Member Reviews
An excellent domestic thriller with a twist ending that kept me engaged at all times. The main character definitely surprised me! A delight!
Wow what a wild ride of a read.The story so well written characters that come alive .A storyline that kept me guessing till the ending that shocked,Highly recommend.#netgalley#harpercollins
Pretty Little Wife is a suspenseful page-turner that just completely blew me away! Lila’s husband is missing, which shocks Lila, since she knows exactly where she left his body, and she can’t understand why the police haven’t found him yet. So starts this twisty, well-written thriller that will have you hooked right from the first page. Great characters, totally engrossing plot and a satisfying ending all add up to a fantastic read, easily 5 Stars. Highly recommended, don’t miss this one! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Lila is shocked. She killed her husband and dumped the body in his car, but somehow in the hours since the crime, the car and body are gone. Her perfect plan disappeared along with her husband.
This is a twisty domestic thriller that keeps you guessing and wanting to read more. Even with characters that aren’t really likable, I still wanted to find out what happened. And the ending?! So, so good. I’ll be watching for Darby Kane’s next thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A good page turner but predictable. I called the whole story after 50 pages... maybe I have read too many mysteries but this was not a surprise twist.
Loved this book!!! It was so well done that you just kept reading till the very end! I finished the whole thing in like 4 hours. Amazing!
Lila Richfield is a smart, impeccably dressed attorney, realtor and wife living the dream life. She is also hiding life hanging secrets and quite possibly just murdered her husband Aaron in the opening chapters. Now instead of being dead, he is missing. The case is assigned to Ginny, who is just as smart as Lila and each woman circles the other. So, if Lila didn’t kill him, where is the sleezy pile of shit Aaron, and who killed him. An intelligent psychological thriller with well developed flawed characters and a completely twisted plot that draws you you in the further you read.. highly recommended.
Ekkkk y’all I loveeee these Husband/wife novels!!! This one was top notch. I could not get over the ending, it surprised me SO MUCH. One of the biggest endings I have read in a while. The writing is excellent and the main character is mysterious which is perfect for this novel. A must read!
Holy shit! This was phenomenal!
I went in blind, not knowing much at all about the story. And I’m so glad I did.
Lila was quite an interesting character. I never knew when to trust/believe her. Or if anything she said or thought was true. The only thing I did know was that she’d killed her husband.
The rest of this story is a web of lies, murder, sex...and misinformation. Puzzling it all out is basically impossible.
It’s so much fun though. It’s sinister and dark, sure. But you kinda can’t help loving the direction things take.
I started becoming suspicious of many things all at the same time—around the halfway point. Some ended up being accurate, others were way off. And I loved that.
By the end, I just wanted Lila to be free and to learn the truth about everything.
And the truth is...mind blowing.
I highly recommend this for fellow mystery and thriller lovers. Definitely a favorite this year.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
.
I read all night to finish this book, I literally could not stop reading it! It went a completely different direction than I expected ✨
.
It takes off at a fast clip from the very beginning and continues that pace throughout.
.***************************************
Lila lives in a beautiful college town in New York state. Several college students have gone missing. Now, Lila’s husband, the beloved high school teacher, has gone missing and the entire town is scrambling to find him.
.
Lila is confused because the last time she saw his body, he was dead. 👀
.
________________________________________
.
I highly recommend this one! I really loved it!
It’s very Karin Slaughter-y but not quite as graphic. I look forward to more from this author!
.
✨Due out December 29, 2020✨
.
Thank you so much @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the chance to review this book!
Lila Ridgefield had everything planned out perfectly. She killed her husband, Aaron, and left his body and car to be found at the high school where he works. Or so she thought, because now her husband is missing. Does this mean he's still alive? Or is someone who figured out her plan messing with her?
In the background of Aaron's disappearance, there are also three missing college students. How do they fit into the puzzle?
