What a page turner. I couldn't put this book down.

Damien's life is turned upside down when his wife's sister moves in with them. She is held for 19 years by her abductor. You can just imagine the psychological toll this would take on someone. That being said, Damien gives you hints that he's not exactly a good guy either...

I loved the way this story was told, it kept me on the edge of my seat. I also appreciated the change in narration from Damien to Mara towards the end of the book to give a different perspective.

Thank you to Cherry Tree Publishing and NetGalley for a free copy of this ebook.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I liked this book, could see parts of it coming but it didn't detract from the story. The ending seemed fairly obvious and expected.

This was a thriller that left me reading late into the night. Disturbing and so likely that it left you thinking how easily this could happen.

I enjoyed this book. The only criticism I have (without giving any spoilers), is I felt it was highly unlikely the police would leave a framed photo in the shack, that was later found. I don't think this adds to the novel at all and could be removed, leaving it even more realistic.

When a woman suddenly resurfaces after vanishing mysteriously as a young girl, the world is gripped by the mystery. Her sister, still dealing with the guilt of not protecting her sister, is overjoyed that she has her sister back. Her husband smells a rat!

As things start to unravel, husband is pitted against sister and the reader is taken on a rollercoaster. This book had me on the edge of my seat and is a real page turner. Although as mentioned above, there were a couple of periods where it left me questioning the reality of this situation. There are a few areas that need tweaking to keep this real (if that is the intention of the author), but a great escape novel. I am being super critical, I am just one of those readers that finds a story depicting possible real circumstances needs to have the content to back it up.

Still one I would recommend. Had me guessing all the way through.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Mara was abducted 19 years ago and then one day her sister Lucia receives a phone call that they've found someone wandering around in the woods who they believe to be her long lost sister.

This book has a shocking twist which makes your mind real and question much of what you read earlier in the story.

This book is a great psychological thriller which shocked me towards the end as I didn't see the twist coming.

I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. I did find it difficult to put down, trying to find out what happened.
The storyline was easy to follow, although it wasn’t a very pleasant story., I could imagine it happening in real life.
There were a few twists I didn’t see coming.
I felt Damien was a weak character at the beginning of the book and so didn’t feel much sympathy for him. However I thought Lucia was so involved with her sister, that she didn’t give the proper place to her family.
Perhaps none of the characters was very likeable, with the exception of the children. I felt for them.
Thank you for letting me read this book.
.

Easy enough read and kept me interested but it wasn’t something I will think of often honestly.

Lucia’s sister Mara was kidnapped and 19 years later she’s back. Lucia’s husband who is obnoxious from the start doesn’t trust her and they have a hard time forming a relationship. Honestly I didn’t find any of the characters likable so it was difficult to connect with. The story line was ok but in the middle of the book it switches to a different point of view with a completely different set up. Not even in a twisted thriller WOW movement but a what the hell are you talking about? It wasn’t a smooth transition for me and I just felt a bit underwhelmed in the end.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I will rate His Wife's Sister by AJ Willis a 3/5 stars. The book started out okay with the prologue and I was kind of interested in what happened next, but the next few chapters became boring and drawn out. The ending was not that good either. Something about this book just did not sit right with me.

Well this was a page turner that I struggled to put down. I could not wait to see what else this book was going to bring. Really liked it and would recommend.

I will give this 2.5 stars. I didn't like anyone in this book. And the whole reason Mara won't talk about what happened in captivity made no sense. It also just seemed unrealistic Mara wasn't hospitalized longer when they found her. The abrupt narrator switch was weird too. Damian, Mara's brother in law, is the narrator for the first 70% or so of the book then it switches to Mara. Both are extremely jealous people and felt unreliable in their accounts of what went on. Lucia, the sister, would have been better off without either of them. I wanted more information about Lucia and Mara before the kidnapping. This just wasn't the story for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

What an amazing book so well written and fantastic story . Kept me awake most nights, definitely book you can’t put down . The wife didn’t have a great lot of the story it was mainly the husband and sister and I couldn’t figure out who was the bad guy for most of the book , I’ll look forward to going back to the previous book from this author .

