His Hidden Wife is told from two different characters, that's something I like. It always feels like you get to know them better with that kind of telling. However, I had some difficulties with the plot being a little disorganized at times and I had to backtrack to read some passages again. Overall a good read, three stars.

This story primarily follows the relationship between Maya (18 years old) and her father Stephen, 12 years after the tragic death of Maya’s mother, Cheryl. Maya continues to struggle with what happened to her mother, and feels her father is hiding something from her.

There’s not really a lot I can say about the whole plot here as, for me, nothing really happened. The blurb seems to be describing an entirely different novel, and I can’t begin to connect it to what I’ve just read. In short, I feel duped in to reading this.

The story is told from alternating perspectives: Maya’s and Teresa’s, which is actually a really bizarre set up.
Maya is a difficult character to connect with, as I found her fundamentally unlikable. Not horrible, just entirely bland and an unlikely pick for narrator because she is so utterly tedious.

As for Teresa, she’s Stephen’s colleague, has her own family problems (which ultimately seem entirely irrelevant and just page filler) and ultimately brings very little to the table as far as I can see. OK, she’s involved in the “climax”, but honestly, that’s not enough of a reason to make me wade through her boring musings and side-story which is utterly unconnected to the main arc.

Overall, I found this to be a very dull, slow paced, monotonous read that I really struggled to get through. If you’re looking for something that’s going to grip you from the start, maintain your attention with a lot of twists and turns (that actually make sense), and characters who feel real, then I’m sorry to say, this book is just not going to be for you.

Exceptionally disappointed with this one as it had such great promise.

Maya lives with her psychologist dad in a large house on the cliff side where her mother died many years ago. Though she has dreams of becoming a doctor, She is afraid the leave her father who suffers from a bouts of depression. She also has no clear memories of her mother’s death. When an old friend and a new love interest of her dad’s try to persuade Maya to move on with her life, she doesn’t know who to believe. This was my first read by Wendy Clarke. Though I appreciated the writing and the plot twists I was disappointed by the lack of action and character development.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

This is a hard one for me to review as it felt strange hearing the story from two different women's point of view. There were twists and a few turns in the story and parts were I was just confused. I am not sure that I totally understand what happened to Maya and her mother and maybe that was supposed to be part of the story since this is what her father specialized in??

I guess I like clear cut answers and the plot spelled out for me at the end so this is not my favorite type of book - psychological suspense that plays with your mind and you are not sure what is real and what is not.

After seeing the two of the main characters that are supposed to be helping people with their lives - Teresa and Stephen - then finding that they are not helping themselves is kind of disappointing and again maybe that is what the author intended but I was annoyed that they were so very flawed.

Teresa seems very stalker-like when she keeps driving to Stephen's house or walking along the coast by his house. Stephen seems to have issues that all the women that he is involved with look like they could be twins...ick! I was really glad when Maya seemed to get her act together and move on with the next part of her life and not feel like she needed to babysit her father - probably the best part of the book for me.

It was a rainy day read that was not terrible but also not the best that I have read, but kept me entertained for the afternoon.

I love Wendy Clarke books; you know before you even start that it will live up to the hype for sure!

Maya has a vague memory of being found on the clifftops by her house on the day her mother died. She was only young and her father, Stephen, has spent years trying to describe her mother to her and their time together so that Maya can remember her.

When Stephen finds himself a new partner who is eerily like Maya’s mother, Maya starts to get concerned and so does Stephen’s colleague Theresa who harbours her own feelings towards him whilst trying to care for her poorly mother.

As events start to unfold, the past must be revisited, no matter how painful or scary that might be.

This book was very creepy and atmospheric which I loved; I could imagine the setting so vividly it was like being there!

“he has kept more than one secret from you…”
•
thank you to netgalley and bookouture for my gifted advanced readers copy of “his hidden wife” by wendy clarke in exchange for an honest review!
•
a long-dead wife. a widower with secrets. a new woman who mysteriously resembles his dead wife. a psychiatrist friend with her own problems at home. a constantly-lurking figure in the shadows. a daughter trying to put all the pieces together and find out what actually happened to her mother before it’s too late.
•
these characters were the ingredients for a fast-paced, creepy thriller that adds a new twist to the domestic thriller genre. it’s less about a troubled marriage and more about the twisty internal struggles and bereavements each character is dealing with. so many different aspects came into play throughout the book that i was on the edge of my seat wondering what revelation was coming next. each of the characters were actually made to be so complex in a less-than-normal amount of pages.
•
the fact that the story mainly revolves around stephen—maya’s father—but is narrated by both maya and theresa—the troubled psychiatrist—makes the mystery surrounding him and his wife’s death even more mysterious. and to top it all off, i didn’t trust any single one of the characters, not even the two narrators.
•
overall, “his hidden wife” may not be the perfect thriller, but it was a fast, fun read that left me guessing what was happening and who the real bad guy was until the last chapter…

💍💍💍💍/5

Oh my freak!! What was this book which kept me confused all through?! I kept twirling all around to get to the truth.

