If I didn't know better, I would have thought this was a debut novel by an inexperienced author. It was boring to me, took me forever to get through it because I just wasn't that interested and now after reading the ending I wish I would have skipped this one all together. It was riddled with typos but I'm assuming those will be fixed in the published copy I hope. However I wish authors took time to edit their books for the advanced readers as well. The book is slow to get into for me and just really don't hold my interest. It really kind of left me wondering exactly what happened and what the story was.
I kind of feel like I've been fooled like so many of the characters in the book. Thank you to Netgalley, author and publisher for the free advanced copy. I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

I was so excited to read this ARC is return for an honest review, because I really enjoyed Hepworth''s last book "The Good Sister". The main character was so lovable and the story kept me in suspense, but also made me laugh.

The Younger Wife is marketed as a domestic thriller. However, not much in this book was thrilling and the characters were dark and troubled. Starting the book with a sneak preview of what we will see happening in the end, the book bounces between 3 female perspectives on the upcoming marriage of a man with 2 adult daughters and a woman who is younger than his children. Gas lighting and drama occurs throughout the book until it gets to one of the worst endings I have ever read. I honestly feel like I wasted my time.

This book was very easy to get into for me. I immediately wanted to know who was “down” and what happened although my assumption of who was correct. The premise of the younger wife was relatable as my dads wife is significantly younger than him, but we get along quite well just as the girls did with Heather in the book. The girls each had their own anxiety and conditions which were interesting to read about. I enjoyed the different character POV and found it easy to transition between them. The last chapter was where you got the biggest twist and it really brought the book together. I love reading books by this author and can’t wait to read more.

Thanks to Sally Hepworth for another great domestic thriller. This story is told in a multiple perspective style of writing. Each chapter is told by one of these four....Heather, Stephen Aston's fiancée, the future new and younger wife; Tully, Stephen's youngest daughter; Rachel, Stephen's older daughter; and another woman who remains anonymous until further on in the story. The plot is typical to a domestic thriller, however there were so many secrets that were unveiled as the story progressed that it kept me reading way past my bedtime because I had to know what happened next. I think the characters were well developed and well told.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Sally Hepworth for allowing me to read this arc version in exchange for this honest review.

This book just didn’t sit well with me. I am a huge Sally Hepworth fan, but I just felt myself rolling my eyes a lot while reading her latest. It might have been due to the fact that every single woman in the story had some sort of issue. There were 2 wives and 2 adult daughters and every single one of them had a drinking problem or an eating disorder or a compulsion to steal…and it just felt like overkill. I think I might have been able to overlook the obvious stereotyping if it was just one of the women who had a mental illness, but not every single one of them. Then there was the ending. I was not a fan. I understand that the ending was changed in the final released version, and I am reading the advanced reader copy so I can only hope that it is improved.

Loved the characters; each was very unique. I found the book engaging and hard to put down. I was expecting a big POW! reveal at the end, but instead Hepworth casually gives us some information and leaves us to stew and wonder. Initially I was annoyed that I wasn't plainly told what kind of person Stephen was, but as I keep thinking about the ending, I think it was very effective and frankly maybe a little better than that big POW we've come to expect. It's made me keep thinking about the book as I try to decide for myself what was really going on.

Who doesn't like a story about the younger new stepmother trying to fit in a family where she's the same age as the daughter's? Oh, and did we mention the former wife is still alive AND married to dear old dad? Dementia is a convenient excuse for a divorce, isn't it.

Too bad this book was a total dud. I tried. I really did. But it had a really hard time holding my interest. And that ending... ugh. Pass.

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

I just reviewed The Younger Wife By Sally Hepworth

Father and heart surgeon Stephen is excited for his two daughters to meet the woman he is going to marry. Interior designer Heather who came to help remodel his home… for his wife.
Pam, who has advanced dementia, ends up moving into an assisted living home as Heather moves into their marital home.
Tully and Rachel are blind sided at the “meet the girlfriend lunch” and do not take kindly to this woman, who is younger than the pair, coming and taking their rich father away from their sick mother but Tully and Rachel both have their own problems and their mother…. During her states of lucidity has sinister things to say about the girl's father which only intensifies when Rachel finds a large amount of money hidden in a hot water bottle belonging to their mother.
Is what their mother says about their father true or just the ravings of a lady who doesn’t remember fact from fiction? Or is Heather a gold digger who moved in on a happily married man? Can they find out before it is too late to stop the wedding?

