If I could give this book more than five (5) stars, I definitely would! This is one of the best suspense thrillers that I have read in a while. Rachel Hawkins does not disappoint in this one at all. Jane wants a better life for herself, but right now she is working as a dog walker for those living the life of luxury in Thornfield Estates, but hey, it pays the bills. However, one day she runs into one of the handsome residents who is recently widowed, and things start to look very promising. Well, Jane is nothing if not enterprising, and she sets out to make sure that things turn in her favor. Needless to say, everything that glitters is not gold. For a while, things are going wonderfully for Jane and Eddie, but then there’s this niggling little doubt that rears its ugly head. After that, all’s fair in love or is it? This book drew me in from the very beginning and held me hostage as I turned each and every page in anticipation of just what would happen next. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book!

Honestly, it was a decent read. There were a lot of details & the plot began well, yet I tired of reading about shallow women and minute details of their jewelry and yoga outfits. Jane wished to have a cushy shallow life too, but stealing from her clients and scamming others was a real turn off. I became bored with the “did he/did she” dialogue. I found most of the characters more exasperating than interesting.

THE WISE UPSTAIRS is Hawkins' take on Jane Eyre. It's a twisty tale where no one is who they seem to be, and everyone has an unspoken agenda. Hawkins is great both at building suspense and character development. Really fun read!

I love the fact that this book is told from the perspectives of multiple characters. Doing so makes this thriller even more appealing!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this title ahead of publication in early January next year.

Jane, who recently moved from Arizona to Alabama, is broke and makes a small subsistence walking dogs in a rich neighborhood. Then she meets Eddie, who immediately gets a puppy so he can hire Jane to walk Adele. Eddie’s wife, Bea, recently drowned in an accident, and now he’s in charge of her multi-million- dollar home décor business. And of course, he's sad about her death.

But enough about the nitty gritty. Get ready for an exhilarating race with the best pacing to the end of the book. Suspicion is cast on about every character described, so I seriously doubt you’ll figure out the ending.

I love this domestic thriller genre and Hawkins gets an A+ for moving the plot forward, no boring moments, and lots of excitement. The southern touches thrown in will endear you to Alabama, I’m sure.

I highly recommend this read and look forward to Hawkins’ next book.

What did I just read? I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book with more lies and boy were there doozies!!!! Did it make for a good psychological thriller? You betcha it did!!! I couldn’t wait to get to the end to see how they wrapped up this story with a big fat red bow at the end. Holy cow! Nothing is as it seems - and this is like this through the whole book. Every time I thought I would figure it out, nope, wrong!!! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

5 Stars and MORE!

I LOVED THIS BOOK! The Wife Upstairs is a MUST READ for thriller fans. One of the best books I've read this year and one that will definitely make my Top 10 list for 2021. (Releases 1/2021)

Jane, the dog walking protagonist, pulled me right into her story and led me along the sidewalks of Thornfield Estates with her and her charges until I was totally immersed in the book and couldn't put it down. I read the novel as a stand alone, without comparing it to Jane Eyre, which heightened my enjoyment of the tale and allowed it to unfold without expectations. I empathized with her character, rooted for her despite her imperfections, and hoped for a positive outcome at the end of the story. The book was well-written, perfectly paced, and the central characters were well formed. Even when I didn't approve of their actions, I understood them.

Rachel Hawkins gave this reader a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience, and I say, BRAVA. I intend to check out her backlist. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t my favorite psychological thriller of late, but it was perfectly serviceable and did the job. The epitome of a three star thriller

Loved this book, from the very beginning of the book I was hooked and just wanted to keep reading. Highly recommend this book! I haven’t read anything like this one!

I made it to 11% and stopped. Eddie was a total creep and I couldn’t even entertain the idea of finishing this. I didn’t want to see them fall in love, fake or not. And they’re both coming across as terrible people.

Maybe I’ll go back eventually and finish it all. But right now, all I can do is cringe.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of The Wife Upstairs.

A young woman’s life is changed forever after nearly being hit by a car. Reader, meet Jane...who quickly recovers from the shock of her near miss and is now enthralled with Eddie, the young, handsome driver. Although Jane is worldly and knows a thing or two about how to handle herself, she has no clue about the dark world she enters when she gets involved with Eddie.

