Another fantastic thriller by an author that is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller authors. I was immediately hooked going into this book with the prologue and I could not put this book down. I loved every tense minute, the marital drama, the children drama, all of it was tied so perfectly together. And man, the twists. There were multiple of them and sadly I didn't see any of them coming. My jaw was definitely on the floor at the amazing ending though. Perfect ending to a great thriller and I'm so glad I enjoyed this book so much!

I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Glass did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would recommend it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Such a Good Wife
By: Seraphina Nova Glass
Publisher: Harlequin - Trade Publishing
Pub Date: 8/10/21
Melanie Hale is a stay at home mom. She lives in a wealthy neighborhood with her husband, Collin and their son and daughter. Their son is autistic and Collin’s mom has moved in with them so Mel has her hands full. While trying to find some of her old self she joins a book club only to find out that they don’t really read the books. Instead she finds a writers workshop where she meets local author Luke. As they begin to spend time together their affair starts but things quickly spin out of control when Mel goes to Luke’s to break off their affair and finds him dead.
Scared and unsure what she should do she leaves and calls 911 anonymously. She spends the next few days trying to piece together what could possibly have happened but she has no idea how much worse things can get. A murder, a crooked cop and blackmail makes for a twisted story. Who really killed Luke and will Mel be able to get back control of the situation?

You might not like Melanie- who makes a number of bad choices starting with the affair- but you'll keep reading this domestic thriller to find out what happens. it's a fast paced and entertaining one, if over the top. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read for the beach or travel.

Melanie Hale is a highly flawed character. In fact, many times in the book, I not only didn’t agree with her actions, I didn’t like her. However, I think that’s what makes a great psychological thriller. Melanie made more than one mistake, but the mess she got herself into is one that became a labyrinth to try and get back out of.

As the book opens, Melanie is feeling unfulfilled in her life. She loves her husband and her two children, but her life is a never ending loop of being a housewife. Her adolescent daughter is hitting the age where she pulls away but still needs her mom. Her son is autistic and a lot of her time is devoted to helping him manage his emotions and fixations. In addition, she is the caregiver for her mother-in-law, who has early onset dementia and requires supervision and assistance.

It was easy to feel for Melanie, who regrets not having the career and experiences she could. Often, Melanie acknowledges how privileged she is. Particularly since we learn she grew up without a lot of money or options. Her husband Colin is kind and supportive. I liked that the author didn’t write Colin as a bad husband or one that was unsupportive. In fact, the times he seems a bit misguided are largely presented as a result of Mel not communicating properly rather than oversight by him.

Colin is the one who encourages Mel to attend a writing group that opened at a local bookstore. He seems to realize that she is missing her creative outlet that she had in university. Unfortunately, this suggestion leads Melanie to meet a famous and attractive romance writer named Luke. It starts with Mel being flattered by Luke’s attention, but quickly she engages in an affair. This isn’t a one-time fling, Mel spends enough time with Luke to get to know him, to become jealous when she learns he may have had a fling with another woman, and to consider leaving her life and family for him.

I loved that Seraphina Nova Glass went to those lengths with Mel and her affair. The story is narrated fully by Mel and the reader gets insight into her thoughts, feelings, and character each step of the way. Mel is consumed by Luke, and engages in a series of poor choices and mistakes. Through her narration, the reader also realizes that Mel knows this is a terrible betrayal she’s committing. She knows she is blowing up a good life and engaging in behaviors that would hurt her husband. She makes some attempts to pull herself out of it, but she doesn’t try very hard. It’s clear that Mel knows what she should do, but the more she gets away with her affair, the more she’s willing to test the limits.

The story kicks into a rapid pace when she discovers Luke’s dead body. Luke’s murder is that catalyst for the complete unraveling of her life and the lives of others in this small town. Mel is often so focused on covering up her affair that she makes poor decisions around the murder investigation and the police questioning her. To add complexity, Mel has a platonic relationship with the police officer investigating the case, and there is a whole related plot that centralizes around the two of them.

How far would you go to cover up the worst thing you’ve done? Mel grapples with this. Often it seems she’d rather risk being tried for murder than admit her affair. She gets herself into an increasingly twisted and tangled web of lies as she tries to avoid facing the consequences of her actions. Mel carries so many secrets and tells so many lies that I felt anxious on her behalf. I had no idea if and how she would find her way out of the mess she put herself in.

Such a Good Wife is the sort of book that will have you in a chokehold from start to finish. While some psychological thrillers ebb and flow, this book is on a straight incline from the first chapter to the last. The story has no room to breathe, as twists and turns crank the tension to the highest level. Dark and entertaining!

This was a decent read. I feel like it flowed well and the Authors writing kept my attention. I appreciate the Author tried to stand out from other books in this genre and I feel like she did a great job..

It’s so interesting how meeting a certain person can completely change someone’s life, and how one lie can completely spiral out of control.

This is explored in Such a Good Wife - when Melanie embarks on an affair with famous author Luke, she struggles to keep it from her family, but when he is found murdered things get a lot more complicated. The opening chapter of Such a Good Wife is brilliant, as Melanie walks through Luke’s home, discovers him dead and panics to cover her trail of even knowing him to stop her affair being made public. The book then alternates between past and present as we learn how the affair started and how the murder investigation is progressing.

