Dr. Stephen Aston is getting remarried, and to a woman younger than his adult daughters. But then something happens.
This is a book of secrets and dysfunctional family. And I was here for it.

The book switches perspectives at the chapter breaks. I didn't mind this. It was interesting to see each character's thoughts. While I didn't think it was incredibly suspensful, I liked the plot and pacing. And I loved to dislike several of the characters.

Content: I can't give any without giving away some of the plot. Just know that if you are a sensitive reader, this might not be the book for you.

Sally Hepworth’s domestic suspense novel, The Younger Wife, begins with the wedding of Melbourne-based heart surgeon, Stephen Aston, a man in his 60s and Heather, a 30-something interior designer. It’s a big wedding, with Stephen’s two daughters, Tully and Rachel in attendance. The groom is old enough to be the bride’s father … well it’s an old story. But wait … there’s something really odd about this wedding. Stephen’s ex-wife, Pamela, is also a guest. Stephen insists that even though Pamela and he are divorced, she should attend as she’s still family. Pamela, by the way, is living in a care home with dementia. Backstory: Heather was hired for home renovations by Stephen and Pamela when they were still married. Shortly after Stephen met Heather, he put Pamela in a care home. A month after moving Pamela into the care home, he filed for divorce and announced his upcoming marriage to Heather. Alarm bells were going off in my head with this information. And I’m not the only one. Most of the guests feel uneasy about Pamela’s presence, and this unease is proved warranted when something goes horribly wrong. …


The novel segues to a restaurant dinner organized by Stephen. He invites his daughters Tully and Rachel and, there he introduces Heather as his fiancée. Tully and Heather are floored. They are still adjusting to the relocation of their mother to a nursing home, and they had no idea their dad was even dating. Tully’s first reaction to Heather is to assume she’s going to “destroy their lives.” Rachel plays a cooler hand, but both young women struggle to adjust to the news.

Under different circumstances, Rachel might have felt pleasure at this meeting. For example, if her father had started dating someone after mum died. A nice widow named Beryl, perhaps

The story moves from Stephen’s announcement up to the wedding. While both Rachel and Tully try to adjust to the news that they are shortly to have a young stepmum, both young women face other challenges in their lives. Rachel, who runs a bakery business from her home, discovers mysterious contents in her mother’s hot water bottle. Tully, who lives in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Melbourne, faces an uncertain future. Both sisters have ‘issues;’ Rachel, who doesn’t date, has never dated, tends to eat her feelings, and Tully has picked up a nasty little habit since she was 11. Rachel, unsettled by the news of the wedding combined with the contents of the water bottle, tries to ask her mother some questions, but it’s a roll of the dice when it comes to whether or not Pamela will recognize her children. As events roll on, Rachel and Tully begin to question every thing they know about their parents.

All the characters have secrets, and all of those secrets will be uncovered by the time the book ends. The story unfolds through the voices of an (initially) unnamed woman, Heather, Tully and Rachel. The Younger Wife is a page turner. I liked the relationship between the very different sisters. Yet while this story is highly readable, I had some issues with a couple of things. 1) Tully’s husband, Sonny, makes a MAJOR mistake (no spoilers) but Tully basically shrugs and that’s that. Of course, underneath Tully’s acceptance and nonchalance, it’s NOT ok, and this is evident by her later stressed out, self-destructive behaviour. Sonny is appalled by his wife’s behaviour, and Tully waits for the lightening to fall. But wait…. Sonny isn’t called to account for his actions.

2) Another issue I had was with the character of Heather. The choices she makes after one particular incident pushed credulity over the edge. Can’t say more than that without spoilers. One’s past makes one more vulnerable in certain situations and to certain relationships, I get that, and I agree, BUT when the evidence is irrefutable … c’mon. What sort of idiot accepts PILLS after YOU KNOW what the truth is? Heather’s behaviour makes her … well either NOT a credible character or not the sharpest tool in the toolbox (yes even taking her past into consideration.) Still, in spite of these flaws, I liked the way the author showed that the ideal family is sometimes rotten to the core. It takes being inside that family to know the truth.

review copy

The book opens in the present day with an unnamed narrator. Stephen is marrying his beautiful young fiancée. In attendance are his two adult daughters and their mother, his ex-wife. She lives in a care facility as she suffers from dementia. As the wedding party goes off to sign the registry, the ex-wife goes along. The guests hear a scream, then a thud. It is not disclosed at this time who the victim is or what happened. The story then goes back to the family in the past. All the characters are quite complex, the daughters have major issues that they now need to address. It was very interesting to see how the sisters’ childhood affected their lives. All the characters have secrets in the past and it was interesting to see them unfold.

