Two sister…. A younger step mom … a mother with dementia … a wedding gone wrong …gaslighting …

✔️ told from the perspective of two sisters - Tully and Rachel - and their father’s much younger fiancé - Heather - this is a story about abuse, gaslighting and a family that is coming apart at the seams - and definitely not what I was expecting - in a good way!
✔️ my favourite character was definitely Rachael …and then Heather …Tully was a little bit too much at times
✔️ the ending is not as clear cut as some readers may like, but I definitely did !

There’s a lot to unpack here friends. A. LOT. I binge read The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth in one sitting into the hour not quite night but not quite morning. Time your reading start carefully, you will not put this down. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around what happened.
In post Covid Australia a seemingly idyllic family is anything but when you get past the money, manners, misdirection, and malfunctioning relationships. Patriarch Stephen is a respected doctor, father of two grown daughters who revere him, doting grandfather, whose wife is suffering from dementia. Stephen announced his engagement to girlfriend, Heather, at a meet and greet lunch with daughters, Rachel and Tully. Torn between loyalty to their mother and wanting to please their father the sisters are further conflicted by unnamed and unresolved childhood traumas. As they bond with Heather a question arises about Stephen, one that not only jeopardizes the upcoming wedding but the entire foundation of their family.
This is my first book by Sally Hepworth so I had no idea what to expect. It is a carefully woven psychological suspense with several threads going in different directions. We don’t know what’s going to connect where, how important something is going to be, if another thread is going to be introduced and woven in to fill in a gap and tying together seemingly unrelated areas until you give it a little tug at the end. Usually an ambiguous ending bothers me, and this did at first, less so now. I’m inclined to go back and revisit parts to see if I can connect more, always an excellent sign.
I recommend for readers and bookclubs who enjoy psychological suspense, also for buddy reads. There’s so much to discuss in this one.

TW: This is a book best gone in cold but if you have sensitivity to content navigating sexual assault, miscarriage, or physical and psychological abuse then due diligence is suggested.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. All opinions are my own.

Enjoyed this book immensely. The character development is brilliant. The story is presented with multiple points of view and very mysterious. The twist in the tale is good, and there is enough suspense to keep you engaged right till the end.

It took me about 25% to get into this book but once I did I couldn’t stop. I finished it in a few hours. There is something really endearing about Tully and Rachel is just so strong. You pretty quickly realize that it is impossible to tell who you can trust and who you cannot. The chapters alternate between the two sisters and the very young soon-to-be wife of their father. There were so many chapters that ended with me needing to know what happened next and by the time it got back to that narrator something else had happened to distract me. This book is packed full of tidbits that will have you racing to figure out how they play into the story.

Sally Hepworth's latest novel is The Younger Wife. This story is mostly told by three different voices, Tully, Rachel, and Heather. Although Heather is around the same age as Tully and Rachel she is about to become their step-mother. The story begins at the wedding and then takes us back in time to show the reader how the characters arrived there. Sometimes it's a bumpy ride. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy to review.

Rachel and Tully are adult sisters who both live with an unspoken trauma that causes them to act out in ways that they cannot explain. They also cannot explain the reason that they have this trauma when they had such a seemingly good childhood. Their mother, Pamela, is in the nursing home with dementia and their father, Stephen, introduces them to Heather, his new fiance that is their own age. The three of them begin to pick up clues that Stephen is not all that he seems to be and that by diving into this mystery, they can also begin to understand their own lives and choices.

I like Hepworth's writing style and the fast-pace with which her books unfold. I found the characters in this one a little harder to connect with, but perhaps because they all held such deep seated trauma that they needed more time and attention than a short chapter could give them in the rotation. The book was entertaining enough that I read it in less than a day, but I cannot say I really liked it so much. I especially did not like the ending, which made me review the entire book in a different light, which may have been the point! To each their own.

This is the second book I’ve read by Sally Hepworth and she has a talent for creating intricately woven family stories. Told through several different perspectives, The Younger Wife, starts at the wedding of Stephen Aston, a well to do cardiologist, and Heather Wisher, a much younger interior designer. The age difference isn’t the only unusual thing about their wedding; his former wife Pamela, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia is also in attendance and a big commotion happens just after the ceremony. The story of Stephen and Heather’s courtship unfolds through Heather’s & his daughter’s perspectives. I love that post pandemic Australia was the setting of this novel. The details for the characters and settings were fascinating as the story unfolded. This story read like a TV series I wanted to binge, I couldn’t put it down.

My first Sally Hepworth novel and I'm impressed with her writing. However I've been pondering with a 3.5 or 4 star rating. I enjoyed the story but felt I needed more closure with some of the characters (and perhaps more story too.) I still have a lot of questions.

