I really enjoyed the plot of this book- but I kind of hated every character. Such self destructive behavior! And I won’t lie, I almost gave up at the high school boys plot line. Serious ick factor. But I definitely did overall enjoy the mystery of the book.

Raise your hand if you’re a hot mess. Okay, now do you want to read a book about a group go ladies who will take the cake & make you feel better? Got the perfect book for you, in a good way!

These ladies are FULL of surprises and drama, making this addictive page turner a must read. Follow our main character Sophie as she struggles to find the happiness in her new suburban life, where she just can’t seem to stay happy with what she has.

A delicious, darker side of friendship, family and self discovery topped off with MURDER, The Hunting Wives was the perfect fast-paced thriller beach read, I give this one 4 stars! Loved being able to read it early thanks to Book of the Month + NetGalley, highly recommend adding this one to your TBR for a change of pace.

THE HUNTING WIVES by May Cobb is an entertaining read! It’s about Sophie who joins her neighbours “The Hunting Wives” group to shoot guns, drink and get into some serious drama. I found the beginning to be slow and nothing really thrilling happened until about halfway. I found the main character unlikeable. It was just one bad decision after another fuelled by excessive drinking. I enjoyed the pacing after the halfway point as then lots of things were happening and I was curious to find out how it all would end even though it was all predictable. So in the end it was an enjoyable read but not a stand out thriller.
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Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley for my advance review copy!

THE HUNTING WIVES BOOK REVIEW

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drink rec: Mint Julep

THE HUNTING WIVES is a scandalous, gossip-filled mystery that is filled with drama and will keep you guessing until the very end! I couldn’t put this one down and binged it in just a few sittings because I just HAD to know what would happen next! Also, I would absolutely LOVE to see this made into a show!

If you’re looking for a quick read that’s filled with housewives getting saucy and lots of suspense, then check this one out! It would be a great beach or pool read!

Booze and obsession. Obsession and booze. This book made me feel drunk by proxy! The sobering news? This was one great thriller. As difficult as it can be to enjoy a book with unlikable characters, I found Sophie to be just relatable enough to feel for her despite wanting to drown her and her friends in the pool of booze they were constantly consuming. During their drunken escapades, these five gun-slinging women find themselves wrapped up in a murder investigation and no one knows who they can trust. This story had all the right puzzle pieces in all the right places with a stunning conclusion (and a few HOT scenes that will leave you craving a cigarette!) I struggled a bit with the first-person, present-tense but tolerated it for the sun-soaked scenery and page-turning storyline. Reader beware! Don't read this one in public or you'll catch yourself blushing and looking over your shoulder. ;)

Not my cup of tea... I only got about halfway through and didn't care enough about any of the characters to bother finishing. A bunch of bored women making poor decisions without enough character development to even attempt to understand their rationale. Then mix that with reckless partying and sexual escapades with high school boys and it was more of a soap opera than a thriller.

This was everything of the sort! I can’t say enough good things about this salaciously suspenseful psychological thriller. This isn’t a secret to my friends but I’ve recently become addicted to Real Housewives and I got major RH’s vibes from this story (minus the murders and yes I pictured each one of these characters as a RHOBH). May Cobb wrote an intense yet fun thriller that kept me guessing the entire time. The story line was unpredictable which is one of my favourite qualities in a book. My only complaint is that I wanted a tinnnyyy bit more with the ending but that might be just because I never wanted it to be over! You need to get your hands on this book when it comes out on May 18!⁣ Round my rating up to 4.5 stars.
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Combine a shot of rich ladies with too much time on their hands, a shot of desperate infatuation, a shot of unsecured firearms, and a splash of desire with a bottle of vodka and you have the recipe for some very bad decisions.

The main character, Sophie, is a seemingly typical young mom who's moved back to her small community for a quieter life. That lasts a few weeks before she is craving excitement and the target of her desire, Margot Banks. Once Sophie is accepted into Margot's circle of shotgun shooting, hard drinking, cheating sycophants, she loses herself and almost loses everything.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. Much like a pitcher of margaritas (there is a ton of binge drinking in this book) it is fun and intoxicating. It would be a fabulous beach read. I read it in two sittings and was captivated by the bad behavior of the women. But, also like a pitcher of margaritas, it left me feeling icky the next morning. These are terrible people.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the novel for review.

