Elisa - the unreliable narrator. She's been through a trauma - although we won't know what for a while. She is married, has a son, and seems to have an amazing life.

Her brother-in-law, Josh, seems to leave a trail of dead or missing wives/fiancees. Elisa thinks he has been the reason for the deaths or disappearances. Abby, his latest who is missing, was Elisa's friend before she was involved with Josh. She takes it upon herself to investigate and things start to go a little sideways.

Throw in Josh's new girlfriend, Rachel, who may not be what she seems. Everyone thinks Elisa is paranoid and losing it.

This book was twisty and mysterious and the ending had me gasping. Did NOT see that coming!

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow & Custom House for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The main character is Elisa, a young married woman who thinks her brother-in-law Josh murdered his wife Abby (Elisa’s best friend who has been missing for months), as well as other women. Elisa tries to uncover the truth of what happened to Abby. I really enjoy domestic thrillers, and I liked the premise of this book, but this one missed the mark a bit for me. Although I was intrigued after the first few chapters, the remainder was somewhat confusing and overly-plotted. I also found that the many redundant details involving Elisa’s panic attacks, were unnecessary and made the plot line drag unnecessarily.

All in all, I found this to be a decent read. I had not read anything by Darby Kane before, but I do look forward to reading something else from her.

I love thrillers like these! Lies, manipulation, unreliable narrators, crazy schemes—this book had it all, and I devoured it.

The author did a great job developing the characters and their backstories without it slowing down the story. The whole time reading, I would go back and forth about who I thought was the unreliable character.

This book is incredibly fast-paced, with twists scattered throughout the book. I read this book in almost one sitting; I was that engaged.

I took off one star for the ending. It left me not completely satisfied; I think some will see the ending as a bit foreseeable. However, I still really enjoyed it. I cannot wait to read what the author thinks up next!

WOW. Talk about an addictive book! The Replacement Wife opens with a bang, as our protagonist Elisa is forced to sit down to the world's tensest family dinner with her brother-in-law Josh...who she's just discovered may have killed his missing fiance. And Josh's bad history with women only gets worse and worse the more Elisa digs. But Josh is popular and beloved, most of all by Elisa's own husband and son, and so the battle to uncover the truth about him means facing off against her family.

This book grabbed me in the very first page and didn't let go until the last. I had to know what happened and so I read this faster than I've read a book in a very long time, racing to see the twists and turns. Kane has not only written an immersive, wildly entertaining mystery, but she manages to capture that truly unsettling feeling of being in an argument with your partner that has gone on so long and taken so many turns that you no longer feel confident in your own mind or your own memory. Kane takes this unsettling gaslighting experience and spins a wonderfully fast-paced, complex thriller out of it.

Highly recommend this gem of a book, especially to anyone in a reading slump who's craving that can't-put-this-book-down feeling.

’ve been on and off reading this book for almost two weeks. I rarely read an ebook - so I would always forget about it. I’m a physical book reader - as much as I try - paper is still my love. What about you? 🤷🏻‍♀️

The Replacement Wife centers on Elisa, wife and mother, who was witness to a terrible tragedy the previous year. She is still suffering with trauma and feels uncertain of many things especially her brother in law. His previous wives and girlfriends have all either died or disappeared. Is Elisa imagining things or is her brother in law as evil as she thinks?😳

This book did feel very long and I can honestly say that nothing really happens - it just plods along with no gripping moments. Overall, it was not the book for me. Thank you @harpercollinsca for a copy of this book for review (coming December 2021). ⭐️⭐️

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The story focuses on Elisa, a woman who thinks her brother-in-law Josh murdered his wife Abby (who was Elisa’s best friend and who has been missing for months), as well as other women, and she tries to uncover the truth of what happened to Abby and the others. I really enjoy domestic thrillers, and I liked the premise of this book, but this one missed the mark a bit for me. Although I was intrigued after the first few chapters, the rest of the novel was somewhat confusing and overly-plotted. I also found that the many redundant details and scenes, especially those involving Elisa’s panic attacks, were unnecessary and made the plot line drag unnecessarily.

