This had a very interesting premise to it. I also thought I had it figured out very early on and was WRONG! The isolation in this book made it slightly terrifying to me. My anxiety was peaked haha.

👀The title caught my eye and the writing kept it! ⁉️

"My Husband’s Lover" is an engaging psychological thriller that grips readers from the first page. Jess Ryder masterfully combines elements of suspense, intrigue, and complex human relationships. The female MC, Sophie, is very well-developed and readers follow Sophie as she not only discovers her husband has been having an affair but it appears the other woman plans to make herself well known while both Sophie and her are at a secluded retreat located on an island. If you think this sounds like a recipe for disaster - you would likely be right.

Ryder has constructed a very twisted plot that kept me glued to the pages and turning the pages as fast as possible. The level of tension built between characters and situations was pretty consistent throughout the story - meaning I didn’t feel like certain parts of the story were too slow and there was no falling asleep or spacing out while reading! Yes, sometimes those things happen while reading 😉 but not with this story!

I really don’t want to include particular details in this review as I always think it’s best to go into a book without preconceived notions or assumptions. I think it’s probably safe to say, based on the title alone, this story is going to take you on a journey of betrayal and it kind of rips the band-aid off a wounded relationship. If that’s not enough Ryder includes bits of psychological aspects in the lovely forms of paranoia and obsession. 😬👀

What I didn’t really care for…
I loved the plot; However there were times during the story I thought it was somewhat predictable. Also while I enjoyed the secluded island aspect and mystery room - these things are also pretty cliche in psychological thriller’s.

Conclusion:
Overall, if you enjoy reading thrillers"My Husband’s Lover" will likely be a book you would enjoy.

***

📚Disclosure: I received a review copy of this #book from the author/publisher via #Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, comments, and interpretations of the story are my own and bias free. I did not receive any money in exchange for this review. Thank you to the publisher/author for allowing me the opportunity to review. 🦄
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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of <i>My Husband's Lover</i> in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

<h4 style="margin-top: 84px;">The Gist</h4>

Jess Ryder's <i>My Husband's Lover</i> captivates from the very first page with its gripping narrative and intricate storytelling. This psychological thriller navigates the complexities of relationships and the dark secrets that lie beneath the surface with skill and finesse, leaving readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

<h4>The Details</h4>

One of the novel's greatest strengths is its well-developed characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. Ryder crafts a cast of characters that feel both authentic and compelling. As the layers of deceit are peeled away, readers are drawn deeper into the tangled web of lies and betrayal that defines their lives.

Furthermore, the plot of <i>My Husband's Lover</i> is masterfully constructed, full of twists and turns that keep readers guessing until the final reveal. Ryder expertly builds tension throughout the novel, ratcheting up the suspense with each new revelation and ensuring that the stakes remain high until the very end. The pacing is relentless, propelling the story forward at breakneck speed and leaving readers breathless with anticipation.

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of <i>My Husband's Lover</i> is its exploration of themes such as trust, forgiveness, and the nature of love. As the protagonist grapples with the consequences of her actions and struggles to come to terms with the truth, Ryder offers readers a nuanced and thought-provoking meditation on the complexities of human relationships. The novel challenges readers to confront difficult questions about loyalty and morality, ultimately leaving them with a deeper understanding of the human condition.

<h4>The Verdict</h4>

Overall, <i>My Husband's Lover</i> is a triumph of psychological suspense, combining razor-sharp writing with a compelling plot and richly drawn characters. Jess Ryder proves herself to be a master storyteller. This is a must-read for fans of the.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review*

A great thriller - I would recommend it!

This was a riveting, gripping and shocking page turner. The setting of the book was fantastic. It is well written and nicely plotted. The pacing was good.

