The Younger Wife follows surgeon Stephen Aston, through the eyes of the women in his life, his two daughters Tully and Rachel, as well as his much younger future bride, Heather. I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty domestic suspense! I couldn’t put it down or decide which of the characters to believe. It jumps back and forth between the wedding in the present and the three women over the course of the past year. If you enjoy psychological thrillers involving families, this one is for you!

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth was engaging and engrossing, and definitely kept me wondering. We are given a backstory of events leading up to a wedding. After many happy years together, the longtime wife of a successful surgeon has advanced dementia and is in a nursing home. The elderly - but still handsome and attractive - surgeon meets a lovely young woman, who is nearly the same age as his own adult daughters. They quickly fall in love. He makes a difficult decision to divorce his wife, and plans to marry his young now-fiancée. And here we are, now in the present, on their wedding day. What we know from the very beginning of The Younger Wife is, someone is violently attacked. But who is the culprit, who is the real victim here - and who is the ultimate villain?

I don’t like to give away twists, so this review will be spoiler free, and I’ll keep it as vague as possible. Most of the twists in this story were telegraphed and easy to work out. However, I will admit I did not see the ending coming. That is when my opinion of the book went from a perch fairly high up on a hill, to taking a nosedive to the very bottom.

My issue was the book’s last twist. Instead of finding it laudable, I felt it was infuriating and insulting to readers, particularly women who have been victims of abuse. I as a reader had been gaslit the entire book. I just felt sickened. I have read all Sally Hepworth’s previous books and enjoyed every one, but the ending was so distasteful to me that it ruined the entire book.

I know some will think that’s an overreaction to a work of fiction. However, in my view, it is dangerous to undermine the actual gaslighting that takes place so insidiously in abusive relationships. My reaction was compounded by the current climate in the US for women, the way public figures are treated when coming forward as domestic violence victims, and the strong possibility of women losing the autonomy to make decisions regarding their own reproductive organs. For this reason, I cannot rate the book well and am unsure if I would read another book by Sally Hepworth at this time.

Sally Hepworth has written another thriller about family and secrets that kept me guessing all the way through! With multiple points of view, the story is told through through the view of Tully, Rachel, and Heather. Each personality is so different that it is easy to keep track of while reading and their contributions to the story. I found myself invested in the story and each character's ARC; wanting to know how the story would play out. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

No need to read this review online Sally, I would never give you 1 or 2 stars, because I love every single word you write. Holy cow. You reeled me in with your stories several books ago and now I am a superfan reading all your backlist.

This was just fantastic. I read a ton of thrillers and I did not have this one figured out until I read the pivotal scene. I just absolutely adore the way Hepworth writes family dynamics. Wonderful job. If you haven't read anything of hers, go now and grab a book. This one is fantastic if you want to start here.

5 stars for this crazy romp that kept me guessing.

This book was very enjoyable and well written. I was able to envision every thing that was happening.

My Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐.5 / 5

A multi POV thriller about a heart surgeon Stephen Aston who is engaged to marry his interior decorator, Heather. The caveat is he is still married to current wife Pam who is currently suffering from Alzheimers. His two adult daughters Tully and Rachel are obviously suspicious of Heather’s motives and they aim to find out more about Heather’s past. The POV switches between the two daughters and Heather as well as Fiona & Pam.

The first 75% of the story is incredibly gripping and riveting despite the unlikable daughters. I could not stand Tully and her frustrating kleptomaniac tendencies, no matter how much she tried to explain her uncontrollable desires. Rachel, on the other hand, was more bearable, but the story of her past could have been explored more. Ultimately I was disappointed in the ending which could have been better. I think it tied into the author’s personal story, but for this thriller, it was a miss considering all the potential for Heather’s character.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Rating: 3/5 Stars

The Younger Wife is a family drama centered around a well-known doctor and his new younger fiancé. When Stephen lets his daughters know of his plan to remarry, he unknowingly starts unraveling the fine threads that hold his family together and lead to a suspenseful ‘did he or didn’t he’ cautionary tale of trusting your instincts and the fine line between reality and fantasy.

I struggled with this one - it took me quite a bit of time to get into the story and to figure out where Hepworth was going. Once I did, I couldn’t put the novel down, however, I found myself exceedingly frustrated with the end and felt frustrated that I had wasted as much time as I had with the book.

This is not the story you want to read if you want a plot that is wrapped up neatly in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Sally Hepworth for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a wild ride that had some twists I didn’t see coming.
The storyline flowed easily and the characters were perfectly written. I didn’t find myself getting bored or my mind drifting.
Highly suggest picking this one up.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy.

An older heart surgeon with a younger wife. His two daughters don’t know what is going on. There’s lots of stuff secrets. This was a twisty story that I found interesting and kept me guessing. Another good one from Sally Hepworth.

I'm not typically a huge fan of thrillers so I'm not the expert on this one. I did end up liking it overall and it kept me turning pages.

