This book was great and I loved that there were multiple narrators. It made it easy to distinguish between the characters.

Now on to Sally Hepworth’s @sallyhepworth newest release, The Younger Wife 💛. If audiobooks are your thing, that’s the way to do this one. Narrated by Barrie Kreinik, Caroline Lee, Jessica Douglas-Henry, and Zoe Carides, The Younger Wife is perfect for audio. The already flawless dialogue is only enhanced by these talented narrators, and the plot unravels at a just-right pace, building the suspense and revealing secrets right up until the final dramatic end.

Thanks to @macmillan.audio for my early audio and to @stmartinspress for my early print copy. Either way you binge The Younger Wife, I hope you love it as much as I did!

Link to 4/25/2022 Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/girl_loves_dogs_books_wine/

This book was not for me. While the writing was fine and I liked the idea, I did not like any of the characters and not caring about the characters makes it hard to enjoy the story. I also think that the whole gas lighting plot device is fine but it's been done a lot and this wasn't the best example of it that I've seen. I listened the audiobook version and I did think that the cast of narrators did a really good job with it.

Sally Hepworth has such a way with words. I found myself fully engrossed with this family and their lives. I loved the character building and getting to know each of them through all their issues and what made them tick. I loved the twist in this one and the strength of this women. I typically feel that her writing is more literary fiction and character driven but i always feel so connected to the characters that i can’t help but turn the pages.

This covers an array or triggers but so delicately. I was able to get ahold of the finished version with the updated ending and I’m glad the ending was changed.


I enjoyed the narration as well. There was one narrator i didn’t love as much but it was still read very well and i liked that it was more of a full cast than one narrator

TW: mention(s) of Covid, Alzheimer's, domestic abuse, murder, sexual assault, eating disorders, divorce, alcoholism, gaslighting, toxic parent relationships,

//🛑SPOILERS🛑//
About the book:
THE HUSBAND A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself.

THE Daughters Tully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money.

THE FORMER Wife With their mother in a precarious position, 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.

THE YOUNGER Wife Heather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them?
Release Date: October 26th, 2021
Genre: Domestic Thriller
Pages: 352
Rating:

What I Liked:
• The cover is pretty
• Sounded like an interesting domestic thriller
• The writing flowed

What I Didn't Like:
• Basic domestic thriller
• Mentions of Covid
• I hate the narrator's voice (so high pitch and whiny)

Overall Thoughts: So here I am again reading another domestic thriller, which I've been pretty burned out on.

As things continued to happen I kept wondering where were Tully's kids? It appears that as a mother of 2 kids she seemed to have a lot of time to do things she wants.

Tully admitting that she stole things made me think that I would have just said they were things my mom had taken from stores.

After the 10th mention of Covid it wears on you. I could live life without hearing about it.

This book just seems like it's women with weird coping disorders. Tully is a compulsive shoplifter, Rachel eats to cope with her sexual assault, and Heather drinks too much because she had an abusive father.

The ending took an odd turn. So they were able to just pin the murder on the mother. Weird. Maybe I misunderstood the ending because it doesn't make any sense to me.

Final Thoughts: pretty standard domestic Thriller. I don't really feel like this was a game changer oh. The writing was really nice and flowed but for the most part okay

I'm a long-time fan of Sally Hepworth, my favorite of hers being The Mother-in-law, so I was very excited to get this book to review. Overall, I enjoyed the journey, and the unraveling of family secrets drew me in from the very beginning. I do have to say that the end left me feeling slightly less than thrilled, but when I try to think of another way that it could have ended, I'm at a loss.

We follow a family that looks perfect on the outside, but behind closed doors has a lot to struggle with. Mainly following the perspective of two grown daughters, each with emotional baggage of their own, the story revolves around their mother who is spiraling with dementia, and their father who has fallen in love with the much younger decorator who was hired to redo their house. As much as they'd like to dislike the new girlfriend, they are distracted by the fact that evidence keeps surfacing that their father is not who he seems. Packed full of narrators that might not be reliable, the reader really has to decide who to trust!

The voice acting, pacing and tone was lovely, and really added to the feeling of the book. When it comes to thrillers, I don't like when the narration is distracting or pulls me away from the details that I'm listening for, and this narrator did an amazing job of having the book sound like it was bring read to me by a friend, eager to tell the story. I loved it!

This was an extremely well-developed thriller. Most everyone in this story came with heavy baggage and while their issues were exposed to the reader, they weren’t visible to those around them. So many secrets! So much is left to the imagination, and this book does make one wonder what lines might have been crossed and how often we can be deceived by what seems to be right in front of our eyes.

Thank you @macmillan.audio @macmillanusa for my copies! This one just released this week!

I absolutely loved The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth so I was excited to see she had a new book coming out this year.

For this one I listened to the audio portion and I thought the narrators did a really good job! There were four of them and when it comes to audiobooks and narrators I always say the more the merrier! With that obviously came multiple POVs and quick chapters which made for a quick listening experience.