All in all, I found this to be a decent read. I had not read anything by Darby Kane before, but I do look forward to reading something else from her.

QUICK TAKE: this was actually surprisingly good. I thought Kane did a great job with a simple idea: what if you thought your brother was a serial killer, and how would you protect his new girlfriend, who you believe is in danger of becoming his next victim? Good twists, solid character relationships, funky family dynamics...here for it. Definite recommend.

After really enjoying Darby Kane's debut, Pretty Little Wife, I was super excited to follow up with The Replacement Wife!!

Kane has a unique way of twisting and turning and taking the story to places that make you question what you have just read. Although I can't say that I like this book more than Pretty Little Wife, I did really enjoy it. & I am looking forward to more by her in the future!!

Thank you to NetGalley & William Morrow for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This book had some interesting plotlines. But it fell a bit flat for me. A lot of the characters felt a bit unrealistic, the relationships between them were a bit confusing. That said I did enjoy the few plot twists that happened and I will gladly give this author another try in the future.

Review of The Replacement Wife by Darby Kane

Back to my roots with another good thriller. This was a quick read for me overall and I enjoyed it. There were many unlikeable characters and I really felt badly for the main character, Elisa. But that didn’t change my enjoyment of the book at all.

Quick synopsis: Elisa is married to Harris who is extremely close to his little brother Josh who he had a large hand in raising when their parents died. At the beginning of the novel it is revealed that Elisa has become extremely suspicious of Josh. His wife died in a terrible accident years ago and his fiancé has been missing. Elisa is even more concerned when he introduces them to yet another new girlfriend. The more she tries to investigate, the more things aren’t adding up. Strange things are happening and she is being blamed or accused of seeing things that aren’t there, or flat out lying. She cannot even convince her husband to believe her. And it turns out, as is often the case, that Josh has even more secrets than she ever imagined.

Thank you to @netgalley, @williammorrow, and @hkdimon for my advanced copy. This one is out in late December!

This is a domestic thriller that keeps you eager to get to the big reveal. Elisa is in such a crap position, suspecting her brother-in-law of multiple murders while dealing with her own PTSD from a workplace tragedy, all while juggling keeping her husband and frenetic son happy. She's confronted with her another new woman in the brother-in-law's life, and she must balance worrying FOR her and BECAUSE OF her. I was incredibly frustrated for Elisa throughout this book, which is indicative of how realistically the author laid out this story.

Not my favorite Darby Kane novel. I didn’t find the characters believable and the whole story seemed far fetched. If Josh had a history of missing girlfriends, why had nobody ever thought anything of it before? Like I said, just not believable.

Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow and Custom House for this e-ARC!

4.5 stars

“How many wives and girlfriends need to disappear before your family notices?”

This is the first book I’ve read by Darby Kane and it was filled with some crazy characters that I hated at times but also loved the intense drama between them all! I’ve never read a thriller with so much gaslighting. I enjoyed the suspense, alarming and terrifying twists, and couldn’t believe the chilling ending! This book was fast-paced and I might have read it in two days and consumed copious amounts of coffee. Highly recommend this book to all thriller lovers! Must read more by Darby Kane!

I will post my review on Instagram @thrillersandcoffee

“Josh. The man literally had women tucked away everywhere. Some dead. Some alive. Some missing. Elisa needed a scorecard because keeping track was becoming somewhat daunting.”

My thoughts exactly, Elisa! The premise of this book was completely unbelievable and the reveal even more absurd.

After surviving the shooting of her friend and colleague at work, Elisa is suffering from PTSD. However, instead of focusing on healing, she convinces herself that her brother-in-law Josh murdered his multiple wives and girlfriends. She is also followed and spied upon by a red-headed woman. Or is she? No one believes her story. Is she just paranoid? Is Josh really just a victim of bad luck and a series of unfortunate accidents?