Money, murder and mystery all make for a delightfully indulgent read! An easy read with interesting characters. The plot is not predictable and it will keep you wanting to turn another page. The only fault I can find is perhaps the ending. I wanted more,! This book is a perfect summertime read. So, grab yourself a lawn chair, slap on the sunscreen because you start reading you won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Well that was wild. I went into this feeling sorry for Jane, to completely despising her for her manipulative behavior, then onto general disdain.

I thought Eddie was totally up to no good the whole time.

Bea! I won't even talk about Bea...

I liked the twists in this one. Great quick read.

This is an incredibly fun domestic thriller that puts a modern spin on one of the female-penned classics you may have read in high school English. I won't spoil any of the plot by giving away the book here (although it is not much of a giveaway because the best part of the classic shows up early in the story). However, if you've read it, you'll know the classic book when you start recognizing the character names as you go along.

Our heroine Jane is a young lady new in a posh town who has a somewhat mysterious and decidedly more lower-class upbringing than the other residents. Jane works as a dog walker and more than anything wants to fit in and be one of the rich ladies who lunch. Her chance comes in the form of a handsome resident, Mr. Eddie Rochester, who takes an interest in her. Mr. Rochester's wife Bea, a wealthy southern-style cutesy designer similar to Kate Spade, has recently died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

Based on the title and my knowledge of the book this was based on, I suspected the "upstairs" part would be the big shocking ending but it wasn't. That part came early! Then there were so many other twists, turns, and unreliable narrators along the way. This was just a whole lot of fun and a very well-crafted plot, and very interesting and, at the very least, imperfect characters. I don't really have any negatives about this fun book except that there was one pivotal character in the book who we never got to hear from as a narrator. I would have loved to see what this author could have done with her voice as well. But that's a minor point to an overall very clever, mysterious and intriguing story based on one of my old favorites.

I predict this book will be very successful because it has all the key elements of a great popular domestic suspense novel - multiple POVs, unreliable (?) narrators, wealth and glamour, a possibly menacing husband (or is someone else more menacing?)....and more. On top of that, I've never read a domestic thriller book like this with so clever a literary inspiration. I'm definitely going to be checking out some of Rachel Hawkins' other books.

The Wife Upstairs is compulsively readable (and at times just compulsive), scary, clever and full of twists. It's also very well-written, which is much appreciated by this reader at a time that some publishers seem to be cranking out the domestic thrillers seemingly faster than the speed of light without quite as much regard to writing quality High quality, literary fun with all the escapist murder drama you need for a summer thriller beach read. 4.5 stars rounded up!

This one was a wild ride- I read it in less than a day! It centers primarily on Jane, a former foster kid who recently moved to Alabama and is scheming to find a way to make a better life for herself. She starts walking dogs for families in a rich neighborhood, and meets Eddie, whose wife recently disappeared. Jane is cunning wants to find a way to get rich and fit in as soon as possible, but there is an endearing quality about her and she is likable. As Jane's story progresses, the reader also gets snippets from Eddie's first wife, Bea, and finds out what happened to her as well as what led up to it.

Though pretty much every character in the book has secrets and is looking out for number one, the author somehow made the reader empathetic to them, which was impressive. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that i have never read Jane Eyre so had no annoyance around the similarities and differences that other readers mentioned.

Bea's situation, which the reader finds out before Jane, really sets the book apart- it's a unique twist that makes the story stand out from others in a busy genre. I also like how the end of the book left some unanswered questions, though I struggled in particular to figure out some of Eddie's choices at the end.

Overall, this was a twisty and fun read that moves at a fast clip and will not disappoint. I strongly recommend it to those who like mysteries, psychological thrillers, and domestic suspense books. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! A truly suspenseful and engaging plot with believable characters who each had a gripping backstory. It takes a lot to surprise me with a ‘shock ending’ but The Wife Upstairs delivered!
As a reader, we begin by following Jane on her day-to-day routine of walking the dogs of affluent owners in the picturesque neighbourhood of Thornfield Estates. There was something Stepford Wives like about the beginning of the novel that really got my attention – it was clear something was lurking just beneath the surface of the ‘perfect’ lives the characters seem to be living.
The POV of both Bea and Eddie were great additions to the plot, revealing their turbulent upbringings and providing reasoning for their actions later in the novel. While I didn’t particularly warm to any of the characters on a personal level, this didn’t matter at all. The multiple twists and turns kept me reading late into the night and actually struggled to put the book down as I was so eager to find out what was going on behind closed doors.
I would recommend this to anyone who (like me!) has read so many psychological thrillers that the endings all seem to have blurred into one. This novel truly surprised me and gave me the chills!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for an honest review!

