I was delighted to receive an ARC for The Younger Wife. I love, love, love family-based thrillers. This one pulled me in and I loved the first 90% of it.
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I felt the main characters (three women - two sisters, Rachel and Tully and their future step-mother, Heather) were relatable to some degree. They all suffered from some pretty heavy issues which clouded their adult lives. Their Dad, Stephen, is technically still married to Rachel and Tully’s mother, Pam, who has advanced dementia and lives in a LTC facility. Someone is hurt or killed in the first part of the book and you find out who late in the book. I really struggled with how the book ended.
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Please note: There are a LOT of potential triggers in this book.
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Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC. This review is my own opinion and left voluntarily.

I think The Good Sister is a more compelling story than The Younger Wife, but her style remains consistent. I find her books are like an easy drinking glass of white wine, just kick back and enjoy. She doesn’t overcomplicate plots or add unnecessary characters. The stories are small and family driven, but the character development is deep.

The Younger Wife starts with some serious wedding drama. Old ass Stephen is getting married to hot young thing Heather. His two daughters, Tully and Rachel, are none too pleased that their new step-mom is younger than them. Oh and their mom, Pam, who’s suffering from dementia is also at the wedding. When the entire crew goes to sign the registry, we hear a scream and we are left wondering what happened. Is someone dead? Did the mom lose her shit?

The book alternates between Tully, Rachel and Heather’s POVs leading up to the wedding. Each woman is suffering from a childhood trauma which slowly gets revealed.

What I loved about this book is that it examines the secrets we keep and the ones we repress. Each family has their own skeletons but only some members know where the bones are buried. It’s a family drama first with light thriller components. The chapters are short so you can burn through this one quickly.

Hepworth writes sisters so well so if you have one I think you will connect with this book on a deeper level.

I received an ARC of this book. A compelling story of family and secrets. Sometimes funny, sometimes suspenseful, I really enjoyed it and found it hard to put down.

A fantastic family drama that will keep you interested from beginning to end! This book has amazing character development and is character driven by being told flawlessly with alternating points of view. The story is very well-conceived and kept me captivated throughout. The only thing I was disappointed in was the open to interpretation ending but the journey to get to the ending was very entertaining.
This is a heavy family drama with a few surprises that you didn't see coming. It felt like a true to life drama that could happen any neighborhood. Sally Hepworth is a master at writing domestic suspense and this book is another must read for anyone who enjoys her writing.
I am grateful to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an egalley of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Twisty plot whodunnit

Honestly, I had put off reading this e-arc (thanks to the publisher and Netgalley) because I hadn't heard of the author. Well, when I started reading, I just couldn't put it down! The plot is twisty and you get totally immersed in their situations. I highly recommend this book! I will be looking into the author's backlist!

I’ve read three of Sally Hepworth’s books and have rated them all solid B’s, this one being one. She writes a solid thriller with some family drama that I get into and don’t want to put it down until I’m done. There weren’t many twists here, you knew the direction it was headed about 50% through, but I enjoyed reading the story until the end.

Sally Hepworth is quickly becoming a must read author for me. Her books are thrillers, but they also focus on family relationships that give the characters more depth. This book is no different. I loved the different perspectives from each of the characters. I would get hooked in a story line and want to keep reading until it looped back to that character, but In the meantime, I’d get hooked on another story line! This book was highly entertaining and had me guessing until the last page. I can’t wait for our patrons to get a hold of this one.

A fast-paced, could not put down a novel.

Loved the writing style, and how well-developed the characters are.

Kept me interested from beginning to end, and loved the multiple POV.

Thank you to the Publisher St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the Advanced Free Copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a great story. I really enjoyed the chapters being broken up to focus on each of the female characters. The characters were well developed with this chapter design. I also appreciated the way the wedding was broken up into bits through the book. It made the reader start to make their own assumptions without giving too much away. It was interesting to learn the personal connection of one of the books events from the acknowledgments. This will be a great recommendation for fans of psychological thrillers.

Sally Hepworth is back with a new family drama that centers around an older doctor’s relationship with a much younger woman, about the same age as his own daughters. He also happens to still be married to his daughters’ mother who has dementia.

What I liked:
I enjoyed the pacing of the story and I was quickly turning the pages! Each character, particularly the sisters, has a lot going on and are dealing with some complex issues on their own. Hepworth does a great job going from one perspective to the next. Her books are all compulsively readable, which is one reason why I always look forward to her next book!

What I didn’t like:
This wasn’t my favorite Hepworth book, as the ending really bothered me. The readers are left with unanswered questions, which I don’t take issue with. It is more of how the subject matter was handled. It’s tough to say more without giving anything away, but it did not sit well with me.

Thirty something Heather is soon to be The Younger Wife of sixty something Stephen. Stephen’s daughters, Tully and Rachel, are not happy. First, she is younger than both of them too. Worse, Stephen is still married to their mother, Pam.

Every person in the family has their issues. Pam lives in a nursing home with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Tully is a compulsive shoplifter. Tully’s husband Sonny has lost all their money in one poor investment. Rachel hasn’t been in a relationship since high school. At Heather and Stephen’s wedding, the issues come to a head.

