This story is a retelling of Jane Eyre, and while retellings can be tricky—and in my experience, not always very well done—I thought this one was fabulous! it has just the right amount of grit and enough twists and turns to keep you going all the way through. In fact, it had me hooked from the start and I couldn’t stop listening so I binged the whole audiobook in a day.

Jane is new to Birmingham, Alabama and is walking dogs in a ritzy housing estate called Thornfield. She’s frustrated, wants more from her life, and hates being treated like ‘the help. Enter Eddie Rochester. He’s a handsome widower, and they hit it off pretty quickly. But their new relationship is haunted by his previous wife Bea, and both Jane and Eddie have enough secrets of their own to fuel the gossip-mongers of Thornfield for years.

I loved that this story was told from multiple points of view, and the audiobook has different people narrating each part, so I found myself completely immersed in the world they created. Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang were the narrators. While Heyborne and Fortgang were new to me, I recognized Shaffer’s voice from Tweet Cute. The audio comes in at just over eight and a half hours, so you’ll scream through it in no time (pun intended).

It had definite Verity (by Colleen Hoover) vibes to me, so if you enjoyed that book you’ll want to pick this one up for sure!

I was definitely underwhelmed by this book =- maybe that's my own fault for hyping it up in my head. First off, this is supposed to be a Jane Eyre retelling but I have never read Jane Eyre so I have no clue if that's correct. This is a southern gothic book about Jane, who was a foster child years prior, and is now broke and walks dogs for a living. She moved to a rich neighborhood so she can steal jewelry from the housewives, but unexpectedly she meets Eddie, who is a widow, and a relationship quickly ensues. Eddie's dead wife, Bea, keeps haunting Jane as she pieces together more of the story and starts taking over Bea's old life - including acting like a gossipy southern housewife herself. This book has the same vibes as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and I think the southern gothic vibe isn't for me. I can only handle one book like that. What I didn't enjoy: the timelines were confusing as well as Blanche and Bea's relationship. Knowing that the wife is upstairs also gives away too much fo the story. So I felt like this thriller was lacking on twists. I didn't care or connect with the characters and I felt like the ending was pretty lazy. The story was quick, but I think there are better domestic thrillers out there.

The Wife Upstairs
By Rachel Hawkins


An enjoyable and entertaining story

SUMMARY
Jane is a broke, twenty-three year-old dog-walker who only recently moved to Birmingham, Alabama. She walks dogs for several families in a high-end neighborhood on the rich side of town. Thornfield Estates’ is a gated community full of McMansions, it’s a place where a dog walker is nothing more than the hired help. When Jane is in need of money she not above lifting an item or two from her employers. They won’t even notice, she rationalizes.

But when Jane meets the handsome Eddie Rochester he is like a dream come true. Eddie is a recent widower. His deceased wife, Bea, owned her own successful Southern lifestyle company. Unfortunately, she drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies are both lost in the deep lake.

Eddie is rich, handsome and exactly what Jane, who grew up in a foster home, is looking for. Maybe fairy tales really do come true. But can she ever really fit in at Thornfield Estates or measure up to the beautiful and talented Bea? Jane has secrets all her own and they may just be catching up to her.

REVIEW
The Wife Upstairs is an entertaining and highly readable story. Author Rachel Hawkins lures you in with Jane’s intriguing character and her potential relationship with Eddie. Her writing is practiced, well-structured and skillfully crafted.

The Wife Upstairs is marketed as a modern twist of the Jane Eyre classic. I think that is unfortunate and may set the book up for false expectation. It’s really hard for anyone to do justice in comparison to such a classic, and this one doesn't even come close But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good book. It is. It’s a quick read with several interesting subplots.

I really enjoyed this thrilling retelling of Jane Eyre. I did feel a tad let down by the ending (I wanted bigger or more shocking) but overall it was a great thriller and kept me on my toes! I would recommend it to anyone looking for their next thriller.

The audio was well done and I thought the narrator did a great job.

Taking a step up into a world so vastly different from the on the run life she had before. As she becomes engaged to a man who she now fears has killed his own wife, she discovers secrets about him that lead her to re think this change in her lifestyle. Will she survive to take advantage of the wealth she has fallen into?