This book was absolutely ridiculous. It was way too long and the writing was very simplistic and overly repetitive. Literally nothing new happened for hundreds of pages. Dinner after dinner with Josh and Rachel. I basically forced myself to get through this book so that I could write an honest review. I am trying to find something nice to say about this, but the only positive things were the adorable cats named Fuzz and Buzz. I am shocked that this book is by the same author who wrote Pretty Little Wife, which I really enjoyed.

Unfortunately, The Replacement Wife really missed the mark for me.

1/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow publishing for the ARC of The Replacement Wife in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this one was just okay.

I wasn’t really impressed with the characters in this book. Elisa, the main character, starts the book by accusing her brother-in-law of murdering his now missing fiancé. Her deep dives into his secrets also reveal her own traumatic past.
I had trouble buying into any of the relationships in this book. She supposedly had this excellent relationship with her brother-in-law, but was easily able to accuse him of murder. Her husband loved her so much, even though his brother was also his favorite person and she was being accusatory. I didn’t feel like the relationships made much sense in this book.

I also found Elisa to be repetitive and borderline annoying in her constant pleas for everyone to believe her.

There were some interesting plot lines, and the overall arc of the story was good. But for me, the characters were a letdown.

I did not finish this book. I just skimmed my way to the end.
The main character was unlikeable and just seemed to be making dumb decisions. I liked the Author's first book and I will try again with the next book she writes.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book for review.

Enjoyed this tense thriller, is she an unreliable narrator, due to a past trauma or are multiple people setting her up and distorting the truth. Made even worse, is that one of the main suspects is her husband's brother, who he has always protected. Will he choose him or her? maybe. Will she solve this before someone else dies? the tension builds and builds to a dramatic end

This book is a fun, quick read, but not one that I felt was going to stick with me for long. Indeed, I finished reading a couple weeks ago and had to open it up again to remember what it was about. Who were the characters again? What happened? Ohhh…right.

There are a couple of fun plot twists, and the writing itself is engaging. The first two paragraphs of Chapter Two had a strong hook and terrific premise––Elisa Wright is almost certain her brother-in-law is a murderer. He’s someone she knows and loves and her husband adores him, so maybe she’s wrong and overthinking things. Add in some questionable stuff going on with her own mental stability, and it’s just enough to carry the story through.

The story is told mostly from Elisa point of view with chapters interspersed from the villain’s POV. Kane creates just enough doubt about who is writing those bits that make the read enjoyable with the “Ha, I KNEW IT WAS X!” moment when it comes along.

There is some weakness is in the tedious nature of the protagonist’s panic attacks and medication woes and a few repetitive scenes that made me check to make sure I hadn’t back-tracked in the novel.

Elisa is married to Harris and they have a 7 year old son named Nathan. They live in a nice, quiet neighborhood and seem to have the perfect life. Harris has a younger brother, Josh, and his past is making Elisa question how well she knows him. Josh's first wife passed away, supposedly by a tragic accident, and now his fiance, who was also Elisa's good friend had gone missing. Now Josh has a new girlfriend and Elisa is suspicious. Why is Josh not concerned about his missing fiance, why does Elisa's husband not seem concerned with the fast development of his brother's relationship? What trauma is Elisa recovering from? Is it the cause of her supposed mental breakdown or something more sinister?
This was definitely a quick and interesting read, I applaud the author for keeping my attention, the end, however, was just ok. I didn't necessarily guess it, although I had a correct idea about part of it. Elisa annoyed me most of the time because she seemed to be too trusting of everyone but then would doubt everyone. She just wasn't a reliable narrator for the story and I ended up disliking her. The ending was just ok and I was left feeling like I needed more. I absolutely hated Harris throughout the entire book and he never really redeems himself. I think he probably annoyed me the most, the ending annoyed me second.
Thanks to Netgalley, William Morrow, and Custom House for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Elisa believes her brother-in-law is a murderer and she makes it her mission to prove it. Things get quite hinky and the reader honestly has no idea who to believe! I love books like that as I cannot stop reading!!! Is Josh a murderer or has Elisa lost her mind? I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.