I could review this book in two words: salacious thriller.
I found the opening of the novel to be slow- it jumped around in time a little bit and so many women were introduced that I had some trouble keeping them straight. However, the last third to quarter made up for the slow start as I could not put it down.

Having decided the seeming idyllic life in small town Texas is what she wants for her and her family, Sophie now finds herself less interested in growing her lifestyle blog, and more intrigued by finding a way into the elite company of women who call themselves The Hunting Wives. Obsession, desire, and illicit activities soon have Sophie completely ensnared...and that's all before the murder occurs.

Cobb has done an excellent job of creating a story thick with atmosphere: lake houses and endless glasses of wine and seedy clubs and four wheelers driving towards a secret shooting range.

It's the characters themselves I really struggled with. That they are deeply flawed, frustrating, and sometimes completely unlikable makes complete sense within the story and world Cobb has created, but that also meant I was reading about characters I did not like and/or just plain wanted to scream at for the choices they were making.

The ending twist was a really great one, and caught me completely by surprise, and I appreciate that Cobb went for it with darker themes and tones. I just personally tend to struggle with books where I essentially can't stand anybody I'm reading about.

These women were a hot mess and out of control, and I LOVED it. As a huge fan of the Bravo Housewives, this was TOTALLY up my alley and it delivered.

Sophie O’Neill leaves her career in Chicago and moves with her husband and young son to a small Texas town to settle down and finds she has the perfect life, home, yada yada. But as one does, she gets bored. (Ok maybe not, but let’s pretend.) She meets socialite Margot Banks, and is soon invited to an elite clique known as The Hunting Wives. She is drawn to Margot and finds herself caught up in Friday night skeet shooting and partying until the wee hours of the morning. All manageable she thinks, I mean, the hubs is trying to be supportive of her new friends and all, what could go wrong? And then, the body of a teenage girl is found in the woods where they meet, and Sophie is now caught up in a murder investigation, and to say her life is out of control is putting it mildly.

This was a bit slow to start, but once it got going I couldn’t stop until I was done. Mostly because these were rich women whose husbands don’t give them enough attention, so you know we are just ripe for some glorious disasters here. This is scandalous, salacious, had me blushing at times, and highly entertaining. I had it figured out before the end but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it and thought the ending was very satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for the advanced digital copy to review.

The Hunting Wives is one wild ride and I am here for it! I devoured this scandalous story in two days. The short chapters, mini cliffhangers and juicy drama made it hard to put down. Sophie O'Neill moves to small town Texas which is quiet and slow paced. Until she meets Margot Banks and her clique The Hunting Wives. They enjoy happy hours, skeet shooting and flirting with men other than their husbands. Sophie is obsessed with Margot and would do anything to get in her good graces. When the body of a teenager is found in their meeting spot the wives are quickly involved in a murder investigation. Highly recommend this book if you want a quick and juicy drama/who dunnit. I especially appreciated the Texas references.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Have you ever just seen a book cover and thought “I got to give this book a try!”? Well that is how I felt when I saw The Hunting Wives on Netgalley!
And then in the description of the book was the phrase “nest of vipers”. I had to say that expression def intrigued me about the book- maybe even more than the cover!

What I liked:

Well the cover. It’s pretty badass!

The vibe of this group (even though no one is really likable) It’s like Mean Girls: The Later Years meets Texas + some gun loving folks. And maybe a tad bit of a Desperate Housewives vibe.

The ending. I liked how things ended- and really liked how things ended for a particular character or 2. 😉



A bit of a mini-rant:

Sophie. Sophie. SOPHIE. When one of your closest friends tells you to watch your back with these particular ladies- maybe ummmmmm…. heed her freaking warning?!?! I don’t care if you are bored. Or all the other emotions you were feeling. I could have screamed at Sophie at least 5 times in this book.

Bottom line: I would love to see this book made into either a movie or a mini-series or something. It was a good book and would be even better on a screen ( I think!)

Drunk, Bi-curious Real Housewives!

Shortest Summary Ever: Sophie O’Neill has a gorgeous hubby and an adorable son, but her ho-hum upper middle class Texas life needs some kick. Enter Margot Banks - the Regina George with minions, money, and martinis! Sophie can’t help but fall under her spell and soon becomes embroiled in murder.