I had been hearing a lot about "The Wife Upstairs", which is set to be released early next year, so was excited when I received and ARC through NetGalley. It did not disappoint! "The Wife Upstairs" is the story of Jane, broke and newly arrived in Alabama after running away from her past in foster care. While working as a dog walker in a wealthy neighborhood, for families so wealthy that they don't miss the items that she takes from around their homes, she meets Eddie while out walking one of the dogs when he almost hits her with his car one rainy morning. Eddie happens to live in one of the homes that she has long admired, and she learns that he is a widower, his wife, Bea, having presumably drowned while out boating with her best friend who drowned as well. As Jane is hired to walk Eddie's dog, the two become closer, and fall in love. Jane sees the relationship as giving her the stability in life that she's never had, and a change to move beyond the past that she has been running away from. However, as she moves into his home, they make plans to wed, and she begins to take Bea's place within their neighborhood, she begins to questions her ability to compare to Bea. As Jane learns more and more about Eddie's first wife from neighbors, including the best friend's husband, and she witnesses strange behavior, she starts to questions whether things aren't quite what they seem, and is Eddie is the man she thought he was.

The title of this book, "The Wife Upstairs" describes a plot twist, if you will, that we as readers are privy to from the beginning, but Jane is not., as we get snippets of entries that Bea is writing throughout the book from where she is living in the attic of Eddie's home. However, I can't say any more without giving away the ending- but the reader will be in for a suprise! This was one of those books that was hard to put down, and it is one I would highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. "The Wife Upstairs" is set to be released on January 5, 2021.

Thank you NetGalley & Publisher for this gifted e-ARC for an honest review!


Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.


I tore this this book! Like WOW it's that good!
I was glued. Couldn't stopped reading.
This author really knows how to keep a readers attention.

This was just an overall wonderful book. It was twisty, shocking, jaw-dropping kinda book.
AMAZING BOOK!

Jane has fled a terrible life out west and made her way to Alabama. She's ready to escape a past in which she was passed through the foster care system and finally find a permanent home. The problem is she's broke, living with a less than pleasant roommate in an undesirable part of town and has a mediocre job as a dog walker for the elite in a luxurious gated community. On the plus side, the wealthy people she walks dogs for don't seem to notice her stealing trinkets here and there. She's envious of their lifestyle. If only she could be like them? Then one day, she meets Eddie while out dog walking. He’s rich (with the biggest house in the neighborhood), he's handsome and he's recently widowed. Cha-ching! After a whirlwind romance, Jane moves in with Eddie and finally has the life she always wanted. But is it too good to be true? Jane has a past that she doesn’t want anyone to find out and, as she soon learns, so does Eddie.

This is a luscious modern southern gothic tale reminiscent of Bronte's Jane Eyre. Hawkins makes no qualms about her inspiration, even paying homage to the classic novel by naming her main characters Jane and Edward after the originals. But make no mistake. There are similarities, but Ms. Hawkins has taken a classic story and woven a deeply psychological, deeply thrilling novel that will leave you on the edge of your seat. I love her writing style and I absolutely fell in love with the character of Jane. She is snarky, she mysterious, she is cunning. In short, she is the perfect protagonist and I greatly approve!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Netgalley

I received a copy of this book to review for my my honest opinion from NetGalley

The Wive Upstairs was such a great book! I thought I had it all figured out and boom politics twist! I enjoyed this book very much and read it very quickly. The main character Jane was well written and I connected with her from the beginning. She was happy being where she was but wanted better. She had the opportunity when she met Eddie. But he ended up not being who she thought he was. Eddie was married to Bea who died in a tragic boating accident with her beat friend- so we were to believe. You find out he has her locked upstairs in a panic room he built in the house. Jane begins to notice little things that don’t seem to add up and starts to ask questions and research Bea. Muilti millionaire built from the ground up married Eddie after a whirlwind vacation. But there is so much more to this amazing story. Worth a read.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins was a fun book to read and kept me guessing. I found Jane and her situation to be a little improbable but suspended my disbelief to go ahead and finish the book. The Stepford wives aspect of this was entertaining, showing how shallow some neighborhoods, in general, can be, but also that there is usually a lot under the surface. Overall a good read and would recommend.