This was super fun!!! A twisty soapy thriller with a great final twist I didn’t not see coming! I loved Georgia, Erin and Brooke despite their not always good behavior haha

3.75 beach read stars

This one would make the perfect one to read at the beach this summer, entertaining enough and lots of over-the-top characters!

Brooke and Jack are new to the exclusive Presidio Terrace development. They’ve joined other wealthy couples looking for security and status. Brooke is quickly befriended by Erin and Georgia and sucked into the drama of their lives. That’s perfect because Brooke is a writer, and this is providing great content for her books.

Erin is a TV anchor and frustrated with her life and job. She’s also the head of the homeowner’s association and loves to point out what others are doing wrong.

Georgia is called the Black Widow because two of her previous husbands have met an untimely death. Now she’s about to marry Robert, husband #3. Will he have better luck?

We are treated to alternating chapters from each of these women, so we get lots of insight into the lives they are living or pretending to live.

The husbands leave a lot to be desired!

Truly a fun romp and campy, this one was a good summer read for me. I was not a good detective on this one, so it was fun to be surprised by the ending.

This is a solid beach read. I've been looking forward to reading it for awhile and it's a great one for summer! Love the drama and characters!

When we first meet Brooke, it appears that she is the “normal” one. Sure, she’s still a young trophy wife. But she is also a bestselling author who doesn’t cling to her husband’s every word. And really, the giant house her husband buys her is going to be a an amazing retreat for her to get over her writers block and write by the pool each day. Now the strange ones are the “Black Widow” and the morning show anchorwoman across the street.

But once Brooke meets them, they quickly become the 3 musketeers and Brooke quickly adapts to their lives helping plan for Georgia’s third wedding. And guess what? Hanging out with these women is enough to cure any writer’s block. But things start to go south quickly. Georgia’s fiancé goes missing and things are not as they see at all. There’s greed, cheating, deception, and it’s all happening in the nicest of neighborhoods to the pretty, young trophy wives.

The Secret Lives of Trophy Wives is a fantastic beach read. It’s a light enough read to keep one eye on the kids in the water while you read, but salacious enough that you’ll keep turning the pages. Specials thanks to Netgalley and Ballatine Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives revolves around three women whose shallow, surface-level projections of their lives as beautiful, wealthy women married to successful and moneyed men hide darker truths. It was a breezy, quick read that is compelling entertainment more than a piece that warrants any deep analysis. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot, and appreciated the multi-perspective approach—we get to approach the story through the eyes of the three main personalities mystery-writer Brooke, news anchor Erin, and soon-to-be wed "Black Widow" Georgia.

While THE SINFUL LIVES OF TROPHY WIVES is a quick and breezy read that kept me interested, the characterizations of our protagonists were fairly flat, and looking back after the fact there wasn't much substance to hold the story up. I found it to be a fun in the moment endeavor, which is probably what a lot of people are looking for in their summer reading. Miller really does hook you in from the get go, and her writing style is fast and very addictive so I did ultimately want to know what had happened based on the prologue. But I really wish that we had a little more in terms of interesting characters as opposed to well worn and overused tropes. I didn't really care about any of them when all was said and done because of how two dimensional they were, and while that can sometimes work if you have an engrossing and unique story in the end, this one wasn't too different from things we've seen before. In the moment, definitely fun. But ultimately, you could find the same idea done in more interesting ways.

THE SINFUL LIVES OF TROPHY WIVES is a fast jaunt, probably good for a travel day or some light pool reading. But we've seen a lot of it before in other stories.

Welcome to Presidio Terrace, where everyone is hiding secrets!

Brooke and her billionaire husband Jack move into the exclusive Presidio Terrace, a secure and private neighborhood. When she learns that her neighbor Georgia is a Black Widow, she instantly becomes interested in befriending her. Maybe she will be good inspiration for the new book she is writing. She also meets the quirky reporter across the street, Erin. Soon, the three women become a trio. When Georgia’s new fiancé disappears, Brooke wonders if Georgia really is killing her husbands. What happened to Robert?

This book is a dark comedic thriller that reads just like a soap opera. It will keep you turning the pages long into the night. However, I found it difficult to get behind the shallowness of the female characters, as they were all very unlikeable. The plot is overly contrived and it’s tough to justify any of the characters’ actions. I also found some inconsistencies, so I hope that the publisher will address them before it is published. The twists are somewhat predictable and unbelievable. Also, it’s surprising that two of the three trophy wives have high paying jobs. Aren’t trophy wives housewives?! I could see how this might be a good beach read, but unfortunately it fell rather flat for me.

