The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth starts off with a tragic event at a wedding, the author then takes us back a year in time leading up to this wedding. Stephen Aston announces to his daughters Tully and Rachel that he is engaged to a woman named Heather, who is not only a few years younger than them, she is half his age. One problem, he is still married to the girls mother Pam, who is currently in an assisted living facility suffering from dementia.
The book is told in three points of view, Tully, Rachel and Heather, each one suffering from their own set of issues. Tully is about to lose everything because her husband made a bad investment. Rachel, who is obsessed with baking and has not dating anyone since she was 16, and Heather who has a dark past that she is trying to keep hidden.
I don't want to give too much away but it's a slow burn, great for lovers of family and domestic drama. The ending will have you thinking what did I just read. I've read a lot of Sally Hepworth's novels and can't wait for the next one!
Thank you to Sally Hepworth, St. Martin's Press, and Net Galley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thriller

Compulsively readable!

Rachel and Tully are sisters with problems. Tully shoplifts when life gets too stressful and Rachel bakes and eats due to a teenage trauma. Their mother is suffering from dementia and has just recently put in a home. Their father is divorcing their mother and marrying the interior decorator, Heather, who is the girl's age. Other events occur causing additional stress for the girls and then their mother will often make comments about Stephen, the girl's father, that indicate he is a bad man or hurt her. She also mentions a woman's name the girls have never heard before. Rachel asks her father about this person, but he deflects and she can tell he is lying. What is going on?

Stephen and Heather are getting married. They fell in love after Stephen's wife was put in a mental facility. Heather grew up poor, so marrying Stephen, a wealthy doctor, seems like a dream come true. But is it really? There are incidents when she has had a few drinks that result in injuries, but Stephen tells her she fell. Eventually, she sees a psychologist who convinces her that she is just reliving the trauma from her father's abuse. Heather's father killed her mother. She moves forward with the wedding and when they step into the sacristy to sign the papers someone gets severely injured or killed. The book begins at the wedding and we don't know what happens for quite awhile as the book hops backwards a year. The book then progresses with chapters written through the eyes of Rachel, Heather and Tully interspersed with the current events after the wedding incident. It was a unique way to tell the story and I was hooked right away.

I loved all the flawed characters and Hepworth keeps the tension ramped up throughout. It kept me turning pages and picking the book back up whenever I had a spare minute. There are a lot of mental issues that are brought up in the novel and if I have a critique it is that some of them are treated pretty lightly or happily resolved relatively easily. This was a very enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this novel.

I’m a fan of Sally Hepworth and I wasn’t sure if this one was going to miss the mark for me. I got about 40% in and BAM! I was hooked and couldn’t stop! Heather is an up and coming interior designer who is contracted by Dr Stephen and Pam Aston. During the renovations, Pam’s dementia escalates and the family makes a heart wrenching decision to put her into a care facility. Heather and Stephen find themselves drawn to each other, despite the fact that Heather is the same age as Pam & Stephen’s daughters, Rachel and Tully. I’ll leave the rest for readers to find out for themselves, who can be trusted and if there are truly good and bad traits in any person. This one will have you guessing until the very end!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The character development across the three points of view was really great and the little drops of mystery and secrets across multiple chapters made for an overall desire to want to keep reading to uncover the truth. I did have an issue with the overall light the women were painted in the end. But the novel as a whole was great. The short chapters made for a great pace and kept me wanting to just read one more chapter. I kept asking myself so many questions and trying to guess where it was going to go. Each character was so vastly different, but it was great to see how they could all intertwine. I’m still left questioning the truth at the end and keep changing my mind, but this took a twist I did not see coming! The overall theme this novel presents is one I haven’t seen often in a thriller, which made for a nice change.

Tully and Rachel have never been close, but when their father announces he’s getting married to a women who is younger than both of them, while still being married to their mother, they find themselves closer than they’ve ever been. They still haven’t even begun to process the quick declining health of their mother to dementia. While they both continue to deal with their own secrets and troubles, they’re hesitant to get to know their soon-to-be stepmom. Rachel stumbles upon a secret big enough to uproot everything she’s even known to be true, but she isn’t even sure she can trust her own gut. She isn’t the only one hiding a big secret, but could there be something more sinister going on?

4.5 stars

I was so excited for this one when I got the chance to add it to my shelf and it did not disappoint. I was hooked from the prologue and couldn’t wait to see how it unfolded. This book is told from multiple points of view and although the chapters are short ( which I prefer anyway) you were still able to be invested in the character development. You were always left wanting more at the end of each chapter but then just as happy to start a new one and get back to another storyline. As always check the trigger warnings, but this was easily one of my favourite thrillers of the year. Thank you NetGallery for this eARC!

This was an amazing book that totally captured my attention. I loved the slow burn, alternating POV’s and multiple twists.

Damn. Just finished The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth and my mind is spinning. She has done it again!

