Thank you for the opportunity to read this book before publication. 5 stars for a DNF as I am unable to comment on the overall quality of the book. What an interesting premise!!! I was super drawn to this book due to the synopsis. Unfortunately this wasn't for me. I found the writing clunky and longwinded. Perhaps with some tighter editing, this would've been more enjoyable for me.

I found this book really slow to start and there were points I got a bit bored. I persisted and it did pick up towards the end when Elana finally got her act together and stood up for herself and her daughter.

I felt the writing lacked the aspect to grab my attention and really wow me.
It was an okay story to pass some time. I did enjoy the ending and I'm glad Elana was brave enough to do something about her situation.

Overall an okay read. Just wished it had a bit more thrill to it.

Elana is a widow with a small child named Phoebe. Elana meets Jackson, the towns mayor. She thought she’d finally found her happy ending but he is not what he seems to be. He’s been married twice and both ex wives have disappeared and so have their daughters. After the wedding, he changes and becomes very controlling. Elana does not dare disappear or put a foot out of line.

This book is divided into now and then which really helped to pull the story along. I really enjoyed this book and it definitely gets better towards the end. I became slightly bored during the middle as the writing just became slightly boring. However, the ending really made up for this and I was so gripped!! This is one of those books I stayed up late to finish because I just had to know Elana was okay. There were many twists and turns in this book that shocked me and some that I could see coming from a mile away.

If you are looking for a gripping thriller then I highly recommend but please check trigger warnings beforehand!!

This book was such a page turner! Especially at the beginning I felt like I couldn't put this book down. I felt terrified for Elana as well as this sense of helplessness as she seemed trapped. This book reminded me a lot of The Last Mrs. Parrish and if you liked that book I feel like you will like this one. Make sure to check out the TWs for this one!!

Great read that kept me on my toes! I enjoyed the story and the author did a great job writing this story! I couldn’t put it down!

Elena thinks she has found the perfect husband in Jackson after her husband dies. Her daughter Phoebe will grow up with another male role model. Jackson is rich, but as time goes on, Elena learns that Jackson has not only been married not once, but twice. Each child that was from a previous marriage Is now missing. Elena knows she has to escape, but can she if she is constantly under the constant watch and thumb of Jackson. He tracks her every move. This is a fast paced thriller that was very enjoyable.

It took me longer than expected to fully immerse myself in this book and at times I found it very hard to believe Elana’s behavior as she seemed to be intent on getting herself hurt.

It was a good read, a little too close to a cable soap opera but still a fine novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Ex Wives in exchange for an honest review.

Elena and her daughter, Phoebe, think they have just entered into the perfect life when Elena married Jackson, a charismatic and rich small town mayor. That is until they begin to see Jacksons controlling ways from the clothes they wear to the tracking device on Elena's car and cell phone. Elena uncovers an even more startling fact her husband forgot to mention... he has been married twice before... and each wife had a young daughter that has gone missing. As tensions rise and Jackson's behavior becomes out of control Elena decides she must leave him but how does she do so and keep Phoebe from succumbing to the same fate as the young girls before her.

This is a gripping family suspense full of drama and sinister characters. The abusive relationship Elena finds herself in keeps her tethered to Jackson for the safety of her daughter. Jackson, and his whole family, are very manipulative and sinister but well thought out in their actions which keep Elena trapped in a cat and mouse game. It is one of the better true psychological thrillers I have read recently with shifting characters and a few creative surprises. The character of Faith and relationship with Jackson was the weakest part of the story but overall I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Jenna Kernan's work.

