Happy Publishing Week to this lovely book! Three BFFs, sick of doing it all and having their work as wives and mothers taken for granted, develop an app that monetizes the Mental Load & allows women to just take a break for a second.

I absolutely loved the innovative concept and found myself getting attached to the main characters. I found myself wanting ‘more’ which is one of the main reasons this wasn’t a 5 star read for me, but I do think it’s worth the read!

I was excited to read this book after reading the synopsis. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I found myself to be somewhat disappointed as I read the novel.

Three women, Lauren, Sophie and Madeline, after having divorced their husbands, get together and develop an app, The Wife App, to "right marital inequalities” that will let the user pay for jobs that normally fall to mothers. We follow the development and execution of the app from each of the women's point of view.

I didn't like the characters very much and at times the story jumped around. Overall, not a book that left me feeling satisfied at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster for an ARC. The review is my own.

After reading 20% of the book, I realized that this book is not for me. I ended up skimming the rest of the book. I was looking for a humorous read, but I found the story instead a little depressing. I also didn't find the wives that likable. One of the ex-wives spent all her time on her daughter, her own looks, and hookups. Her life seemed so shallow. I also quickly realized that another was going to end up in a lesbian relationship. I received a free copy of this ebook from the author. This is my honest and voluntarily given review.

Read it in a week! Lauren, Madeline and Sophie are captivating! Their subplots are so well crossed with the main plot that is hard to put the book down !
Caroline Mackler did an excellent job in making the characters round and so relatable to readers. The plot will drive you through happiness, sadness and anger, just like real life!
I’d recommend this book to all kinds of woman, not just marriage ones, the information is so necessary to be shared. I’d love see some men reading it as well, they could learn A LOT with The Wife App!
Reminded me a bit of sex and the city but more focused on self love and self knowledge.

I finished reading "The Wife App" last week. This one had a large amount of potential, but it ended up falling short for me. I get the concept - everyday life work falls mostly on the shoulders of a wife in a relationship. Wives carry the whole mental load, make the plans, care for the children, clean, keep the household running smoothly, etc - for free - so why not find a way to get paid for doing them?

But this is where it falls short - being a wife on the wife app, they are still doing work for others to get paid for it. What we really want is to get paid for the work we have to do for our own households. The "wife" workers were still having to do the work for themselves -for free- while getting paid to do the work for others, too. That doesn't seem much different than holding any other job on top of being a wife/mother.

So, I'm not sure. The actual stories of each of the women were very interesting, but not enough to get me over the main premise of the book. Because of that, I wouldn't recommend this book.

Thanks for the gifted copy @simonbooks! The Wife App is out next Tuesday, June 27. Swipe to read the synopsis. #simonbooksbuddy

I loved buddy reading this one with my sweet friend @overbookedmama. Our discussions and her perspective are always so thought provoking.

Overall I liked this one! It was just what I needed to kick off summer. Light and fun but with some necessary depth.

I was impressed with each of the three friends’ smarts and abilities to create such a neat (and needed!) app, especially while dealing with their own personal drama, setbacks and hardships. Usually in a book with multiple POVs I prefer one perspective over the others but that wasn’t the case here and I really enjoyed each. As a new mom, I could relate to the mental loads of the moms and relatability is always a bonus in a book for me.

The ending was a little rushed and I thought some of the secondary characters just added fluff more than substance. Major props, though, for tackle some tougher topics like gender identity and mental health.

More than anything, I just loved the idea of a wife app & as much time as I spent thinking of what I’d hire out, I spent equally as much thinking of the things I enjoy doing that I wouldn’t mind being hired for. 😂

I LOVED this book!

Big thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC so I could read and review before it drops on June 27!!

Three friends find themselves in a moment where their lives have gone a bit sideways. Lauren is freshly divorced after discovering her husband's shady behavior. Madeleine's daughter may be spending the next year abroad. Sophie is dealing with an awful ex and some serious fomo.

They are all also struggling with the juggle to do everything - which is relatable AF. Particularly the things that, unfortunately, are known as "wife"duties - the mental load things like organizing health appointments/forms, overseeing all things related to kids' schools, errands, keeping up the house, etc. As someone who lives by herself, this is VERY real and as I have been dealing with home reno projects for weeks, my KINGDOM for someone to help with my mental load!

The idea takes root - what if they created an app to help with this? What begins as a bit of a joke - call it the Wife app, they decided after several cocktails - quickly snowballs. And as they work through this process, they all evolve a bit too.