Sophie O’Neill, along with her husband and four-year-old son, has just moved back to her hometown of Mapleton, located in the Piney Woods of Texas. Sophie was previously a lifestyle editor for a magazine and lived near Chicago. She is tired of the fast-paced city life and wants her son to grow up in a small town with a better environment and a slower lifestyle. She chooses Mapleton because she spent her last two years in high school there and has a very good friend, Erin, who still lives there. Moving gives her time to work on her blog and Instagram feed, @sloweddownlife.

However, after spending several months in Mapleton, Sophie is beginning to get bored with being a stay-at-home mom, gardening, and blogging. She meets and begins to hang out with a group of women calling themselves “The Hunting Wives”, and hunting doesn’t necessarily mean just guns. Erin warns Sophie that Margot, a socialite and the group’s leader, is dangerous, but her words fall on deaf ears. Margot, Callie, Tina, Jill, and Sophie usually meet on Friday nights to shoot skeet, socialize, drink, and bar hop. When the women go to bars, they have two rules. Use first names only and don’t go all the way. Sophie is, at first, shocked that Margot, especially, likes to indulge in cheating and bawdy sex. Margot further complicates matters by hitting on men in their twenties and younger. Sophie learns that Margot is having a secret fling with the town’s quarterback, who also happens to be Jill’s son.

Things go from bad to worse when a popular teenage girl is found dead on Margot’s property, and Sophie becomes a prime suspect. Could one of her new friends be the actual killer? In order to clear her name, Sophie must research, dig for any clues she can find, and then risk her own life.

This novel from May Cobb is filled with surprising twists and turns and has a shocking ending. The members of The Hunting Wives act like mean girls on steroids. All of the women are running around on their husbands, gossiping, and drink A LOT. There is a lot of drinking, even when they aren’t with each other. Jealousy, anger, marriages on the rocks, vengeance, sensuality, and drinking seem feed their relationships with each other. All of them have a love-hate relationship with Margot. Sophie is so obsessed and enamored with Margot that she even stalks her. The amount of time Sophie spends with the women causes her to neglect her wonderful, understanding husband and young son. It is ironic that Sophie is the one who wanted to move to a small town. After her husband quits his job and they relocate, Sophie then goes crazy out of boredom.

Kudos to May Cobb for keeping readers on their toes! Just when I thought I had figured out who the killer might be, the author would throw in another curve, and I would have to start thinking again.

The Hunting Wives has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly will make its debut on May 18, 2020. Although it is billed as domestic fiction, I would call it a murder mystery, instead. Hand this book to readers who enjoy mysteries and books set in the south. I recommend it for public libraries and give it 4 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for allowing me to read and review this title.

The Hunting Wives was a very interesting story. This story is about a group of friends who like to spend their Friday nights drinking, talking and skeet shooting. Sophie doesn't know what she is getting herself into when she meets Margot and the other Hunting Wives. They certainly aren't what they seem...she finds out the hard way when she is in the midst of a murder investigation. Who can she trust? Are these women her friends?

A page turner that I really enjoyed.

Life in an idyllic town, a beautiful house, a successful lifestyle blog, a lush garden - Sophie O'Neill has a great place to live. If you add her handsome, kind, loving, architect husband and her precious, adorable young son, you could say Sophie has it all.
But she doesn't feel that at all. Sophie is so bored that it borders on depression. She needs something more in her life. Something to excite her. Something to stir her emotions.
Best friend Erin tells Sophie of the Hunting Wives, a group of wealthy women who do "things" to keep their lives exciting.
Introduced to Margot Banks at a charity event, Sophie quickly falls under her spell. All she can think about is Margot. Sophie quickly accepts an invitation to join the "Wives" at skeet shooting at Margot's estate. From this point on, Sophie is under Margot's spell. To Sophie, Margot is alluring, adventurous and gorgeous. She is also cunning and conniving.
Times spent with the "Wives" become more and more dangerous. Ultimately the jealously, the back-stabbing and the lying lead to murder and yet more murders. Can Sophie face reality and save herself?
This is a story of women who are hunting. They just can't decide what they are hunting for. I believe most readers would like to firmly shake each woman and tell her grow up and stop being such a fool.
It is a neat trick to write a book about unlikeable people but still be able to keep the reader interested. May Cobb succeeds at this.
I gave this book 3.5 stars.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #TheHuntingWives

3 A Dangerous Recipe Stars
* * * Spoiler Free-A Quick Review
There can be recipes that may look easy to master but once in the middle of doing them...they take on a life of their own, causing the cook to be sorry they ever got started with them.