As for the story I liked it. It wasn’t anything that blew me away, but I found it entertaining enough to help pass my workday. What I didn’t like was the ending, I definitely was left wanting more. I’ve been seeing some reviews saying it changed in the final copy so if you know what changed please let me know!

I’ve seen some really positive reviews, so If you have read this one let me know!

I LOVE Sally Hepworth as well as family drama literary fiction with mystery / thriller elements. I am a little biased because this book fits so many of the tropes I enjoy...but this is my book review and I can be biased if I want! I was a huge fan of Sally Hepworth's earlier book, "The Mother-in-law" mostly because I loved seeing how the same interaction could be so deeply misconstrued by the daughter-in-law and vice versa. For me, this novel felt less focused on two main characters...rather it was more about the one main character, the younger wife, and her relation to everyone else. I kept thinking of Liane Moriarty's "Apples Never Fall" where the central question lies around whether the husband is the villain or not. Similarly, in this novel, the options were either that the husband is abusive or he is not. After having read my fair share of mysteries and thrillers, I'm used to expecting the unexpected with wild extraneous characters, additional information that was never revealed to the reader, and random left-field events. Therefore, I found it refreshing that there were only two options with a myriad of explanations, I kept thinking if it would be more expected for him to be the "bad guy" or not...this method kept me more interested than thrillers where the answer is so nebulous that the reader simply gives up hope of guessing correctly.

I will definitely re-read this and probably read anything else that Sally Hepworth writes!

“A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that's only the beginning ..."

Australian author Sally Hepworth is an expert at writing about dysfunctional families. In “The Younger Wife”, set in post-COVID Melbourne, the dysfunctional family is the affluent Aston family made up of Stephen Aston, a heart surgeon in his sixties, his wife Pam, a homemaker and the mother of their two adult daughters, Rachel and Tully. Rachel is a single baker of wedding and party cakes, while Tully is the slightly neurotic sister who has some troubling habits stemming from childhood.

Events are set in motion with the announcement that Stephen is going to marry Heather, the family’s interior designer, a woman younger than his daughters. His announcement is further complicated by the fact that he is still married to Pam, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

“The Younger Wife” is narrated by Rachel, Tully and Heather. Hepworth creates complex, real, quirky and unusual characters who challenge each other. The sister dynamic is a strange one; both are hiding so much and, in different ways, seek control as a method of coping. The novel also explores the significance of father-daughter relationships, and the way women can be shaped by this relationship.

This domestic thriller is multilayered and contains sassy humor, darkness and issues which are important to women, all the hallmarks of a Sally Hepworth novel.

The narrators are consummate professionals. Barrie Kreinik is an actor, singer, writer, and audiobook narrator who won a 2022 Audie Award; Caroline Lee is a performer, theatre-maker, writer and audio narrator; Jessica Douglas-Henry is a professional producer with an extensive vocal range, and Zoe Carides is an actress, writer and audiobook narrator.

A huge thank you to @Netgalley, @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for the advanced audiobook.

I was fascinated by the dynamics in this family, particularly the daughters. Sally Hepworth does a great job entwining all the lives and keeping the reader guessing as to what is going on. I enjoyed getting into each person’s life and seeing how they overcame their struggles but the ending wasn’t what I was expecting; it didn’t match the rest of the story. Still, this was a quick read that kept my interest until the last few scenes.

The Younger Wife is a book about family, relationships and secrets. We start with a wedding and an anonymous onlooker. After the ceremony is complete and the family is back signing the official papers a scream is heard, an ambulance is called, but no one knows what happened or who was the injured party.

We back up to learn more from the husband, his new wife, the old wife and his daughters. Each daughter has secrets of her own that they are living with. The new, younger, wife has secrets. The husband has secrets. The old wife has secrets shrouded in her dementia. How will the secrets unravel and what role will each person play in the events of the wedding day mystery.

I switched back and forth between the audio and the ebook in reading this one. At the end, however, their endings were different from one another. The ebook ending was, in my opinion, terrible. The audiobook ending, in my opinion, was far superior. I do believe the audiobook is the official ending in the final book so I will give my rating based on that ending.

The book will keep you turning pages and wondering what is the truth. It was also frustrating at times to me to read these characters and wonder how they could be so obtuse to some of the others secrets. If you like wondering who is trustworthy and who might be unreliable throughout your reads then this one is for you!

I give the audiobook ending 3.5 stars (rounded up)
I give the ebook ending 3.0 stars

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* torn between a 3.5-4, this was somewhat obvious where it was going but not in a annoying way, read the entire thing before i could put it down lol

3.5*
**SPOILERS**The book was easy to get through but overall a little boring. The big plot point became clear by about the middle of the story and didn't really develop from there. The narrative was off for me because all three of our storytellers were extremely honest from the beginning and then all of a sudden by the middle, they were questioning themselves for no reason. There were tons of logical steps each woman could have taken (Heather getting cameras in the house, Tully and Rachel actually asking people straightforward questions) and then there was a weird time jump just to get to the wedding. Overall it was fine, and while I see that the ending was supposed to play into the cloudiness of the story, to me it was just uneventful. Liked the characters, wish they would have had a better story.

