I received an eARC of The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth from St. Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
5 stars! Sally Hepworth has done it again! I'm always happy to read anything by her. I highly recommend it for fans of domestic suspense!

Sally Hepworth once again produces a page-turner of a book featuring three women — Tully, Rachel, and Heather — with complicated histories and problems. Something happens at the close of Stephen and Heather’s wedding, but we only find out what it is toward the end of the book. In flashbacks we watch the women’s growing belief that Stephen Aston is not the perfect father/husband-to-be he appears. Is he really an abuser? This worry sits on their shoulders as they struggle with their own problems: kleptomania, alcholism, rape survival. Since we only see Stephen through the eyes of these women (as well as the words of his former wife who has early dementia), we have to make up our own minds. Hepworth keeps us guessing while we grow closer to all the women and root for their happiness.

This is the first book by Sally Hepworth that disappointed me. I am always surprised by the direction her books take--I thought The Mother-in-Law would be a domestic thriller, but it was more of a family drama. I thought The Good Sister would be a family drama, and it was more domestic thriller. I enjoyed TMIL, and loved TGS, so I had high hopes that this would be another good domestic thriller. It was clear to me this would be a family drama, which I was fine with. The story moved along fine, but I didn't feel very connected to the characters. What broke down for me was the ending. It completely destroyed any good thoughts that I had about this book, and just made me extremely uncomfortable. This is a definite skip in my opinion.

I wanted to love this. Hepworth does so many things well here -- getting the reader to question what we believe, twisting and turning and pulling the story forward. I've enjoyed this in her other works, and I'll definitely read what she writes next. But I'm definitely sensitive to stories of women being believed, and I felt uncomfortable being asked to play that game with this subject matter.

PSA: If you or anyone you know is experiencing violence in a relationship please reach out to the Domestic Violence Hotline (US) 1.800.799.7233 Also, my door is always open. You are the expert on your own reality and I believe you.

I was super excited to get the ARC of The Younger Wife because I’ve heard so many good things about Sally Hepworth.

I really thought The Younger Wife was going somewhere from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down, but ultimately I give it 1 star because I found the content incredibly problematic on many levels.

**** SPOILERS AHEAD ****

While Sally Hepworth claims to write about “female mental health,” she in fact endangers it by painting females in a horrible light and directing the reader to question their motives and experience at every turn. There’s too much of that in real life and using doubt of female stories and mental health disorders as a plot device is frankly irresponsible. Especially when at the end the “crazy” female is not vindicated but instead at fault. Diversity rep does not mean casting doubt on the entire experience of that person!

As someone who experienced violence and gaslighting in a relationship, the ending of The Younger Wife infuriated me. I can’t imagine how it would have felt fresh out of that experience to again question whether I actually misunderstood the whole situation. Thankfully I have distance, a great partner, fantastic friends, and an amazing therapist as support.

Let me repeat that if you experienced violence, you deserve to be believed and supported. No one else can tell you what you felt, saw, or heard.

What do you do when your dad spontaneously decides to marry a woman younger than you and divorce your sick mother at the same time?

The Aston family is hiding secrets left and right, and no better place for them all to fall apart than at a wedding. Stephen Aston is about to marry a young, beautiful, home designer but has to find a way to divorce his dementia ridden wife first. His eldest daughter, Tully, is trying to balance parenting her two sons under 6, dealing with the fact her husband just lost millions of dollars, and her anxiety caused kleptomania. Her younger sister, Rachel, hasn’t dated in 20 years and hides her emotions in baking.

The wives, the new and the old, seem to have their fair share of their own secrets. Pam, the wife with dementia, has said some things that don’t add up. And the new bride, Heather, isn’t telling the truth.

Some secrets are buried for a reason.

I flew through this book without even trying to. Hepworth’s writing is always ready to pull you in from the first chapter. It shows this isn’t her first family drama style book with how well tied together every part of this book is. You get the emotional connection through Rachel, who is having a hard time leaving the past behind. You get to decide if things will fix themselves or fall apart with Tully. And see that sometimes perfect people aren’t so perfect after all.

I really enjoyed this book. It was no struggle to finish it. Reading it just kind of happened. I didn’t love the ending, but found that the rest of the book made it worth the read. If you're looking for a domestic, twisty turny, messed up family read, this is great! It comes out April 05 2022!!

My Rating: 4 ⭐

I loved this book! I thought I knew what was going to happen, and then started to figure out a twist 3/4 of the way in. I really liked the character flaws from all of the main characters because it made them more relatable.

Tully and Rachel are shocked to find out their dad is getting married to a much younger women, especially since he is still married to their very much alive mother, who has dementia. I would classify this more as a family drama with a bit of mystery rather than a thriller. It kept me interested all the way through and I read it very quickly. The ending wasn’t my favorite but it didn’t take away from me enjoying the story.

Sally Hepworth always delivers on an engaging domestic drama. I did not particularly enjoy the ambiguity of the ending, and especially the turn of events that everyone was "crazy" and what we thought was true was not. The characters were all so likable but then for them to commit an act of violence that turned out to be completley unwarranted and there to be no negative outcome seemed a little bit of a let donw.

This is my second book by Sally Hepworth. I love the characters she creates and their various quirks. I really enjoyed this one, however, I was not a fan of the ending. I do not like how you are left second guessing the women. Other than the ending, I really enjoyed it.

