I love Sally Hepworth's books. She is such a fantastic writer who weaves some incredible stories with amazing characters and fun twists.

This one is the same. The Younger Wife begins with Stephen Aston getting married. Again. He has 2 grown-up daughters, Racheal and Tully and now he's marrying Heather who is younger than them. They can't wrap their heads around this development considering their father is still married to their mother who is in a care facility for dementia.

Things take a dark turn when the daughters start questioning whether they truly know their father. Is there some secrets which they need to know? What seems like a close knit family doesn't seem to be anymore when the layers unravel.

Both Rachel and Tully have secrets of their own and traumas which have not been dealt with.

Sally Hepworth always writes about relevant topics. This book is no different. It includes mental health, sexual abuse, domestic abuse etc.

I could not wait to see how the story unfolded.I wasn't a fan of the end but that did not take away from the book. It was a great read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Sally Hepworth, and her latest novel was no exception.

A wedding is taking place in a church. Demented prior wife shows up and climbs the dais, disrupting the service. Off-stage, a loud noise ensues and ...(oooops there was an unintentional spoiler in my earlier review)

...several months earlier, two Sisters meet their father in a restaurant for lunch and are struck with the unexpected and unwelcome announcement that pop is getting married to a women their own age. The biggest hitch is that he is already hitched to their mother who is now living in an institution caring for sufferers of dementia.

Over the months resentment toward bride/stepmother-to-be is replaced by a genuine camaraderie, as sisters and future bride reveal troubling pasts and suspicions regarding the true nature of the Patriarch. The characters of the women were interesting and I found myself invested in their stories.

This book goes in an unexpected direction towards the end, and although there is a healing process for some there is a vagueness regarding the true nature of the Father/Groom. This uncertainty is triggered by, among other things, the unreliable assertions of the demented prior wife, and the readers are left to reach their own conclusions regarding the father's/groom's behavior.

Inconclusive endings do not unsettle me, so I was fine with the ambiguity. There is an interesting epilogue that does nothing to resolve the ambiguity but cleverly answers a question that could not be answered within the time-frame of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for and ARC and opportunity to review the latest book by one of my favorite authors. It did not disappoint.

Another great book with family drama from Sally Hepworth. There are more layers to the family members that their lives are not as perfect as they seem.

Successful heart surgeon Stephen Aston is getting married again, but his daughters Tully and Rachel are less than thrilled—considering Heather, the bride to be, is their age and he just happens to still be married—to Pam, suffering from dementia in a care facility.

Their wedding ends tragically—in the first chapter—and the novel unfolds in the points of view of Heather, Tully, and Rachel, as family secrets and lies are exposed.

This was my favorite Sally Hepworth yet. She dives into heavy topics—domestic abuse, rape, kleptomania, alcoholism, dementia—and takes the reader on one twisty ride, including the ending, which will make you question everything you just read. Extra points for including Bluey.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for inviting me to read this title in exchange for a review.

Wow! Another amazing read by Sally Hepworth! I just finished reading The Younger Wife, which is Hepworth’s newest novel expected to launch in April 2022 and boy is it something to get excited for!

Stephen Aston is getting married, the only problem is that he is already married. To a woman named Pamela, unfortunately she suffers from dementia. Stephen tries to introduce his new wife to his two grown daughters but that’s where everything starts to unravel. That’s all I will say for now but this book has EVERYTHING! Suspense, drama, secrets, lies, deception and so much more.

This book was addicting from the very beginning. From her style of writing, to the storyline and the amazing character developments along the way, it made this book a one-sitting read. Even after finishing the book, I am sitting here wondering what exactly really happened. I love when a book leaves me questioning it after I have read it.

Sally Hepworth has outdone herself again with this amazing read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and will definitely be suggesting this to family and friends!

Wow, this book left me questioning everything I had just read. What a plot twist. I read this story particularly fast because the characters were well written and full of emotion. Turmoil and triumph in every page. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

I think I have now become a Sally Hepworth super fan after reading this book. Having loved her previous books The Mother in Law and The Other Sister I had high hopes for The Younger Wife. It didn't disappoint. I was hooked from the first chapter, and then the characters reeled me in. I found myself reading past my bedtime in the hopes that I would be able to figure out just what happened when the happy couple went to sign their marriage certificate. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for a review. This book will be published in North American in April 2022.

