Although the writing was good, I felt that the storyline was very far fetched and unbelievable.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

THE WIFE is a gripping psychological thriller by bestselling author Shalini Boland.

Her Novels Include:
A Shirtful of Frogs (2012)
The Girl from the Sea (2016)
The Best Friend (2016)
The Millionaire's Wife (2017)
The Secret Mother (2017)
The Child Next Door (2018)
The Silent Sister (2018)
The Perfect Family (2018)
The Marriage Betrayal (2019)
The Other Daughter (2019)
One of Us Is Lying (2020)
The Wife (2020)

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 getting married to Toby.

Then, there was a blank, and she didn’t remember anything. They said she must have fainted, 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. 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 to stop the party from happening at all.

Zoe struggles to remember…she needs to know the truth.
So many lies, betrayals and cover ups in this novel. How well do you know the people closest to you?

This novel is split between the THEN and the NOW, and it works well in revealing the whole story.
I am not going to say anymore as I don’t want to give the plot away, but this is a very riveting and powerful story. I loved it. All I can say is read this book… I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and Net Galley for my digital copy.

"The Wife" by Shalini Boland centers around the main character Zoe. As her 10 year wedding anniversary celebration is coming up, strange things begin happening. Her friends are ghosting her, she finds her husband in a strange lie, and she keeps believing she sees her estranged sister. During her wedding years ago, she fainted and had a memory lapse on what happened prior to her fainting. During the day of the celebration, revelations are revealed and she is filled in on the gaps. I was certainly surprised (which is hard to do to me as a reader) about what happened.

The book held my attention; however, I felt like the plot could have been better. Altogether, the book was kind of anticlimactic for me overall. It had promise and I enjoyed the writing style of Boland so although this particular book was a miss for me, I do not rule out reading another from her in the future.

I received an ARC of "The Wife" from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Wife, a superb psychological thriller, moves seamlessly between the past and the present while showing that things are not always what they seem.

As Zoe prepares for a blowout party to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary, she remembers the near disaster at her wedding. She fainted, hit her head and was unconscious for several minutes. When she awoke, she was surrounded by Toby, her husband to be, his mother Celia and brother Nick. She makes it through the wedding but has a headache for days. Now happily married with two children and a career as a hairstylist, she wants to have an amazing anniversary party because her wedding memories are so foggy. Because her mother died when she was a child and her father is has always been distant, she is very close to Toby’s family and they are helping her with plans for the celebration. Zoe wishes that her sister Dina could be with her on her anniversary. Dina left home when she was a teenager and disappeared ten years ago. This sounds like a simple story, doesn’t it? It isn’t. Why does Zoe keep seeing her sister? Is she is town to surprise her at the party? Why does her sister-in-law suddenly start avoiding her? Did her husband lie to her? And what does her childhood friend, now a reality tv star, have against her?

The suspense builds slowly, the plot twists are many, and the characters are so real in The Wife. Zoe is such a sympathetic character that I was instantly on her side. You will definitely not see the end coming! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Shalini Boland for this ARC.

The Wife By Shalini Boland
Shalini is one of those authors that I know I will enjoy their book without reading the blurb.
This book was no exception. I really enjoyed the storyline and had no idea where it was going. I liked the character of Zoe, and really had no idea of where the story was going, to the point I ended up staying up late as I got to a really good bit and just had to keep reading.
I would love to read a sequel, written by the character who wrote the epilogue (keeping it vague to avoid spoilers) there is definitely potential there.
Overall, great storyline and characters.
On a side note, two of these characters have the same names as two of my 3 kids, was strange seeing them in print in the same sentence!!

This book was another hit from the author. Filled with much mystery and suspense that keeps the reader turning the pages. And then throw in some twists and turns at the end and you are left with an enjoyable read.

Zoe fainted on her wedding day. She’s feels something bad happened. On her 10th year anniversary she finds out the truth. This is a psychological thriller that kept me riveted all the way through. The character were well-developed and the plot kept twisting until the very end. The story was told through different timelines switching from Now and Then. The ending was a complete surprise and the epilogue leaves you thinking that a sequel is possible.
I enjoyed Boland's writing and will be looking forward to reading more of her books. I would highly recommend this book to those who love psychological thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy for an honest review.

How did I request the book: I read the description of the boo and the story seemed very intriguing. The cover page impressed me and so I requested the book even though I havent read any books by the author.
Now, after reading this book I will keep a look out for all her stories for my does of Psychological thrillers.

The Story: The prologue is what hooked me on to the story. The actual story gos back and forth between the past and present and it is done very neatly with no amount of confusion and both the time periods are stitched in seamlessly each phase acting as a trigger for the other. The story is Of Zoe and her family. She is a girl who wants her wedding day to be memorable and indeed it turns out very memorable in a very weird way. She has a fainting episode and when she regains consciousness, she has a feeling that she was missing something. Then follow 10 years of happy married life with very supportive in laws and a doting husband. She is all set to celebrate her 10th Wedding anniversary and things start going weirdly wrong. So what did actually happen on her wedding day?