Maya had a great relationship with her father Steven with very few memories of her mother. Until Amy showed up. She was her father’s new girlfriend but a doppelganger of her mother. She even sang the same lullaby. Steven’s colleague Theresa had her own crush on him.

Told in dual POV of Maya and Theresa, I got completely twisted around by the author’s words. I really didn’t know whom or what to believe. Add to that, the other townsfolk added their own information to the past of Maya’s mother.

The author Wendy Clarke was a wizard who kept moving the secret farther as soon as I came close to discovering it. I turned the pages faster and faster and faster. Come on… Tell me now… But the clever minx kept me waiting till the last few pages to disclose the truth.

And it was explosive, like standing at the edge of the cliff, waiting for a freefall to happen. What a rush!!

Maya and her father, Stephen, live quietly in a house on the edge of a cliff. Maya’s mum died when she was only 6, having fallen from the cliff not far from their home. Maya possibly saw it happen but her memories of the event are very hazy.

Maya’s dad has protected her from what happened all of her life but now she is 19 she feels like she is now looking after and protecting him. He has periods of depression where his mood darkens and he locks himself away in his bedroom. She was afraid to go away to University to pursue her dream of studying medicine as she was worried what he might do, having caught him once looking at a line of pills before flushing them down the toilet.

Stephen is a psychologist and runs his own practice. Teresa works for him; she is a counsellor and has feelings for Stephen but doesn’t know how to tell him. Teresa has her own problems in her life - an abusive husband, a moody teenage son and a mother lives alone but has dementia.

After 12 years of being a widower, Amy comes into Stephens life and settles herself into the house very quickly. Maya can’t believe her eyes when she sees this woman is the image of her dead mother. With Amy’s arrival comes secrets, revelations and questions about the past.

What did happen the night Maya’s mother died?

A gripping and twisty storyline told mainly from the perspective of Maya and a second narrator of Teresa.

I could relate to Maya feeling responsible for looking after her father, being an only child myself, and having been in the same situation with my own mother I could also totally relate to Teresa’s guilt of placing her mother in a care home and the frustration of trying to have a conversation.

I did find I was disappointed with Teresa’s lack of professionalism in dealing with Maya when she came for counselling by having her own agenda.

I felt so sorry for Stephen falling head over heels so quickly for the awful Amy, and having had to bring up his daughter without a mother.

Overall a very enjoyable read!

His Hidden Wife was a twisty psychological thriller that had me guessing till the end.
Maya is eighteen, when she was six her mother tragically fell off the cliff tops that surround their house. Stephen is Mayas dad who she has stepped into the caring role for, cooking his meals and general housekeeping as well as having a carers job at the local care home. Teresa is Stephens friend and work colleague who is secretly in love with him but has a hectic home life. The book is told mainly from Mayas POV but Theresa does get some chapters as well. Mayas life takes a sudden turn when her dad brings home a girlfriend that looks exactly like her mum did. Who is this woman and will it make Mayas life better so she can leave home and go to university?
The book was a good read, I feel I didn’t get to know Maya as in-depth as I would have liked as there were a few unanswered questions of certain areas of her life. On the whole I enjoyed this and the twists and turns along the way.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

The description is intriguing but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. The book title and blurb are very misleading. The story is told from the point of view of 2 different characters but it’s like there are 2 stories being told with no indication to there connection. I liked the authors style of writing but the plot was a little disorganised and where there is a lot going on it’s just not developed enough. The storyline itself is far fetched and unbelievable. I didn’t find any of the characters endearing and the plot just lacked the twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. It wasn’t for me unfortunately.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this ARC that was published on the 4th of Feb.

I felt like trying a new author, and having read the blurb for this, liking the sound of it and having an appealing cover, I decided to give this book His Hidden Wife by Wendy Clarke a go.

I have to say that I’m pleased I took a chance with this new author, as it was a pretty gripping story from start to finish. It had me captivated throughout, wondering what would happen next and trying to figure out who was lying, who was being honest and who to trust, it was a difficult one for sure, a their were a few red herrings thrown in. I did like and was pleasantly surprised by the little revelation at the conclusion of the story, clever and almost shocking.

