I really liked the whole idea behind this book but unfortunately it took me a while to get into it. It started very slowly and I had to force myself to keep reading it. The ending was good and I enjoyed it in the end

The Next Wife by Liz Lawler is a psychological thriller about the one thing that always manages to shock people, unless they are victims or perpetrators, Domestic Violence. Physical, sexual, mental and emotional, each one is as bad as the other and in this book Liz has made sure she has got every small detail correct, while wrapping it up in a thriller.
Tess, a nurse, has been swept of her feet by a respected surgeon, Daniel, he is everything she could ever want and need. They have a whirlwind romance and are married in months.Tess is still on cloud nine and everything is going so well that they chose to move out of London and to Bath for a quieter life.At the same time as the move Tess begins to realise Daniel has began to show controlling behaviour in some things. Tess remembers an old neighbour they had in London, Martha King, an older lady. She told Tess to ask Daniel about his first wife and what happened to her. Daniel begins to take his controlling a step further and treats Tess as a child, he controls her phone bank account and even tells her which clothes to wear or not to wear! Then Daniel makes a bad mistake and allows Tess to take the blame, now Tess realises this is not the man she married at all...and she is in a situation she does not want.
This is an excellent domestic-based thriller, I was captivated, horrified and heartbroken at the same time watching a grown woman being reduced to a shell of her former self.The mental and emotional abuse is what really wears you down and this shows in the book. I must admit, this book brought up things for me that I would rather have kept in my little box like normal, but it touched me too. Tess gets to the point of knowing she has made a massive mistake and is stuck knowing she may just get admonished by family and friends.
A story that had just the right pace for me and was full of twists and turns to keep you wondering wether Tess can get away or if Daniel will let her die trying.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the copy of the book for my review today.

A chilling tale of coercive control and domestic abuse. This is a really gripping book, with characters that grab your sympathy, and others that make you hate them. Well worth a read.

The brutal opening sets the scene perfectly and I knew from the first pages that this was a book I would devour. Then it rapidly changes to Martha King spying through binoculars at newly weds Tess and Daniel moving into a grand house.

As the pages turned a happy whirlwind romance becomes a dark controlling marriage. The gift delivery of clothes was when my eyes were truly opened to the kind of man Daniel was and it got worse from there.

The dramatic change in character once a ring is on a finger is unfortunately still prevalent today. People often refer to marriage as a ball and chain and to many women suffering domestic abuse this is truth rather than jest. The author has clearly researched coercion and control and it made for a chilling read.

The characters are powerful, from Tess’s weakened controlled state, Martha and her memory haze to Daniel one of the worst characters I have come across. He is one narcissistic sociopath exuding charm and horror in equal turn. Making him a consultant vascular surgeon and using that to explain his god complex was genius. Met a few in my time and yes they do have that reputation.

With added mystery, unreliable memories and hidden connections this is an addictive domestic thriller that is perfect to read in cheap pink pyjamas.

This book gave me mixed feelings. It started well, slowed a little in the middle in my opinion then had a brilliant ending! I think the slow middle says more about my attention span than the book!
The characters were strong and while Tess' actions frustrated me, I have family experience so can understand her position better. I hated Daniel which to me shows great writing skills!
The ending was very fast paced, well thought out and well executed. Very enjoyable!

The Next Wife - Liz Lawler

What a book, I feel as if I have been on a rollercoaster of emotions.
We follow Tess who finds out what her new husband is really like after just a few months of marriage. Lots of trigger warnings within including, controlling behaviour, sexual abuse and murder.

I have noticed a lot of people read this book in one sitting, and I can definitely see why as it really keeps you gripped to the storyline, but I personally had to dip in and out as I just found the nature of the book a little emotionally draining - don't get me wrong I still thought it was an excellent read (and what a twist at the end- I did not see that coming!)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review!

If you have picked this book, I suggest you make yourself comfortable as you will not get out of the story anytime soon.
The Next Wife by Liz Lawler is fast paced and absolutely gripping, dark story with an absolutely unpredictable twist.
How would a girl respond if her very loving boyfriend suddenly becomes very abusive and authoritarian as a husband. How would she deal with a person who is caring and loving and showering her with gifts one day and the next he is abusing her for not following his orders. To add to this he is a well respected surgeon and she only gets to hear good stories about him. An old woman one day comes to her doorstep and tells her to ask him about his first wife. Does she believe her husband or this unknown lady who seems to have lost her mind?
The story is almost like watching the incidents in the book being enacted in front of my eyes. I had no other thoughts but to follow the authors narrative. Although I cringed at many of the dark abusive behaviours portrayed in the book, I could not get myself to leave the story aside. I just wanted Tess to get out from the relationship but every new change, every new twist kept me glued to the story and just when I thought the story will end, the author produces this incredible twist which absolutely ties in all the ends together including the parallel story of the old woman and the end is very unexpected.