This book held me under its spell. I was so captivated and intrigued, I didn't want to stop reading. When I had to put the book aside (because, darn it, sometimes life gets in the way of reading), I couldn't stop thinking about it and wondering what would happen next.
It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel!
It's beautifully crafted with strong female characters that are complex, flawed and fascinating.
Lila is a quiet strength who is sick of all the gaslighting from the men in her life and finally stands up for herself. Ginny, the no nonsense cop, has seen it all, heard it all and doesn't have time for games. In essence, she's a total Badass and I loved her!
If you're a fan of domestic thrillers, give this a read.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This Book sucked me in from the beginning. Such a great fun twisty read. Loved it. Go read it right now.
A solid read that starts out with a bang and ends with one too. This book grabbed me in the beginning, which I love! It was very well written, with many layers piled within for you to unweave. The character development made the book even better to read. Overall, I thought it provided some amazing thrills, chills, twists and turns, and shocks! A great book to go along with the current themes of today’s society! Can you imagine expecting your dead husband to be somewhere, but him ending up missing? If not or if yes, this book will show you just that!
Will make sure to buzz around and use low Amazon reviewer number on release date!
There are three young women missing. And now Aaron a teacher, is also missing. Is it coincidence or just happenstance. Of course the closest people to the missing person is always the first person of interest. Aaron's wife is the first to be questioned. Since she tents to be a quiet somewhat introverted person she is right of way deemed guilty by the general public. Since Aaron seems like such a likable person, friendly and gregarious, everyone seems to like him and have nothing but good things to say about him. What is not noticeable is that people in this story are not what they portray to be.
Ginny the lead investigator in the case is probably the only one that sees that there is more about these people than meets the eye.
A twisted domestic thriller that has you enthralled and definitely entertained from the very beginning of the book.
Thank you , Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC. It started out promising, so fast-paced, with exciting "what's gonna happen"? I'm not sure when it slowed down and started to get boring, but I ended up skipping parts. This might be because I didn't like any of the characters., which is really important to me. I will say. the end came at me out of nowhere. WTH! That made it all worth it. I just wish the book could have kept up the original momentum.
This is such a brilliant, mind crushing, moving, surprising debut!
Characters are flawed, inaccurate, complex, realistically portrayed and eventually you may find a way to connect with them. Especially the quirky, unique but also stone-faced, tough, determined heroine Lila Ridgefield. She seems like small college town resident, ex lawyer, a brand new, competitive real estate agent, always stylish, looking good, happily married with her charming teacher husband Aaron.
But as you may guess, nothing as it seems. In the beginning of the story, she finds her husband’s secret stashes including another phone( he didn’t even think hard to use another pin, what a moron!) and he is also idiot enough to keep the intimate videos he shot with the girls as he was “playing doctor”!
Yes, ewww! The year of the husband tries to convince his wifey that was just a prank!
And later we learn this husband dearest is missing and an investigation team tries to find out what happened to him.
Lila is also shocked because she is the last one who saw him. And she might have done something to her husband the pervert! But the real problem if there is no dead body found, that means she couldn’t accomplish her mission and her husband the jackass may be out somewhere to plan his revenge.
Aaron’s brother Jared and Lila’s lawyer/ ex colleague Tobias are her side as the investigation team targets her and brings out the skeletons she perfectly hid in her closet.
Yes, she has changed her name for a really important reason. But can the reason to make a fresh start be connected with her husband’s disappearance?
And there’s also a popular crime podcast informs people there are also three missing girls out there and there may be a slightest chance those cases may be also connected with Aaron’s disappearance!
Unfortunately all eyes on Lila: she may be lynched or shunned by small town residents who truly believe the purity and sweetness of Aaron the perfectly punchable face!
I stop right here but I have to tell you: there are so many jaw dropping twists, unexpected, riveting turns and WTH moments of the book so keep on reading! I know you’re gonna love it so much just like I did!