His Wife's Sister by A.J. Wills is a super twisted thriller that readers won't want to put down. Damian and Lucia are happily married with two children. They met in school and were at first friends then romance bloomed. Damian first noticed Lucia when her sister, Mara, disappeared.

After being gone for 19 years, Mara stumbles out of the woods and is rescued. What happened to Mara during her captivity? Can Mara overcome the emotional upheaval and trauma to become a part of her sister's life again? And why doesn't Damian trust Mara around his family?

Who is the good guy on the scene and who is the bad guy? It is sometimes hard to discern in this twisted book.

I took a chance on this book because I love thrillers but I had never heard of the author. I'm absolutely glad that I did. It was a very addictive book. There were twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I had a hard time putting this book down and couldn't wait to get back to it every time that I did. I would definitely recommend this to any thrillers lovers.

Mara Sitwell was 11 years old when she disappeared. 19 years later she is found wandering alone in the woods. Her sister Lucia never forgave herself and invites her to live in her home with her husband Damien and 2 young children. But Damien isn’t happy about this and is convinced that Mara is hiding a dark secret. 

Damien gave me the creeps, right from the very beginning. However, no matter how creepy or obsessive he seemed I still couldn’t help but sometimes feel bad for him in parts. 

One of the best plot twists I’ve ever read and a perfect example of an unreliable narrator. I totally believed every word until the truth was revealed. I also appreciated the way the author painted the complex way survivors can come out of a traumatic experience.

I felt uneasy when reading this book - waiting for the next thing to happen, never knowing what was around the corner. It was hard to figure out what was happening with Mara and I loved the intrigue and mystery over what happened to her in that house. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book or an honest review.

His Wife’s Sister

This book kept me on my toes, wondering did he do it, did she do it? I read it quite quickly, hoping to discover the secrets of the abducted Mara.

In this book we follow Damien, father of two, husband to Lucia. As a child, Lucia’s sister Mara was snatched in the night. Damien recalls his interest in Lucia grow during that horrid time in her life where all the attention was briefly on here while police searched for her kidnapped sister. Nineteen years later, Mara is found wandering in the woods, and is eventually reunited with Lucia. Damien has mixed feelings about Lucia spending so much time away from home and their kids while taking care of Mara in the hospital. Eventually Mara moves into the house. Damien thinks she knows more than she’s telling about her abductor and her relationship with him. And he thinks she is dangerous.
Could Mara be trying to get rid of Damien and the children so that she can have her sister Lucia all to herself? Why does she act so irrationally around him and then blame him for the mishaps that take place? Damien searches for answers by visiting the house where Mara was kept hostage for all those years. In the end, the truth is a dangerous monster.

Unconvincing,unlikable characters and a far fetched storyline. Didnt enjoy this book at all.Surprising ending.

I wanted to like this novel, however it was problematic for me. The Stockholm Syndrome story line, the holes in the plot, the construction of the dual POVs left a mess of confusion where there could have been a gripping, edge of your seat thriller. I also felt the writing was strong and vivid in the first third of the book but devolved into simple language and unrealistic dialog, specifically the last 20%.

5 Stars: 5/5 Star Rating
Well, well, well, Mara is home but something just doesn't seem "right" to her brother-in-law, Damian. He is determined to find out what is the truth of the matter too. But Mara isn't talking and he begins to take extreme measures to get her to spill the beans when he receives special motivation. His wife, Lucia, is thrilled to have Mara home and takes her into their home and family, much to Damian's displeasure.
This book is full of surprises for the reader! I won't spoil it, but you will want to keep on reading without a break to figure this one out!
I received a digital ARC of this book from netgalley and Cherry Tree Publishing. All opinions expressed are my own.

