This was a fantastic Jane Eyre re-tell. This book truly twisted the framework of the original story and was able to stand on its own. This is not your timid Jane, she is feisty and shiesty. I actually think this novel gave a more believable Eddie. He seems way more shifty in this novel and totally believable to have a wife in his attic.

I truly enjoyed this slow burning psychological suspense. It was more of a slow burn mystery than a thriller, but that did not take away from the novel's allure and its ability to keep you turning pages. Hawkins was able to capture Southern elite culture at its finest - and nastiest. You will find characters that you love to hate in this elite Alabama town, and you will probably switch your allegiance back and forth between the two leading ladies.

The characters are well developed and I really enjoyed how the story unfolds from the multiple POVs and time lines. Like many psychological suspense novels, it will leave you wondering how well we can ever actually know someone. The "best" sociopaths are talented at deception . . . and you might not ever suspect them . . . at least unless you get in their way. Grab this one and you'll finish it in a weekend! This was a very entertaining read and one of my favorite suspense novels this year.

Creepy and super twisty!!! Both the wife and the eventual fiancé have creepy back stories... told from several points of view over months. Eddie gives hints that he’s not the perfect, handsome widower that we first thought, “Jane” is sneaky but a total underdog, and Bea was the perfect, but dead, wife. I really loved the supporting characters and the narration was wonderful.

3.5/5

The Wife Upstairs was a quick listen for me. There were no real slow spots for me in the plot, and I was curious how the book would play out which kept my attention. The characters were well developed, and there were great backstories to each one to give the characters depth. I have not read Jane Eyre, so I was essentially going into this book with no expectations or previous knowledge of the story.

I saw this book labeled as a thriller, and I wouldn't necessarily call it a thriller. I pretty much knew how it was going to play out from the beginning so it was not particularly suspenseful. While I wanted to hear how the story ended and I was invested in the characters, I wasn't on the edge of my seat trying to guess what would happen next. If the book had a different title some of the suspense wouldn't have been taken away from me right from the beginning, and the "twist" at the end wasn't really a twist in my opinion.

Rating the audiobook, I really enjoyed the two female voices. They were engaging and felt like you were really listening to the character's themselves. The voice of Eddie wasn't great for me. If he was the only voice, I probably wouldn't have continued the book as it felt he was reading the book in front of him instead of acting with emotion.

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

This was a great read! It was quick too. Thank you Netgalley for a free audiobook.

This book was a Jane Eyre retelling but I have never read it, so I did not know anything about what was coming. The book has its twists and turns, some more obvious than others, all within a southern setting.

I enjoyed wondering what was really going on, and learning more and more about what the characters were really up to.

Thank you NetGalley for the wonderful opportunity to listen to an audiobook ARC of this glorious modern retelling of Jane Erye.

Twists. Turns. Secrets. Dark pasts. Romance. Friendship. Betrayal. Jealousy. This book has it all. To say I was enthralled is an understatement. I listened to this every spare moment I had and will be buying the hard copy to read as soon as it’s released!

The Wife Upstairs is Jane Eyre reimagined as a modern gothic thriller set in Alabama, where Jane meets recently widowed Eddie Rochester. Jane sets her sights on him, but she may be in for more than she'd realize as it becomes clear he's not just mysterious- he's hiding something.
I loved all the twists and how Hawkings pays homage to the Bronte classic throughout the novel while giving readers a new book. It's a suspenseful and twisted book full of surprises, and I think Jane Eyre fans will appreciate it and thriller and domestic suspense readers will love the book as well.
I liked that there were different narrators for the alternating points of view, but felt the choice for Jane didn't bring enough emotion to the role and Bea's narrator seemed a bit of a misfit as well, though I enjoyed her Alabama accent.
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copy
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This was such a great read. Once I started listening, I felt I had to know more. I started listening around the house, in the shower and during naptime.

I had heard so many wonderful things about The Wife Upstairs and was extremely excited to receive an audiobook copy.

I loved the twists and turns. The characters were so well thought out and the plot maintained its gripping pace from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed this one!