This story centers around Stephen Aston and his soon-to-be wife Heather. As the title suggests, Heather is quite a bit younger, which comes with its own set of suspicions. It's a little more complicated than that though, because Stephen is still married to his wife of 30+ years, Pam, who is suffering from advanced dementia. Add Stephen and Pam's daughters Tully and Rachel into the mix, and you have a whole family affair. They all have secrets, anxieties, fears, and versions of the truth. So what is the truth?

I found this book to be masterfully written - I was on the edge of my seat basically the whole time. The author did a great job of making each character jump off the page, I empathized with them all and found myself confused about who to root for and who I believed. From the very beginning there were breadcrumbs being dropped in every direction and I found myself wondering how they would come together. In some cases I felt like certain story lines were wrapped up too quickly or I yearned for more detail, but I do understand why everything was included and helped the story come together as a whole.

This book will leave you scratching your head! Highly recommend - you will tear through this one and be left wondering what even happened at the end.

Thank You to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC! I really enjoyed the chance to preview this book and recommend it highly. Available April 5, 2022.

3.5 stars for me. I like Sally Hepworth but thought The Good Sister was so much better than this one. I had a hard time believing a lot of the characters’ choices but overall it was an ok read.

Tully and Rachel are skeptical about their father's new fiancee, Heather. She could be their sister after all. Plus, their mother is in a home with dementia. Heather starts feeling that something is amiss as Stephen, her fiancee starts treating her as if she is an alcoholic. This brings back memories of her abusive father and mother who used to mask everything by drinking alcohol while sitting on the bathroom floor. I really liked the different points of view of each character. Just as the reader things they know what is going on, Hepworth brings doubt into the picture. In fact, the ending is left a bit open after the incident at the wedding occurs. This part of the book bothered me as it could be interpreted in two very different ways. The book as a whole had all of the aspects of a fantastic thriller, however, I feel the ending could be clearer.
Thank you to Netgalley, Sally Hepworth, and St. Martin's Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel! Sally Hepworth does an amazing job with family dynamics in this domestic suspense/psychological thriller. Even though the story is a slow burn, the short chapters with alternating points of view make for a quick page-turner! The build-up was great but I wish the ending didn’t feel so rushed. I would have liked it if a few more loose ends were tied up. All in all, this book was an enjoyable quick read!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

A new, younger wife, two daughters, and a wife still living? This makes for the perfect thriller and page turner. The daughters have to come to terms with this, and with their own troubled pasts all the while protecting their mom who has dementia.

Super happy to have been chosen for an ARC.

He's getting married to the woman (who is younger than his daughters) that he hired to redesign his home, but he can't marry her yet because his existing wife is still his wife (even though she is in a home because of her dementia). The daughters have to come to terms with this, and with their own troubled pasts.

I struggled with this one a bit - it's got some rom-com vibes with darker undercurrents, but in some ways was a bit predictable and cliche. Yes, it's twisted, and yes everyone has demons (some that we are blind to, despite not being well hidden), but not all of them are that simple to resolve.

Another 5 star read from Sally Hepworth for me! She has the ability to pull me in immediately to her stories and her characters. Some I hate, some I love - but I am always vested in every one. An auto-buy author for sure.
Here Sally introduces us to Rachel and Tully, two sisters trying to cope with a Mother living in a shell of who she was - wracked by Alzheimer's, and now trying to navigate a new relationship in their father's life.

Heather is a beautiful, put together interior decorator who is entering Tully and Rachel's lives as their Dad's girlfriend and now fiance'. While their successful and fit surgeon father is in his 60s, Heather is in her 30's and is a year older than Rachel. The family dynamic is one of what I would term, "detached love." They all love each other yes, but they don't take the time to really see what is going on in each other's lives. One daughter deals with a trauma at 16 that she has kept silent about, by baking and eating through the pain. The other sister steals things just to get the "release" it offers. As one could imagine, the newest developments in their father's life do not do anything to help the mental status of either sister. Both girls hide their issues from the family, and to a degree, even from themselves. Add to that simmering doubts about Heather, about accusations their Mom blurts out in her demented state and a hot water bottle filled with cash that Rachel finds, and now friends, we have a captivating story.

I read this book in a day, I just could not put it down. To say I devoured it would be correct. The character development was so strong and the mental issues that the book covered were so important. I would not consider this one a Thriller, rather an excellent psychological drama. Character-driven with an air of mystery and mind-bending issues that had me second guessing myself and some characters several times during the story. To me, that is one of Sally Hepworth's outstanding writing traits - she puts her characters in situations that have you doubting their validity. She leaves seeds of doubt, and even in the end, you are not completely sure you were right in whatever you decided happened.

I 100% recommend this one. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy to read and review. Pub date: 4.05.22

"The Younger Wife" by Sally Hepworth
St. Martin's Press
April 5, 2022
10-1250229618
Thriller

Middle-aged Stephen Aston, a prominent heart physician, hires Heather Wisher, a young interior designer, to decorate his home, hoping to make his wife Pam happy. But as time passes, Pam sinks further into dementia, forcing Stephen to institutionalize her. Stephen's daughters, Tully and Rachel, are disheartened this illness has taken over their beloved mother's mind but understand she needs round-the-clock care. What they can't understand is how their father would suddenly take up with Heather, especially seeing he is still married to Pam. Heather could be their sister; she is about their age.