#MyHusbandsLover #NetGalley
Sophie thought she had a nice life with her husband Ryan and two little boys Ben and Louie. However, when Ryan drops the bombshell that he has had an affair understandably Sophie’s mental health takes a huge hit. She is determined to work through this for the sake of her boys and when she discovers open water swimming it makes her feel alive and it becomes her lifeline. She sets up a group “Sophie’s Swimmers” and ends up with a nice group of five regular swimmers, Fern, Ariel, Elise, Grace and Kiera. When Fern suggests the group go away for a wild swimming holiday everyone agrees it’s a great idea. Fern has found the perfect place in Scotland, its off the grid but the perfect place to digital detox from with stunning scenery and not only a loch to swim in but also close to the sea to also swim in. Fern pulls out of the trip on short notice, but the other women still decide to go, keen to not let any of the group down. However, after Ryan sees a selfie of the group of women, he is keen for Sophie not to go and tries to talk her out of it, but she stands her ground and persists with the holiday. But then, on the drive up to Scotland, Ryan calls Sophie in a panic, he admits that one of the women in the group is who he had the affair with, and he is worried for her safety but refuses to tell her which one of the women it is. Sophie decides to carry on with the trip to try and work out which one of her so-called friends is in fact the woman who is destroying her marriage. Who can Sophie trust and is Ryan right to be worried about Sophies safety or was that just a ploy to get her to abandon the trip?!!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me an advance copy.

Well, this was a rollercoaster. I thought it was a bit obvious and I'd guessed the culprit earlier and then boom! I was wrong! And then came confession time and boom wrong again! Just what I like in a thriller.

A great read, full of suspense and tension. I did find myself getting a little bit annoyed with the main character at times as she put herself in some silly situations but I still enjoyed it. The author is a firm favourite of mine as her books always grip me and make me want to keep reading.

A great story, it kept me hooked the whole time! Great ending, I definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys a mysterious psychological thriller.
I look forward to reading more from this author.

So...the title tells you exactly what kind of book this is, and it really doesn't disappoint.

This is a kind of silly, fast-paced adventure of a book. Our main character (surprise) is not a doormat, though I wouldn't put myself in this particular situation.

There are secrets and scandals and lies and it's kind of delicious.

The reason behind everything is kind of...uninspiring. However, it's still fun to see just how over the top some characters get over that reason.

A beach read and a fun one!

Summary:

Sophie has been swimming with a group of ladies on a regular basis. They’ve developed a friendship and planned a weekend away together at a cabin.

On the way to the cabin, Sophie shows her husband a photo of the group, and she finds out her husband has slept with one of the women. She proceeds to go on the trip even though she doesn’t know which one of the swimmers her husband has slept with!

Talk about stressful!!

My Thoughts:

Love the locked room mystery!

Jess Ryder is such an underrated author. Her books are so fantastic, and they don’t get nearly enough exposure for how fun her thrillers are!

I couldn’t put this down! Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced reader’s copy.

A week away with my husband's mistress. A weekend away with friends but one of them is my husband's mistress and I am going to find out who and they will pay. Utterly addictive!!

This is only my second book by Jess Ryder and like the first, I also really enjoyed this one!

Sophie thought she had a nice life with her husband Ryan and two little boys Ben and Louie. However, when Ryan drops the bombshell that he has had an affair understandably Sophie’s mental health takes a huge hit. She is determined to work through this for the sake of her boys and when she discovers open water swimming it makes her feel alive and it becomes her lifeline. She sets up a group “Sophie’s Swimmers” and ends up with a nice group of five regular swimmers, Fern, Ariel, Elise, Grace and Kiera. When Fern suggests the group go away for a wild swimming holiday everyone agrees it’s a great idea. Fern has found the perfect place in Scotland, its off the grid but the perfect place to digital detox from with stunning scenery and not only a loch to swim in but also close to the sea to also swim in. Fern pulls out of the trip on short notice, but the other women still decide to go, keen to not let any of the group down. However, after Ryan sees a selfie of the group of women, he is keen for Sophie not to go and tries to talk her out of it, but she stands her ground and persists with the holiday. But then, on the drive up to Scotland, Ryan calls Sophie in a panic, he admits that one of the women in the group is who he had the affair with, and he is worried for her safety but refuses to tell her which one of the women it is. Sophie decides to carry on with the trip to try and work out which one of her so-called friends is in fact the woman who is destroying her marriage. Who can Sophie trust and is Ryan right to be worried about Sophies safety or was that just a ploy to get her to abandon the trip?!!