Although I initially enjoyed the first chapter, I found some of the book to be a little hard going. Melanie makes some really stupid mistakes and just digs the hole in deeper with every decision she makes. This happens both in the flashback and present-day chapters and I actually found it quite cringey in places – it’s like watching a slow-motion car crash. Her husband Collin is also painted as such a lovely character that I found it quite hard to empathise with Mel at all. Something that I only really realised upon thinking back over the book to review it is that Mel’s mother in law, who has dementia and starts running off to unknown places during the day, is never really given a conclusion or is relevant to the plot in any way. I was expecting her to reveal information to the wrong person, find something she shouldn’t have done or something to be made of her escape attempts but this is never given any kind of relevance – she could have easily been written out of the story.

The plot is nicely constructed, with twists and turns well-placed throughout the book to keep you hooked. Some information is deliberately held back until a convenient point in the plot though which made it feel a little unrealistic. I did really enjoy the ending twist though and I actually didn’t see it coming straight away! You do have to suspend your disbelief for the latter part of this book though and the conclusion might be triggering for sexual assault survivors.

Overall, Such a Good Wife is a twisty tale but be prepared to be frustrated by the main character and her silly decisions! Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin – Graydon House for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @35%

I was not interested in the story and characters and decided to bail after 35%. I really need to stop picking/requesting books with "wife" in the title.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

Great book for those who are fans of domestic thrillers - will likely be recommending this to patrons that like a bit of an edge in their books.

Such a Good Wife was my first Seraphina Nova Glass novel, and it definitely won't be my last! This book is full of secrets and lies, and it was really hard to put down. The characters were interesting, and I couldn't wait to find out how things would turn out for Mel. I stayed up way too late reading this book, but it was totally worth being tired for a few days. Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin – Trade Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read and review Such a Good Wife...I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work. : )

Such a Good Wife is another book that I devoured in one day, furiously turning the pages to see what happens and who did what. Melanie Hale is living a great, somewhat privileged life in a small town just outside of New Orleans with her husband Collin, their two children, and her ailing mother-in-law. To outsiders, their lives look perfect, and they do seem like a happy family. Melanie has a full plate taking care of her teenaged daughter, an autistic son who takes a lot of attention, and keeping her mother-in-law clean, fed, and content as she lives out the last months of her life. But all this happiness comes at a cost, and Melanie gave up getting her Master’s degree and becoming a writer to live this life. Her ever supportive husband suggests that she join a writer’s group that meets at the local bookstore, and the slippery downward trajectory of her life begins there.

Melanie begins a torrid affair with a local author named Luke. She feels alive again when she’s with him, until she finds his dead body in his rented house. And that’s when the real trouble begins with lies that spiral out of control, blackmail, and even worse things. It all comes down to who knows her secret, and who’s willing to throw everything away to tell the world.

I give Such a Good Wife a four out of five. I found this book to be pretty fast paced, even when the mundane every day tasks were being performed. Melanie is a complex character, content to blend in with those around her even though she second guesses everything she does with her family and life. But then she’s forced to change to deal with her situation and do whatever she must to save her family. There were several twists that weren’t predictable, and red herrings galore. But there were also a few things that could have been fleshed out that I really wanted to know, especially regarding the mother-in-law’s behavior. The characters were quite realistic, and no one was purely good in this book–which made it that much more exciting to read. I recommend this dark domestic suspense to mystery/suspense lovers.

I hate to write this, but SUCH A GOOD WIFE didn't do it for me. I love the author and have truly enjoyed the previous books I have read. Unfortunately, this one didn't pull me in or hold my interest.

Such a Good Wife by Seraphina Nova Glass falls into the mystery/domestic suspense genres for me, and I loved that it was a little bookish as well since Mel starts going to a writer’s group. This is a pretty small part of the story though and it is really just the tipping-off point to our actual plot. I had a hard time deciding if I liked Mel as a character since, on one hand, I loved how she helped one of the characters out in the book, as well as her dedication to her son. But then of course she also starts lying to her husband and cheating on him with Luke. Even though I can't figure out how I feel about her, I do know I really enjoyed reading from her viewpoint. This is a really quick read and I found it quite suspenseful the entire time I was reading. There is the mystery of who killed Luke, as well as some things Mel is dealing with. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so just know there is plenty going on and a bit of a revenge plot as well.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by one of my favorites, Xe Sands. I thought she did an excellent job getting the emotional parts across, of which there were surprisingly quite a few, and I loved her voice for Mel. I was completely surprised by the end of the book and had no idea things would end up going the way they did. Glass did a great job of keeping me guessing and Such a Good Wife has plenty of suspense, drama, emotion, and secrets. These are all things I love having in my books, and the surprise addition of the revenge aspect made me really happy with this read! The audio isn't even 9 hours long so this is a great book if you want something you can listen to in just a few short hours, and I am sure reading it wouldn't take long either. It got off to a bit of a slower start but then became pretty pacy, so just hang in there because you don't want to miss this ending!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I greatly enjoy reading these types of books, but I honestly can't fathom how these women willingly cheat on their partners. Especially when they have been lucky enough to have a faithful partner who loves them completely. That's just me though.

