After having finished this book, I opened my jewelry box and put this priceless, precious gem of a book inside of it. 

From the very first few sentences I was lost, lost in this captivating story. The world might have stopped turning and I would not have noticed. I was too enthralled. 

The author takes us on a trip from the present to the past and back again and I read at light speed. I could not stop myself. The book took over and I had no say in this. 

How would you feel when you come around and feel like something is missing put you can't put your finger on it? It keeps playing in your head but to no avail. But one thing is for sure: the truth always comes out even if you have to wait 10 years for it. Maybe you wished you never remembered...

A brilliant book, without a doubt. 5 stars

Thank you, Shalini Boland and Bookouture

Your wedding day should bring warm memories for many years to come. What if some of your memories of the day are missing and you feel in your gut that something was not quite right. Her sister Dina, whom she has been estranged from for many years, never showed up for her wedding. She wished she could put the hard feelings she has had with her sister behind her. Zoe was in the hotel room getting ready for her wedding to her fiance Tobey. Next thing she can remember is lying on the floor and she was told she passed out and hit her head. She gathers herself together and decides to go on with the wedding instead of getting medical attention. She didn't want her wedding day ruined. Over the next ten years she has two children and a happy marriage. Zoe never hears from her sister after all these years and she starts searching for her. As she searches for her sister some memories of her wedding day have returned and her family starts acting strange. What is her family hiding? I enjoyed the twists in the book and never saw the last one coming. This is one of those books you read in one sitting because you just have to find out what is going on. A great book to put at the top of your to read list.

I'm not sure how to rate this book. I definitely liked it because there were times when I couldn't put it down and just had to race through another chapter, but it was extremely far-fetched and for a relatively short book, there was some unnecessary padding.

I liked the relationship between Zoe and her dad, especially towards the end when we find out a bit more. I also liked how the book was divided into short chapters, it always made me want to read 'just one more.'

An issue I did have was that the book spent a lot of time on focusing on things that didn't end up being important and probably not enough time developing the characters that are central to the plot. For example, there is a whole chapter dedicated to why Zoe fell out with her childhood best friend but it doesn't really end up having anything to do with the story. I would have liked to have known a bit more about brother in law Nick and father in law Malcolm as you never really get to find out anything about either character's personality even though they are 'main characters.' I didn't hate the ending but it was a bit implausible.

Overall I did like this but think it could have been better. I've read all of Shalini Boland's books and would recommend The Millionaire's Wife and The Girl From The Sea over this one.

The Wife is a wonderfully twisted domestic thriller. All the twists kept me on the edge of my seat from the first page. I won't say too much because I don't want to ruin all the twists but I highly recommend The Wife.

Zoe fainted on her wedding day and doesn't remember what caused her to faint or what was going on when she fainted. She just remembers an uneasiness during the day that was supposed to be the happiest day of her life but has the perfect marriage. Ten years later Zoe and Toby are getting ready to have a big 10 year anniversary celebration. People start acting weird around Zoe and unusual events are happening. Zoe starts to wonder what really happened on her wedding day.

The story switches between present day and ten years before, on Zoe's wedding day and the months after the wedding.

The characters are much more likable than most thrillers, but you have to read to the end to find out who the villains are.

The Wife was my first Shalini Boland book, but definitely will not be my last. I am looking forward to reading her back list.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shalini Boland does it again. The Wife is one doozy of a domestic thriller with twists upon twists that I did not see coming. Loved it!

I love all the books that Shalini Boland writes and always want to read her stories. The latest, The Wife was another fantastic novel.

On the day of her wedding, Zoe faints and has no recollection of why. When she wakes up, there’s a bump on her head but her new mother-in-law Celia who is a nurse, promises that she is okay. And Zoe is fine aside from a little headache. Sure, her memory is blank, but she marries the love of her life, Toby.

Ten years go by and she’s very happy with Toby and their children. In fact, Toby and Zoe are planning on a big anniversary party to celebrate. And then one day, she thinks she sees her estranged sister. She hasn’t seen Dina in ten years, could she be back in town?

As Zoe questions the reappearance of Dina, she is also wondering why her sister-in-law Madeline is suddenly acting standoffish. Questions swirl in Zoe’s brain especially when an old friend Cassie turns up.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Zoe fainted on her wedding day, and she never knew why. She’s always felt sure something bad happened. Ten years later, she’s going to find out what…

It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. Zoe was sitting in her hotel room, in her perfect white dress, looking forward to the moment when she would make kind, handsome Toby her husband. Then, there was a blank.

They said she must have fainted, overcome with emotion. But nothing felt quite right afterward. Did something happen in that missing time?

Now, Toby and Zoe have two beautiful children and a perfect life. They’re planning their ten-year anniversary party for their family and friends. The invitations have been sent, the food ordered. They’re going back to the grand hotel where they got married.

But as the anniversary gets closer, it becomes clear not everyone is looking forward to celebrating. She catches Toby lying about where he’s been. One of her best friends seems to be ignoring her. And someone is spreading stories that might stop the party from happening at all.

Zoe is increasingly sure that she doesn’t have the full story. But does she want to know the truth, if it will destroy everything?