This was a really good story; I was definitely gripped, and I didn’t want to stop reading. Things got really intriguing when suddenly in chapter 5 we were introduced to “The swimmer”. I loved their chapters and despite spending a lot of time tying myself in knots trying to guess who they were, I never got it, so finding out who they were was brilliant, I definitely did not suspect them. The other thing I really enjoyed about this book was reading all about open water swimming. I have heard about it before but didn’t know about all the intricacies of it and really enjoyed learning about it. I also loved following Sophie’s journey; she was a different person at the end of the book from the vulnerable, unhappy woman we met at the beginning.

Overall, a great story and I definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys a mysterious psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jess Ryder and Bookouture for my advanced reading copy. Out now.

Enjoyed this book
But her others have been better
Still enjoyed the rollercoaster ride this author gives you
Thanks NetGalley

Taking a break from her cheating husband Ryan , Sophie plans on a Scottish swim getaway with her swimming group of close girlfriends. But halfway across the trip Ryan makes a shocking confession which will have impact not only Sofie but also her friends.

My Husband’s Lover by Jess Ryder is a well paced psychological thriller with enough twists and turns that keeps you entertained throughout .


I would like to thank Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

“A wife. A mistress. A week away with no escape…”


I’m not certain just how much I can say about this storyline to whet your appetite, without giving anything away, but here goes nothing!…

Sophie and Ryan have two young sons aged nine and ten years old, but their marriage is going through a rocky patch, since Sophie discovered that Ryan had been cheating on her. Ryan appears contrite, although he seems to think that telling Sophie that it was only for sex, is going to put things right more quickly.

In an effort to have some therapy time for herself, Sophie establishes ‘Sophie’s Swimmers’, a wild swimming club, where she and five other women who have joined her, meet once a week at the lake of a local Nature Discovery Park. Fern, Ariel, Keira, Grace and Elise, come from diverse backgrounds, although they meet purely for the swimming and actually know little of one another’s private lives. Fern is obviously the most well-to-do of the group and it is she who suggests that they should go away for a week’s swimming break as a group. The location she chooses is in a remote part of Scotland, a two mile hike from the nearest car park and many miles from any village or town. The cottage is basic in the extreme and has no facilities, so they will have zero contact with the outside world for the duration of their stay, at least that’s what they believe! It is however, both close to the coast for sea swimming and has its own loch nearby, for those all important early morning, wild swimming dips.

Ryan is far from happy about her plans, even though Sophie has arranged for the children to visit their maternal grandparents for the week, so he won’t have to be responsible for their care. However, when Sophie shows him a group picture of ‘Sophie’s Swimmers’, he becomes positively apoplectic, although he refuses to say why. He begs her not to go, however Sophie digs in her heels, even when one of their number does have to cry off at the last minute. The journey up country is long and arduous for Sophie, as the only driver, made much worse by the garbled phone call she exchanges with Ryan from a motorway services, where he confides in her part of his reticence for her making the trip, whilst still refusing to be completely truthful with her.

Armed with a little knowledge, which they do say can be a dangerous thing, Sophie disengages from the group more and more, as she begins to try and unravel the truth from the limited amount of information Ryan gave her. With revenge on her mind, aware that she in return, is being hunted, and with the disadvantage of not knowing who her adversary is, Sophie hopes to set up a final and maybe fatal showdown and so a very deadly game of cat and mouse ensues. However, there are other members of the group who also have their own agendas and are not as innocent as everyone believes. They too, are busy setting their individual plans in motion, and so a wily and potentially catastrophic chain of events is set to unfold on several unconnected levels, which are every bit as lethal as one another, and each of which seem to wrap themselves around Sophie, dragging her down until she doesn’t know where to turn.

Finally, with a perplexing crime scene left in the less than capable hands of the local police, what is left of the group are free to head home, with a seemingly traumatised Sophie needing space and time alone to make preparations for her new life going forwards. However, she will only realise that goal after she has finally destroyed her nemesis, with the biggest secret of them all. This is one tough cookie, determined that the future is going to happen on her terms, and hers alone!

Don’t get mad, get even. If you can’t get even one way, then find a different way!!

...

And how those unexpected twists and turns just kept coming – from the very first, to the very final word!…

The story is predominantly told in two voices, those of Sophie and her unknown antagonist, called simply ‘The Swimmer’, a format which worked brilliantly once I got to grips with it, which didn’t take long at all.