Sometimes you have to reach for a psychological thriller and spend a frantic few hours chasing down the path of madness for truth. At least, that's what I tell myself. Last weekend, I found myself in the need for some quick escape and reached for A.J. Wills' His Wife's Sister, which did the job quite admirably. Thank you to Cherry Tree Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What do you say when your little sister disappears from the tent you're sharing in your backyard and isn't heard from again? What next when you feel like the outsider at school and a boy who's never spoken to you before offers to be your friend? And what do you do when your little sister suddenly reappears after 19 years? Now let's switch that around. What do you do when a little girl disappears from your town and her lonely sister is in need of friendship? What do you do when you fall in love with her? And how do you feel when her sister suddenly reappears and becomes central to your now-wife's life? Let's bring in a final viewpoint. What do you do when you're kidnapped as a child and never see anyone but your kidnapper for 19 years? How do you feel to see your sister has created a life for herself? How do you answer questions you don't even want to ask yourself? His Wife's Sister tries to engage with all these viewpoints in one way or another, and as you can perhaps tell from the jumble above, that's not exactly easily done. However, A.J. Wills'

Lucia and Damien are married with two lovely children. He works from home while she commutes into London for work. They seem pretty perfect, until they receive a call from the police that Lucia's sister, Mara, has been found after being abducted 19 years ago. Everything freezes to a halt as they try to help her adjust and let her move in with them. It is then that the real oddness begins, however, as Damien, our main narrator, starts to see gaps in Mara's behaviour and explanations. It is about a third through His Wife's Sister's first chapter that you begin to get an odd feeling about everyone involved. We spend most of the book inside Damien's head as he moves back and forth between telling us what is happening now and how he and Lucia met. Without getting into spoiler territory, most readers will grasp pretty quickly that he is an incredibly unreliable narrator. A lot of His Wife's Sister feels predictable, in that A.J. Wills sets up the dominoes in plain view and knocks them over perfunctorily. None of the characters are really likeable and sometimes slips into the weird territory of blaming a kidnapping and assault victim for their coping and survival tactics. Although I was engrossed by His Wife's Sister this was largely due to the creepy nature of the book and the fact I had to be certain A.J. Wills would bring it back around to kind of ok territory.

This is my first novel by A.J. Wills and I'm still quite torn about the reading experience. On the one hand I found some aspects of His Wife's Sister to be rather off and a lot of the twists and turns are quite clear from the start. On the other hand some moments in His Wife's Sister happen so rapidly that I was confounded and fascinated by them. Quite frequently I'd wonder, how did we get here? Why is no one concerned about this? How could this just happen? The characters didn't feel real in the sense that I truly wondered at their interior motives and if they had any. It was a shame not to have Lucia be narrator or protagonist for part of the story, as that would have grounded both Mara and Damien more and prevented it from feeling as cliche. Now, I know that the above doesn't sound very positive. It is why my reading experience was such a confusing one. Despite the above, I did enjoy parts of His Wife's Sister and found myself unwilling to put it down. But I don't know if I'll be quick to pick up Wills' next one

His Wife's Sister is a fast, gripping and frustrating read. The plot as well as the tone felt off, occasionally, and the characters weren't always believable. The reason I'm giving 3 Universes rather than 2 is because despite all this, I was hooked.

A creepy thriller with lots of twists and turn. This book was outside my normal choices, but I found it interesting if not compelling.

This is a page turner for sure but a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions. It’s a really creepy read and one you keep reading as you want to KNOW what’s the outcome. The characters I found hard to understand and it’s only on reading you will see why. The plot comes across as being far fetched and underdeveloped and it’s like you missed a huge chunk of the story coming up to the conclusion. I did enjoy this for sure and it really kept my attention but it left me wanting and with so many things not explained along with thinking “Come on” on the side of believability.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC and review that was published on the 7th of May...