This was another page-turner from a favorite author. I will read anything and everything Shalini Boland writes!

Another terrific deal for the Kindle version, this book will be out on September 9!

Absolutely loved this domestic thriller! Shalini Boland does it again! Loved the twists and turns and wow what an ending. I literally had no idea... did not see it coming at all. Wonderful cast of characters that were easy to relate to and really like (ok some I strongly disliked!).
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Highly recommend

Wow! It started as a woman with a seemingly perfect life, perfect family, and boy did that change!! I read it in one sitting, couldn’t put it down. It was full of twists and turns and had an ending I never saw coming!

I really enjoyed this book.
It had everything I like in a thriller - suspense, a solid built-up, and a few plot twists in the end. I really liked Zoe as a character, and her growing paranoia and anxiety were really well-written and really added to the suspense, which made me read the entire book in one sitting.
Yet I was a little disappointed by the ending. The middle parts were so good that I was expecting something huge for the ending, and sadly the plot twists were quite predictable and the last scenes seemed to be over too quickly to really have shock factor. I did enjoy the epilogue a lot, and I was glad that it was added to make up for the rest of the ending.
I didn't always enjoy the switch between past and present, especially because sometimes it was a little confusing and the timeline was hard to follow.
The writing style and the pacing made the book really easy and quick to read and I couldn't put it down once I had started. The whole plot was super intriguing and I enjoyed seeing all the little moments adding up to Zoe's anxiety and her growing suspicions. The atmosphere was definitely one of the things I enjoyed most about this.

I love reading excellent psychological suspense novels, but it’s not always easy to find them. It takes talent to write a real page-turner, a book that’s impossible to put down. Therefore I’m happy to say Shalini Boland did it! I read the book as fast as I could, because I simply had to find out the truth. What happened on Zoe’s wedding day?

Zoe has been told she fainted before the wedding, but she can’t remember anything. She was pregnant, and believed that was the reason. She believed it for ten years, until the ball started rolling, the truth couldn’t be hidden anymore, and her memory came back. Weird things had started happening before her tenth wedding anniversary. Her friends avoided her, her husband lied, she thought she saw her sister twice, a sister she hadn’t heard from in over ten years...

An enjoyable read, a book I will not easily forget, written by a talented author. Well-developed characters, and the perfect pace and balance of dropping information to the reader. How have I not heard of her before?

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy!

My Review:

I will say this to the moon and back that boy this Shalini Boland woman sure knows how to write a book!!!!!! I have read many of her books and loved them all. In fact I’m determined to read all books. She is one of my favorite authors and I pray that she continues to write more and more and more!!!!!!

This book was about a woman who’s past and present collides in many ways. Zoe faints on her wedding day ten years earlier and doesn’t remember a thing. Now with her anniversary party coming up she has this feeling that her fainting spell so long ago was something more. Is Zoe right? Why does she keep getting hang up calls? Why does everyone around her seem to be acting suspicious? Did she do something wrong? You find all your questions and more out by the end of the book.

I want to start off by saying that I can’t say enough good things about this author. I love the way she writes and how she really brings the book alive. I feel like I watching an award winning movie when I’m reading her books. I’m telling you her books are just that good. I loved the way that this book came together. You go from past to present and really feel like you are one with the story. I also loved all the characters. The characters all had their flaws but they flowed well with each other. They each had their place in the story and it worked so well. I really loved that. Let’s talk about the plot. Now that was a doozy. Who doesn’t love a story where where your past affects the present. Also, that ending, wow!!!!! Shalini is the queen of shock. I really thought I knew where the end was taking me but I was dead wrong. I just love endings with a twist. They bring such joy to me as it’s hard to surprise me anymore.

Between the plot, characters and all the twists in this book it made it an easy and fast read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 5 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

This is a really original mystery with an idea that I’ve never quite seen before. The main character keeps having flashbacks for a wedding that she knows went awry but she cannot remember why. The reader finds out over the course of the novel in a captivating story unfolds.

this author never disappoints her readers this story so addictive . Zoe has it all loving husband two children .its coming up to her ten year wedding anniversary .that day half of it she can not remember as she fainted so she going to have a big party to make up for it her sister she is still looking for who went missing abroad how this story comes together is just brilliant i so enjoyed

Warning - when you read a Shalini Boland book, be prepared to not get anything else done!

I have read a number of books by this author and have enjoyed them, The Wife was no different.

It centres around Zo who is blissfully happy with Toby and about to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary. They have organised a party to celebrate and she's hoping it drives away the ghosts of her wedding day when she fainted and can't remember what happened prior to that, she knows there is something not quite right from that day, but she's unsure what...

Strange things start happening to her, her friends appear to be ignoring her, her old frenemy, Carrie is back in town and is causing trouble, she also keeps thinking she's seeing her sister who has been absent from her life for over a decade and couldn't even be bothered turning up to her wedding.

