I love a good dysfunctional family drama. It had me questioning what I thought after every page. I would have liked a little more closure at the end but I also think that she ended it that way so we can decide for ourselves what we really thing happened.

Sally Hepworth's The Younger Wife is a brilliantly complex domestic thriller novel that hooks you with the first scream and keeps your attention throughout. This books is told through five different perspectives and invites you to make more assumptions and guesses on characters as you read. And honestly, you're never sure who you like and who you don't. It felt a lot like an Agatha Christie novel that has you piecing together the story as you go and second guessing yourself every step of the way.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Interesting story. Good mystery novel. Love the cover.

Sally Hepworth-you know how to tell a story!
I was totally captivated by this from start to finish. I couldn’t put this book down.
My favorite thing about this book were the characters. I loved them and connected with them. They were incredibly relatable. I thought they were all written very well and in many layers.
Although this read as more of a domestic drama and didn’t seem very thriller in nature or twisty, I still loved it. The scenarios each character found themselves in left me gasping at times. I love when an author can do that to me. If you can cause me to audibly gasp, you’ve truly taken me out of my current world and into the world of the book.
I really liked the message of the story that I can’t give away due to spoilers, but I think it’s an important subject that Hepworth handled tastefully.
My only minor complaint is that I was a tad underwhelmed by the conclusion of the book. I just wanted a bit more depth to it.
All in all, great book and I’m most certainly going to read more from Hepworth in the future.

I recieved this book for free for an honest review through netgalley. I honestly got bored, wasn’t excited about it after 20% and had to dnf.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth was ok. I enjoyed it but I’m not sure I’ll remember it next week.

The story starts at Stephen’s wedding to Heather, the titled Younger Wife. Also in attendance are Stephen’s daughters, who are both around Heather’s age, and Stephen’s ex-wife, Pam, who is suffering from dementia. Before the reception, someone will be dead.

The story covers mental health issues, domestic violence, trauma from rape, infidelity and Alzheimer’s. This book is also about gaslighting, and who do you trust, can you trust yourself, and what’s real and what’s imagined.

This is a pretty fast paced thriller set in Australia. I enjoyed the characters, as well as the story. The ending was a bit blah but I’ll definitely look forward to reading more Sally Hepworth in the future.

Thank you to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #theyoungerwife .

4.5 rounded udon to 4

I love this book & Sally Hepworth but the twist ending didn’t sit well with me

So many of us can relate to a dysfunctional family. Right? In The Younger Wife, a 63 year old heart surgeon has a much younger wife but wait....he's already married and THAT wife is in a nursing home with dementia. And the plot continues to thicken as Stephen Aston, the heart surgeon, plans to divorce his wife, Pam (who has dementia) BUT plans to keep her as a part of the family. Stephen and Pam's children: Tully and Rachel find the whole thing suspect and the younger wife, Heather is wondering what she's about to get herself into. It proves to be a suspenseful book full of secrets and unexpected twists.

This book had really great potential. It spent the entire book building the characters and pointing out all the things that would make them the perfect or victim following the explosive first chapter. We also have multiple POVs from not only characters we know but also a couple of chapters from an “outsider”. But then for all the build up…there is no pay off. At. All. Overall this was a really enjoyable book up until the epilogue but still a good read.

Sally Hepworth is pretty much an instabuy author for me. I loved The Younger Wife and it kept me guessing until the end.

The Younger Wife is a fast paced domestic suspense novel. It begins with an accident and possible death at a wedding but not sure who was involved. Bouncing back to the time leading up to the wedding, the narrative is told in alternating POVs giving glimpses into each character’s life and what secrets they’re holding. This all leads up to the wedding day. The ending in the published version is different from the early reader’s edition in a good way. I made sure to read both. 😉

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

UPDATE. Edit to 5 stars. I got the Final Ending, which is way better than what I received in the early ARC. Much much better. A true, twisty Hepworth novel to the end. Definitely recommend. This might be one of her best.


I LOVED it til the end and then I hated it, but research is telling me the published copy has a different ending. So, to be continued….

Sally Hepworth's books are so dang readable! I love the way she writes. I can hear her voice so clearly through her writing, which I love! I didn't love this book as much as her previous books (which I adored!), but it was engaging enough. I'll read everything she writes forever.

The idea of this book had a lot of potential. The idea that a father was marrying a younger woman while his wife is still alive suffering from dementia is a very interesting plot line. I really enjoyed that we followed the daughters' and the new fiancé's perspectives throughout the chapters. Despite it having a good plot line, it felt like there was something missing for me. I wish there was more thrills that occurred, or more twists that would have surprised me. I was interested, but not sitting on the edge of my seat.

An excellent audiobook. I loved the narrator's accent. I enjoyed the story and the sisters. This book reminds me of The Wife Between Us. This book was categorized as mystery thriller but it was mostly read like a women's fiction. This story started with a wedding and screams with blood stains. Then the story went on starting one year earlier, followed three main point of views: Heather, Tully, and Rachel. Tully and Rachel are sisters. Rachel has a secret which explains why she doesn't have a boyfriend. She bakes beautiful and expensive wedding cakes. Tully has an addiction she couldn't get rid of. Her husband lost all of their money in the stock market. Their kids gave Tully a challenge. Their mom has dementia and currently living in a nursing home. Their doctor dad Stephen recently announced he's engaged to a younger woman named Heather (younger than the sisters) who was hired to redesign Stephen's house. Heather has secrets of her own but she carries herself well and the sisters couldn't tell if she's marrying their dad as a gold digger. Rachel was going through her mom's things and found a name she didn't recognize. She then proceeded to investigate. In between, there's another view to speculate the crime at the wedding.

I didn't like the ending much. I prefer the bad person to face up to their crimes rather than an easy way out. The story however was not thrilling as thrillers normally goes but I do enjoy the women's fiction the story was leaning on. I do recommend this audiobook to everyone!

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

A family with a whole lot of issues...

The Aston family appears to be a typical upper middle class family until you discover they're not. This book is full of interesting characters and deals with a variety of mental and emotional matters that are rarely talked about in mainstream media which I appreciated.

I thought it was an interesting read and it constantly has you guessing & second guessing "who did it." However, I did not expect the ending and it was kind of a let down. It had a good buildup but was anticlimactic and ended with a modified happily ever after.

**Advanced copy received in exchange for an honest review**

This fast-paced story is great at showing people are not always as they seem. Or maybe they are. Based on the unreliable storytelling, you will be kept guessing. And when the secret of the wedding is revealed, you will be glad that you were there for the ride.

This one surprised me! Did not expect the twist at the end. I enjoy Sally Hepworth's books and although I didn't like this one as much as "The Mother in Law", I still found myself reading it in one sitting.

The Younger Wife is a good book with great characters! I loved how nuanced each character is and that's what kept me going. Among all characters the sisters Rachel and Tully's storylines were the best and held more intrigue for me than Heather, the younger wife. The suspense bits were good but I didn't feel the urgency to get to the end. All throughout the book I wasn't sure if Heather was a reliable narrator or not. The last chapter left me with more questions than answers. I thought I almost had Stephen figured out but then I didn't and still don't. I would recommend this books for the amazing characters.


Thank you, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Sally Hepworth for the arc!

This is easily one of the best family dramas I’ve ever read. Through every twist and turn of this story I was deeply invested in this seemingly perfect, but completely disturbed family. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for some drama and suspense.