eh this one was a miss for me. This was not a thriller. More like a family drama with an inkling of a mystery. The beginning drew you in and the ending was surprising yet satisfying. But, I was so bored in the middle and I did not like a single character. They were so boring and annoying. Didn't work for me, but I'm definitely in the minority.

I was able to get this as a ‘Read Now’ on @netgalley. Thank you to the publisher St. Martin’s Press.

First, I have to say how much I adore the author and from the note I can see this story was personally inspired by her beloved Aunt.

However, for me personally, I couldn’t get past all the trauma each character had in this book. I know that somewhat comes with the territory of this genre, but it still felt so unnecessary and unresolved.

CW: rape, alcoholism, depression, eating disorder, gaslighting, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, kleptomania.

It was a lot. Then the ending. BUT I hear it was changed in the new print copy that went for sale!

If it’s true that “we’re only as sick as our secrets,” then the sicknesses piling up in the affluent Aston family in The Younger Wife… 2.5⭐️

I will still read this author again ❤️

**4.5-stars rounded up**

Heather is a young interior designer, who upon first meeting her new client, physician, Stephen Aston, is impressed with the man's patience with his wife struggling with dementia. He treats his wife with such care, always including her in the meetings regarding the project and seeking her input, in spite of her struggles. Heather can't help but warm to the gentleman.

Stephen is also quite taken with Heather. She's young, beautiful and is always kind and open with him. Stephen's two adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, are taken aback when their father confirms to them that he is now in a relationship with Heather. What about Mom?!

Heather is younger than the two girls. She must be after Dad's money, what could they possibly have in common? Stephen pushes his daughters to get to know Heather and frankly, they're a little curious about her themselves, so they agree. That's what I will leave you with. Well, that and the fact that this is a bit of a murder mystery...

I listened to the audiobook for The Younger Wife and definitely recommend that medium. There are different narrators for the various perspectives and it made me feel like I was actually part of the action. The drama level is a bit reality television, but who doesn't love that as a bit of a guilty pleasure?

I found the drama to be completely addicting, but more than that, this story turned out to be grander than the petty squabbles I anticipated given the set-up. From the vague description of the narrative given above, you may think this will go a certain way, but Hepworth actually gave me something unexpected. I was impressed with that. Also, Hepworth loosely explores some powerful real world issues in this that I think would make it an excellent choice to read with friends, or a book group. There's definitely plenty of topics to discuss while reading this one.

Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. This is the second novel I have read from Sally Hepworth and it's definitely safe to say that I will happily pick up anything else she writes!!

So this book wasn't what I was expecting and that is a good thing. You can't predict this book and what is going to happen at the end. Sally does a great job going between the three main characters in the book and also bouncing between the present and a year ago. I enjoyed reading all three sides to this story. This book does have some good suspense and trying to figure out what is going on. This book will keep you reading until the end.

I reviewed this book all over on April 17. review below, again.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Sally Hepworth, and publisher St. Martin's Press. I have read The Younger Wife of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Sally Hepworth is an author I love, and this novel is no exception to that. I am always pleased to recommend her work to friends and family.

That said, The blending of this family was painful to watch. Steven is a very successful heart surgeon, his wife Pam is, just recently. dying in a nursing home with dementia. Their daughters Heather and Tully are both married, and Tully is the mother of two young sons, Miles and Locky.

And now Steven is marrying the interior designer he and his wife Pam hired in better days to help with furnishing their new home. Just as soon as the divorce comes through. Heather is younger than either of Steven's and Pam's daughters, an independent businesswoman and considers herself both blessed and worthy of her upcoming marriage to Steven. And in retrospect, she truly is.

Netgalley
Pub date April 5, 2022
St Martin's Press

Reviewed on April 17, 2022, at Goodreads, Netgalley, AmazonSmile, Barnes&Noble, BookBub, and Kobo.

Ah!! This book is such a wild ride!

The Younger Wife follows the stories of three women - Heather, Tully, and Rachel. The story begins at Heather‘s wedding to Stephen (Rachel and Tully’s father) and the first chapter of the book reveals that someone is injured, but the reader doesn’t know who. Then the story goes back in time one year and in alternating viewpoints, Heather, Tully, and Rachel tell the story of the year leading up to the moment in the chapel.