It's an intriguing start. There's a wedding taking place and all of a sudden someone has died! The story then goes back in time and we learn the stories of the bride, Heather (who is the much younger wife of the groom, Stephen who is in his 60's,) and his daughter's Rachel and Natalie (Tully.)

It's an entertaining book and I really enjoyed Sally Hepworth's style of writing. Her author's notes on how she came about the idea for this story is sweet. I was not crazy about the ending but I'm rating this a full 4 stars as I was fully engaged throughout the novel.

Two sisters suspect foul play when their father falls in love with a much younger woman and announces their engagement. As the sisters get to know the woman, they grapple with the lurking sense that their father may be someone they don’t recognize. Author Sally Hepworth returns with family secrets and dynamic relationships in her best novel yet, The Younger Wife.

Rachel Aston doesn’t date. At all. Her family has known this for years, and they’ve long since accepted her decision. In theory, Rachel doesn’t bat an eye at anyone else dating, but when that “anyone else” is her father she struggles to support his decision.

Her big sister, Tully, certainly landed the jackpot in the dating game. Tully’s husband is a big-time lawyer practically minting money. Rachel doesn’t begrudge Tully the money and the easy lifestyle. She just wishes that her sister would get a clue about how real people live.

Tully doesn’t have time for real people. She’s dealing with her own issues, one of which is a major hit to her husband’s job. No one knows it yet, but Tully’s life is about to downsize in a major way. That’s why her secret compulsion to steal has come back. Really, it’s the stress. Between motherhood to two energic boys, the financial implosion of life, and her father’s news that he’s seeing someone, the world should be grateful that all Tully does is swipe the occasional lipstick or candle. At least she doesn’t eat her feelings the way Rachel does.

When Rachel and Tully’s father, Stephen, invites them to lunch to meet the new girlfriend, both daughters want to hate her. She’s younger than Rachel, and their father is a well-renowned heart surgeon and the bank balance to prove it. What else could this Heather woman want? Surely she doesn’t expect them to believe she actually loves their father. Yet that’s exactly what Heather turns out to be: a young woman enamored with a man who just happens to be much older.

Heather realizes how complicated the situation is. Stephen’s current wife, Pamela, is still alive, albeit living in an assisted living facility for patients with dementia and memory loss. Even so, Heather wants everything to be aboveboard and makes every effort she can to be a partner to Stephen without replacing anyone in his life. Yet the longer she spends as Stephen’s fiancée and the more she gets to know the people around him, the more she realizes that something about Stephen seems suspiciously familiar.

As Rachel, Tully, and Heather deal with their own secrets and personal challenges, they discover unsettling truths about one another and themselves. Situations they understood one way start to take on new meaning as they dig deeper for answers that are hard to consider and even harder to accept. The women all realize that if they don’t act soon, life they know it may become a hazard for one or all three of them—in the most literal sense.

Author Sally Hepworth settles once again into the groove of complicated family relationships, the secrets loved ones keep, and how the ties that bind people together often chafe. Every single character is well-rounded, flawed, and yet also unafraid to speak their truth. Instead of using red herrings, Hepworth allows her characters to get themselves into even bigger messes with their honesty.

Hepworth also takes on a much larger task at hand: the careful examination of how people manipulate society’s expectations to get away with despicable acts. Through her female characters and what they endure, Hepworth lays bare just how hard it is for a person to be held accountable when they fit within a certain idea. The stress that Rachel, Tully, Heather, and even Pamela experience is real and heartbreaking. Anyone in a similar situation can certainly relate; in fact the novel may be difficult for those readers and yet cathartic all at the same time.

The ending, too, will leave readers in a thoughtful mood, considering everything the family has endured and what that says about them and society as a whole. Those wanting a compelling read that touches on several topics and does so in a masterful way will certainly want to read this book.

My first instinct after finishing this book was to give 4 stars instead of the 5 I thought I was going to give it. Why? Because the ending let me down a little bit. It wasn't major, but I was hoping for a neat little bow and I didn't get that. After sleeping on it, however, I felt I needed to give this the 5 stars it deserves.

No, it's not the greatest literary work of all time. However, the writing flowed like butter and I didn't want to put down the book. For me, that's all I need to rate this a 5.

There are tough moments, tender moments, funny moments. The characters are flawed and extremely likeable.

In the end, I think the ending was quite fitting.

A great whodunit from Sally Hepworth. Pam and Stephen are married and parents to Tully and Rachel. Heather is a interior designer that is hired to redesign Pam and Stephen's house. Pam has early dementia and it progresses enough that Stephen will place her in a nice assisted home. Tully and Rachel have throw back problems from their childhood and the problems come to light in backlash of placing Pam in the home. Heather has background problems from her childhood also. In working together Heather and Stephen fall in love. While reading this story I was interested in the characters and the plot. I enjoyed the story and I think anyone that picks it up will enjoy it also.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sally Hepworth for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Heather and Stephen are getting married! Stephen is a doctor and Heather is a young interior designer he met while renovating his house with his wife, Pam, who has dementia. Stephen ends up falling in love with Heather and marrying her while Pam is still alive. This brings some drama with his two daughters, Tully and Rachel. Both Tully and Rachel have their own secrets and issues. When after the wedding there is an unseen problem will they all live happily ever after?