3/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives in exchange for an honest review.

🧼 Soapy, Sudsy, and definitely CAMPY….this book wasn’t meant to be taken seriously-it’s just meant to entertain and for the MOST part, it does.

The book opens with Georgia St. Claire in the hospital-the day after an accident. The nurses don’t realize that she has regained consciousness and can overhear their conversation about how she is the “Black Widow”-a woman whose husbands just seem to die around her! Can anybody REALLY be that unlucky?

We then shift to the week prior to the accident…

Brooke Davies, a former beauty pageant contestant with a husband who is 22 years her senior, has just moved into a house in Presidio Terrace. She just wants to get back to writing her second Murder Mystery, as she is in a slump with a deadline looming, when her two new neighbors arrive and insist that she join them for Mimosas and breakfast.

Erin King is a well known news anchor who is starting to feel a bit past her prime. Her best friend, and neighbor, Georgia St. Claire is getting married this week for the THIRD time, and now this beautiful, new neighbor, Brooke has moved in. So when her co-host teases her that the lines around her eyes are showing, she walks out in a fit of rage, deciding some time off to rekindle things with her own husband, Mason, may be the solution to how she is feeling.

Georgia St. Claire has a colorful personality and a wardrobe to match. Brooke doesn’t know what to make of her, but decides that she may be just the inspiration she needs for her book-perhaps a few tweaks to the main character of her novel, loosely basing her on Georgia would liven up the narrative? As Erin and Georgia joke about the deaths of Georgia’s first two husbands, Brooke cannot decide if Ms. St. Clair is wickedly funny-or just plain WICKED.

What ensues after breakfast is definitely OTT, and I can see why other reviewers have compared this to “Desperate Housewives” ! It reminded me of that show too, and TV hasn’t offered anything this much fun, since maybe, “Devious Maids” which aired from 2013-2016.

But, while those shows kept things LIGHT, the motivations of this story were a bit DARK-and I didn’t think the story needed to go there-I had an alternate scenario in mind that would’ve worked just as well.

I received an invitation from the Publisher to read this, and would like to thank Ballantine Books for my gifted copy, provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a Candid review!

Available SOON! July 20, 2021

What do a best selling mystery writer, a local news anchor and a woman who has been dubbed ‘ the black widow’ have in common?
They are beautiful, considered trophy wives married to very rich men and they have secrets. Secrets that could get you killed.
Fast moving, with twists that are twisted, author Kristen Miller has written a book that is an entertaining thriller. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine Books for an early copy of this book. The comments and review are my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this one even though it took me awhile to get in to (I blame the fact that I'm on vacation, not the writing or the plot). I loved the twists and turns. I also thought the author put a lot of effort into planning on this was going to turn out and it shows. Well done.

When I requested the ARC of this book, The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives, I had no idea what to expect. I'd never read anything by Kristin Miller prior to this. What I found was some of what I expected, an entertaining summer-afternoon-on=the-couch read, and something I didn't, more substance than fluff. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it and offer my review.

It was well put together, moving relatively seamlessly between the three women who are the main characters, Georgia, Erin and the newcomer to the neighborhood, Brooke. Each has their own secret(s), which by the end of the book they have shared with each other and us. Did they commit some reprehensible, criminal acts? No doubt! Did they do them, as they seemed to intimate, for good reasons. I venture most of us would say, "yes". That all three would be touched by the same sort of violence and that they would become entangled in a relationship because of that violence, might be a big stretch for some readers, but with the reach and connectivity that technology afford us today, it's not completely incomprehensible. Perhaps even a wider stretch of our imaginations, means we have to be carried along with the fact that the police didn't seem able to put this all together and charge anyone with a crime.

Then again, it wouldn't be good fiction if it read like a police report or a newspaper. And good fiction it is! Thank you Net Galley and Kristin Miller for an entertaining afternoon.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fun novel with an unexpected ending.

From the outside, it looks like the wives of Presidio Terrace have it all but a closer look reveals the cracks in the facade:

Georgia St. Claire is able to laugh off her nickname “Black Widow”. Two husbands have met untimely and tragic ends and she’s cashed in both times. Her third wedding day is quickly approaching and she hopes the third time is the charm with Robert.