As for the story itself, I thought it was well written, I especially liked how the story was told from two characters, that of Theresa (Stephen’s friend/colleague) and Maya (Stephen’s daughter) as it give two very different view points as you progress through the story.

So all in all I enjoyed this and I will be reading more books by this author in the future.

Wendy Clarke explores the twisted truths and toxic secrets hidden behind closed doors in her deftly plotted and spine-chilling new domestic thriller, His Hidden Wife.

Stephen, Cheryl and their little girl Maya seemed like the perfect family. Whenever they were spotted on their evening walk on the cliffs, everybody remarked on how tight-knit and devoted they were to one another and what a beautiful family unit the three of them were. But were they really as happy as they seemed? Was there a reason why they always kept themselves to themselves? Did Cheryl simply feel so fulfilled at home that she never needed stimulation outside of her home? Did she have no need for friends because Stephen and Maya completed her? Or did the smiles and laughter mask a very sinister and dangerous undercurrent?

Shockwaves had reverberated all around the community when Cheryl had lost her life on the cliffs in a tragic accident. Everybody felt so sorry for Stephen for losing his devoted wife and their hearts broke for that beautiful little girl forced to grow up without a mother. But what really happened on that day? Was it really an accident? Was Cheryl’s death a cruel twist of fate? Or was she murdered in cold blood and pushed to her death by a dangerous enemy hiding in plain sight?

As the years went by, it seemed as if the secrets of Cheryl’s death were destined to remain dead and buried. Until Stephen found love again with Amy, a woman who seemed to be Cheryl’s doppelganger. The similarities between the two were absolutely astounding, leading many to wonder whether history was about to repeat itself in the most shocking and surprising of ways…

Wendy Clarke ramps up the tension and suspense beautifully in her latest thriller, His Hidden Wife. A nerve-twisting and deliciously twisted tale that reminded me of one of my all time favourite books – Daphne duMaurier’s Rebecca – His Hidden Wife is a brilliantly paced thriller that is so compulsively readable, readers will remain on the edge of their seats throughout.

His Hidden Wife by Wendy Clarke is one of those books that isn’t always easy to review without giving too much away. It’s a gripping and suspense filled psychological thriller that kept me guessing throughout, the dual narration increasing the tension and adding a real sense of mystery as the story progressed.

Told from the differing perspectives of Maya, who is Stephen’s daughter, and Teresa his work colleague, the story is very much a character driven one, the intrigue and suspense ramping up as long kept secrets and lies are slowly exposed. The atmospheric setting adds to the chilling sense of mystery, with the tension ratcheting up to almost breaking point as the story heads towards a shocking conclusion that I did not see coming.

As a young child of six, Maya witnessed her mother fall from the cliffs near their home. Now eighteen her world is rocked to the core once again when her father brings home Amy, a woman who looks and acts exactly the same as the mother she lost so many years before. Amy’s arrival brings the memories of the day her mother died back to the forefront of Maya’s mind, making her question everything she thought she knew about what actually happened on that fateful day.

And then we have Teresa, Stephen McKenzie’s colleague at the Wellbeing Clinic that he runs. Seeing things from both Maya and Teresa’s perspective gave the story a chilling sense of mystery and suspense that I loved. Stephen himself is something of an enigma, the women in his life taking over the narrative, slowly revealing the truth behind the secrets of the past as this dark and chilling tale drew to a close.

Full of twist, turns, shocks and surprises that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, His Hidden Wife is a thoroughly entertaining psychological thriller that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

His Hidden Wife by Wendy Clarke is a thriller with bumps, twists and turns. This book is told from Maya and Theresa's points of view.

Maya lost her mother when she was young. She has very faint memories of her mother, but believes that most of these good memories are courtesy of her father, Stephen's, stories. She believes her mother died under shady circumstances but her and her father never talk.

Maya has never left home for school, preferring to stay close to her father in his old age. Imagine her surprise when he brings home a much younger woman. A woman who looks so much like her dead mother.

Theresa works with Stephen and is stuck in a bad marriage with an unhappy teenage son. She seems to have a bit of a crush on Stephen and is also shocked to learn that Stephen is seeing someone.

Secrets abound and no one is who they seem. This book is very good and readers will want to keep turning pages to find out how these secrets will destroy the characters.