I finished reading this book and literally said out loud to myself, “Wait. What??!”

Is this a story of unreliable narrators? Is it purely a story of gaslighting? Is it a survivors tale? Is everyone completely crazy?

I loved, loved, loved the puzzle of this book! I loved each of their stories (the underlying addiction stories), the trauma they all had survived, and honestly truly enjoyed all the character development.

The twists and turns of this story were so well executed and I literally couldn’t put it down!!

This was a decent thriller. There weren't enough twists, turns, or twists to push it up to four stars but still enjoyable. I enjoyed the audiobook!

It was amazing, the effect a father had on a person. A father was the benchmark that told you what to expect. What to accept. And, perhaps most importantly, what to believe about yourself.

I'd watch the movie (if they made one).

Heather, the younger wife, is getting married to her dream-man. He's kind, he's got two daughters around her age and a wife with dementia that he's divorcing.

His daughters are less than thrilled, no one really knows what the mother with dementia is even understanding about the situation?

It plays out in two storylines...one where we're following the wives and daughters in the months leading up to the wedding, and one where someone dies at the wedding and the guests are all speculating about what happened. It made for a great amount of suspense.

I loved the ending. I thought it was amazing....I'm seeing a lot of people upset about it, because it's too ambiguous? I didn't find it that way. Maybe I just decided what I wanted to, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. :)

Absolutely Riveting! A 'can't put down page turner' that will have you hooked from the very first line.

QUICK TAKE: an easy, breezy domestic suspense novel about sisters struggling to connect with their father's much younger fiancee. I thought Sally did a nice job with the main narrative while giving each of the character's their own fully-fleshed out story and drama. The twist at the end wasn't unexpected, but I thought was successfully executed. I had heard an earlier draft of the book's ending was a bit more open-ended than Hepworth intended and readers took issue with it. I did not read that draft of the book and can not speak to that ending, but I have no issue recommending the finished version I was sent.

This was my first time reading a Sally Hepworth novel and I am kicking myself for not having done so sooner!

I always enjoy a multi-pov story. Typically two povs, when done well, are some of my favorite stories to dive into - but Hepworth kicked it up with three. Not going to lie, when I first realized we were going to be diving into three povs, I was concerned. To date, I haven’t seen one done well; but this was phenomenal.

The book kicks right off at a wedding turned bloody- quite literally. I found the twists and turns to be believable. Three women’s lives are turned upside down as they try to muddle through natural ups and downs in life, while something sinister is occurring just beneath the surface. Who is a target, who has been hurt, and the the possible reasons behind it all.

The ending…I loved and hated it all at once.

TW: Miscarriage, Rape, Domestic Abuse, Physical & Mental Abuse, Gaslighting, Substance Abuse.

📌 Pub Date: April 19, 2022

I was given an ARC of this story to read; but thoughts and opinions are all my own. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read this book!

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed Hepworths writing style in all of her books I’ve read but was BLOWN away by her last release, The Good Sister so I was super excited for this one!

While I still loved the writing style in The Younger Wife, it fell quite short for me. I found the storyline very predictable, and did not like the ending much. While I did see that she had changed the epilogue in the finished copy, I’ve discussed with friends who have read the finished copy of the book and I feel leaving the epilogue out altogether would have been the better option!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve enjoyed the author’s last few books, so I was looking forward to this one. I enjoyed the characters and the depth that was added by their issues they weee facing. The main story was a bit confusing and hard to follow at times. Definitely not my favorite book by Hepworth.

Rachel and Tully are given shattering news by their father. While he still cares for their mother who has declined enough to be placed in a dementia ward, their father Steven has fallen in love and plans to marry Heather-a much younger woman. Rachel and Tully are at first very disinclined to like Heather but they slowly warm up. But when Heather starts to question her experiences with her new fiancee (are they real or alcohol induced imaginings?) and Rachel and Tully hear things from their mother about their dad that cause them to wonder if the marriage wasn't so idyllic after all (is there truth there or is the dementia causing her to misremember?) they start to wonder if they really know Steven at all. What follows is a pretty wild ride that will have you waffling back and forth on what might really be going on with this family. It will also make you wonder about your own relationships and whether that promise of in both sickness and health rings true or not. I honestly had this at a 3 star read but when I read the end it left me flabbergasted enough to raise it to a well deserved four stars. More subtly suspenseful than I am used to but worth the read.

I liked the multiple POV. I must say that while I thought I had a few things figured out, I was also not sure it wasn’t going to go in a totally different direction by the end too. It definitely kept me on my toes throughout. I also enjoyed the relationship between the women in the story.

I had an issue with the way the ending was resolved. I also wish the character with dementia had been written a bit differently. I felt as she were often treated as a child and not treated as any person with a mental illness should be.

I am looking forward to reading other books by Sally Hepworth now.