THE WIFE UPSTAIRS’ Jane is a young woman trying to make ends meet as a dog walker in an expensive gated community. It is the type of community where the wives don’t work at anything except one upping each other on the latest gossip. When Jane meets Eddie, things seem to be turning in her favor. Eddie’s wife Bea was presumed dead by drowning along with her best friend. When she’s hired to walk Eddie’s dog, Jane sees an opportunity in the wealthy widower, but the memory of Bea and all of her past successes is still looming.

I think in many ways this is a book that is great to go into pretty blind. I knew going in that this retold the story of Jane Eyre, but the author did a fantastic job of paying homage to the original story while writing something completely new and different. If you’ve read the original you will definitely see similarities, but reading JANE EYRE certainly isn’t needed to love this one! I really loved the twists she put into this novel, going in entirely different directions with her character and plot development.

This isn’t a book where you can go in expecting to love the characters themselves (in the buddy read chat, we decided that the dogs really were the most loveable), but you will love to read about them. We get multiple perspectives with present day narratives and flashbacks to gain knowledge of the past as well and I was really hooked to all of the perspectives.

This is a quick and fun read with some intriguing twists along the way that I absolutely recommend! The audio was very well done and I recommend that format as well! It made for a fantastic discussion book as well!

This is a good thriller for listeners that enjoy the suspense and pace of a thriller. The narration was very nice to listen to and overall a good audio book. The storyline was a bit too generic and didn't leave the listener to have to guess - it was a very obvious ending. With a suspense book, the reader/listener is looking to keep reading to find out the end, that was not the case with this one.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins is a beautifully twisty suspense novel that keeps you guessing who the murderer is until the end.

Jane is a young dog walker who is running away from something. She settles in Birmingham, Alabama where she meets Eddie, a recent widower who lives in the gated community where most of her customers live. He buys a dog just so he can hire her and their relationship quickly develops into love. However, Eddie is keeping a secret about his deceased wife that could blow his new engagement to Jane wide open.

I totally enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel. The readers were enjoyable, although it was a bit of a shock at the end when Eddie came in with a male voice, throughout the novel he had been spoken of from the womens' points of view so they had done his voice. When it switched to his point of view it was unexpected, but a nice touch.

Thank you to the author, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio file of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

When I read, first and foremost, I want to be entertained. Rachel Hawkins accomplishes that from beginning to end. I have to admit that at a point, I kind of hated Jane, but that dissolved pretty quickly. This is a mystery/thriller of its own standing, a page turner of its own. It's not what I would consider a 'frightening' thriller but full of twists and really interesting characters. Every time a 'stereotype' revealed itself, Hawkins took them to a new level, creating something new.

I found myself alternately cheering and booing many of the characters which is also to Hawkins' credit. The layered characters propel and drive the plot. I really loved it.

In the audiobook version, the use of three narrators worked well. All three giving great readings, or performances.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished listening to the audiobook and my head is spinning from all the twists and turns. What a twisted storyline that will keep you guessing until the very end even then you’re left with quite a few “what if’s”. The story is a twisted tale of love gone wrong and will leave you trying to figure out who’s the victim and who is the guilty one. I absolutely loved this book a d will be anxiously awaiting another book by this author.

OH MY GOSH THIS WAS INSANE!!! I'm hanging my head with shame since I've never read Jane Eyre - I understand that this is a modern twisty version of it - so now I have ANOTHER book to add to my TBR pile lol You never know which character to cheer for, when to be suspicious of and you would be hard pressed to figure out the ending!! I was a touch put off by the excessive f*bombs, but I enjoyed the story and genuinely loved the character of Jane. Ms. Hawkins is a new to me author and I really enjoyed her book. The narrators were FABULOUS!!! Thank you to Netgalley for an audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for my advance listeners copy of The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! It will definitely end up going on the list for one of my favorite thrillers of the year! The three Points Of View and fast pace of the book created the perfect mix of suspense and drama for me. I had my suspicions of the outcome and several factors were predictable, but I was still blown away by how it all went down. I actually didn't realized that this was a retelling of Jane Eyre until after I had finished the book. I have never read the classic before, and I think that probably made the experience of this book better for me. I loved the way it all unfolded. It wasn't an overly dark and suspenseful book, but I was caught up in it quickly and hooked till the last pages.

Jane was slightly unlikeable, but in just the right ways for me. She is always looking for an opportunity and works hard to worm her way in to the inner circle. You couldn't say that she didn't work for what she got, but it definitely wasn't honest work either! She has a lot of backbone and determination. Bea was a tricky character, I was never trusting of her and always felt like she was a master manipulator. Eddie had a naivity to him, but not totally trustworthy either. I was able to look at him seperately from the story that was being told by Bea, and see him in more that one light at a time.