To know this you will have to read the story and do keep aside a few hours because this story does turn out difficult to put down in the last part. Also be ready for plot twists and expect the unexpected. These characteristics of the story makes it riveting and exciting.

The main highlight is the story and the characterisation is not given that much importance probably because the story required that we do not have a full picture of the various characters. The plot is what drives this story and I do not regret it one bit.

I now have found one more author whose works I would follow and read.. If you lobe to read psychological thrillers and stories that keep you guessing till the end then this one is for you. If you have never read any psychological thriller and would like to give this genre an attempt this story is a very good place to start with.

I Thank Netgalley and Bookouture for accepting my review request and the author for writing such an exciting story. The opinions eexpressed are solely mine.

Zoe fainted on her wedding day, but when she woke up, she had no recollection of how or why it happened.
Now, years later, as she prepares to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary, weird things start happening. Will she finally learn what happened on what supposed to have been the happiest day of her life?


This book was exactly what I was expecting; a gripping and a fast-paced read.
I found it a bit confusing when the story was switching timelines, and the ending seemed a bit predictable but other than that, I truly enjoyed it.
It was a quick, entertaining read, and I will definitely be reaching for more books from the author.

A hour before Zoe was about to marry Toby, the love of her life she passed out in her hotel room. She woke up completely disoriented with no memory of why she fainted. 10 years later Zoe and her husband have two lovely children and are organising a party to celebrate their anniversary. So why is something niggling in her mind about her wedding day and what happened.

This is another superb psychological suspense thriller by the fabulous Shalini Boland. I don’t even need to read the synopsis of this authors books as they are always bloody brilliant. This book grabbed me and had me hooked from the first sentence. So many twists and turns and omg moments. A brilliant story with good characters, some likeable and others not so much. 5🌟

4⭐️ for me! I thoroughly enjoyed The Wife. It’s a suspenseful story that keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how things will play out!

Zoe comes to on her wedding day, with no recollection of how she fainted or what happened immediately prior. Flash forward 10 years, happily married, & 2 kids later - she starts to remember bits and pieces of her wedding day and things are not as they seem.

I like the writing style and the flashbacks between now and then. This story kept me wanting more and trying to figure out how it would end. I have to say I was surprised with the ending and wouldn’t have guessed how it would wrap up. I loved that the epilogue wrapped up with a different character’s perspective (no spoiler here) - but that was an awesome little twist! Will there be a sequel? I hope so! I look forward to reading more books by this author!

Thanks to Shalini Boland, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I've been a fan of Shalini Boland's psychological thrillers ever since I read her first title back in 2016, and every single book I've read since has been a success so far. The Wife is already my tenth psychological thriller by this author (I somehow missed one earlier this year, but I plan to remedy that as soon as I have more time), and without doubt another excellent example of a well written story with a shocking ending. Don't let that rather generic title mislead you, as this story will definitely add some serious punch to what might seem like a typical set up in the beginning. Fans of the genre will have a blast reading The Wife!

The plot starts out pretty simple: we have our main character Zoe who is planning her ten-year anniversary party to celebrate this milestone with her husband. BUT. On her wedding day ten years ago, she somehow fainted before the ceremony and woke up with a gap in her memories and no recollection what happened in that missing time. Talk about introducing the amnesia element using a whole different angle! There is so much mystery around that fainting spell as well, as Zoe has a bad feeling about that missing time, but no concrete evidence that something bad actually happened... This definitely added a healthy dose of suspense as well as question marks to the plot.

There are in fact multiple elements that add to the suspense of this story. Not only do we have the missing time on Zoe's wedding day, but we also have the disappearance of her estranged sister Dina ten years ago, the questions around what happened between Zoe and her then friend Cassie in the past and the strange things happening to Zoe in the present to contend with. This leads to a multi-dimentional plot where you will have plenty of different angles to explore and multiple possible answers to both the present and past will be revealed along the way. And while I do have to say that I found the first part of the story to be a tad slow, those super explosive final reveals definitely made up for it. Oh yes, The Wife will have more than one surprise for you in store, and I definitely didn't see most of them coming! Without doubt another successful drop of those shocking plot twist bombs I've come to expect.

I confess that I wasn't really that big of a fan of the main characters or how they behaved as a whole, but I do think that their development felt realistic and it was interesting to slowly learn more about them. Zoe is the perfect character to star this psychological thriller and both her past and the things happening to her in the present will have you under its spell. The Wife is another more than solid psychological thriller that shows that you can't go wrong when it comes to Shalini Boland's books.