Thoughts: This is a fluffy read - a beach read to savor in some sun. It’s Damn-this-was-a-rough-week-and-I-need-a-break reading. Reasons you’ll like reading this:

You’ll feel better about yourself because you’re probably
A) not as alcoholic-y as these women

B) you can honestly state “Mo’ money, mo’ problems! And feel shamelessly smug about not having money

C)You’ll feel ok being a little pudgy or having cellulite after the endless descriptions of boob, legs, and butt perfection (I mean damn) because look what you require to have all that! You have to be all “murdery” (a real word if you watch the ID channel). Is it worth it
I ask you? (Hmmm...)

A pet peeve of mine is the beautiful, rich protagonist who behaves in stupid ways and that’s intensely Sophie O’Neill. She dumb, girl. I rolled my eyes many times but in a weird way I kind of laughed? She’s so stupid, so lacking in substance that I felt her as a comically ironic protagonist. For some reason this didn’t grate on my nerves but more made me shake my head like I do at those Atlanta Housewives (best ones... bro come at me).

All my reviews available at scrappymags.com around time of publication.

Genre: Domestic Cheesy Fiction

Recommend to: Real Housewives fans/haters because you’ll be jealous or you’ll make fun. Win-win.

Not recommended to: if you are tired of the rich & beautiful (I worry you will explode.) oh and Prudes.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me kiss my small teacher paycheck and my fat ass for the first time ever (I’m very bendy).

The Hunting Wives is a darkly provocative Domestic Thriller that left me flipping the pages well past my bedtime!

The story follows Sophie O'Neill, a 30-something lifestyle blogger, who recently moved with her husband and young son from Chicago to a small Texas town; full of rich people and their drama. Sophie actually lived in this town for a few years in high school. Her Mom moved them a lot and this was one of their many stops.

Fortunately, she still has a good friend from that time, Erin, so at least when she, her husband, Graham, and their son, Jack, arrive, they know someone. Erin is involved in a lot of charity work, including glamourous fundraising events. It is at one of these events that Sophie meets the Queen Bee, Margot Banks.

While Sophie had been aware of Margot before, interacting with her in person is on a whole new level. When it seems Margot is interested in including Sophie in her clique, who secretly refer to themselves as the Hunting Wives, Sophie can hardly believe her luck. Before she knows it, she's brushing off Erin, Graham and everything else, in order to hang out with Margot and the rest of the Hunting Wives. This includes spending a lot of time at Margot's lake house, skeet shooting and drinking.

While that may seem innocent enough, with these ladies, it is far from it. Before she knows it, Sophie is in way over her head and at risk of losing absolutely everything she loves. The worst part is, she can't control herself. She is out of control and she knows it.

The Hunting Wives is risque, sexy, fast-paced, full of dangerous twists, booze and bad choices. In short, it's everything I love. One of my favorites tropes is obsession, of any sort. I thought Cobb did a great job of creating these unhealthy relationships and really taking them all the way. She held nothing back.

I had so much fun with this story. I couldn't put it down once I got into it. Every new, crazy situation the women got themselves into took it up another level in the risk. By the end, my pulse was definitely pounding through some fairly intense scenes. In short, this was a great time.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity. It was so much fun!

The Hunting Wives is a fast paced, wickedly entertaining thriller. It reads like Desperate Housewives combined with Big Little Lies and a splash of Mean Girls. Obsession can be deadly especially mixed with peer pressure, desperation, and deception. Rich women behaving badly is an understatement. Get your guns up and get ready for this twisted tale. I will definitely never think of hunting the same way again. This is the perfect addictive summer read.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for my ARC.

Overall: These shallow Hunting Wives are an eerie group dynamic that you’ll probably want to check out.

Pros:
Fast paced. A quickly paced mystery with an unreliable narrator makes for an easy read every time.
The Hunting Wives. It was a group dynamic that kept me guessing. Granted, I did not like any of them, but it still kept me guessing.

Cons:
Character development who?. Unfortunately this was not a story of character development despite the clear paths it could take towards it.
Shallow. Okay, this one is a bit shallow in every aspect of the word and while it feels intentional most of the time, sometimes it feels a bit like overkill.