This well-structured, multi-layered storyline was powerful, well-paced, highly textured and intense. The cut-it-with-a-knife atmosphere, for the most part was desperately cloying and claustrophobic, yet totally immersive. The tension mounted exponentially, with a situation which had at first seemed manageable, fast careening out of control.

There was not a single facet of this storyline which was simple or uncomplicated, as more and more clues were drip-fed into the narrative little by little. Nothing was quite as it seemed and the twists and turns just kept on coming – and I mean right to the very end, complicating the tangled web of lies and secrets which overlaid everything, until I just didn’t know who to believe any more. In fact, the reveal of the antagonist at about the 75% marker, didn’t make a shred of difference, as the suspense was maintained right up to the turn of that last page. Don’t assume anything is over, until it’s over!

The story predominantly takes place in the remote, sometimes beautiful, but often harsh conditions of the Ardnish Peninsula, in the Highlands of Scotland. Even though, with all the terrible things going on around them, the ladies may not have had either the mental capacity or inclination to notice the scenery they had hoped to enjoy during their stay, author Jess Ryder still made time to use the full palette at her disposal, to paint the physical location with a rich colour and vibrancy, taking in the sights, sounds and smells, which lifted this place which time forgot, off the page, offering a truly inclusive experience for the reader. As a confirmed ‘armchair traveller’ I could feel myself being transported to another world, although I have to admit that personally, I do prefer my amazing scenery to come with a few mod-cons and little luxuries. Oh! and as a non-swimming, fear of water, confirmed landlubber, some of the excruciatingly detailed water scenes were ‘hands covering the eyes’ moments.

I can honestly say that, despite the entire cast of characters being well defined and described in vivid detail, none of them were in the least bit likeable or authentic. I tried to take into account that many of them were ‘damaged goods’ in one way or another and by varying degrees. However, I found them simply too manipulative, malevolent and duplicitous, to be in any way compelling or with any depth I could invest in.

Sophie and Ryan are the perfect match for each other and I found it difficult to work out which was the biggest liar of the two, the one with most secrets. Except for when she was in the company of her young sons, Sophie was definitely the hardest hearted of the couple and always had been. Ryan was always the inherent victim of any situation, prone to laziness and rather spineless, although in reality, he really did just need a good kick up the bottom and there is no way I would have put up with him. However, I’m not sure I would have been quite so evil as Sophie, in case it affected any one else who was innocent – although there was little chance of that in this book.

As you can probably tell, I became really invested in this storyline for its duration, although I was more than happy to walk away from it when it was over, as it was possibly a little too all-consuming – Job Done, I would say, Jess!

I have previously read some of her books, and loved them. But I felt that this one didnt really hit the mark for me. It dragged on a bit and had unlikeable characters.

Secrets, twists, and turns! My Husband's Lover grabbed my attention on page 1 and never let go. This was a riveting, gripping and shocking page turner!

A slow burn that will have you turning the pages. I was so addicted to this book , finished it in just a few days. Definitely worth reading.

My Husband’s Lover is the deliciously twisted new thriller by Jess Ryder!

Sophie is looking forward to a week away with her girlfriends in a remote Scottish hideaway. She is looking forward to seven days spent drinking wine, chatting with her friends and living it up without having to worry about childcare, homework and household chores. When she gets to Scotland, Sophie is all smiles and seems to be enjoying swimming in the loch, hiking on beaches and swapping stories, however, all is not quite what it seems for her as she is determined to uncover which one of her friends is her husband’s mistress!

Sophie will not rest until she has uncovered the identity of her husband’s lover. Their idyllic holiday hideaway might seem perfect, but it’s also remote and as far from civilization as it is possible to get. There is no escape from the truth and Sophie is willing to do whatever it takes to bring the dark secrets of her husband’s mistress out into the light.

Screaming for help is not going to do one blind bit of difference because someone is going to pay with their life for messing with Sophie’s marriage – she will make sure of it!

Jess Ryder’s My Husband’s Lover is a juicy and addictive thriller full of secrets, lies and deception that had me hooked! A delicious slow-burn of a novel that builds to a delicious crescendo of intensity, jeopardy and foreboding, My Husband’s Lover is sure to leave thriller fans turning the pages until the early hours of the morning!