A really good read. The twists in this story are brilliant and took me totally by surprise. I did find the 10 year memory gap a bit unbelievable but I thought the story was very cleverly written right up to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

An intense thriller that will keep you turning the pages. Zoe is happy with her life, and about to celebrate her 10th anniversary with her husband Toby. Excited about the party, as her wedding day was a bit of a blur after a bang to the head. She always felt she missed out on her big day, with gaps in her memory around that time. With her sister going missing around that time too. Is there more to her missing memories. This story will keep you guessing and I warn you it might disturb your sleep pattern. One to read

I wanted to like this. I really did. I read it quickly enough so it at least held my attention, but I found the events too unbelievable and the ending and explanation unsatisfying.

It's difficult to comment on the things I didn't like in the plot without giving away spoilers. The story is labeled as a psychological thriller, so you at least know that there's a battle going on inside the character's head with what's real and what's fake. I think the overall reason for the lapse in memory was kind of lackluster and disappointing. The plot set the stage for something possibly interesting to happen, but it just didn't follow through.

As for the general writing and set up of the novel, it's nonlinear and a bit confusing. The chapters are labeled with THEN, NOW, and I think Eighteen Years Ago (don't quote me on that one, but there are parts of the story that take place a little after the honeymoon instead of present day or during the wedding). The chapters also don't follow a pattern so it kind of seemed thrown together and a little patchy.

There's also a big build up for a backstory with the sister that also turns out to be anticlimactic. There's so many mentions of them not speaking anymore because of a phone call and when it's finally revealed what happened, it was just kind of meh. I expected more since Zoe alluded to it for chapters.

Overall, a miss for me. I wouldn't rule out reading something else from this author though because it at least held my attention

This book builds its suspense up gradually then pow hits you with a blinking great twist. Shaking Boland certainly knows how to write a great book.
I loved the character of Zoe. Getting ready to celebrate her 10th anniversary weird things start happening. Her usually close relationship with her sister in law seems fractured and she doesn’t know why? She is sure that she’s spotted her sister Dina who also disappeared many years ago.
Is Zoe’s picture perfect life as it seems?
I can safely say I rushed through this book as the plot thickened. You won’t be disappointed.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

Another twisty story from this author. She takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. I had so many theories reading through this - most of them proved wrong - which made for an enthralling read!

All that matters to Zoe is that she is about to become the person she has always wanted to be, with the man she loves. When her mother died she stepped up as the female role model while her dad had checked out emotionally and her younger sister left home at sixteen leaving Zoe to pick up the emotional pieces. Zoe loves family and tradition and marrying Toby will give her the family she lost when her mother died.
On the day of her wedding Zoe faints. She has no prior memories of why she fainted. She is adamant that the wedding must go on.
Ten years later, Toby and Zoe are planning a ten year anniversary party. For weeks she has this niggling feeling that something happened when she fainted. She feels like her life is being upended and nothing in life feels right.

Overall:
The story’s written in the ‘then’ and ‘now’ alternating every so often. The ‘then’ chapters go back to ten years ago when Zoe fainted prior to her wedding. The ‘now’ chapters are ten years later, with them planning and celebrating the ten year anniversary. For ten years Zoe hasn’t remembered why she fainted and it isn’t until she relives that day ten years later that her memories begin resurface.
With each new chapter the reader gets closer to the truth about why Zoe fainted. It’s a speculative driven storyline with plenty of suspicious activity. The story was character driven adding to the list of suspicious behaviors. Since we are given Zoe’s perspective it’s quite interesting how her imagination runs wild with all kinds of suspicious scenarios. With that being said Zoe’s character had an overzealous mind. Just at the point where I thought how much longer is Zoe’s character going to behave this way everything changed. It was this breaking of the pattern that set the motion for a suspenseful and thrilling conclusion. The story really comes alive with thrilling suspense once the memories come flooding in. Nothing is as it seems.

Shalini Boland is a USA best selling author of psychological thrillers. She spends her days writing suspense thrillers where she lives in England. The story is written using the British dialect. It’s easy to decipher the words if your used to English words from America.

So for me this book started off really strong, I was so intrigued and couldn't put it down. Unfortunately, the plot twist was just unsurprising and underwhelming. @shaboland did pull it back with the ending although ultimately this book didn't do it for me. ⁣
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Thank you to Netgalley Bookouture and Shalini Boland for this advanced copy in return for an honest review!

Oh wow! This book is superb. Shalini Boland is one of the finest psychological thriller around.

The twists and turns, the tension, kept me turning pages into the early hours.

I read this book in around 6 hours as there is no way I was putting it down until I'd devoured every single page.

I really felt for Zoe as she obviously knew something wasn't right but she had no idea what. I'll say no more as don't want to spoil it.

This is one of the best books I've read this year. Brilliant.