Southern belles behaving badly is the premise of "The Hunting Wives," May Cobb’s new mystery-thriller about an elite circle of wealthy women in a small Texas town.

Every clique has its queen bee, and in this privileged hunt club it’s the oil-rich, manipulative and magnetic Margot Banks, who leads the group that's doing much more than just shooting skeet. The club’s other activities include downing pitchers of mojitos and martinis, barhopping and indulging in serious flirtations.

The defining membership rule drills down to the basic "what happens amongst club members stays within the club." After all, they’re all happily married — wink, wink.

Sophie O’Neill, a lifestyle journalist from Evanston, Illinois, is struggling to adjust to small town life and being a full-time mother when she’s invited to go skeet shooting and then to join the club.

At home, she has an adorable young son and an equally adorable — and adoring — husband, but she’s restless and looking for something, though she doesn’t know what.

It doesn’t take long before she’s adopted the club’s values, including Margot’s penchant for handsome, hunky and much younger men. Soon, she’s lying to her husband and coming home way too late.

But that’s not the worst of her problems. When a young woman is found dead on the grounds of Margot’s large lakeside second home where the club members meet, Sophie becomes the number one suspect.


“These women are very complicated and messy,” said Cobb in a major understatement.

Cobb, who lives in Austin, Texas, returned to her home state after graduating with an M.A. in literature from San Francisco State University and working in Hollywood for Rob Shelton, a writer and director known for such movies as "Bull Durham," "Bad Boys II," "Tin Cup" and "Cobb."

She said the inspiration for this novel came about when driving the back roads of Texas and listening to her mother tell a story about her high school days, when some rich boys invited her to their hunting club.

“They sat on their cars and shot little rabbits and I thought this could go so wrong,” said Cobb. Sophie and Cobb have other similar characteristics besides both being young mothers.

“There’s a fair amount of Sophie in me, the restless part,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s the writer in me, but there’s a part of me that wants to move places and do things.”

But Cobb, realizing that her days of going out to bars and listening to music were over, at least for the time being, didn’t join a hunt club, but instead started writing. It was a good choice, as the book has already received great reviews.

“I really did have a blast writing the book,” she said. “I wanted to write a story about obsession and how a person’s life goes off the rails.”



Cobb, who thrived on mysteries like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys while growing up, didn’t plot the book, but instead let it evolve as she wrote. Sometimes she was surprised by the twists and turns of her story line and what her characters did.

“Stephen King says that he doesn’t plot, as he believes the story is already out there and we just have to tell it,” she said. “I really tried to get into Sophie’s head and feel her boredom and that’s what drove her to make the decisions.”

Whenever Sophie is faced with making a decision, she opts for the bad.

She’s oblivious, at least at first, to all the conniving and lying going on around her until finally realizing, as her marriage breaks down and more people associated with the club are found dead, that she’s being set up to take the fall for the real murderer.

4.5/5

Do you like drama? Do you like rich women behaving badly? Do you love Real Housewives? If you said yes to all or at least one of those questions then you need to read The Hunting Wives by May Cobb. I actually just realized I have her debut, Big Woods, and haven't read it yet but I am going to be sure to remedy that shortly. I was immediately hooked as soon as I cracked this one open, and I listened to the audio in just 2 sittings, and that was only because I started at night before bed. It is told all from the viewpoint of Sophie and oh what a dummy she is. She wants to fit in with the Hunting Wives, but once she finds out what their group is all about she gets a lot more than she bargained for.

Reading The Hunting Wives is like listening to the most salacious gossip you have ever heard, and I loved every minute of it. I am a huge fan of drama-filled novels (case in point my love of The Favorite Sister), so I definitely got my fix with this one. There is one scene that gets pretty steamy which I wasn't expecting, and it was full of surprises which I loved. The audiobook is narrated by Erin Bennett who happens to narrate a lot of Elin Hilderbrand's books, and I LOVED it. She did such a fantastic job, and I could picture the character of Sophie like it was her speaking instead of Erin. The end was such a shock, and I can say with complete certainty that I will now read everything Cobb ever writes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

May Cobb knows you’re ready to walk on the wild side – and she’s ready to take you there.