If you love to read dark twisted stories that end in unpredictable way then pick this one up. You will not be disappointed. I will not recommend this book to those who have undergone abuse in their personal relationships lest it trigger their past memories.

I thank Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for accepting my request to review this book. The opinions expressed are all mine.

A cracking chilling read again from Liz Lawlor! Shes fast becoming a firm favourite. The Next Wife is terrifying,paced well and had me suspecting just about everyone..with a cracker of a twist I hadn't seen..dont know that anyone would! Wonderful read! Cant wait for your next
.Thank you for the copy to read ahead of time.
5 ⭐

This book is not one that I would class as a thriller, it’s more of a book about coercive control and abuse.
It’s dark, it keeps you guessing and in some parts makes you feel uncomfortable.
Tess thinks she has struck gold when after a whirlwind romance she marries Daniel who is a surgeon. Looking forward to becoming the doctors wife they move to Bath so he can start a new job. Immediately things happen that doesn’t make sense, making Tess think she is going crazy and she has no idea who her new husband is.
Thanks you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Favorite Quotes:

This wasn’t living. She was only alive in the sense that her body was breathing and her heart was beating.

…truth and lies are often told together. The truth to hide the lies and lies to hide the truth.


My Review:

I’m waffling and conflicted in how to rate this one, I was tense and antagonized with the main characters most of the way through yet their twisted logic and unpredictable storylines kept me reading to the end. The new wife was just as unhinged as her cruel and creepy sociopath husband for living under those abusive and volatile conditions, and it would be a rare woman with more than two working brain cells who would have. But I would never have guessed that ending, it was very clever. Liz Lawler is an underhanded minx and a twisted sister, and I have to give her props and kudos for her slick trickery - with maybe a few sharp pinches in a soft area for torturing me along the way. ;)

I cannot let this get archived without weighing in! I was drawn in from the very beginning and have picked this up every time I got a moment - at work, at home, whatever! This is my first Liz Lawler and definitely not my last!

I fell in love with Liz Lawler in Don’t Wake Up and I was a little disappointed with this read!
Tess’s rich, perfect husband who she just married is everything she ever dreamed of. But she dismissed a bunch of warning signs, and doubts if she’s good enough for him, because she never seems to get anything right. She starts to become a little afraid of him, but it isn’t until a stranger knocks on her door and tells her she can’t trust her husband, and that he isn’t who he claims. Tess starts asking questions and soon finds a dark secret that her husband tried to keep buried.
With twists and turns and an ending you never see coming, this is a good read!! I found it a little slow, and found myself skimming parts of it. The ending was really well done, but the beginning and middle were hard to get through at points. If anyone’s looking for a quick read this is for you!

Wow! This book has blown me away and is definitely one of my top reads for 2020.

I was drawn to this book by the cover. The image is piercing and haunting as the woman looks terrified, lost and distraught. Then you have that intriguing title, which made me ask: Who was the last wife? What happened to her?

I was totally hooked on the plot. You have Tess, who is newly married and has recently moved to Bath. She is very excited about the prospect of living in a beautiful house, with her loving husband and starting a new role at a new hospital…

Until her husband starts to behave strangely, and an odd woman claims to know secrets about him and his ex-wife. To Tess’ knowledge, Daniel had never lived in this area before or had a wife, so what’s the truth?

The characters in this book are completely believable and raw. Tess describes her husband as a Jekyll and Hyde character and I found him quite manipulative, but also his demeanour quite intimidating and terrifying at times too!

This book made me ask so many questions and was completely gripping and thought provoking. I have completely loved getting lost in this dark thriller which has some mind-blowing twists and extremely clever characterisation!

I would totally describe this author as another queen of the psychological thriller genre and I cannot wait to read more of her novels!

This book by Liz Lawler is a dark domestic thriller with the theme of abuse at its core.

The Next Wife really packs a punch with its twists and misdirections. Following a whirlwind courtship and a very quick marriage, Tess a 28-year-old nurse and vascular surgeon, Daniel, 40, move from London to Bath where Daniel has landed himself a new job. Tess is looking forward to her great new life in their huge house but almost immediately things are amiss both with her handsome, charming husband and the mansion...