Specifically for the audiobook, the narrators did an amazing job and I highly enjoyed listening to them.

So, before I get to reviewing this - I need to make something clear. There are at least 2 versions of this story, and I have no idea if I ended up with the final one or not. This obviously adds some confusion and may even change how I'd feel about the story.

That's out of the way now. This story follows a family as the patriarch, Steven, is planning to marry a much younger woman, Heather. Heather had been hired as an interior decorator to remodel the home Steven shared with his wife Pamela but after Pamela developed dementia and went into a nursing home, Steven and Heather fell in love. Also in this story are Steven's adult daughters Rachel and Tully. Rachel is forever alone except for her love of food - refusing to date anyone. Tully has a husband and kids, and wants to present a picture-perfect life to her family, but things are falling apart. In fact - all of the women in this story are hiding secrets, including the matriarch, Pamela.

We begin at Heather and Steven's wedding, where we learn that something violent has happened at the ceremony.

And I really don't want to say anything else - especially because I've read that an entire storyline might not be in here!

Thank you netgalley and Macmillan audio for giving me an "advanced" (whoops) copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very interesting and fast-paced, the author held my attention and the narrator was very appealing. I would recommend this book to friends.

Stephen Ashton is a highly respected heart surgeon, devoted husband, and father to two beautiful young women, but suddenly everything drastically changes. His wife is diagnosed with early-onset dementia,, and he's moving her to a nursing home. On top of that, Stephen just announced that he's proposed to their interior designer, Heather, a woman younger than his own daughters, and he's not even divorced yet.

Heather has a past she's trying desperately to hide, but when her past and her happily ever after collide is she losing her mind or is Stephen Ashton harboring some even deeper secrets.

Everybody has secrets, maybe even secrets worth killing to keep. Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy.

This was totally gripping - I read it in three days! I didn't like it quite as much as I loved The Good Sister and The Mother-in-Law but was still worth reading for sure.

4/5 Thank you to Net Galley and the author for the eAudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting situation where a man, Steven, around sixty finds himself burdened with a youngish (in her 50s) wife with advanced dementia. He wants to continue to support her, but also wants to move on with his life. Enter the young interior designer, Heather, who is there to remake their home. Initially she tries to work with both Pam and Steven, but it soon becomes obvious that Pam is not all there. It gets to the point where Steven has to put Pam in a home. He then changes all the plans for the house with Heather and makes his move on her.

The story is told from the POV of three women all around thirty years of age: Steven’s two daughters and Heather. Both Tully and Rachel want to hate who they see as the gold-digger after their senior cardiologist-father’s wealth; but Heather turns out to be very likeable and not after his money at all.

Both daughters have issues of their own, so dealing with a father who is divorcing their mother to marry someone their own age is additional distress. To top things off, Rachel finds a hot water bottle full of cash among their mother’s things when cleaning out the house. The bottle also contains a piece of paper with two names on it: Tully’s and another unknown woman’s. Unfortunately, questioning her Mom gets her nowhere.

As the women wind their way through many events, the mystery of the money and the other named woman evolves and it seems that good old Dad isn’t what he seems to be. Matters culminate at Steven and Heather’s wedding with the three women agreeing that what was done on the spur of the moment was the correct outcome.

This book ended up being much better than anticipated. I was expecting to read about how awful the new, younger wife was; about all the money grubbing antics she was up to, etc. Instead, Steven’s newest woman ended up getting along with his daughters and greatly helped one of them get over an old wound. She didn’t seem to be after his money at all.

The narration was generally good, except the voice that the narrator assigned to Tully was very whiny and grating. Tully did have issues, but the whininess of the narration made her much more unlikeable than the story warranted.

The book opens with the wedding of Stephen and Heather, a much younger woman. They met when she redecorates his house. Then there is a scream and the story goes back to Stephen announcing to his daughters that he is getting married to Heather, the woman he has brought to their lunch. Stephen Aston is a 60 something attractive physician who is getting married to a much younger woman. The thing is, he is already married. Pam has dementia, so he divorces her, even though he claims he still loves her. He asks his daughters, Tully and Rachel to be bridesmaids. Tully is married with 2 young children but their family is having financial issues and Rachel is single woman with a thriving cake baking business. Neither is happy about the wedding. As we get to know more about this family, you wonder how this wedding ever came about.

The Younger Wife is a story of flawed characters with all kinds of different issues to deal with. I really enjoyed that the story is told through various POVs as well as an unknown narrator at the beginning. The story introduces us to a family that seems perfect from the outside, but as we get to know the characters, it is evident that they are dealing with so many issues. I wanted to scream at Heather to run quickly in the opposite direction. Without giving anything away, I will tell that some of the issues being dealt with by the various characters are kleptomania, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, dementia, poverty, difficult children, social appearances, getaway money and more. This was another winning domestic suspense novel from Sally Hepworth. The characters were so well developed and interesting, even though they were unlikable. I know a lot of people didn't like the ending, but I thought it fit well, poetic justice maybe... The audiobook was narrated by a full cast which drew me in and had me listening intently. I definitely recommend the audiobook if you enjoy listening to your stories.