This was an interesting mystery, thriller with shades of jane Eyre. Jane has left behind a secret in Arizona and is now living in Alabama. The job she has taken is not her dream position, but the only thing she can find at the moment. She is walking dogs for the wealthy inhabitants of Thornfield Estates. She meets up with a handsome, widower (at least that is what is assumed as the body of his wife has not yet been recovered after an incident on their boat). They become friendly and one thing leads to another, finding her engaged to Eddie Rochester. She works hard to fit in with the society wives and once she has a ring on her finger, she thinks she might have made it. But, Jane can’t get over the vibe in Eddie’s house. She is hearing noises and Bea’s presence is seen everywhere in the way she decorated the house. She created and launched a hugely successful business which is now worth millions, yet it seems like she might have stolen some of her ideas from her old friend and neighbour. Then there is the issue of being blackmailed by her previous roommate/landlord. There are a lot of secrets, will we ever learn the truth?

This was an enjoyable thriller that I read and listened to in one day. The writing had a great flow that kept me interested. I wanted to find out what was happening next and which secrets would be revealed. This was an interesting story, different from other thrillers I read. When I mentioned Jane Eyre at the beginning, I will say that that comparison is a bit misleading and was a stretch for the most part. There was a great build up to the story, but once I hit the middle of the story, it raced to its conclusion. There were several twists along the way and the final reveal was a shocker. I did think the end was a bit too quick to wrap up and left me hanging somewhat, but overall, I was quite happy with this story. Remember though, this is fiction, so there will be spots where you will need to suspend belief somewhat. I did a read/listen with this one and I enjoyed both modes of this story. The narrators, Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang gave engaging performances that added to my enjoyment of this story. I always enjoy audiobooks that have more than one narrator as I can identify with the various POVs. Well done. I definitely recommend this one.

So disappointed in this one. I love Jane Eyre, and was so excited for a modern, thriller take, but this just disgraced the original tale, especially the use of "Reader, I..." Not clever, just gross. The characters are unlikable (is this a thriller trope? Can we get rid of it?), the reveals superficial, and the plot sloppy and unsatisfying. I got it as my BOTM and received a complimentary audio, but there was sooo much swearing that I couldn't stick to the audio and read most of it. Do not recommend.

<i>Review copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review<i>

A Dogwalker with a secret past finds love with a recent windower. Then we learn his wife may not be dead.

A similar plot to other popular thrillers but I really enjoyed the writing and pace of this book. The narration was great too. Read it in a couple quick days and look forward to more books by this author.

Really liked this one! I had seen too many spoilers though and figured out what was going on before the reveal.

The narrator of the audiobook was great. It was an interesting story and the twist was done well. I’d definitely recommend this book.

Review: 4/5. I have been so excited to read this after seeing numerous reviews and getting this from BOTM and audio from @netgalley. I’ve never read Jane Eyre so I did go into this blindly and I can’t say I’m disappointed at all. I will admit I was surprised by pieces of the book and assumed correctly in others. This was a suspenseful thriller and definitely had me staying up late to read or listening any chance I had. The characters were written so well and the style of going between characters was perfect for this book. I will be recommending this one to friends!

Audiobook Review: The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, Author; Narration by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne and Lauren Fortgang
(A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press published on January 5, 2021)

4.25 Stars.

Audiobook narration, flow and production: Grade B+. Quite an effective team effort in the portrayal of contrasts and incongruence - the inner thoughts (foul-mouthed, untrustworthy, utterly unlikeable trailer trash) against the external social presentation (gracious, unassuming, smart, classy) of the protagonist.

(I noted some residual audio interference in the ARC.)

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"Southern Manors, a lifestyle brand". A dog-walker, a West Coast recent transplant to the deep-south, meets a dashing young man in an Alabama posh, gated community. The young man, himself a transplant from Maine, happens to be a widower, loaded, admired in social circles.. His wife, Bea, a successful lifestyle influencer and businesswoman, was lost along with her best friend, Blanche, to a recent boating tragedy, never to be found, presumably trapped deep among dead tree branches in a nearby lake, a once-lush forest deliberately inundated.