The Younger Wife makes the reader feel infinitely better about their own life—because it has to be better than these characters. These people are a messed-up bunch! The ending surprised me so much that I read it twice. This book would make a great beach or airplane read. 4 stars!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth has put Hepworth on my list of favorite authors. I loved all the characters and felt connected with each one of them. The relationships were nuanced and complicated but more than anything, relatable. The shorter chapters made this book fly by. I’ve seen some say this is classified as a thriller but it feels more suspense to me. There isn’t something happening every second but the suspense slowly ratchets up, leading to a conclusion that I felt fit the book perfectly.

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It seems there is an air of #mystery in each of SP's books. But I personally wouldn't call it a thriller. This book starts at a wedding. This marriage is a little unconventional. The groom's ex-wife is sitting right up front with his daughters. Occasionally throughout the book it tells more and more about the wedding. Finally in the end, we find out why an ambulance has pulled up to the church.

There are 3 different POVs in this book. The chapters are very clearly marked. The new bride and the 2 soon to be stepdaughter who are the same age as the bride. The story starts at the wedding but jumps back a year to watch how lives have progressed/changed. Surprisingly, none of the POVs are the father/groom.

At one point during my reading of the book around 25% I started to loose interest. I really didn't feel like reading it. That did not happen while I read 2 of her other books. This is why I took off the point. I got back to it after reading 2 other books. I enjoyed the book a lot after coming back to it. But I did not love it like the other 2 of her books that I read.

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Tully and Rachel are taken aback when their father, Stephen, announces his engagement to the much younger Heather. After all, their father is still married to their mother! Pam isn’t much of a barrier to the marriage though- her rapidly progressing cognitive decline has rendered her incapable of living independently and it’s unclear how much of the time she is actually lucid. In a tragic turn of events, someone is injured at Heather and Stephen’s wedding- but who and why?

This story is told from multiple POVs and the time line jumps around from during Stephen and Heather’s wedding to the months leading up to the wedding. Virtually every character in this book has a tragic past and is somewhat of an unreliable narrator.

I really enjoyed this book until the ending. Unfortunately, I do think this had 5 star potential for me but the ending knocked a star off. I felt that some of the characters magically “overcame” past traumas without adequate depiction of the growth and work around that so it felt quite unbelievable as a reader.

I didn’t find the ending particularly ambiguous like some other reviewers but still disliked how the female characters were portrayed and how it cast doubt on a very serious topic that is already often not taken seriously when reported.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the advanced reading copy!

How do you feel about open-ended endings?

A 64-year-old groom, his two adult daughters, an ex-wife with dementia plus a 35-year-old bride are the main characters of the domestic drama The Younger Wife.

I read and enjoyed the last two thrillers by this author and was so excited to read this newest book. I was immediately drawn into the book from the prologue. It was a page turner filled with family secrets, childhood trauma and lies. I read the whole thing in 2 days. The story was not really a thriller but more of a drama. However, I didn't like the way the ending was handled plus was disappointed because I prefer an answer and not an open ending. The story definitely kept me engaged though.

If you enjoy dysfunctional family dramas you might want to give this one a try. Thank you to the publisher for my e copy of this book.

other great read by Sally Hepworth. Very interesting story very nicely executed. More family drama than thriller but still very enjoyable read. I enjoyed switching between this arc and the audio version. Thank you so much to publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

3.5 stars

Sally Hepworth always writes engaging stories, and I always look forward to reading them!

In The Younger Wife, sisters Rachel and Tully are dealing with the shock of finding out their father is engaged, especially since he is still married to their mother who is in a nursing home with dementia! While learning more about their father's fiance, the sisters discover some secrets from the past that cause them to question what they know about their father and family.

I would call this a domestic drama-- a genre that I have been reading and enjoying quite a bit of lately! With some elements of mystery but more focused on the family dynamics. It's a family story with a bit of tension but not a lot of thrills or chills.

I was engaged in this story from the beginning and I flew through it really quickly. And then I got to the end, which led me to feel uncertain about the whole book. I didn't love the way this story ended, and this ending is sure to be controversial among readers.

While I disliked the ending, I'm not sure that means that I disliked the whole book? I'm kind of stuck now and can't really decide what to think! For the most part I enjoyed reading it and was quickly turning pages to see where the story was going to take me. I just didn't love where the story ended up taking me or what the story implied at the end. But it definitely provided some food for thought. It would probably be an interesting one to discuss with a book club becaue I'm guessing there will be others with strong opinions about the ending as well.

Sally Hepworth does it again!

Her thrillers never fail to impress me. I dived head first into this one easily with such a stunning and shocking opening chapter. All of the characters were well-written and hard to figure out until the stunning reveal. Her books are effortless and so entertaining.

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I love so many of author Sally Hepworth’s previous novels, so I was excited for her newest release, THE YOUNGER WIFE!

I’ve found the best way to really enjoy mystery/thrillers is to read them right after an intense Historical Fiction, or pad them around a light romance, as was the case when I read this. It just makes me enjoy the suspense that much more when I’m not reading 5 of them in a row.

I flew through this story and read it in a day, alternating between the physical book, ebook, and the gifted ALC, and loved the way each format brought the story to life. The narrator

The story centers around a Father getting married to a woman younger than his two adult daughters. There were a few surprises, but the author kept things light around the dark subject matter involved.

*many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

PUB 4/5/22

I always love Sally Hepworth's stories, but The Younger Wife is my new favorite! Heart and mystery and the strength of women.