Melanie loves her life. She loves her husband and her kids mean everything to her. Despite all of that she can't help but to feel unfulfilled. She contemplates stuff that she gave up when she married and had kids. So when her husband encourages her to start following her dreams she reluctantly takes him up on that offer.

What Melanie cannot foresee is the downward spiral her life is about to take. When one mistake suddenly threatens everything she holds dear are there really any limits to what one may or may not do? Melanie certainly doesn't think so.

A suspenseful and riveting story. Definitely recommend picking this one up.

Thank you for the advanced copy

This is a story about a couple Mel and Collin. Mel has cheated on Collin and her lover turns up dead.she is now trying to hide the fact she’s had an affair and that she could now be questioned by the police. Plus someone is blackmailing her.

Good read

Melanie Hale had a busy family life with a son on the spectrum and an elderly mother-in-law with dementia who was being cared at home. She gave up her own writing career to give her all to the family.

A casual meeting with an author brought on a short term sexual relationship. She couldn’t seem to help herself. But one such encounter found her entering an ajar door with her lover’s body in a pool of blood. Who could have killed him?

That was the gist of the story which sounded more exciting than it was. I wanted more suspense building up as Melanie went about investigating, as she was soon embroiled in the death as a suspect by the cops.

It was well written but at some points, I felt that the author could have used active conversation to make the emotions come alive instead of pages of narration. That diluted the suspense for me, not that it was strong to begin with.

The ending few chapters were darkly twisted, and I kind of felt that the true Mel was revealed there.

Overall a solid story where I couldn’t even begin to guess the truth and would have never dreamed up such an ending.

Such a Good Wife is excellent and twisty; the real suspense being how a character as suffocated and unhappy as Melanie, subsumed by the responsibilities of her life, has the energy or confidence to do any and everything she does in this work.
The realism in her feelings about her life and everything involved makes me feel for her- and for the author, who so adroitly describes the feeling of losing ourselves to the pressures of mother and wifehood that so many of us never, ever articulate.

This was my first book by this but I will be looking for more in the future. Good domestic thriller but I did find some parts a bit unbelievable. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

really enjoyed getting to know Melanie and trying to solve this mystery with her. The story is well done and the world was a really interesting read.

I have read this author before, so I was predisposed to pick up this book, but I really wasn’t sure what to expect as I started reading. What I got was a cross between a family drama and psych thriller with a little touch of mystery. It all worked together to make one page-turner of a read for most of the book.
With Mel, the author was successful in creating a character that many women could immediately sympathize with. I would venture to say that every mom, at one point or another, has lost their sense of self because they are so wrapped up in the rest of the family.
Mel was a well-developed character with motivations that made her sympathetic, even when she made choices that many women wouldn’t. It made for an interesting juxtaposition because I felt the reader could still disapprove of Mel’s actions while also relating to her. Strange, but effective.
The plot itself was thought out and detailed enough to keep a reader’s attention. There are a few twists, although not in the traditional sense that some people might expect, as well as some red herrings. I’m not sure if the author meant for them to be red herrings, though.
It seemed as if there was a point where the author gave up on subplots and decided to focus just on Mel and her situation. I was fine with that, but in retrospect there was an awful lot of detail in the beginning that just seemed to be pushed away or ignored in the latter part of the book.
Other parts seemed to be used more as manipulation to move the plot rather than to be of great importance. For example, Mel’s son is on the spectrum. I thought the author did a good job of making him authentic – she either did her homework or has experience with people in the same situation.
But beyond him being a tenuous connection to another main character, there didn’t seem to be much purpose to him being written that way. I guess maybe to cement the fact that Mel had a lot of stress so that she was more sympathetic? The same could be said for Collin’s mother.
In fact, now that I think about it, there were quite a few moments that seemed as if they meant more in the plot but didn’t pan out at all. The writing group, the reaction of Liz at one of the fake book club meetings, the mother’s moment of lucidity …unless I missed it, those all went nowhere. Likewise, the blackmail aspect seemed shaky – especially when other connections were made.
I do have an issue with the blurb as well. As I have mentioned before, I rarely read the full blurbs of books and if I do it’s only once. I prefer to come into a book without knowing much about it so I can discover it on my own. In this case, the blurb gives away what is arguably the biggest plot point.
I’m glad I didn’t read it before, because I would have had a different perspective on the story, and I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much. I think there has to be a way to generate interest in the story without giving away the farm.
The opening chapter sets up a major plot point – but the blurb gives that away. So, if you’ve read the blurb, there is no mystery. At least until after it occurs and things start to happen to Mel. And because the surprise was ruined, the big reveal toward the end sort of fell flat for me.
Anyway, I guess it’s a teeny gripe, but I’m sure glad that I read the book without having read the blurb.
Ultimately, this was a story about the lengths a woman may go to so she can feel whole, but also what she would do to protect her family. It’s an ongoing, inner battle that readers will probably be able to relate to, and the book shouldn’t be missed.