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Sally Hepworth has definitely cemented herself as one of my favorite authors. This book was just as good as the others of hers that I've read. I always enjoy her writing style and the characters. This book will be added to my summer recommendations list for anyone who is looking for a great book to read while in the beach or vacation. When I see a new title by this author I always know I'm going to enjoy it!

Rachel and Tully are the daughters of Dr Stephen Aston. Rachel, the youngest, is the baker who never dates. Tully is the organized anxious one. Heather is Stephen's new much younger fiancée whom the girls are just meeting. Pamela is Stephen's wife, suffering from dementia but still married to him. The book opens with the wedding in a crowded chapel told by a guest not named. A shot rings out. What happened?! This is a good beginning to an enjoyable story. It builds the mystery immediately then spends the book solving it. The characters are relatable and real and mostly likeable. They all have secrets and are unreliable narrators. None are perfect but they are family and appearances are important. I could relate to Rachel who stress eats in a spectacular way. The story was engaging enough to keep me reading. The ending was a little flat but it did leave me pondering. All in all I really enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book. This review is my honest opinion.

It all starts with a wedding between an older doctor and a young woman, the same age his daughter's. Then there's the ex wife in attendance, on leave from her care home, and this is all told through the eyes of another woman, identity unknown (for now). Once the vows are complete, and the wedding party disappears to sign papers, there's a loud scream and the wedding officiant returns covered in blood asking if there's a doctor in the room. This is just the prologue!! From there we go back a little ways a get the whole story told to us from the points of view of the 2 daughters, and the future/younger wife.

Definite page turner, I needed to know who was telling the truth, who was reliable, and who this other woman was. This was my first Sally Hepworth book, I really enjoyed it, and will for sure be looking for her backlist now!

The Younger Wife Is told in chapters focusing on several women. Heather is the younger wife. Rachel and Natalie (Tully) are her future stepdaughters. They are a few years older than Heather. Pam is the ex-wife who suffers from dementia. And Stephen is the husband and father who binds them all together. Then there is the semi-mysterious wedding guest. Pam has been moved into a care home because of her dementia. Shortly afterwards, Stephen announces he is dating Heather. Shortly after that, Stephen announces he is divorcing Pam because he wants to marry Heather. As the book winds along, the reader discovers that each person has secrets. But perhaps Stephen’s are the worst secrets of all.

Wow! What a ride! It starts with a wedding and then goes back a year earlier to reveal the events leading up to the wedding. It's full of family secrets that will leave you guessing until the end.

I really enjoyed the book, but I could've done without the epilogue. I get the point of it, but I don't like it. However, it won't stop me from recommending this book and reading more from Sally Hepworth.

TW: sexual assault & domestic violence

This is my third Sally Hepworth novel and unsurprisingly she remains on my pedestal of auto buy authors. Hepworth writes great suspense, and characters with such depth that you will think about long after you finish her books. The Younger Wife was a quick read that you could easily finish in one sitting. I was enjoying it so much that I downloaded the audio so that I could listen to it when I wasn’t able to read. Both formats were equally great, although I was excited about the audio when I saw that Barrie Kreinik was one of the narrators.

Thank you so much @stmartinspress for the complimentary ARC.

This was a book that did really well at accelerating the plot as the story progressed. It had me wrapped up in what felt like shorter and shorter chapters until getting to that pivotal moment that we all look for in a thriller. But, thriller didn't really happen for me. This felt more like a family drama with a side of mystery. All the characters had some sort of emotional or physical trauma. Certain addictive reactions to this trauma caused for interesting character development and kept me continuing to read. The plot twist, meh, just really didn't do it for me and seemed to be quite abrupt. The Epilogue also didn't really make sense with the what the character development should have been.

Overall, I had a good time reading it,but the story just didn't line up for me.

Family drama and secrets what more can you want? For me this book definite caught my eye but somewhere in it it fell flat. The daughters, Rachel and Tully were great and I appreciate that they were real and grew throughout the story. This book was said to be a thriller and there were some surprises but overall it was a drama. Defiantly worth a read but not something that I will pick up again.