Erin King is a local news anchor and head of the homeowner’s association. She walks out on live TV when she finally snaps at her rude co-anchor and decides she’ll take a brief hiatus from the desk to be trophy wife to her plastic surgeon husband, Mason. Unfortunately Mason isn’t too thrilled about all of Erin’s new free time and it seems he could be hiding something—or someone—from her. It doesn’t take long for Erin to realize the network isn’t exactly begging her to return.

Mystery writer Brooke Davies is still in the extended honeymoon phase with her tech millionaire husband Jack when they purchase a home in the neighborhood… or it seems that way for appearances sake. They sleep in separate bedrooms and Brooke is struggling to find the right characters for her next novel.

Brooke is welcomed into the fold by Georgia and Erin and things quickly unravel when Georgia’s fiancee goes missing aboard his yacht on the night of their pre-wedding party. Alternating POVs reveal some surprising secrets as the three women scramble to find out what’s happened to Robert.

The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives isn’t anything groundbreaking but it is wicked, juicy, and entertaining with plenty of drama and twists that would translate well to the screen! I recommend this to readers who enjoy contemporary thrillers/suspense heavy on the soap operatic drama.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives is scheduled for release on July 20, 2021.

This is a thriller / murder mystery, despite what you might think based on the title. All of the characters are complex and they're all hiding things. I could not stop reading this because I felt compelled to find out what was really going on. I love books where I can't guess the ending before it's revealed by the author. I would definitely recommend this one.

Reflections: the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head. Now what?

Suspend your beliefs and hang on. Erin is jealous because the new neighbor is much younger and prettier; oh to be a trophy wife! We read about the sinful lives, a fancy yacht, a disappearance, threatening notes, and cocktails, lots of boozy cocktail-concoctions.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for this wild ride.

The Sinful Lives of Trophy Wives by Kristin Miller

I enjoyed the first part of the story more than the second part of it even though the second part is where the action picks up. Getting to know the three friends, new neighbor/mystery writer, Brooke, rumored Black Widow, Georgia, and famous news anchor/thorn in the side of anyone not following the community rules to the letter, Erin, was fun, especially when they were slumming it, traipsing to the local watering hole (bar) in their workout clothes. I can't compare this to Desperate Housewives because I've never seen those shows but I did get a glitzy, catty women, Dynasty/Dallas vibe.

No one seems likeable because we get to know them and if they don't have outright faults, everyone has secrets and don't appear trustworthy. Georgia has two dead husbands in four years so her upcoming wedding is met with jokes and suspicion since her last two husbands didn't live long after marrying her. Just how much does Erin know about the death of Georgia's husbands? Brooke, the most likeable of the trio, has a traumatic past and the talk of death can bring up bad memories.

Things are confusing but once we really know what has happened in the past, I lost the light hearted, aren't they cute if you like catty, wealthy, vain women feeling. I just can't excuse what goes on and can't justify things the way the characters want to justify them. I guess I'm not in the right place for enjoying what goes on, some days I can go with the flow in a book and other days I'm not having it

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

Unfortunately I did not like this book. I felt like the characters weren’t developed. It was confusing that sometimes the husband of the main character seemed mean/abusive and other times was fine. The twist at the end didn’t seem to make sense either - I feel like knowing Danny was her brother, he would have stopped the altercation when she came running into the garage. I thought it was an easy read but didn’t really fully get there for me.

The book could not have a better ending, I loved it. It is a puzzle to determine what each one of the three women is up to. Do not skip pages it’s important that you follow it all. Who is pretending and lying, who is an innocent victim. What is the story with the husbands? Enjoy all the twist and turn with a final conclusion at the end I bet it is not what you suspected all along.

If The Real Housewives, Revenge, and Dynasty had a baby together, it would be this book. And I loved every minute of it. The affairs, the deception, murder mystery, and inside the secrets of rich housewives. Sinful indeed! Don't believe everything you read in the papers or hear on the news. Especially don't trust the quiet ones!

Desperate Housewives meet The Housewives of… San Francisco? This psychological thriller was a blast to read. I went into this book not really knowing anything about it except that I loved the title and the cover.

I finished it at 2:30 AM because I couldn’t go to sleep until I finished. In one day. It was irresistible.

Brooke moves into Presidio Terrace, an upscale community, where she meets Erin, a beautiful newscaster, and Georgia, who is known as the Black Widow. All three women are stunning and rich!

And all three have secrets!

This book was seriously addicting and a quick read and I loved the interactions between the three friends.

I can’t go into the storyline because spoilers, but it was not what I expected and the twists just kept coming. This was such a fun read.

*Thanks so much to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for the advance copy!”