Sally is an auto-buy author for me! Each time her latest book releases in Australia...usually a good 6 months before we get it in the USA and I contemplate moving there each time so I can read it immediately. Dramatic? Hell yes. Worth it...probably!

This time I was lucky to receive an advance copy from her publisher and I was really excited I wouldn't have to relocate for a book :)

The Younger Wife is a different style to Hepworth's writing and I really enjoyed it! The story sucks you in - you immediately hate the younger wife, because well...duh. But as the story unfolds it becomes clear that we all were wrong...or were we...we definitely were, weren't we?! This is why I love a Hepworth book...she keeps you on your toes to the very end.

I will say...the ending. I don't even know what to think. It 100% was a twist in the plot I never saw coming and I can't say I loved it or hated it...but dammit I was annoyed by it and annoyed in a good sense. I love when an author can get this crazy reaction out of me.

Are you planning on reading this one? You should! This publishes on April 5, 2022...just pre-order it now! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Great read could not put it down. Perfect read for the long wintery nights, Nothing screams like drama like FAMILY DRAMA. This was a steady read filled with a lot of WHAT!?..............

I really like Sally Hepworth. In some ways, her books remind me of Liane Moriarty and not just because they’re both Australian authors. Moriarty has a deeper grasp of human nature but both tell page turning family stories with relatable characters.

The Younger Wife opens with a violent incident at a wedding and then delves into the back stories of the two daughters and bride in alternating chapters. There are family secrets, hidden struggles, background stories that each woman conceals due to pain and shame. It’s not the deepest dive into the seriousness of each issue but I like that Hepworth can make a domestic thriller (?) into something so relatable. It’s not heavy but it is real even though the issues definitely get resolved in a typically compressed fictional timeframe.

I could not stop reading this book. I loved the way it opened with a climax and then revealed what happened during the wedding but by bit between the chapters. This really caught my attention from the start and built up my interest in the characters. Tully and Rachel are the daughters of Pamela and Stephen Aston. As Pam’s dementia gets worse and she moves to a home, Stephen begins an affair with a young interior designer, Heather, who will become his wife. As the story unfolds, many family secrets are revealed. Tully and Rachel work to uncover the truth to find out if their father is the man they believed him to be.

I really enjoyed this thriller and had a hard time putting it down, Sally Hepworth always writes intriguing plots and the twists are always fun and unexpected. I can’t wait to read more from her.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Family drama, serious family drama, secrets that may or may not remain secret and possibly unreliable narrators. This would make a good book for a book club to discuss.

Another wonderful Hepworth book. This is a 4 star book. The story was good and the characters were interesting. Once again I enjoyed the ride with this author.

💭 Overall Thoughts: The beginning started out strong, hooking you right in. There are multiple POVs which are clearly defined and easy to follow along. There were however, some characters that I don’t think really added much to the storyline. There were times when I thought, “oh THAT is why this character is here” and then nothing happens with them. When things finally come together at the end, it’s not a total shocker or twist. I really feel like so many more things could have been done with the storyline to make it a lot more interesting. It was a quick read and I kept wanting to know more and more about what was going on, but the end just left me feeling, MEH.

Since this was an eARC, I wanted to make note of a few inaccuracies. In the kindle version, chapter 10 (location 1120) - It reads “Tully got a funny feeling when he said that.” It should be HEATHER. Then in chapter 25, location 2170 it reads “…,she feltl an intense hatred for…” in which felt is misspelled. These things did not have any influence on my rating or review but I wanted to note them.

This is a twisty novel that deals with the very serious issues of rape, physical and emotional abuse, and kleptomania.

Sisters Tully and Rachel are stunned when their sixty-three-year-old father announces his engagement to a woman their age. They can’t believe that thirty-four-year-old Heather is genuinely in love with their wealthy doctor father. They also can’t believe that their father is going to divorce their mother while she’s still alive but suffering from dementia in a home.

Told from the point of view of these three women, there are parts that get really uncomfortable to read. Tully has been stealing stupid stuff she doesn’t need and could pay for if she did since she was eleven years old. Now she’s a mother married to a successful barrister, but nothing helps calm her down like stuffing something from a shop in her purse and getting away with it.

Rachel eats her feelings. Obviously that’s not healthy, but other than behavior, like devouring a wedding cake she spent all week decorating just hours before it’s to be delivered, Hepworth doesn’t have her moan about her weight and everyone else is constantly saying how curvily beautiful she is, which I really appreciate.

Heather might have a drinking problem like her abusive father, but through hard work, she’s picked herself up from poverty and has a successful career as an interior designer, which is how she met Stephen. Now, she’s engaged to be married to a wealthy man. But is it too good to be true?

I understand why Hepworth ended things the way she did. I generally like twists, but in this case in undermined a lot of important issues that she’d dealt with deftly until then, which was disappointing to me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES APRIL 5, 2022.

Short summary -
Tully and Rachel’s father is getting married again, this time to someone who is old enough to be their sister. To complicate things further, their mother is still married to their father, and in a dementia facility. They are determined to get to the bottom of things. Do they really know their father as much as they thought they did? What secrets does their mother have hidden that she can’t communicate anymore. Why does Heather really want to marry their father. It turns out she has some secrets of her own. They are all dealing with their own personal battles while also coping with this turn of events.

Overall rating -
I love Sally Hepworth’s domestic drama/thriller books and so I had to get my hands on an ARC of this book. Thanks so much for letting me read ahead. I finished this one so quickly! It was unputdownable! I would highly recommend this one!