The Younger Wife is a page turning domestic thriller that will leave you wondering what on earth you just read. This story opens with a strange wedding where the groom's very recently divorced wife (who has been suffering from dementia) is suspiciously on the scene when one of the newly married couple is killed. Only the close knit family including the groom, the bride, ex wife, daughters know what happened when screams could be heard in the front of the church far away from the prying eyes of the wedding guests. We are then introduced to each of the main characters: Stephen, the groom who is a well loved doctor, Pam who is his recently divorced wife who is suffering from dementia, Heather who is the new wife and also younger than both daughters, and Stephen and Pam's daughters Tully (who is a wife and mother at her wits end and a bit of a kleptomaniac) and Rachel who is a baker who hasn't had a relationship since she was a teenager. Everyone of these character has either a dark past or secrets they'd rather not have uncovered and one of them isn't leaving the wedding alive.

I had a great time reading this fast paced thriller that I devoured in just one day because I was incapable of taking a break because I had to know what crazy twist Sally Hepworth was going to throw next. Some of the characters I found took longer for me to like than others but as the read further they grew on me. With the help of the author's amazing writing I as questioning what was really happening and if the several narrators we're really reliable. The ending of the book had me stunned and questioning what they ended up doing after the wedding. I wish I didn't have so many questions at the end of the book because I love to carefully wrap up a mystery but the open ended conclusion was still satisfying.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital copy of this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh. I hate to write this review because I really enjoy Sally Hepworth. I loved this book until about the last 10-15 pages and then it fell apart. It's hard for me to say what I didn't like without giving things away. But I'll say this, women deserve better. I also have to add an asterisk to this review because I know that the ending changed. I sought out the changes and while I appreciate the changes that were made, I was still left with a bad taste. So my review feels hard and I wish I could go back in tile and read the book after publication, without bias.

GoodReads:
This one kept me up way too late looking to finish it.

A very readable women's fiction novel with a non-traditional mystery. Appreciate how it doesn't pretend covid doesn't exist but also doesn't dwell on it. Our lives are still our lives, after all.

Check out my full review.

*I received a free copy of this via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

Blog:
I have a soft spot for Australian psychological thrillers. This is the fourth Sally Hepworth one I’ve read. It ranks near but not quite at the top among her works for me. (My favorite being The Mother-in-Law). It’s pretty obvious early on that Heather is not the big bad, so then the main mystery remains – who is? And of course, what is Rachel’s secret? And when will everyone find out Tully’s secret?

We find out almost immediately that Tully struggles with kleptomania and that Rachel used to date but suddenly abruptly stopped. So the main issues surrounding the two sisters is when will others find out about Tully’s uncontrollable shoplifting and what exactly made Rachel stop dating. I thought the former was handled better than the latter. Tully seeks out therapy and her problems don’t disappear overnight. Rachel meets a nice guy and with him is able to overcome her trauma. That frustrated me a bit. Especially since Rachel is set up as being so strong. One can be strong and also find help in therapy. Or even in a support group structure. It shouldn’t all be on the significant other to help someone heal. So it was a little bit hit and miss for me with the two sisters.

I thought the main mystery of what was actually going on in the weird triangle of the dad, Heather, and the mom was quite well done. I especially appreciated the handling of Alzheimer’s. I do think this book falls prey to the old idea of alcoholism – that one can only have an alcohol problem if one is at rock bottom. Beating a spouse or getting delirium tremens (the shakes) when going too long without it. There are definitely characters in this book who display problems with alcohol, but the idea that the narration brushes off the idea that they might have a problem.

The structure starts with a bang – at the wedding, someone is injured, and we don’t know who. The wedding is put on hold, the police are called. We then flash back to Heather meeting the daughters and build back up to the wedding. This is a multiple point of view book. Rachel, Tully, Heather, even the mother get a turn narrating.

This book confronts the problem looming for a lot of new contemporary fiction – do we or do we not acknowledge the pandemic? This strikes a gentle balance of what to do. The characters talk about not shaking hands anymore, one character had a big career setback due to lockdowns, and another character’s marriage is a bit impacted by the work-from-home situation. No major details are mentioned (for example, masks are never discussed, no deaths from the pandemic are mentioned). I envisioned it as happening in 2021 or early 2022. Post lockdowns but not far flung future. I thought it worked fairly well.