Inevitably, they fall in love - she of dark secrets, more of a desperate urgency to pull herself out of destitution rather than affection; he with his own motivations, equally saddled with demons in the closet.

Then she meets "Bertha's" friends, - and perceives noises in the manor where she lives with the man, now her fiancé.

And what Jane discovers, in a wicked 180 degree twist by the author, is far from what, to that point, the reader shall have been all geared up to conclude.

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In a cynically vague adaptation of a Charlotte Brontë 1847 classic, YA and romance author Rachel Hawkins pens a gem of a contemporary adult fiction thriller as she brings to life modern versions of Brontë's Jane, Rochester, Blanche and Bertha, and the Thornfield estates, with such an explosive (literally) and inconclusive finale, perhaps leaving room for a sequel.

A relatively short, gripping and thoroughly enjoyable read!

Review based on an Audiobook ARC from Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book, but the mystery aspect did fall short for me. The premise is a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" meets a man that is wealthy and wants to fit into this world. His previous wife was considered dead after she disappeared for a long time after a tragic accident.
The mystery aspect is that the wife's disappearance comes back to haunt the boyfriend and he starts to act odd and distracted.
I did enjoy the characters and the premise of the story. Seeing the traditional, stereotypical rich lifestyle is always entertaining.
I honestly maybe would have loved the backstory more than the actual story. The best friends situation was so intriguing for me.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC. This was my 1st complete audiobook I’ve gotten through. It usually doesn’t hold my attention but this one did. I liked the narrators and the story full of twists.
Jane, who is the neighborhood dog walker, ends up falling for the guy in the neighborhood whose wife and wife’s best friend just recently died....just when you think you have it figured out, the story completely changes direction.

The beginning of the story started out so strong, I was hooked, as Hawkins builds up our protagonist and introduces many of the key characters. What starts out seeming like it could be just your everyday woman dealing with the Stepford Wives around her quickly grabs your interest with Jane’s quick wit & snarky inner monologue & banter with the other characters she comes across. Her sections of the book were my favorite by far.

This made me realized I’m not sure if I’d ever READ Jane Eyre before, but with this not being the first retelling of this story in 2020 one of my goals for 2021 will be to read the classic story ASAP.

All the characters, secrets, and lies came together in this unstoppable audiobook - I devoured it! Twisty psychological thrillers with incredible surprises, in the end, tend to be my go-to for audiobooks! The narrator was perfect for Jane's character, she made the story for me with her tone & fit this snarky writing style SO good!

A HUGE thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the chance to read this title!

The Wife Upstairs : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thank you @netgalley for the ALC of this book.
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This story is one that you won’t be able to put down, it captivating and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what’s gonna happen next .
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I’m this story we meet Jane who’s running from her past, seeking a new life of grander . She found the perfect man , but she soon realize that the he’s may not be who he say he is and someone from his past is looking to disrupt her new life .
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The author does a great job with character development , I had a pretty good idea of who each character was . The writing flowed And the story was great even if the characters are not that lovable .
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If you love The last Mrs Parrish and Gone girl then you will definitively enjoy this book. I wasn’t too fond of the ending, but 🤷🏾‍♀️

Jane serendipitously meets Eddie, a recent widower, while working as a dog walker in the elegant neighborhood of Thornfield Estates. For Jane, this lavish life is enticing compared to the mediocrity she is trying to leave behind. Life with Eddie seems too good to be true and the mysteries that surround the disappearance of his wife seem to simmer right around their budding relationship. As things move quickly with Eddie, Jane discovers suspicious details about what really happened to his wife and the events leading to her disappearance.

The Wife Upstairs takes a sinister spin off of the classic tale, and I was easily engrossed into the story. I thought the novel was well paced, even to the point where I found myself questioning how fast Jane was able to embed herself into Eddie’s life. As their lives became more entwined, I found my expectations clashing with the events. Regardless, the twists near the end had me on the edge of my seat!

I had the opportunity to listen to the audio version of The Wife Upstairs, and I thoroughly enjoyed the listening experiences. The narrators’ hints of accent were perfect for this southern set novel, giving flair to the character’s various personalities while also maintaining an easy to comprehend pace. I would definitely recommend the audio version of this novel!