I really got into this one - I fell for all three of our leading gals, even though they are so different. I am a sucker for authenticity and flawed characters - it makes things interesting and easier to get invested.

I also appreciated the commentary on society, the patriarchy, and how we value women, partnership and traditional roles. And seriously, I would love a wife app.

Will post this review on Goodreads, twitter @sarahncotton, retail sites and my bookstagram @scottonreads

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC for an Honest Review!!

"It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load, and maybe get revenge on our exes in the process?""

Will this really work? Easy to relate to the characters and themes in the story, I really enjoyed it easy to read.

Thank you once again!

The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler @carolynmacklerbooks was a fun, quick read, perfect for summer.

“Three best friends decide they’re finally done with their ex-husbands taking their work as wives and moms for granted. They’re ready to monetize the mental load, stick it to their exes, and have a wild ride in the process.”

I was immediately drawn into the story and flew through it. Each chapter is told from the POV of one of the three main characters and I loved seeing each of them and their perspectives. The idea of the Wife App is brilliant and the discussion of the mental load so many of us carry was spot on. There were many funny and insightful parts and also parts I cringed while reading only because the truths being shared were so very real. A great read!

If you ever wanted "beach read" defined, it's this book. I mean this in the kindest way possible, but this is some 2000s chick lit: sanitized New York City, everyone getting everything they want, maybe the real friends we made along the way were the friends we had this all time and also these surprisingly stable lives in magically affordable places while we make lots of money on a fun side project.

But this time with the most awkward queer storyline you'll ever read.

Is it breezy and enjoyable and do I know just who to recommend it to? Yes. Would I have read it had it been by anyone else? No. I tried it, it went by fast, there's nothing WRONG with it, I hope it does well, but I stopped reading books like this a long time ago because they are so samey, so ready-for-the-screen-adaptation.

Anyway, have fun at the beach this summer. Great book to bring if you can stomach how douchey the one cheater is.

I'm giving this one 3.5 stars because I love the message and the theme but it's a book that I've read before. I spent most of it with a massive sense of deja vu and it suddenly hit me toward the end that it's almost a replica of First Wives Club, just updated for modern times.
Three divorced friends are tired of how their lives are falling apart despite all their work, so they come together with a project that starts as a bit of a joke and quickly turns into a life-changing opportunity. Lauren is just getting divorced after discovering that her husband is a 'regular' at a brothel, Madeline's life revolves around doing everything for a daughter who wants to get away from her, and Sophie works like crazy to give her kids everything while watching her ex-husband create a perfect family with his new wife. They're all tired of taking on all the mental load of being a wife with no recognition of how much work that is, so they come up with an app that lets users hire 'Wives' to do those tasks for them.
The first half of the book is honestly a little depressing with reminders of how awful things in life can get. There are issues with family, children, work/life balance, money, identity, and just everything that one usually reads books to escape from. But it does get to the bright side of things when each of the women finds their grove and realizes that it's in their hands to take charge of their lives and be happy. It's this half that carries the positive messages and gives the book the lightness I was hoping for when I first started it.
Overall, it's a solid book with great messaging and lots of life lessons, it just happens to be a little too close to one I already consider a classic and somewhat of a downer for most of it.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the emotional read!

I love the premise of scorned women creating an app to channel their rage and this book didn't disappoint. While it's not necessarily High-Brow Literature (TM), it's a fun read with likeable characters you want to root for. I enjoyed it and will recommend it.

Who hasn't had an idea for an app over a few drinks with your best friends? Well when three best friends who were sick and tired of their work as wives and mothers not being recognized, they actually did it!

I liked the premise of this and it really does shine a light on all the work moms do that we don't see.

I loved this book. Sometimes "women's fiction" is a miss for me (also it's 2023 why are we still differentiating women's fiction from fiction :| ... I digress)

This book was a HIT. I loved the three women, I loved the differences in their personalities and the way their strengths/flaws each brought something different to the table. I also loved the differences in their friendships, because it felt like the friendships I have with my female friends. We seek one another out for different things and sometimes all we can muster up is a thumbs up emoji, but in true times of need we are there for each other.

I do wish the romances had either been more flushed out, or omitted, but they didn't necessarily take away from my love of the book. It just felt like they came in at the end to make the story feel more whole.

Either way, I could not put this book down and I loved every moment of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Because every wife deserves a happy ending."