The Younger Wife follows Rachel and Tully, two sisters who are struggling with their dad divorcing their mom, who is in a care facility for dementia, so that he can marry Heather, a women who is around the same age as his daughters. They are convinced that Heather is a gold digger, after their father's money.... but are things different than they appear?

If you are a fan of Sally Hepworth, this book will not disappoint. From the moment you pick it up, you will not want to put it down as you start to uncover all of the secrets the Aston family has. I will note, I think this book does need a TW for domestic abuse/gaslighting so if you struggle with that, this is not a book I would pick up.

Thanks, Netgalley for the gifted copy of this book.

❄️Five Star NetGalley November Arc Review❄️

The Younger Wife by @sallyhepworth
US publication date: April 5, 2022

Featuring Mr. Frost with his younger wife of 9 years but who’s counting. I loved both the Aussie cover (above) and the US cover (below)

One sentence synopsis; Somebody gets injured at a wedding and we spend the next year finding out who did it and who was hurt.

First of all I want to commend the author with touching on life during Covid 19 but without smacking us in the face with it.

I truly became invested in all of these characters and found likability in all of them which is rare in a domestic suspense novel. I thought about these characters in between each reading session and continue to after I finished.

The humor in the book served it well and I while I had a few questions about a pretty ambiguous ending Sally was so kind to clarify them for me and also explained some of the questions are more defined in the final edit copy of the book.

The book mentions a hot water bottle which I believe to be an Aussie thing but you must read the authors note explaining its symbolism and if you’re lucky enough to catch her aunt Gwen in her stories she’s an absolute doll.

I can’t stop thinking about the chicken lemon feta pie in the book and want to try and create one now.

This is certainly not a thriller so I’d advice readers to go into the book with that in mind but it is top of the top in the domestic suspense or family drama category which is a hard to impress trope for me.

A huge thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my copy in exchange for my honest review

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ from Mrs. Frost

#TheYoungerWife #sallyhepworth #netgalley #netgalleynovember #arc #advancedreaderscopy #bookreview #domesticthriller #trophywife #ereader #aussiebooks #novemberkindleclearout

I love Sally Hepworth books. This one did not disappoint. Steven and his daughters and the wife with dementia are a story that never stops. She always take the story around every avenue. You think you have it figured out but she always surprises you. The one was was just as amazing as the others of hers that I have read.

4.5 stars

Whewwww.

This was a heck of a read for me!

I finished this pretty quickly because I needed to know how it all wound up at the end.

The story switches POV between a few of the main characters and it was done well enough that I wasn't annoyed by it nor did it feel super gimmicky. I think I liked Rachel most of all in the story but that may be because I can relate to her most of all of the MCs.

The ending was mildly annoying but that is par for the course, the book was still enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

By about 1/10 of the way through, I really didn’t think I was going to like this book. I didn’t love the COVID references, and while clearly I don’t have an issue with social justice, throw away lines referring to “wokeness” never sit right with me -maybe I get a sense of trying too hard? The further I got, though, the more I fell in love. The characters are real and wonderful and I was rooting for so many of them (I would have loved more fleshing out of the side characters, though). A great little domestic thriller in a crowded arena. 3.5/5

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance digital copy.

Stephen, a successful doctor, announces his engagement to his younger girlfriend, Heather. Stephen’s daughters, Rachel and Tully, are not too thrilled with the idea – Heather is younger than them, and well, their dad is still married to their mother, who is in a nursing home suffering from dementia.
The story is told from the point of view of Heather, Rachel, and Tully, and an unknown fourth narrator (unknown for the first part of the book).
There are a lot of issues covered in this book – sexual assault survival, kleptomania, alcoholism, domestic violence, and more. Many are not delved into deeply and when some of the characters overcome, it seems a little bit unbelievable.
Darcy was too perfect.
Even though some things were sort of skimmed over, the book was very readable and I tore through it pretty quickly.
Then came the ending. <spoiler> Did he or didn’t he? I don’t mind ambiguous endings, but this ending painted all of the women in the book as either delusional or in denial. </spoiler>
This book was listed as mystery/thriller. I don’t agree with this categorization – it is a domestic drama.
Overall, I ended up being lukewarm about this book.

Another great Hepworth novel on the books, literally! I really enjoyed The Younger Wife, although even as I write this review I find myself with several outstanding questions. Rachel and Tully stole the show for me, with a very close second going to their mother. Such fun and quirky characters to bring this book to life.