I have been so spoiled lately with how good the books I’ve been reading have been and this one definitely had me hooked from the beginning.
Every single character has a problem or 2 in their own lives and it was thrilling to watch them grapple with their own demons while they try to separate fact from fiction when it comes to their parents.

I didn’t much care for Tully at first but the more I learned about her the more I found myself softening to her. The role of being a mother with her severe anxiety must be a challenge that leads her to getting up to things she shouldn’t. I totally get it.
Rachel I found quite lovely and I knew right from the get go why she was the way she was, the author doesn’t reveal the secret about her until over half way and you get a real understanding of her by then. The sister dynamic flexes and adapts as the book progresses and I really enjoyed seeing the women mend that fence.

You don’t learn what is really going on with Stephen and Heather until the very end of the book and I was shocked I didn’t guess it. It was a pleasant twist. While this book doesn’t have intense twists, the twists it does have are subtle but intriguing. It made for a well paced but with a slow burn thriller that I found riveting and crushed in 4 hours.

If you enjoy a well written and fantastically well thought out book then this beauty is the book for you. 4.5 stars

Available to buy now! Thank you Netgalley and St martin's press for my free ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had higher hopes for this book but I got tired of Stephen manipulating his ex-wife, daughters and new younger wife. Why didn't anybody figure this out and step up to him. I still don't get why an ex-wife with Alzheimers would be invited to the wedding with the younger new wife. And the water bottle thing-where did that just come from? Very random, Now I just read that the author included some more material at the end that wasn't in the ARC s that changes the ending quite a bit so I do not think I should comment further. I'll have to reread the last chapter when I am in a bookstore.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book and my honest review.

Sally Hepworth does it again! I love questioning everything about everyone in a book and The Younger Wife made me feel like I could trust no one! I really enjoyed the changing POV's so we could see what was going on from each woman's perspective. Hepworth covers some seriously heavy topics in this book, but she did so very well.

I will say that the ending left way too many questions unanswered and I didn't feel like it was wrapped up well. I needed more and I needed a conclusion to it. I also felt like there were bits to the story that didn't need to be there, but I think maybe they were added in to throw you off a trail? I'm not sure, but that's why this wasn't a full five star for me.

The Younger Wife has been a huge hit at the library, for good reason. Hepworth does a great job developing characters that you dislike at the beginning, and cheer on by the end.

Now on to Sally Hepworth’s @sallyhepworth newest release, The Younger Wife 💛. If audiobooks are your thing, that’s the way to do this one. Narrated by Barrie Kreinik, Caroline Lee, Jessica Douglas-Henry, and Zoe Carides, The Younger Wife is perfect for audio. The already flawless dialogue is only enhanced by these talented narrators, and the plot unravels at a just-right pace, building the suspense and revealing secrets right up until the final dramatic end.

Thanks to @macmillan.audio for my early audio and to @stmartinspress for my early print copy. Either way you binge The Younger Wife, I hope you love it as much as I did!

Link to 4/25/2022 Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/girl_loves_dogs_books_wine/

But I squeezed a book in on the last day! On the flight home - at the airport, during take off and landing when laptops weren’t allowed and while waiting for the super slow airplane wifi to process my edits and open emails, I read a book!! And I loved it. The Younger Wife by one of my favorites authors, @sallyhepworth . This is the juicy psychological thriller about 2 sisters, their mother with early dementia and their father’s much younger second wife. With different POVs revealing traumatizing pasts, emotional issues and mental health struggles, this book was captivating from the very first page. The characters had layers upon layers and were so complicated and so well developed. And the suspense was palpable with little red herrings tossed out along the way keeping me guessing until the very last line. Oooo, I loved this book.