Why Sophie O'Neil thought she would be able to move from Chicago to a small Texas town without any issues, I will never understand. She was part of an amazing career path, competitive in nature, loving the thrill of it all. Yet, she was open to the idyllic idea of sprawling homes, all with the perfect HGTV kitchens and open floor plans, and having this perfect life for her family.

As I figured, it didn't take long for Sophie to long for more, and when it was presented to her via Margot Banks and her "exclusive" Hunting Wives club, Sophie was "honored" and thrilled. As things will happen, Sophie gets caught up with this club and she is making decisions that may not be the smartest...and soon what Sophie thought she had a handle on, turns out...not so much.

This is like that recipe I mentioned in more ways than one. The characters are unruly, not likable, and may not be redeemable. Yet, in life, we always don't have to like everyone and neither do we in a story like this.

Buckle Up, Buttercup...The Hunting Wives by May Cobb is not as straightforward as an easy recipe

Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she’s feeling bored and restless. Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie’s curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers. When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spiraling out of control. review: I was intrigued from the very start with this book! The Hunting Wives was just plain fun to read and they’re definitely not hunting what you may think…these women are on the prowl. It’s quite scandalous! This book starts off as a suburban drama and then a murder happens and you’re thrown into the investigation of housewives. It makes for a lot of drama, a good mystery & a great premise. The characters were unreliable and unlikeable and they kept getting into situations that were like train wrecks, you couldn’t help but flip the pages and keep reading! This story is fast-paced and there are plenty of twists and revelations to keep things interesting. If you’re a fan of Real Housewives and Big Little Lies, you’re sure to like this one! rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐️

This book was bizarre, but captivating. I really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing the whole way, but yeah... bizarre. I don't think it was realistic in any stretch, but then again what thrillers are? It was really fun though, and the concept of these rich women going shooting was kind of funny and ironic to me. Overall, I'd recommend it to my thriller fans!

This book was much anticipated so thank you to Berkley Publishing and May Cobb for my copy. The story was so twisted and salacious that I couldn’t put it down. It’s about Sophie, a bored housewife who recently moved from Chicago to small town Texas. She quickly becomes obsessed with the glamorous Margot and knows she has to be part of her circle. Margot and her friends invite Sophie to be part of The Hunting Wives, a secret group that is full of drama and mystery. Sophie soon realizes she is in over her head when a teenage girl is found dead in the woods where her and the Hunting Wives were the night before.

Thoughts: I went into this book blind and loved the premise. It took a turn I was not expecting from the beginning so that was a fun surprise. I loved how dramatic and scandalous the story was and the way the story was completely entertaining. I definitely disliked Sophie as the main character, but I didn’t like any of the characters and their terrible behavior. It was kind of like a group of 40 year old mean girls that drank too much, which made it a fun read.

The main twist was SO obvious which was too bad, but I’m sure that it surprised a few people. Usually just by process of elimination I can tell who the “bad guy” is right away, which was the case here. It was still a fun domestic thriller that was a quick and easy read. I recommend it to people who like a good gossip session and lots of drama! 3.5 stars for me!

Still on my thriller kick and this one did not disappoint. I received this as an ebook from @netgalley thank you! the first half of this book was super slow for me, introducing us to each character and the interesting friendships between the women. It really began to heat up when a local girl goes missing and our narrator is brought in to the police station for questioning. From then on I really flew right through the book. I definitely guessed wrong when it came to the end but the motive makes a lot of sense so I’m sure most people got it right. I found myself keep wishing that the narrator wasn’t Sophie because I found her pretty unlikeable and boring. I would have preferred to hear more of Margots side the of the story but of course I don’t get to choose and still really enjoyed this book. The only criticism I had was that Sophie insinuated that she was drugged a couple times and I thought that was going to be a bigger key to the story and it was never actually explained. It made me feel like maybe she wasn’t drugged at all and just had a drinking problem? It kind of reminded me of girl of the train where she’s just a drunk and blacking out was partly why no one believed her. This story isn’t quite the same but I’m left a little confused as to why she made those accusations and if she ever was actually drugged and why.