I also really loved the narration on this one by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Fortgang. The audiobook would not have been the same without three seperate narrators for each part. I know for sure that I have previously listened to Kirby Heyborne before, but I would be thrilled to listen to a book by all three of them again sometime.

This one kept me on my toes! I can usually guess what is going to happen, but the final thrill kept me guessing until the end.

The audiobook kept me on the hook the whole time. Great narration.

I received a copy of the audiobook to listen to from the publisher via NetGalley.

Thank you to Netgalley for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to listen to this book but may have had too high of expectations. The narrator was good and overall I thought the story was ok but it wasn't amazing. Part of my excitement for reading it was that it is billed as a modern retelling of Jane Eyre which is one of my all-time favorite books.

3.5 stars // I'm not giving this book any awards for writing or complexity of plot, but it was an entertaining and easy-to-breeze-through thriller that held my interest. I liked that it was a modern take on Jane Eyre; Jane is a plucky orphan on the run from a secret in her past who finds herself working as a dog-walker in a ritzy Birmingham, Alabama, neighborhood. One of those clients just happens to be the handsome Eddie Rochester, whose wife recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It's not my favorite Jane Eyre re-telling (that would be Jane Steele) but fans of the classic novel will have fun picking up on all the references. I listened to this on audiobook; while I appreciated the different narrators for each character's chapters (the novel is told from multiple perspectives) I wasn't crazy about the narration.

Pick it up now! This book had me absolutely hooked from beginning to end. I have not read a thriller that kept me so engaged in such a long time. The characters were flawed, but that’s what made them so interesting.

This Southern gothic gem has all of my favorites... a handsome husband, a rich wife who is presumed dead after an accident involving her bestie and a young woman who is ready to slip into the perfect life. A definite must read. Thank you NetGalley for a gifted advanced reader copy.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for the eALC of The Wife Upstairs. I love Jane Eyre, so when I hear about this purported retelling I was immediately intrigued. I was totally intrigued by Jane's story - the reader isn't immediately sure what to think about her. This book definitely kept me guessing and turning pages, and it was just the kind of escape I needed! I wish I hadn't initially thought of it in relation to Jane Eyre, but on it's own merits this book is definitely a page turner!

I was quickly drawn in to this modern version of Jane Eyre that is set in Birmingham, Alabama. Jane, a young dog walker with a mysterious past, walks dogs for several families in an upscale suburban neighborhood before meeting Eddie Rochester. Eddie's wife Bea was recently killed in a boating accident, but that doesn't stop Eddie from starting up a serious relationship with Jane. Jane clearly has designs on marrying Eddie and enjoying his fancy lifestyle, but it's less clear what Eddie sees in Jane. When the narration flips to another character, we learn more about Bea and her boating accident and the secrets she, too, had been keeping. I enjoyed listening to this story and loved the twists and turns and surprises. I didn't like any of the characters, and this book will not live in my memory forever, but it was an enjoyable read.

Blog: The Life & Times of a Book Addict.
Post on January 26, 2021.

REVIEW


Jane, Eddie, and Bea were very interesting characters to get to know. From pretty much the beginning, I was interested in Jane’s background and what she could possibly be running from. Then once Eddie and Bea came into the picture, I wanted to know more about their past…specifically Bea’s. The story seamlessly shifts between both present and past. Uncovering more of Bea and Eddie’s life as well as Jane’s past in the process. none of these characters were very likeable to me, but I think that is the point. However likeable or unlikeable, they all added something to the story and made it all the more intriguing.

I’m one of those weird people that like to occasionally switch between listening to an audiobook and reading the book. Oftentimes I will read the book during lunch and then listen to it when I get home or vice versa. The writing and pace of the story was done well. It never felt like anything lagged or became boring. The narration was good too. All three of the narrators did a good job of bringing the characters to life and making the book even more enjoyable. Listening to their voices tell the story, it was easy to get lost in the book for several hours.

The Wife Upstairs was a quick and easy suspenseful story to get sucked into. The more I read, the more my curiosity grew, and I had to find out how it all ended. This was the perfect book to read while I was on vacation. I look forward to seeing what Rachel Hawkins comes up with next.



RATING: 3½ -4 OUT OF 5.