The Austin writer’s Texas-set thriller, “The Hunting Wives” (Berkley/Penguin Random House, $26), gives us permission to vicariously revel in bad behavior.

We clearly are eager. The Book of the Month club tapped the novel as an April selection, with “Gossip Girl” alum Leighton Meester lauding it on Instagram as a “wild, exciting ride.” It garnered pre-publication starred reviews from industry journals Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Bustle dubbed it one of 20 Beach Reads You Won’t Be Able to Put Down, Frolic named it one of a dozen “hot reads” for May, and Pop Sugar anointed it as one of the month’s best thriller and mystery books.

“I wanted to subvert the whole men's club thing, and have this be a place where women could do messy, adult, bad things that men get to do in fiction and don't get the clapback,” Cobb said in a phone interview. She’ll officially launch the book Tuesday at BookPeople, in conversation with New York Times-bestselling thriller author Riley Sager.

“The Hunting Wives” follows Sophie, aspiring Instagram influencer and mom to toddler Jack, who with her husband, Graham, decides to move from Chicago to small-town Texas. The appeal of a slower-paced life soon evaporates, and Sophie finds welcome diversion in a group of moms led by the cruelly captivating Margot Banks. What starts as a girls’ night evolves into id-driven boundary-pushing that eventually leads to murder.

"Hunting Wives" by May Cobb
“I knew I wanted her to get in over her head at some point,” Cobb said of Sophie. “I really wanted to ask Sophie a question that the novel I hope asks: ‘What if you say yes to your darkest desires, instead of repressing them?’ From the safety of my desktop, it was easy to watch her life implode and explode.”

Margot invites Sophie to join the club of the title, a gathering at Margot’s lake house where the moms sip sauvignon blanc and shoot at clay targets. Cobb’s mother planted the seed of the novel when she shared memories of her teen years while the two were driving through Longview.

“She's just a remarkable storyteller,” Cobb said. “Out of the blue she starts telling me about something called the Hunting Party in the mid- to late ‘60s. This group of rich, cool guys would invite people to go into the woods, sit on the hood of their trucks, drink beer and shoot at rabbits. … That image stuck in my brain about this sort of party, with rich people with guns in the woods and how easily a night like that could go wrong.”

Sophie is a deliciously complex character wrestling with multiple truths. Her attraction to Margot and all she represents – particularly the freedom to pursue what she wants, with little concern for social mores or even the limits of the law – reflects both Sophie’s disjointed childhood and longings familiar to those who’ve spent hours ministering to young children.

“Her choices are an escape from the monotony and the slowed-down life, which she did yearn for,” Cobb noted. “The grass may be greener, but it’s boringly green.

“Her father abandoned her, and she has this restless nature. Even though she craves stability, there's a side that craves excitement and danger and unsavory things. She has the right to be both those people.”

And though her readers likely won’t go as far as her characters do, it’s fun to go along for the ride, Cobb said.

“That whole thing women wish for when they have a ladies’ night out, that escape from reality, leaving it all behind? This is that on steroids.”

This book certainly has lots of fans but I got lost somewhere around the narrator Sophie reminiscing about the beach sounds of Tallahassee, Florida (fun fact: there's no beach), and the numerous times these characters (all married and some with children) drove while heavily intoxicated.

The story is most definitely an over-the-top cross between 'Dallas', 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Big Little Lies'. The beginning was very promising, and I was honestly enthralled with this very naughty but fun story most of the way through! Hoverer, the constant drinking and bad choices made by Sophie got tiresome for me. The story was clever and the characters were memorable, which is why I finished the book. If you want a fast, dark-ish thriller, this one is for you.

I'm a little torn on this one. This is one scandalous, salacious, entertaining book and it kept me reading. But at the same time I didn't like the main character at all and she never really developed at all over the course of the story. She also just made really stupid choices and I just couldn't believe them. That being said, it was very well written and I think a lot of people will enjoy it, it just wasn't for me.