Marketed as a thriller, I’m not sure I would really describe it that way. This story is one that touched my heart but is ultimately a story of survival and learning to trust yourself above all else. A lot of deep issues here - abuse, alcoholism, anxiety - and I felt like Hepworth did a pretty good job at bringing these issues into the story. I did feel like there were a few minor inconsistencies, and I wish the timeline had been more consistent, but I loved the story and the characters were beautifully written.

A huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This one was phenomenal! It starts with a wedding - and something has happened. A call for a doctor and blood on a suit - and you know it must be juicy!

From there, the characters were so easy to get to know and love. Tully is a worrying wreck, having the most unrealistic high expectations of herself, she's finding unsafe ways to cope with her worry and stress. Rachel is sweet and mellow and is dealing with stress and anxiety in an equally unheatlhy way. These two women were so easy to identify with - in the times of covid and uncertainty, they were refreshing in their imperfections. The plot was so good, it made it hard to stop reading. With each new chapter, I had a new guess on what could have happened and by whom.

Until the ending. So I am going to middle of the road this one and give it 3 stars. I read the ARC, which I'm hearing is a different ending than the actual story. Since I have a feeling I know what's changed, then I would really give this one 4 stars - but since I didn't read that copy, I'm going to stay safe and do 3. If that ending stayed, I would have rated it 1 star.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. Indeed very good book

Sally Hepworth has done it again, admittedly this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year, and it did not disappoint.
Told from numerous points of view you get to know: the doctor father, his younger wife, his wife with dementia, his klepto daughter, and his daughter that hasn't dated since she was a teen for good reasons.
In her usual fashion, Hepworth has the reader questioning everything. Is the father a bad guy? Is he a good guy? Can they trust the brief glimpses of things they've seen or the person they've known their whole life?
All of the points of view are told so in depth that I never once questioned whose point of view I was in.

I really enjoyed The Good Sister by this author, so I was excited to get my hands on this book!! Sally Hepworth has become a must-read author for me!

An exceptional psychological family drama full of suspense, twists and turns and well-developed flawed characters.

Told from 3 POVs. Tully and Rachel (daughters) and Heather (soon to be much younger wife to their father Stephen).

The storyline starts at the wedding of Heather and Stephen. Those in attendance hear screams, but they are not sure what has happened! Someone is injured but as the reader, you are not sure who it is or how....and there is where the story begins. The author takes us back in time and the year leading up to this event.

The Younger Wife is a character-driven, slow-burning mystery with short chapters (which I love) and it will keep you turning the pages until the end.

If you haven’t read any Sally Hepworth books yet, this one will win you over....you will become an instant fan!

The ending leaves you with unanswered questions. Hepworth doesn’t bring everything to a conclusion, instead she lets you, as the reader, decide how it ends.

"The Younger Wife" was not my favorite of Sally Hepworth's novels. It was alright, but there were many places throughout that didn't really keep my attention that well.

When Rachel and Tully's father, esteemed heart surgeon Stephen Aston announces that he's getting remarried, it should be a happy occasion, but it's a little more complicated than that. For one thing, Stephen isn't quite divorced from Rachel and Tully's mother, Pamela. And for another, Stephen's fiancée, the beautiful and poised Heather at 34, is younger than both of Stephen's daughters. The only reason Stephen is able to pull this off is that Pamela, his wife, is in a fairly advanced stage of dementia and his care of her has been well above reproach. Who could blame him, if he's found love again? Doesn't he deserve it? Especially when everyone knows Pamela will never recover?

At least that's what Rachel and Tully tell themselves, even while they struggle in their own ways to come to terms with their father's decision. And also ... Heather, who common wisdom would dictate is more than likely a gold-digger, appears surprisingly ... normal, and even sweet. But there is undoubtedly something awry with the Alston family, and Stephen's unconventional engagement is only the least of it.

Sally Hepworth really hit this one out of the park. It's the best kind of domestic and psychological suspense---entirely believable situations and struggles and a twist that isn't so farfetched that it leaves you rolling your eyes. Even though I had the e-book galley, I listened all the way through because once I started I couldn't stop. The voice actors were pitch-perfect, conveying the quirks and personalities of all the characters so that from their tone, it wasn't difficult to understand what you were supposed to think of them. From voice alone, we realize that Rachel is steady yet tortured; and Tully somewhat of a frenetic mess. And Heather, the fiancée ... well, I can't say anything about her because that would give too much away.