In some clever narration between Tess and elderly neighbour named Martha King, Liz Lawler does a first-class job portraying the chilling aspects of the story. I soon found myself pondering and questioning all sorts - choices, sanity, and intentions, to name a few. The plot and storyline were excellent and I was impressed by Liz Lawler’s style of writing which was perfectly paced. The concise chapters were thrilling and the cliff hanger at the end of each one persuaded me to read "just one more" making The Next Wife a full-blown page-turner for me.

The ending of this intense domestic thriller was a surprise and some of the revelations in the lead-up to it were shocking. This is my first book by this talented author and I will be reading more from her. An electrifying psychological thriller that I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Bookouture via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

I took this on vacation for my "plane ride" read, and I could not put it down! I had to finish it as soon as I could. Twists and turns that I never saw coming, and kept me wanting more! I would love to read more by this author.

This was the first book I’ve read by Liz Lawler and I just love her writing style! I was able to work out all of the details from the beginning but I know that many of you will be quite shocked and life the twists!

A dark domestic thriller was this with an abuse theme at the core which involved mysteries of the past mixed with the realities of the present, making it quite interesting in some ways. My second Liz Lawler book saw me read this at one go to know how the human psyche could be twisted and turned.

Tess, an operation theatre scrub nurse, married vascular surgeon, Daniel. With whirlwind courtship and fast marriage, followed by a new house in a different area saw Tess centered in a plotline where Daniel started changing his attitude and slowly transforming her, making her subservient. Would she ever break free?

The prose sped up as I read incredulously at all the things that Tess underwent. Things escalated, along with my desperation at wanting to help her escape his abuse. The author brought out my emotions as every cell in me, which screamed woman, hated the abuse shown.

There were many twists when an old woman came up to her to warn her and when a shocker when she found something hidden in the house. The suspense ramped up, and the last few pages brought the story to a train stopping finale.

And then came my niggles… Why didn’t she just walk away? The reasons given felt too flimsy. Being a doc, I understood the medical jargon, but so much was not needed to the plot. The subplots felt to be too unbelievable and farfetched. Even after he shoved her hand in boiling water, she sympathized with him a few pages later.

But then again, I have met a few women like this. I have been one.
Overall, an interesting book which a great final twist.

A thriller that will have you looking at the marriages around you....those "perfect" couples who are just a little too perfect!

Tess ignored all of her friends and co-workers friendly comments to slow down and really know her new boyfriend when he proposes after a few months. He's the most handsome, loving man she has ever met and he loves her! How could her life be anything except perfect. They marry and move from the city where she has family and friends to a huge country home where she knows no one. As soon as the door closes on her old life, the new one is not quite as perfect as she envisioned. And then it gets worse.....

This is not your typical thriller built around domestic abuse. This woman will find the strength to save herself. The journey from the courtship to the end of the story is tense, sometimes horrifying and extremely well written. It gives me chills to think about it......

First, I want to thank Liz Lawler, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

WOW!! Liz Lawler you get the award for writing the most despised character I ever read in your latest book The Next Wife! Oh how Dr. Daniel Meyers rubbed me the wrong way to the point where I wanted to go into the book and tell him off. He belittled his wife Tess, wanted her to be someone she wasn’t, did things to her I was totally shocked at! His personality and behavior just totally floored me!

The graphic designers of this book really did an amazing job thinking of such a creative piece. It was so creepy but so perfect because this book was like that.

The deeper you get into the book we see the shift in Daniel's personality. We learn there area a ton of hidden secrets in his past-some very shocking revelations when they come out. Mind blowing ones that I never saw coming. But it explains why he is so messed up in the head.

Many times I felt scared for Tess and wanted her to get out of the situation she was in.

This book has triggers for people who were verbally and who were sexually abused.

This is a book that will make your blood boil.
Daniel is charismatic to others and the perfect husband to Tess when out in public, but behind closed doors he is abusing his wife.
It starts off with small things like telling her how to dress and then escalates from this point onwards.
Tess is confused by his change in behaviour and can’t understand why he’s being so cruel to her.
She then finds a journal from a woman experiencing the same things as her and she starts to investigate.
It all becomes clear later in the book but does Tess have the courage to get away from Daniel?
This is a taut domestic thriller which some readers may find uncomfortable but it’s a well told story.
A great read.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.