Lila was smart, badass, empowered, unique, logical character. She seems like a victim of her own choices but she’s strong enough to survive and choose another path. I don’t think she reminds me of Jane Doe- another badass, dangerous character- because firstly she’s not sociopath and she can feel deeply but she knows how to control her feelings and never let them cloud her judgment.
Overall: Connectable heroine, balanced and intriguing pace and twisty finale earned 4.5 stars from me and I’m happily rounding them up to 5 blazing, mysterious stars!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers/ William Morrow Paperbacks for sharing this incredible Arc with me in exchange my honest review.
Lila husband is missing and everyone is looking for him except Lila.
Why is she looking for him? Because she killed him? She soon finds out his car isn't where she left it so now she too is looking for her husband.
This book was a little slower than I like my domestic thrillers to be. Overall, it's a quick, page turning read.
Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced ebook copy.
You’ll be forgiven if, at first glance, you think this is the normal little twisty domestic thriller beach read that seem to be everywhere nowadays.
It *is* twisty.
It *is* a domestic thriller.
It *is* a beach read.
But holy crap, it’s so much more! This is one devious and twisted (not just twisty) suspense thriller that will have you on edge all the way through!
Our main character is…wrong. So very wrong. But so much fun to read! I made the mistake of starting this book before work one day. I tore through it, was 50% through before work and finished the rest at lunch and I was so sorry it was over.
Expect suspense that just won’t stop and a very satisfying end to everything!
5 happy stars.
*ARC Provided via Net Galley
Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane Was a bit confused at the beginning events taking place were vague and hazy. After the first few chapters the pace picked up and the events unfolding were easier to comprehend. None of the characters were particularly likable but the mysteries were more than enough to keep reading to discover what happened and was going on. There's more to the wife than being pretty. Very good suspense thriller.
Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.
Let me tell you: I'm a sucker for an antihero. Give me a morally-ambiguous heroine with a take-no-bullshit attitude, and I am a happy girl. So I was thrilled to be approved for Pretty Little Wife.
Lila is beautiful and smart and a devoted wife, but when she discovers her husband has a secret--a horrible, life-altering secret--she decides she has to take matters into her own hands. Resolved to kill her husband, she executes her plan and expects things to go swimmingly--until, that is, her husband is reported missing and she realizes the body is gone. Is Aaron alive? And is he coming for her next?
I loved this book.
On the surface, I expected it to be a run-of-the-mill standard thriller, and in some ways, you get all the successful ingredients you want from that genre: deceitful spouse, revenge, murder, twists--this, on its own, is done well, and Kane has a firm grasp on the status quo.
However, Kane also proves to be a master at layered plots. There is *a lot* going on in this story. While we get some depth to our characters, this is really conflict driven, and Kane doesn't skimp on the dilemmas. A detective sorting through the missing husband. A podcast dissecting local cases. Three missing girls. Tragic backstories (plural here). Along with a slew of other interconnected events, developments, and missteps leading back to the central mystery of what happened to Aaron.
That's not to say the characters are flat or boring. I loved Lila. You can't trust her, but that doesn't make her an unreliable narrator. Quite the contrary. She's smart, brazen, and tough. She's logical and unruffled and behaves in ways that would previously, IMHO, be attributed to the husband. She's not weepy, dramatic, or emotional. Practical and cunning. Kane really went for it with her reversal of power, and it pays off well. In a genre dominated by adoring husbands, murderous husbands, adulterous husbands, weeping wives, bitter wives, and scorned lovers--we get Lila, a woman capable of standing on her own two feet even when everyone around her tries to trip up her balance. A former lawyer with an analytical mindset, she's one of the most interesting characters I've read lately, and I couldn't get enough of her POV. I particularly loved her interactions with Ginny, and I think readers will, too.
Overall, Pretty Little Wife is a twisty, gritty, smart thriller with wonderful characters and intrigue for days. I'd recommend for fans of Gillian Flynn, Killing Eve, Big Little Lies, or The Sinner.
Big thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.