The hunting wives share more than target practice, martinis, and bad behavior in this novel of obsession, seduction, and murder.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

💄 : Red lips only
🍸 : Bottoms up
☠️ : Murder

The Hunting Wives was one of those books that I really liked, even though I hated all of the characters (except for poor Graham!) The story pushes the line between being deliciously deviant and a little much.

It’s a compelling romp through small town Texas, but ultimately I didn’t feel like Sophie, the protagonist, cared about anyone but herself.

Pairing Recommendation
🍷: A deep red (and lots of it!)
🧀 🥩 : Charcuterie
🎧: Howlin’ For You - The Black Keys

The Hunting Wives was such a unique and fun thriller. From the very first page I was hooked! The story is told from Sophie’s viewpoint. Sophie as a character wasn’t my favorite. I found her to be annoying actually, but the story she was telling kept me interested. I spent the entire book wondering what was going to happen. Once you think you have it figured it out, the author does a 180 and surprises you. I was definitely kept on my toes. I read The Hunting Wives in one sitting and I highly recommend it!

“…the pool was the first place I saw her. A week later, she was dead.”

Tired of the hustle and bustle of Chicago life, Sophie and her husband move their young son to the town of Mapleton, Texas in the hopes of creating a simpler life. Sophie becomes a stay-at-home mom, hoping to be the kind of mom that she never had, to her son and she spends her free time writing blog posts and sharing snippets of her life on Instagram. This quiet life that she thought she wanted begins to take on a dull sheen but then Sophie becomes engrossed in a local socialite named Margot Banks who invites her to become a part of The Hunting Wives.

“It wasn’t envy, though; I didn’t want to be her. It was so much more than that. I wanted to be near her. For her to notice me, too. The idea of it took my breath away. It became powerful and even consuming.”

I was drawn to the very Desperate Housewives meets Real Housewives sound this book had and I got to say, it pretty much fits the bill. The Hunting Wives consists of Callie, Jill, Tina, and of course Margot, their de facto leader. None of these women are exactly likable but they’re certainly interesting. They love drinking, shooting guns, and men… and not necessarily in that order. When Sophie is invited to Margot’s lake house to have some drinks and shoot some skeet, she’s intrigued by these wild women that don’t seem to have a care in the world but doing what they want to do. After the past months where she only had herself for company, being around these women makes Sophie realize just how stifled she really was. Each new night she spends with them, the wilder they get, but when a local teenager turns up murdered, the excitement comes to a dead stop.

The Hunting Wives starts out as a tale of suburban ennui but shifts gears into a murder mystery without missing a beat. It was undeniably one wild ride.

The book was well written. The story itself was all shades of crazy. I didn’t figure out the twist at the end, but I have never been particularly good at solving the mystery so that doesn’t mean much.

One time read, but enjoyable for the most part.

My Review:⭐️⭐⭐.5 / 5 stars

Another book with such a fun, must-read cover! I knew I wanted to read this before I even knew what it was about - such a fun premise. Sophie O’Neill, a former lifestyle editor from Chicago, moves back to Mapleton, Texas with her husband and young son to live a more simple, quiet life. However, within months of being there, she is restless and wants more excitement in her life. Enter Margot Banks, the local socialite, who has a secret hunting club with a few other women from town - hunt, shoot skeet, and then party hard behind their husband’s backs. As Sophie becomes more and more obsessed with Margot, her own personal life is suffering. When a missing teenage girl’s body turns up on Margot’s property, Sophie is thrown in the middle of a murder investigation that she did not sign up for.

This is a fast-paced thriller where you are not sure what Sophie is going to do next. I thought it was very fun, but I did not like any of the characters. I felt so bad for her husband Graham and their son, Jack. Margot and Sophie are despicable - and they’re supposed to be. By the time Sophie is in a situation with the police, you do not really care. It is fun, but I did not love it.

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! US Pub date : May 18, 2021!

There’s been lots of love floating around for The Hunting Wives, and it's my turn to chime in and congratulate May Cobb on a soap-opera-esque delight of a book. The Hunting Wives is fun. I could try to come up with several more adjectives, but why? It’s fun. It was deliciously escapist to read about the exploits of these absolutely crazy women mixed with way too much alcohol and a few firearms. After all, what could go wrong?? Loved it!!!