There were a few characters I was suspicious of in this book, mostly, the mother-in-law, Celia and my opinion on Toby definitely changed and I wish Carrie had got her comeuppance, nasty piece of work!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion

I'm a big fan of this author's books, but The Wife doesn't quite reach the same level. Maybe it's because the plot is similar to so many out there that it feels like we've read this one before. It centers around Zoe, who faints on her wedding day and feels like everything is a bit off afterwards. Fast forward to 10 years later when she's planning a large anniversary party and suddenly everyone in her life is also acting a bit off. That's about it for the premise, going back and forth between the wedding and shortly after to the current time.. Occasionally we flash back even farther to when she was in college and her best friend at the time (and now Z-List Celebrity), Carrie, maneuvers her way into applying for the same job as Zoe. That period of flashbacks really only serves to show why she and Zoe have fallen out, but honestly, a few sentences could have covered that. And really that's one of the biggest issues with this story.

It definitely felt too short and padded, like with the 18 year old timeline. There's very little true action in the book, it is mostly Zoe's internal monologues stressing over the same issues again and again and again. Like her missing sister, Dina, who left to travel the world and hasn't been heard from in years. She was a terrible person, treated her family like crap, yet Zoe's obsessed with finding her and thinking about her all of the time, simply because 'she's her sister.' I fear this obsession was the author's way of foreshadowing, but it just gets so grating that you don't end up sitting back like 'Oh that's why she was obsessed with her forever' but more like 'She wasted all her time with that obsession for such an awful person.'

Remove all of this internalizing and you're not left with much. When the action does pick up towards the end, it only serves to make you realize what a weak character she is, being so wrong about nearly everyone in her life. The way it's written, she'd have to be completely oblivious to everything for the plot to unfold as it does. And each time she's told the truth about a person or event, she still doesn't realize she's being lied to. I mean come on, the woman would have to wise up at some point. I honestly thought it might have ended with some type of confrontation where she says 'Oh, but you don't realize, I actually knew this all along!" That would have been an actual twist, that she wasn't as pathetic and desperate as she's portrayed. But she really is, and it's disappointing.

I feel like the story could have been fleshed out more, and since there's so much jumping around in time, why not include some of her childhood memories in flashback? That time is only alluded to as being great, but we never experience it ourselves as the reader to see how this family was once whole before it was broken. We only see the aftermath which just paints everyone miserably. It's frustrating, because this author is usually adept at creating an everyday atmosphere with credible, yet interesting people around you, it's part of why I enjoy her books so much. And why I'll continue reading her work, hoping this book was just a one-off.

This book was extremely predictable but I still liked it anyway. It was a very fast read and it flowed nicely. There are a few plot lines that never really finish and loose ends that are never tied up.

Having previously read “The Marriage Betrayal” by the same author, I knew I was in for a treat when I was given an ARC copy of “The Wife” by Shalini Boland.
Zoe fainted on her wedding day and always had a bad feeling about it and it is all about to become clear. Zoe is looking forward to celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary with her friends and family but some faces from the past are bringing everything she thought she knew into question.
I inhaled this book, so many surprises I did not see coming which I love. A definite 5 star! I look forward to reading many more from this author.

This book was an easy entertaining read, but I felt like I kept waiting for a plot twist until the very end of the book. I didn't figure out the ending before it happened, and it was a good surprise ending.

The Wife by Shalini Boland is another fantastic read from an author who just gets better and better. Ms Boland is certainly one of my favourite authors, for the simple reason that she never fails to create a story and characters that keep me completely gripped from beginning to end, and this one is no exception. Brilliant.

Zoe is preparing to celebrate her tenth wedding anniversary with a party, alongside her darling husband, Toby. Life has been idyllic this past decade, and Zoe is anxious to share their happiness with family and friends. Naturally, planning the anniversary party brings back memories of the wedding day, and Zoe has nagging suspicions that something seemed off on what should have been the happiest day of her life. She remembers fainting, but why did everything after her recovery feel not quite right? When a number of unsettling events occur in the lead up to the party, Zoe begins to question not only her own sanity, but events which simply defy explanation.

This is another addictive read that you will surely want to devour in a single sitting. Thank you, Ms Boland, for the gift of your brilliant writing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Zoe and Tony are celebrating their their ten year anniversary. It's been hard work for Zoe. Planning the party, working at the hair salon, and taking care of the kids. She's excited ten years of marriage and she's still so in love with her wonderful husband. The wedding was supposed to to be the day of her dreams. It started out that way. Then she had that fainting spell right before the ceremony. That was horrible. Luckily her fiancee and Nick, his brother and her mother in law and father in law had been there to help get her settled. She had felt discontented her whole wedding day. She'd had a headache and had felt dizzy and nauseous. She got through it and now, ten year anniversary.
How time flies. If only she knew what had happened with her sister. They didn't have a great relationship, as sisters went. After their mother's death their father had withdrawn. Zoe tried the best she could to help raise her younger sister. Truth is there was a lot of resentment between the sister's. Her sister had been missing for ten years. No one had heard or seen her during that time. Zoe had always hoped for a reconciliation.
She looked at her family and her husband's family. She wished her family was like his. They were close knitted. What she always thought a family should be like. Well, at least she was marrying into one. They had been there for her since day one.
A psychological thriller that leads you softly by the hand, then shoves you in and leaves you in a dark and enthralling story!!!