Heather is beyond joyous. Having grown up poor and in an abusive home, all she desires is to be "someone." Being wed to Stephen will make this happen. Her social status will rise, and she'll want for nothing, but the best part of this is her love for Stephen. In him, she sees a kind and caring man, nothing at all like her callous father.

Stephen has his future all figured out. He will quietly divorce Pam and marry Heather though his daughters are totally against this. To them, Heather only wants the family money and status, and how dare their dad find someone else while their mother is still very much alive, though not conscious of anything going on around her.

Rachel and Tully both have their own problems, and this new scenario only adds to their stress. Tully is high-strung and overly dramatic, and she is finding her family is falling apart. The mother of two young boys, she feels she is losing control of them, not to mention her husband has lost a significant amount of money in a business deal, and now they have to sell the home Tully loves. How can she handle this tension? She finds a way— undertaking acts she's been doing for years, which soon catches up to her and gets her in trouble.

Meanwhile, Rachel is single. She has not dated and refuses to, rather she receives fulfillment as a baker, and her concoctions are well-known and loved. Trauma from Rachel's past keeps her from living her life to the fullest. And now, she is having difficulty adjusting to her mom's deteriorating condition and the news her father is due to remarry.

Though Pam lives apart from the family, Stephen still considers her a part of it. The girls go to see her, and even Heather visits, without Pam realizing what the man she wed so many years ago is planning. In a few lucid instances, she drops digs about Stephen to her girls, though they do not know if she is angry at her present situation or there is a reality in her comments.

The wedding guests are mostly comprised of Stephen's colleagues, though he insists Pam attend. He persuades Rachel and Tully to bring her, reminding them of how much their mother enjoys parties. Is he trying to be considerate, showing he still loves his wife or is he actually being cruel? Secrets from the past come to light, and Tully, Rachel, and Heather begin to question Stephen's actions. Does anyone really know what goes on in a marriage or a behind closed doors?

There are three points of view in this novel—Tully, Rachel, and Heather. Their history makes them the adults they have become, each with their personal secrets and injuries. The dysfunction shown could be that of any household. Does any family exist without some type of dysfunction? Many scenarios are addressed—the heartbreak of dementia, the pain of rejection and hurt, and the fear of the unknown.

"The Younger Wife" is a page-turner, bursting with suspense and tension, up to the conclusion, a shocker sure to leave the reader with questions: Did he, or didn't he?

Is it ethical to marry someone else while your current wife is in a long-term memory care facility? Even if you do everything in your power to continue to care for your wife and have her remain engaged in all family activities? Even if your new wife is younger than both your adult age daughters?

Stephen Aston believes he is deserving of happiness and seeks to divorce his wife with severe dementia while placating his two daughters at the same time he encourages them to get to know his new fiancee. He seems to have always been the perfect husband, the loving father, an upstanding citizen, so why shouldn't he pursue a new chapter with a new love? It appears reasonable enough until his daughters and even his soon-to-be-new wife start questioning the man he really is.

Filled with suspense and family drama, this book satisfies on many levels. The characters are interesting and relatable as each one has dreams, daily struggles and challenging pasts and we get to know them while they all try to understand, connect and support one another. Told with the right amount of humor, this is an interesting and entertaining read. 3.75 stars

The opening sucked me right in. I couldn't stop until I finished the book-- and once I did, I felt extremely sad.

You'll find 2 sisters that aren't especially close, their mother with dementia and their father with a new woman in his life. Tons of crap thrown at them at once and just the crap hits the fan so to speak.

There's drama, pain, secrets, suspense, fear and loyalty to those who might also hurt you.

I love how events brought people closer, healthier and a family unit- in a sense.

If you're looking for a twisted read with pain, lies, omissions, second guesses, rape/ kleptomania and much more this is your cuppa tea!!!

3 stars from me.

*Recv'd a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

This one was slow going and I’m not sure if the pay off was worth it. However, the characters are well written so I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t love it either. My favorite of Hepworth’s novels is The Mother in Law.

I enjoyed this thriller overall . I loved the characters and their own pov perspectives. I did however end of feeling like I wanted more. More in the daughters lives, more on the first and second wives and maybe a pov of Stephan would of been helpful. I just don’t know how it can be so easy to forget something as serious as domestic abuse.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

I was very excited to read this book since I had enjoyed her book about the 2 sisters earlier this year. Sadly, this book just wasn’t it. I felt like the book was slow and very uneventful/anti-climatic. I will, however, continue to look out for other works written by her. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A suspenseful thriller for the ages! This is a devilishly good, fast paced mystery told from multi perspectives to always keep you wondering what did happen at "The Wedding?"

A too good to be true husband, two daughters battling their own inner demons, and a younger wife stuck in the middle....what could go wrong?

My first time reading this other, and definitely won't be my last!