always wanted her life, and now she’s going to have it. What Marie never knew was the secrets Nina carried, and how they might have an effect on her now.

THE LAST WIFE is a slow burn suspense story. I was hooked and invested by the wonderful writing of author Karen Hamilton, who has a way with words and fleshing out her characters. Marie is a crazy woman whose actions left me exasperated. However, by the end, I may have felt a little differently towards her.

If you can enjoy a suspenseful story that revs up slowly, then back down, then up, and then down...until you’re near the end, I would recommend this to you. I love books where nothing is what it seems, and that’s what this book is.

Thank you to The Graydon House, Karen Hamilton, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of psychological/domestic thrillers the premise and author had me ready for a superior read. The first half was good, , with the obligatory unlikable and unreliable narrator, mourning the death of her best friend and attempting to keep her promise of looking after the family, which, in this case, means moving in and replacing her dead friend. The second half veered off into a mystery I really didn’t care about, I just wanted the story to focus on Marie and her newly “improved ’ family. It didn’t, but it would have been a better book if it had.

Marie promised her friend Nina to take care of Nina's family after she passed. However, after a desperate attempt of failing to conceived with her husband. She decided to take on Nina's family as her own.

I am a die-hard thriller fan. This book is a hard book to get through. I'm not sure what is more annoying, the characters or the slow pace or perhaps both. I know Nina is a liar, but her lies are not hard to see through. Perhaps Stuart is oblivious to Nina's motives because of the recent loss in his life. However, the support characters should have seen it. It also such a slow-moving story. Everything seems to be stretch out. Certain events need not be there and it is.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Didn't draw me in and love any of the characters. There were twists and turns which mad me stick to it to the end. I did finished it. Was just ok for me

Thanks yo the publisher and Net Galley for an early release of this book.

Pretty wild book. Chock full of twists & turns. It was a bit slow to start but about a quarter into it, it really takes off. Will have you suspecting multiple characters for multiple sins. I enjoyed it.

Nina was dying of cancer and in her deathbed, she made her best friend Marie promise to do 3 things for her.

From the start, you can tell Marie is definitely not in a good place. Desperately trying to have a child of her own with her partner (and even faking pregnancies), Marie has a sordid past with lots of missteps.

Trying to make good on one of her promises to Nina, Marie ends up too close to home with Nina’s husband and children, Felix and Emily.

I felt this novel was captivating, but it also felt unfinished in parts. Overall, a great page-turner.

This book was a fun read- it centers around Marie, whose best friend Nina dies of a terminal illness, asking Marie to take care of her family after her death. Marie feels beholden to Nina's family but also has her own agenda, as she was always jealous of Nina's life. As Marie gets closer to Nina's husband Stuart and his family, she starts getting treated badly by those around her, and also gets some threatening mail. Tied together with a secret that she uncovers from when she and Nina were younger, this sets the stage for a fast paced psychological thriller.

I liked the story and the fact that the characters were all unapologetically not nice people. There was a flavor of an unreliable narrator here; though Marie's motives were fairly clear, she threw you for a loop every now and then around how she looked at things. The thing that bothered me, though, was her reaction to the mystery she uncovered regarding her boyfriend, Charlie- I had a hard time believing that someone with Marie's personality type would be that bothered by what actually happened to feel the need to atone for it many years later.

All in all, I'd recommend the book if you are a fan of the psychological thriller genre and find wicked and sneaky characters somewhat endearing when done right. This book was fun and fast paced and I read it in less than a day.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. .

Average and fairly depressing plot, with characters so lackluster I was tempted to just skim through the last third of the book (which I actually did). Not terrible but not many redeeming qualities either. Cannot recommend

Suspenseful and Tense.

Hamilton writes with such certainty and ease. Her writing is fluid and one can tell she is seasoned with her craft. Psychological thrillers are her genre that she writes and she does it amazingly well.

When Nina found out she was dying she truly felt that she could entrust her best friend Marie with her last wishes. Oh how wrong she was. . .

This was an incredibly plot-driven novel. I was hooked in the first couple of pages. Psychological thriller fans will definitely love this one!

Yes!!! A Fantastic read that I could not stop reading. The characters were amazing and honestly the storyline was fabulous. A must read!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. Honestly, I could not finish the book. After Marie's best friend dies, she wants to keep all if the promises she made on her death bed. Marie is a chronic liar and acts like a child. She is on her third therapist and hosts a book club at her deceased friend's house. Too strange for my taste.

Marie was heartbroken when her friend Nina was diagnosed with a terminal condition. Nina asks Marie to watch out for her family, but to what extent will Marie do this. In this twisted thriller, you find out Nina wasn't exactly the model citizen she portrayed herself to be.

I wanted to like this book but I just didn’t care about any of the characters. This book just didn’t do Anything for me.

4-5 stars! Another hit for Hamilton! She is absolutely amazing at making characters, which are vicious, envious, determined, driven, and sort of train wrecks you can’t help but want to follow. This book really hooked me in the beginning, but did do the bit of slow down mid way then back with a vengeance after that! Overall, I think it was pretty unputdownable with a bunch of thrills, chills, and shocks! I highly recommend to those who were a fan of Hamilton’s last book, psychological thrillers lovers, and those who love characters who will do whatever it takes to get what they want!
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms!

The Last Wife is such a twisted unpredictable psych thriller and I devoured it! I couldn't put this book down. If you're a fan of thrillers then this book is definitely for you. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, Karen Hamilton twists it all and has my jaw hanging open. Thank you for an early copy of this one!