Teresa is unhappily married with a monosyllabic teenaged son and a mother with dementia. She harbours secret feelings for her colleague Stephen, a widower ready to look for love again. But his daughter Maya is devastated by the thought of her mother being replaced...
His Hidden Wife is an interesting mystery. What really happened to Maya's mum? What is the romantic history between Teresa and Stephen? There are hints that the death of Stephen's wife may not have been what Maya has been led to believe. Plus there is the almost obsessive dynamic to his relationship with Teresa although he seems oblivious to her feelings.
The book is written through two perspectives: Teresa and Maya. This gives us insights into their thoughts and feelings as well as their views on the events of the book. I felt a lot of sympathy for both women as both struggle with their current life, dreaming of change and what might have been.
Teresa has been in love with Stephen for years and hopes to escape her unhappy homelife. However, we find out from Maya's perspective that Stephen has actually found someone else. Maya has given up her chance to go to university in order to stay with her dad and feels betrayed that he has found someone to replace her mum. She is also jealous that he is getting a second chance while her life is on hold.
The uncertainty and confusion for Maya is effectively conveyed to the reader and an almost darkness permeates the book. I had plenty of guesses all of which proved wrong! The ending of the book kept me guessing with more twists up until the very last page.
His Hidden Wife was an enjoyable and engaging mystery with strong thriller elements.

This book tells the story of Maya who tragically lost her mother as a young child and although she was there at the time she has no recollection of it or of her mother. Her father has always protected her but now she is older she wants answers. Her father suffers from dark moods and migraines and
Maya is protective of him putting off going to Uni so he is not on his own.

Then her father announces a new woman in his life who looks like his dead wife and he has a work colleague who is besotted with him and wants him for herself.

Throw in a spooky house on a cliff top where the mother died.

Will Maya find out the truth about her Mother or is she better off not knowing?

Thank you to Net Galley for my advance copy of this book.

I found this book to be gripping from the start with lots of twists along the way. The details of false memories I found fascinating, and I loved the ending. Very fitting!
A great book which I highly recommend

Everyone in town said it was a mercy that she remembered so little. But there are some things Maya has never forgotten: that her mother was beautiful and kind, and she loved Maya very much. It’s what her father Stephen always tells her, about his perfect wife.

Years later, Maya still lives with her father in their cliffside home. Thankful for all the sacrifices he has made for her, she never pushes to find out what happened the night he lost the woman he loved. Even when she hears the whispers in town about him, and what they say he’s done.

But then Stephen introduces Maya to his new girlfriend Amy, and Maya starts to feel uneasy. With her soft dark hair and big blue eyes, Amy looks just like Maya’s mother. The more time they spend together the more Maya notices just how similar they are. And the tune Amy hums whilst cleaning the dishes is the same lullaby Maya’s mother sang to her when she was a little girl…

I have enjoyed all of Wendy's previous books and this one did not disappoint. It was full of twists and turns and an overall great novel.

My type of read! Compelling without the need to resort to anything graphic and gruesome. I prefer my psychological thrillers to be more about what isn't said, than what is, and to allow me to craft pictures in my mind's eye rather than having gore paraded unceremoniously before my timid eyes. His Hidden Wife is the perfect example of what I like. Set in Dorset, an area I have visited and love to spend time in, with the sinister backdrop of sea and cliff edge, and with characters I thought I knew but was deliciously delighted to find out I didn't!
The opening set my mind racing to understand, and my pulse quickened, knowing there would be answers hidden somewhere but that I would be led perilously close to the edge of The Wrong Path. I love getting lost in a read!
Maya is almost 19 and she lives in Crewl House with her cognitive behaviour therapist Dad Stephen. She has given up any future studying medicine in order to protect her Dad and herself from very painful memories. For when Maya was just 6 years old her Mum died, falling from the cliff edge their house is so near to.
Running alongside this complex father daughter relationship is the dynamics between Stephen and his colleague at the Wellbeing Clinic, Teresa. She has her own family challenges dealing with a very moody teenage son, no longer in love with Gary, Dale's stepfather, and struggling to manage her Mum's dementia.
Cue Amy, and the cast is complete, and readers are set on course for a choppy ride!
I loved the concept of memory, false memories, recovered memories, trauma, failing memories and the ethics of hypnotherapy, adding an interesting depth to the storyline.
How far are any of us prepared to go in order to protect the ones we love?
I highly recommend this book to readers everywhere!
Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Ms Clarke's latest. Hurry up with the next please!

Thanks net galley and Wendy Clarke for giving me an early copy of this great story.
I really enjoyed reading about the characters in this book, they all had something to say.
Maya’s mother died when she was six, and as she was growing up Maya always felt that things her father kept telling her did not feel right.
Then Amy came into her fathers life, and Maya was not happy that she was taking her father away from her.
Amy was great at the beginning and Maya got to like her, until she started telling Maya things about her father and put doubts into her mind what her father might have done to her mother.
Great story thanks.