I'm still shocked at this braided, tightly woven, suspenseful, thriller. Sexy, magnetic, and pure intoxicating lust is what this book is about... and then the slippery slope of lies and jealously and so much more. Cobb truly is remarkable. This book was like an adult version of Mean Girls but mixed with danger, lustful action - and so. much. drinking. Sophie is a stay at home mom and rather bored with her new life in TX, having moved from Chicago and quit her job to spend more time with her son. With her husband busy at work, Sophie start a slow crush and then mild obsession with Margot, the gorg rich woman of the town. Immediately, Sophie wants her approval and to be part of her rich friend group... and she does. Margot invites her to part of their 'secret club' that not only involves skeet shooting, drinking, but also involves men and infidelity. Sophie's life begins to blur between good and bad, right and wrong, and before she knows it she is in deep with Margot, unable to untangle herself from a murdery mess of lies and scandal. THIS HAD ME GUESSING TO THE END!!!

I have seen countless rave reviews for The Hunting Wives and I understand why. The story is fast paced and is reminiscent of Big Little Lies. It doesn't surprise me that it's getting so much love. What is holding me back from even finishing this book is the lack of character depth and the problematic content.

1. I am shocked hardly anyone is commenting on the sexualization and sexual relationship of high school boys. It's gross and I couldn't get past it. Especially when there is a scene very early on that alludes to a previous Hunting Wives meeting where the women invited the high school football team over for an alcohol laden bonfire and one of the kids happened to be the son of one of the women present. Who is ok partying with their girlfriends and teenage kid?! And I am far from a prude, but the age difference and consent issues were just too much for me. The author easily could have written them in as college age. It seemed unnecessary to me.

2. Lack of character development that lead to very one dimensional characters and hardly any conflict resolution to add context to the story. There are scenes where a lot happens, but the characters are just completely ok with everything. No discussion, no conflict, just over it. Case in point, early on there is a small tiff between the main character and her husband over the fact she never responded to his countless text messages and phone calls because she stayed out much later than she anticipated and he was worried about her. She comes home, her husband is slightly annoyed, but then over it a minute later. This came off so unrealistic, shallow, and underdeveloped. I couldn't get past these scenes either.

Bottom line, looking for a mindless beach read, check it out. But if some of this content bothers you or you prefer more fleshed out characters, look elsewhere.

3.5 stars

After meeting "the Hunting Wives" - Margot, Tina, Jill and Callie - it took me about a nanosecond to realize they were up to no good. But how bad were they? Sophie O'Neill, new to the area, and welcomed to join the group, was about to find out.

It also took little time to realize that Sophie's rapid infatuation with Margot was going to lead her to trouble. However, I had no idea how much she would risk and how big that trouble would be. And the risks she did take, make me quickly hate her.

Hating characters in thrillers isn't unusual for me. In fact, I think it's almost expected in the genre - that way you don't care if someone dies. *smirks* But I have no tolerance for what Sophie did and who she did it to - WHY RUIN A GOOD THING, WOMAN?! (I won't spoil it, so just message me if you want to know what she did). Chapter by chapter, I became more disappointed in her and her decisions. I wasn't prepared for the level of angst in this story.

Despite my hatred for the heroine, I didn't feel she was guilty of all that some suspected. She was just way in over her head and her decision making was clouded by lust, and maybe even boredom. Eventually she actually does some good, finding the person responsible. So that was a small bonus.

All in all, this was a real page turner, and if you're ok with some angst in your thrillers, you may enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC of The Hunting Wives by May Cobb. I kept hearing about this book from other reviewers and was so happy to receive a copy of it. The Hunting Wives would make for a great book club book. So much could be examined, especially Sophie, and how she handles the "mess" that she gets herself with her wealthy new mom's group. This book make me physically nervous, and I was anxious to see how it would wrap up. It definitely goes to show that even in suburbia, people can be dangerous.