This upper class family appears to have their act all together but there is a lot going on with each member of this family. Dr. Stephen Aston is engaged to woman as young as his daughters but he needs to divorce his current wife with dementia. Rachel and Tully both have some serious secrets in their personal life and now they have to welcome their father's new bride. And, his new bride, Heather, also have a secret past that might threaten her current relationship.
The Younger Wife began with a good suspense feel to it. Someone has been murdered but the question is, who did it? Then the author takes us back to the pasts of all the family members in order for us to understand how they ended up with someone dead. I have to admit, there were many parts that kept me interested. I loved the build. I really did. Each character was seriously flawed and the storyline with the mother's dementia had me glued. But when I got to the ending, there were still unresolved issues that left me somewhat unfulfilled. I get that in life there are many things that are not answered and things we might never know, but when it comes to a story, I do think it could have been wrapped up tightly. However, most of the main storylines with the daughters were wrapped up. I found it great but I think if there weren't some loose strings at the end, it would have made it more satisfying.
I would still read more from this author. I think her premise and ideas are creative and I have read another book from her before.
Thank you #Netgalley for this read.

I mean..come on..it’s Sally Hepworth, need I say more? the writing was incredible and the plot was something that you could find comfortable as you get lost into the darkness of it all. A perfect rainy day read.

You can always trust Sally Hepworth to provide a solid domestic suspense story, bringing in all the faults and flaws of otherwise ordinary people. The Younger Wife centers on the Ashton family, patriarch Stephen, his daughters Rachel and Natalie, his ex-wife Pam, and his new soon-to-be bride Heather. Sounds pretty straight-forward, right? Except Pam has advanced dementia, Rachel is struggling with an eating disorder that reflects a childhood trauma, Natalie, or Tully as the family calls her, is in jeopardy of being picked up by the police, and Heather is basically the same age as Stephen's daughters. Oh, and maybe Stephen's smooth facade is hiding darker secrets.

This book has a lot going on in it. I had seen early reviews with negative comments about the ending in the ARC that had been changed in the final copy, so I waited for a finished copy before providing a review. And this ending was satisfying. However, I was not enamored of the portrayal of the women in this story. The abuse that two of the characters experienced was strongly downplayed, and portrayed as something that they questioned, "did this really happen to me? I must be imaging in it". Additionally, the heavy reliance on mental health issues as plot points and twists made me uncomfortable. As a mental health professional, I am always disappointed when mental health diagnoses are bantered around as plot points, and not dealt with in a respectful manner. To have women dealing with sexual and physical abuse, kleptomania, addictions concerns, and dementia, but have the men being portrayed as perfect, virile and filled with confidence was upsetting

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest review. 2.75 stars rounded up.

I am such a huge fan of Sally Hepworth, and this book did not disappoint. Hepworth always delivers great character development, a fast pace plot, and unexpected twists. I did not see the ending coming at all! I loved it and highly recommend to anyone who is a Sally Hepworth fan!

This thriller follows the story of Steven Aston as he marries his new younger second wife. His adult daughters are not thrilled with the arrangement and his ex-wife, who had dimentia, is still in the picture. The book starts with the wedding, and it's clear that something ominous occurred and the book weaves between the wedding and the events leading up to it. It's a quick-paced, entertaining, read. 3.5 stars. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC

This book had so much potential. Upon reading the synopsis, I was immediately intrigued. A good family drama, with some secrets, mystery and thrills, sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately, for me, this book fell flat.

The story follows 2 sisters, Tully and Rachel. Their father, Stephen, has taken up with a woman who is younger than the both of them and they have just announced they are engaged to be married. Tully and Rachel find many problems with this, but at the top of the list is the fact that he is still married to their mother, Pam. Pam is sadly suffering from dementia and is living in a care facility. As the story progresses, secrets begin to unravel, accusations begin to form and everyone is seeking to uncover the truth.

I had several issues with this book. First and foremost, the fact that all of the women in this story are portrayed as crazy and delusional women who have in essence fabricated and overreacted to everything. It was a bit over the top for me. Aside from the main plot line, each woman had their own issues (drinking, kleptomaniac, etc.), while all the male characters were devoid of any. The characters were hard to connect with and I felt myself having to push myself to continue to read on at times. This was also marketed as a thriller, and I did not find this to be so. The ending was extremely underwhelming and disappointing. All in all, a miss for me.

Thank you to NetGalley + St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my personal review.

I’ve loved all ofSally Hepworth’s books that I’ve read so far and was excited to read this one. I enjoyed it and finished it in two days. It was a little more predictable than some of her others but I still enjoyed it.