Terrific story with incredibly suspenseful twists & turns from start to finish. Kernan does a great job of taking you back to Elana's beginnings with her husband Jackson and merging you back into the present incredibly smoothly with no glaring lapses. Is her husband a kidnapoer? Could he have possibly abducted his two former step daughters from his previous marriages? Despite being warned, on her wedding day, by an exwife of Jackson's, about his abusive and violent tendencies, she chose to ignore her and stood by Jackson. Now she is facing the reality of what life with Jackson is really like for her and her young daughter from a previous marriage,Phoebe. He is controlling and totally suspect of her every move. When FBI agents pay them a visit and tell her that Jackson is under investigation, and asks her to help them uncover some evidence they need to arrest him, all of a sudden she sees a possible way out.
But does she really believe them?
The story gets better and better as you get into it and the suspense builds in equal measure.
A great read👍

This book had me on the edge of my seat. The build up to the plot was suspenseful. Such an easy read and I couldnt stop reading it

The Ex-Wives (Jenna Kernan) is a page turner from start to finish. Elana learned the hard way that the man she married, thinking he was too good to be true, was a nightmare, not a dreamboat. Elana soon learns she needs to be smarter and craftier than her husband to save herself and her daughter. I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for an early copy to review.

Excellent read. I stayed up all night reading this, the twists and turns are unexpected. As I read I could experience the feelings that the main character is going through. Highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book, it was so good! You have to love a gripping domestic thriller. It was a great story that drew me in from the very beginning, and kept my interest throughout its entirety. Intriguing and suspenseful, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I recommend, and will look for other titles by this author. Many many thanks to NetGalley and Bookoutre for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

A decent read. It took me a little time to get into it but it does gradually get interesting. One of the best things about the book is that you feel the panic of the character and root for her to get away from a toxic marriage.

The book is divided into then and now. There are tropes of powerful husband, abusive marriage and a controlling husband. I found the base premise of ex marriages and missing daughters to be interesting as a thriller. A slow burn which I would have preferred to be a little faster. The fear that the character feels and the submerging of her old characteristics was brought out well.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this eARC in exchange of my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the e-arc of this book

For about 3/4 Of this book I was meh on it. I loved the increase in tension and suspense in the last quarter of the book, I was very absorbed in the story by this point and eager to know what would happen next. All of the menacing, atmospheric tension, malice etc that was missing in the first 3/4 of the book was there at the end.

Still, throughout most of the book I thought the main character of Elena was just an idiot and she really annoyed me. And Jackson was so cruelly over the top he was *very* easy to hate.

Pretty good

The subject - a woman is in a abusive marriage to a powerful man, but can’t go to the police because pretty much everybody is u der his thumb, is not new. But it was handled very well and kept my I Teresa with only a little dragging.

The ending was very good. The only thing I missed is chocolate being an important part. The husband is seriously allergic and I kept thinking she would kill him off with it, or at least make him suffer at the end.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5 (rounded up to 5⭐)

⚠️ Content warning: domestic abuse, controlling and/or coercive behaviour, child abuse, profanity, gun, degrading language, murder, death, pregnancy, hunting, vehicle accident, incestuous relationship, alcohol use, blood, drugs, sexual situations, overdose, suicide, choking, vomiting, animal death, abduction, arson, animal cruelty and mentions eating disorder⚠️

Elana is recently widowed and left with a lot of debt from her first husband’s death when she meets Jackson, who is all too keen to pay off her debt and treat her to anything she wants. She goes from living a life of poverty to having security with Jackson. It is not long until this façade starts to crumble, and he starts to show his true colours to Elana although he is cautious enough to not show them around anybody else. Elana finds out from the FBI that Jackson had two previous marriages and when they tried to leave him, their daughters mysteriously disappeared. This is when she starts plotting her escape with her daughter, Phoebe…

It was well written. I really enjoyed how the chapters flipped between the then and now, as it showed you how much their relationship had changed between the two time periods. In the then, they appear to be happily in love but in the now, Elana starts seeing her husband for the walking red flag that he is.

Whilst Elana’s decisions may appear to be stupid to some, I think her decisions reflect how much Jackson had worn her down and as a result, it affected her ability to be able to think rationally as he completely changed her through his controlling and coercive behaviour, and she did what she had to do in order to save herself and her daughter from an abuser.

It shows the ‘extreme’ lengths that a person who has experienced domestic violence sometimes is driven to, in order to escape their abuser especially if they have power, like Jackson did as he is the mayor of the town that they live in. So, if Elana had not done what she did in the end, nobody would have believed her, and the situation could have been completely different. This also shows an important example of what people can be driven to do in order to be believed about domestic abuse, whether this is by law enforcement or even by people within their community.