This was listed as a thriller/mystery but was more of a domestic drama. There really was no crazy plot twist no lead up of whodunit or what even was the "shock". I felt like none of the characters were flushed out. They all felt very flat and not particularly likeable. Unfortunately to me this felt like a beginner author not someone whose had several published works. This is my second book by Sally Hepworth that I've read and it was a disappointment to me. Unfortunately she is just not my cup of tea.

I have been a huge Sally Hepworth fan for quite some time. I recommend The Family Next Door, The Good Sister and The Mother In Law to everyone and now I can add this title to my recommendation list. This was such a great thriller because it was a fun ride to get there in the end and it totally held my interest.

I have read several of this author's books and have really enjoyed them all. They end up taking a turn you don't expect, but they aren't necessarily thrillers...more like domestic dramas. In this book, Tully and Rachel meet their Dads new fiance who is their age...even though their mother is still married to him, but she has dementia. It is told in various points of view and keeps the suspense/drama going. If you like this authors other books, you will enjoy this one!

What a great book! I loved this! The place was just right and the multiple POVs blended perfectly. The ending couldn't have been any more amazing! I highly recommend this book.

Sally Hepworth. You know what you've signed up for [and I willingly did].

This is the blurb that enticed me to read the book:

"Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem is, he's still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he'll take care of that easily, by divorcing her--even if his adult daughters protest.

Tully and Rachel Aston look upon Heather as nothing but an interloper. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she's a golddigger and after their father's money. Heather has secrets that she's keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen.

With their mother unable to speak for herself, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family's secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is. But will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses...in all of them?"

I think the blurb is very misleading save for the first -- and last sentences.

Note: this is a page turner [at least for most of the book; later on I got somewhat bored]. What's the truth? No spoiler but... did he? Is he? Is she? What if? MANY secrets. MANY issues. And, in the latter part of the book, therapists abound. [don't want to reveal/spoil].

The novel unfoldsin chapters told in the alternating voices of Heather [soon-to-be wife] and Stephen's daughters, Tully [Natalie] and Rachel.

A COUPLE of wonderful descriptions:
"a pigeon-shaped woman"
"room is charged with aggressive goodwill"

First worm turned about 40 percent in for me.

New word [Aussie]: stickybeak.

And seeming contradictions.

Heather, an interior designer needs to be more decisive. What? Doesn't she have to make design decisions?

And possible editorial error -- letter addressed to both daughters but ends with " ... to your sister, too." --who is included in the salutation.

So, engrossed at the beginning, but began to wear me down. From 4 to 3.5, to ultimately, a 3,

Full review closer to publication date!

I'd like to thank the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow burn type of novel. It starts with the various characters and getting background information on each of them. The reader quickly learns that each of these women is unique in their own ways. They have all experienced traumas that unfolds as the chapters continue.

The reader is left with their own questions and ideas about what is really going on behind the wedding as well as the true intentions of some of the other characters.

I really enjoyed the novel because I enjoyed peeling back the layers on many of the characters. I was slightly disappointed in the ending of the novel which is why I gave it four stars instead of five stars. Some questions are left unanswered which did not bother me, but I can see it bothering other people.

Thank you netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

Sally Hepworth's books are always winners for me and The Younger Wife was no exception. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives in this one and who doesn't love a good mystery based on family secrets and drama between sisters? oh and that ending...

Review - The Younger Wife
By Sally Hepworth
4.0 stars
Let’s start with the ending…it all boils down to YOUR own interpretation???
Lets back track - the book begins with Heather & Stephen’s wedding. A happy occasion or at least initially. Rachel & Tulley, Stephen’s adult daughters have their own reservations but are their in support of their father. Not to forget their mom is also in attendance? Now that is bizarre. How is that plausible? Read on… As the story unfolds from alternating points of view from the girls and Heather past events & lifelong secrets are brought to light. Are they impairing their judgment? What’s really going on? Has Heather found her Prince Charming or is he just like her father? Is Stephen the father of the year or are their hidden family secrets?
A well written fast paced psychological thriller that was hard to put down. Sally Hepworth is a wonderful author. The storyline is intriguing & the characters are divine. Highly recommended to those that enjoy a real roller coaster read.
Publication date April 2022.

Thank you #NetGalley, @ St. Martin’s Press & Sally Hepworth for the opportunity ARC.
My review is strictly voluntary.