The idea of The Wife App starts as joke during a drunken dinner between three friends. The last of their marriages has failed and the idea of monetizing the mental load on wives emerges. They've been doing "wife" tasks for free for years so why not cash in? Lauren, mother of twins and whose divorce has just been finalized helps develop the app and it soon takes off. But The Wife App might not be as easy to make successful as they first thought.

We also get the POV of Madeline - gorgeous, wealthy, and in the middle of a custody dispute with her ex-husband in England and Sophie - whose whole life revolves around her young son Charlie but finds herself wishing for more.

I loved the dynamic of the three friends. Their personalities couldn't be more different but they're still so friend-compatible. The triple POV isn't confusing as each chapter has a heading of whose story is being told. I'm not sure how technologically accurate the startup of the app is but I thought the inside look at that was fun. Overall, an entertaining and funny book! Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

It's all the little things. That's Lauren's brilliant idea for an app- an app where a spouse can transfer the spouse's mental load to a "wife" who will do everything from taking the dog to the vet to organizing a trip (but not THAT). Lauren and Sophie met at Vassar and later met Madeline. All three are divorced, all three struggling either financially (in Sophie's case) or emotionally in Lauren's case and in her own way, Madeline, who lives for her daughter who now wants to spend the next year in London with her dad. The app gives them a bit of freedom and even more opens their lives. There are some entertaining vignettes with the "spouses" and Mackler is more generous to them than she could have been. There's an interesting surprise of a twist near the end (no spoilers) and this is generally a pretty genial, entertaining read with good characters and fine storytelling. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This one might well make you think about what you would love to hire someone else to do. A very good read.

I wanted to love this book, but it was just OK to me. I loved the concept of the Wife App, but the execution wasn't my favorite. It didn't feel like all that much happened, and I wanted more character development. It was still a decent read, though.

The story alternates between the three starting founders of the Wife App.

This story really gives one to think about; very creative concept for a novel. Kudos!

There is a facebook group that I’ve discovered recently (Friends and Fiction), their 2023 reading challenge included reading a YA novel. This introduced me to Carolyn Mackler; when The Wife App became available, I anxiously reguested it via NetGalley. The Wife App is Carolyn Mackler’s first adult fiction novel (after approximately 20 YA books). Seems that this was an easy transition for Carolyn Mackler, The Wife App is going to be a huge success for her!

There are a lot of characters (in my opinion). Three women, their ex's, children and stepchildren, ex's wives.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Carloyn Mackler and Simon & Schuster for approving my ARC request. Publication date is 27 June, 2023.

Most wives and mothers work a full time job only to come home to work another one. Imagine a life where you gained income from all of the tedious wife tasks that you handle on the daily! This is where I was hooked. It felt like I was living a fairytale through the words. These 3 friends come together to create an app as revenge to their ex-husbands for all of the the tasks they’ve done as wives. They each have their own storylines which are layered and complicated in their own ways….and a little messy. The author touches on contemporary topics such as mental health in children, co-parenting, & LGBT relationships. I do not recall any TW. This was a light read. Very enjoyable and relatable.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

Sometimes books find you at just the right time, and you fall in love with them and want to read them over and over again.

…And sometimes you find a book at exactly the wrong time and find it completely insufferable. With this book, I have to say it’s a privilege in some ways to not relate to it, as a woman married to a man.

I picked it up because it’s all about the invisible labor that tends to fall to women in a straight relationship. But the solution is that these same overworked women are going to get paid to do labor that would fall to other women. Like, where do we actually confront the men that are profiting off of this labor?

So here’s the personal conflict. It comes in two parts - the privileged and non-privileged parts. I am currently living with long Covid, and I spend 70-90% of my day in bed. I get exhausted by doing one load of laundry. That part of my life super sucks…but my husband has absolutely picked up the slack and taken care of our house and both of our needs without complaint for the past 11 months. So I can’t handle reading about these trash men - one of whom “doesn’t believe” in invisible labor.

So, I quit and am going to go back to my fluffy rom coms where men are written by women to be better than they often are in real life. And a thousand thank yous to my husband for making this book unrelatable.

🎧 The narrators are fantastic. The book doesn’t have chapter numbers and is just labeled by the character POV (at least the ARC I received was written that way), so if you like to go back and forth, make sure you have a player that has percentages or it’ll be very difficult to switch!

*A note about my rating: I know my toxic trait is not rating below 3 stars. I think this book will be super relatable to a lot of people, and is pretty well written. So it gets stars for that. I could see myself liking this book in a different context. Based on the reviews I'm seeing, I think I would like this book ok if I made myself finish it...but why finish a 3 star book when there are 5 star books in the world, you know?