This book provides a raw representation of domestic violence within a relationship (although it is not limited to just partners). I am also really glad that this book includes resources for different countries (UK, US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) within ‘A Letter from Jenna’.

Having said that, I have never wanted to punch a man so much in my entire life. Jackson is a truly awful man and he had me yelling at the book because of 1) angry he made me and 2) how upset I was with how he treated Elana. However, his character is supposed to be disliked because he is an abuser who uses his power to exert control over his wife (as well as previous wives).

The book does start off a bit slow, but it does pick up around the halfway point. Furthermore, I did find the ending a bit unrealistic as I had doubts about the possibility of Elana going on a date with another man so soon after leaving her abusive relationship with Jackson.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher, Bookouture for the opportunity to read this book!

I have posted this review to my NetGalley and Goodreads accounts. I will also post a review on my Instagram and Tiktok a week before the publication date (10th October 2022). This book will be available to purchase as an e-book on Kindle for £1.99.

Trigger warnings to note: domestic abuse, child abuse and suicide.

This book was intense but I could not put it down!!! It was so well thought out and I honestly loved this.

I do think some bits were a bit obvious and so it is a 4 star not a 5 but I would recommend this to anyone who loves thrillers!

The Ex-Wives
by Jenna Kernan
4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Description:
Two ex-wives. Two missing girls. Will yours be next? Pulling a batch of my husband’s favourite golden oatmeal cookies from the oven, I smile to hear my daughter Phoebe playing in the treehouse outside. I was once so close to losing everything, but since I married handsome Jackson, I have a perfect life. Jackson might tell me what to wear, but he just likes to buy me nice things. He says I don’t need a job, and why would I want one? I can spend all day taking care of Phoebe and running errands in the fancy car Jackson gave me—he knows everywhere I go, and I love how much he wants to keep me safe. But my whole world shatters when I find out Jackson is a liar. He never mentioned he was married before—twice. I love him so much. But how can I trust him now? Desperate for answers, I search our pristine house top to bottom. I thought Jackson was caring: but is it a way to control me? When I track down his ex-wives, I see fear in their eyes. Both these women had little girls just like me. And when they left Jackson, their daughters went missing. Devastated I’ve put Phoebe in danger, I have no choice but to find the truth about those poor girls. To protect Phoebe, I must pretend to still be the perfect wife, even though fear floods through me at Jackson’s touch. But how far will I have to go? And what will happen to me and my sweet child if my husband finds out?
👀🔪 MY REVIEW👀🔪
This was my first book by author Jenna Kernan. From the very first page it got my attention. It starts off very slow with chapters flipping between then and now, allowing you to see just how much their relationship changes. It is a true psychological thriller with so many jaw-dropping twist in every sense of the word. The twists and turns are completely unexpected. Some were just totally unbelievable. The author repeats herself so much in the beginning that I almost stopped reading it. The only reason I kept going was because I just had to know if she was able to get her daughter Phoebe out of this extremely abusive situation. About mid way through it really picks up, the repeating stops and the story takes off to the point that it becomes completely and utterly impossible to put down.
*******Disclosure*******
I received a free E -ARC copy of this book from netgalley prior to release. Many thanks to NetGalley ,the publisher and the author for the chance to read and review a copy of this interesting book in exchange for my honest review. I do not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing free books from publishers & authors. Therefore, I am under no obligation to write a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions I have expressed are my own. As always if you like the book you read please take the time to leave a review for the author in places like goodreads & Amazon. It does not have to be long. Just a few sentences saying you liked the book will do. Authors really appreciate every review they get !
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This was one edge of your seat, nail bitting novel! Elena is married Jackson who she has come to realise is not the man of her dreams but rather of her nightmares. In order to survive, her and Phoebe will need to escape but they’ll always be watching their backs…
A real heart racing read which at times reminded me a bit of “Sleeping with the Enemy”. I found myself at times screaming at Elena and later on cheering her on- She’s one brave cookie!!!

There are some very upsetting themes in this novel to be aware of -in particular domestic abuse, child abuse, attempted murder and hints of animal cruelty.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this thrilling arc.