I will say this: if you're not Australian, and have trouble with accents, you may struggle a little with this listening experience. The Aussie inflections are pretty strong. But if, like me, you enjoy the reminder that this is happening in a place unlike those you may be familiar with, the accents heighten that effect. Recommended.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth builds up the suspense as we learn about the complicated relationship between Stephen, his ill previous wife Pam, and his new younger love Heather. As events unfold and memories resurface, Stephen's adult daughters and Heather begin to question whether Stephen is truly as upstanding as he initially appeared.

I wanted to give Sally Hepworth's another shot. I read THE GOOD SISTER last summer and, after reading THE YOUNGER WIFE as well, have come to the conclusion that she is not the author for me. I think that the premise of this book was really interesting, it scratched the domestic thriller itch, and the ending left me questioning everything. However, I can't get over what seems to be a pattern in her writing: that neurodiversity and trauma-response behaviors are used just to further the plot. It rubs me the wrong way that these "quirks" as she seems to use them are not fully acknowledged and instead lend to the unreliability of the narrators.

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I usually am a big fan of this author, but I’m not sure what happened this time. This book got really confusing when switching from past to present. It also was a super slow build. I recommend checking out other reviews to see if this would interest you!

This is a fun psychological family drama centered around a mystery.

The book opens during the wedding of Dr. Stephen Aston, a surgeon in his sixties who is marrying a much younger woman. Aston's two adult daughters, and former wife, are all in attendance, but his ex-wife is suffering from dementia, The festivities are brought to a screeching halt when screams are heard, What has happened, and the build-up to it, is then slowly revealed.

Most of the narrative switches between Stephen's daughters Tully and his 'young fiance Heather. The struggles and traumas of these women are slowly revealed, leading up to the disastrous event at the wedding.

Although slow-burning, this is still a page-turner that should thrill fans of Sally Hepworth or domestic suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Sally Hepworth does it again with this new domestic suspense tale! The Younger Wife flowed well and kept me turning the pages. It was fast paced, suspenseful, included some twists, and the well-developed characters all had deep lying secrets that they were harboring.

It’s a perfect mix of character driven domestic suspense with a touch of psychological thriller. Highly recommended this one!

Thanks to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for my gifted physical copy + e-copy!

I am giving 3 stars because I had to keep reading. It starts out with a bang. Stephen is marrying a woman, Heather, a couple years younger than his own daughters, Rachel and Tully. He also invites his ex-wife, who has dementia to the wedding. After the ceremony in the sacristy we know someone is hurt but don't find out who so I had to keep reading.

I can't say I really liked anyone except for maybe Rachel. I understood Rachel and her trauma and why she turned to food. I did not understand Tully, why she did the things that she did and where her anxiety came from but it was intimated that it was because of Stephen's behavior. Heather also had a past trauma but all these women didn't look at the signs and believed every single thing this man sad and they were supposedly smart women. I found it all frustrating.

I'll keep reading Sally Hepworth but with each book I seem to go down a star. Hopefully she will hit one out of the park for me again.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for my copy.

THE YOUNGER WIFE is the newest novel from @sallyhepworth, who is a must-read author for me! I love how Sally writes about women. Her books fall into this genre I love of dysfunctional family stories/domestic dramas. I wouldn’t quite classify them as thrillers, but her novels are propulsive and always keep me turning the page! This story involves two sisters who are dealing with their father’s upcoming marriage to a much younger wife, on top of long family secrets finally exposed and some personal troubles of their own. If you want a fun and well-written book, pick up this one!

I'd like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was told in the point of view by three women. The two daughters, Tully and Rachel and the new young wife Heather. This story had me intrigued throughout. I was a little shocked at how all these people could have secrets for years and they not ever come to surface. It just goes to show that you really never know a person.

Heather and the daughters father, Stephen are about to get married, the only thing is, Stephen is still married to Rachel and Tully's mother who is in a home with dementia. I'm not sure how OK I would be with my father wanting to divorce my mom and marry a woman younger than me. Rachel and Tully come to think that their father is abusive and had a hand at causing their moms dementia and fear that he is now abusing Heather. Stephen ends up dead while signing his wedding certificate.

I think where I was lost was the ending. I felt like it wasn't resolved and left me guessing. I am assuming this was on purpose but I would have liked to have seen more of a concrete ending.