Hepworth has created another great story that focuses on family and secrets that have been held on to for far too long. Sisters Tully and Heather were great main characters as they were different but still likable in their own vulnerable ways. Seeds of doubt were well placed in the story so much so that I went back and forth around what the truth could be constantly, The only thing that I wished was different is a more definitive ending and more context in the last chapter as that wasn’t a character we got a lot a clear answers from during the story.

Interesting plot about a father, Stephen, his two adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, and his wife, Pam. who has dementia, who meets and falls in love with a younger woman, Heather. The story starts with an event that happens at Stephen’s wedding to Heather and the plot then goes back to the time leading up to the wedding. As the story unfolded from the perspectives of Tully, Rachel and Heather, I kept turning the pages trying to figure out just what was going on. Lots of interesting dysfunction, secrets, and lies. Unfortunately, after a great story build-up, the ending fell flat for me and was anticlimactic. A good read that, with a more satisfying ending, would have been a 5 star read for me. I enjoy Sally Hepworth’s novels, particularly her last, The Good Sister which was fabulous, and I am looking forward to her future books!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The first book I read by Sally Hepworth was The Good Sister, and I loved it so much, I knew I had to grab The Younger Wife when it showed up on Netgalley. 

I was NOT disappointed.

Tully is probably my favorite character, even though I relate more to Rachel. Both sisters fight anxiety on  a regular basis, but neither knows about the other's struggles. Tully, when she gets anxious, steals things. She's been like that since she was 11, and no one knows. She hides what she steals, then either donates the items, or throws them away. She doesn't steal because she needs the items, she does it for a sort of endorphin release.

Rachel eats her feelings. Something happened to her in her younger years, and she never dates. Instead, she runs a baking company, catering parties, weddings, and the like. She almost always has baked goods in her fridge, and they don't seem to last long.

I didn't like Stephen. Tully and Rachel's dad seems like a bit of a manipulative jerk. I really wanted Heather to figure out that he was a jerk, and leave him. Heather was your typical "living outside her means" type, but she didn't seem like she was deliberately malicious. I never felt like she was a threat to Rachel or Tully.

Sally's writing style is probably one of my favorite parts of her books. She has a wonderful knack for telling you a story, and getting you attached to characters, making you hate others, then BAM....

Suddenly, everything is different, and you don't know what to think anymore.

The Younger Wife in this case is no different. I spent much of the book thinking I knew what was going on, but I got more and more confused as the story went on, then thought I knew what happened again....

You get the idea. If you love books that confuse you all to heck, before giving you even the tinest bit of closure, you'll love any of Sally's books. Especially The Younger Wife. She has made it onto my "auto-buy" list, and that is no small feat.

Another great book by Sally Hepworth! As with The Mother-In-Law, allegiances aren't necessarily what one might think, and the skillful unveiling of the plot make for a compelling read. Two sisters, Tully and Rachel, and their soon-to-be step-mother, Heather, who is younger than they are, each tell their stories in (not strictly) alternating chapters, with a mystery narrator also making an occasional appearance. Each has her own problems; some of the characters are more understandable and sympathetic than others, but all the stories are interesting and held my attention. I did have some qualms about the ending, so I'd give the book 4.5 stars rather than the 5 I might have otherwise, although I'll still round it up to 5. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book.

Hot dang did this book not disappoint!!! The short chapters and alternating storylines had me saying “just one more chapter” and before I knew it, like all Hepworth books, I ignored all adulting responsibilities and flew through The Younger Wife in a day.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth is a domestic thriller/family drama that centers around two sisters, their father and much younger girlfriend/fiancé, mother with early onset severe dementia, and a mystery onlooker. The story starts out at the father’s wedding one year in the future where a shocking event happens and from that point on I was sucked into the twists and turns and building tension trying to figure it all out before the end of the book.

Giving this story a 4.5 stars, rounding up to 5 for bringing the major binge factor. Hepworth fans will love this one! The Younger Wife comes out April 2022. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a honest review.

I have read and loved most of Sally Hepworth's previous books and was SO excited to preview this one. It did NOT disappoint. It was a great suspense story that kept my attention the whole way through.

This book is about two daughters whose father is getting remarried to a much younger woman, Heather. Although the daughter's mother is still alive, she suffers from dementia. The book deals with serious topics such as rape, domestic abuse, and eating disorders.

Overall, I loved the dual POV from Heather, Tully, and Rachel. I flew through the chapters and could not put this book down. I do wish the ending was a little more wrapped up and not up for speculation, however, overall a great read by a fabulous author.