Overall, this was a fun read with a different enough plot to keep me engaged. It was a little bit of a mixed bag, which is what kept me from loving it. I put content warnings in for this book over on Storygraph if you’re interested in those. I did wish I’d had them myself.

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A piece of Australian lit newly released this month with my cute new Anacampseros telephiastrum variegata 'Sunrise' coming into its own. You think The Younger Wife is going to be a thriller that pits women against women but some twists put them side by side. Expect the unexpected with this one. Trigger warnings below the hashtags. Thanks to NetGalley for the book. Purchase link in profile. Succulent was from Succulents Depot. Referral link in my profile for 15% off your order.

What a disappointment. I have enjoyed Sally Hepworth's books in the past and this one started out well but that ending ruined it. I had found the book really interesting and engaging and I was looking forward to recommending the book to others when I got to that horrible ending. There were some other issues I had with the book but the ending pretty much trumped them all. I will say that it would make for an interesting book discussion.

i think this is my second sally hepworth, and i really want to read more from her. i am definitely biased when it comes to australian authors/books, certain australian things will bring me so much joy that i can't help but love the book a little extra for that. i didn't love love love this one as much as the good sister, but it was still a great read and couldn't wait to see how it all played out. i found all the characters well written and the whole idea fascinating, really appreciated the whole doubt thing that i can't go too into without spoiling.
the only issue i had was this - i had the ebook and audio from netgalley (narrator was fabulous, love her!) and the ebook and audio were different. i deleted the book when finished and when i told my friend the differences, she was curious and i tried to redownload but obviously it had been changed. which is fine, but frustrating because i do think the things taken out of the ebook really added to the story. that being said, i now doubt myself that they were even different? did i make that up? (i just checked other reviews, i did not make it up, phew).

Was an OK read to me- a LOT happening in this story! I kind of fell off around 50% mark and just wanted to know what happened.

I have heard good things about Sally Hepworth’s novels but her latest is the first that I’ve read. The novel opens with the wedding of surgeon Stephen Aston to a much younger bride, Heather. At the wedding are his two daughters, both a little older than Heather, and an unlikely guest: Stephen’s ex-wife Pam who suffers from dementia. Another mystery guest narrates the wedding and an unexplained tragedy that happens right after the ceremony. Rewind back one year and we get to know all these characters and the secrets they each carry. The plot was fast moving enough to keep me interested but I don’t know if I ever felt that invested in any of the characters. It’s a good read if you like Liane Moriarty or Elin Hilderbrand, kind of the same thriller/family drama vibe.

The Younger Wife is the third Sally Hepworth book that I have had the pleasure to read and I look forward to many more. This is a family drama with a difference. There are five main characters: Stephen, a surgeon in his sixties who is married to Pam, who has dementia; Heather, a woman in her thirties, who is engaged to Stephen; Tully and Rachel, the daughters of Stephen and Pam, who are learning to face the fact that their father is marrying someone who is the same age as them. I know this sounds like a soap opera but the story develops into something that the reader will not see coming. There is a huge secret in this novel! The Younger Wife has a tight and tense plot. The characters are so well-drawn that the reader feels like they know them. The second half of the book wavers back and forth between drama and suspenseful mystery. The ending is a stunner. If you enjoy reading family dramas with a terrific cast of characters and a great deal of tension, this one is for you. Sally Hepworth has done it again. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will start by saying that apparently the ending in a finished copy was changed, I am not sure what exactly is different but the ARC ending worked for me. I actually enjoyed it very much and it fits into the puzzle.

This is a very solid domestic and family-focused book, but is it a thriller? I found this to be leaning more towards contemporary fiction for the lack of twists and turns. Looking back I had not seen one twist in the whole story. This is not a bad thing at all, it just doesn't align with the genre I was expecting.

I loved the short chapters and following 3 POVs was not difficult at all. This is a very much dysfunctional family that doesn't know how to communicate and everyone has their own secrets and drama (which the reader is aware of from the very beginning).

I liked the ending because it still left the reader with the question 'Well was he or was he not?", but there was no character development. "Everyone went to therapy and lived happily ever after" was not enough for a drama this size.

This was my first read by this author, I quite liked it and will read her other work. Thank you, NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for my honest review.