A fun, fresh take on mental load and equal partnerships! I was surprised by this one. The title had me a little worried but overall I felt like this book really made you think while packaging it up in delightful storylines and bold female characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

I loved the premise of this book. It is well written and the book drew me in right away. As the story went along though I found some of the storylines a bit strange. I felt like the author was tackling every social issue she could think of but then didn’t get to fully develop any of them. I also found the repetitive talk about the mental load of wives and the thinly veiled male bashing to be a bit tiresome.

It should be noted thar there is crude language and sexual content. This was not bothersome nor distracting to me but it might be for some readers.

I’d probably round up to 3.5 stars. Basically good, interesting premise but the execution was flawed in ways that did impact how much I enjoyed the book. This was my first book by this author and based on this experience I’d definitely read another one by her.

#thewifeapp

Book Name: The Wife App

Author: Carolyn Mackler

ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of The Wife App

Stars: 2
Spice: NA

Standalone
Multi-POV
Plot Centric
Contemporary Fiction

- Topics
- Division of Labor
- Unseen Labor
- Equality and Equity
- Mom/Wife Life
- FMC Queer Rep
- Thoughts.
- Hilarious
- Negative of SAHM Life
- 🎶Too Much Labor by Paris Paloma
- Multi-POV kept the pace up!
- HEA

This is a marriage and man-bashing book. I absolutely love being a wife and mom. I feel like this author at times disrespects that role. IE quote from the final chapter “Here’s to dismantling the marriage institution". SO This is a 2 due to that. I loved the concept but the execution was clunky at best

Newly divorced Lauren is fed up with the mental load of marriage and motherhood when she encounters the last straw - her ex-husband tells her he's been hooking up with their (much younger) babysitter. She enlists her friends and fellow divorcees, Madeline and Sophie, to set up the Wife App and attempt to monetize their skills.

The characters were relatable but I have to say I liked the premise of this book more than the execution. The writing style didn't work for me, and while I usually prefer multiple POVs, in this book it often felt like reading the same plot thrice.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for gifting me with an ARC to review!

The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler (pub date June 27th!) is a delightful fantasy land for any ‘wife’ who feels like their mental load is just too much. I loved the concept of this novel from the very beginning, and was thrilled to receive an advanced copy. Mackler weaves in to the novel such a wide variety of issues that women and families face today. While reading, I often found myself laughing at how much I could relate to the situations in which the characters found themselves. I also loved the close friendship that she portrays through the three best friends. While not meant to be a self-help book, I even found myself reflecting on what I carry and where I should be outsourcing or asking for help.

The Wife App was such a fun read about being a mom in today’s world. I highly recommend it to any mom who could use an escape and some validation. 4.5 stars for me.

Special thanks to Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC via NetGalley.

There was a lot going on with this one and I think the thing I loved the most was the celebration of adult female friendship!

This was fresh and a unique take on the “stale marriage” story line we so often see.

As a psychologist specializing in maternal mental health, I spend a great deal of time talking about the maternal mental load with clients. Boy is it real! My husband is also in the tech world and has developed some apps himself. So when I saw the premise of this book, I was in!

I really enjoyed the blend of the personal lives of these characters with the development of the business as well as the alternating between the three points of view. I think the author did a good job describing the mental load and its impact on individuals and marriages while still making the book a fun read. Very enjoyable!

🌟🌟🌟🌟
There’s few things more cathartic than watching a woman leave a toxic situation and thrive on her own; for the three narrators of “The Wife App”, this manifests in different ways.

I really enjoyed this story, and how each of of the three friends—Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie—had their own personal narratives that tied into their professional ones with the app. And The Wife App itself wouldn’t exist without their shared backgrounds: they’re all co-parenting with their ex-husbands, and they all contributed years of unpaid labor to their former marriages. It’s because of this that they’re able to think up an app that would see “wives” finally be paid for their efforts.

It was interesting to follow along with how Lauren created the app and expanded as needed, but the most interesting parts for me were the relationships between the friends themselves and their children. Sometimes their ex-husbands(or at least 2 out of 3 of them) were almost comically villainous. But the scenes where the women are trying to balance supporting one another while also being the best moms possible? Those were the best.

It’s an overall fun book, and it felt on par with watching a Netflix series at times. This is an easy one to recommend as a fun summer read—which is convenient, as it will be available on June 27 🩵

Thanks to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely adored this book. It kept my interest through the entire novel. Three women, three different circumstances, all divorced come up with a concept to lighten their own load. The women eventually bond and become friends.. I really enjoyed this and look forward to the author's next book!

Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie are best friends and divorcees living in NYC when they come up with the brilliant idea to create The Wife App, an app that monetizes “the mental load” of housewives and mothers.

As a wife and work outside-the-home mother of two young kids, the synopsis for this book immediately caught my eye. The storyline is so unique and I think if you read Eve Rodsky’s book Fair Play, you’ll be a huge fan of this fictionized version of some of the themes covered in it. I flew through the first quarter of this book but then it slowed down for me. There are a ton of characters and they are hard to keep up with because most of them lack depth. You’ve got the 3 friends, their exes, all the kids, their friends, new love interests, and then side characters that come into play with the tasks assigned in the app. I think the author does a good job addressing privilege and featuring LGBTQ characters but at the same time, it’s one of those books where it feels like the author is trying to do too much. I think The Wife App could have benefited from a more polished storyline in that regard. Overall, this book is fun and empowering but I wanted Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie to have a little more happiness in their story. They deserve it.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

3/5 - Thank you to @netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Carolyn Mackler for an ARC of this book - out June 27th!

I loved the concept of this book - three friends, all divorced (one recently) who are all fed up with carrying the mental and actual load for themselves, their children and their former spouses. Enter: The Wife App. A way to monetize and get paid for the labor they are expected to do for free.

I think this book is addressing a complex and very real issue in an accessible and humorous way. The book is not heavy nor upsetting, per se. It feels very current. The characters are diverse and likable, quirks and all. They are different enough to really cover and appeal to a wide range of women, as are their children and former husbands. That being said, there was a lot going on and with the story divided between three narrators, I didn’t really feel like I got to know any of them deeply.

Aside from the main theme of unpaid labor, I really enjoyed how this book celebrates love. There were beautiful moments between friends, mothers and children, and individuals (self love!) too.

Three best friends find themselves divorced, and tired of being take advantage of during their time as wives and mothers. During a night out, the three women joke that they should get paid to complete the tasks that wives often do without any recognition. The Wife App is born, and soon clients sign up to have their Mental Loads handled by a hired wife - the "Wives" do anything from buying birthday presents, to filling out school registration forms, to scheduling doctor appointments. Throughout the journey as entrepreneurs, the three women learn a lot about themselves on their own journeys.

A quick read for the summer highlighting the empowerment of women.

Thank you netgalley for this advance copy.
Unfortunately this was not my cup of tea. The characters were very unlikeable and I think the author hates being married herself based on his book. I really wanted to like this book but it was not the lighthearted story I was expecting.

This book is about three best friends that start up an app to help the middle load. This is a funny and easy read. I really enjoy reading this book. The characters are likable, relatable, and hilarious. This is the first time reading this author but it will not be my last. I do recommend this book to every book reader. I give this book four stars.

Three divorced New York mothers are tired of the mental load put on wives. Filling out medical forms, arranging playdates, party planning- wives typically do it all. Madeleine, Lauren and Sophie have had enough of doing tedious tasks with no reward. After a night out, an idea sparks the development of the wife app- have a hired wife do the tasks for you, at a fee of course. Once the app launches, it takes off, sending the ladies on a wild ride of running a successful business while juggling their own lives.

The leading ladies in the book are easily relatable for the average woman. As a divorced mother, I enjoyed a story including women who have had similar struggles, thoughts and feelings. I found all three to be strong characters that I cared about and couldn’t wait to read more of their stories. As someone who has no idea how apps are started, the process was understandable and I was cheering them on as they navigated the tech and business world. The relatable situations and enticing story line kept me interested. This book is modern and the LBGTQ+ love story was appreciated. I would have liked to see a more diverse group of ladies. I enjoyed The Wife App and will encourage my followers to pick the book up once released!

Three best friends, all divorced, decide to create an app to monetize all the hidden labor wives do. They also feel like they can get back at their exes this way.

I really liked the idea, especially since women’s labor is often overlooked. The overall story was compelling, but the writing style wasn’t my favorite.

What a fun, yet insightful, novel! Three divorced best friends team up to create a Taskrabbit-like app with a twist. They call it “The Wife App”, and encourage spouses to subscribe and dump their “Mental Load” into the app: from birthday party preparations, to school application forms, to gift shopping. While it’s a practical use case, the friends have lofty dreams of the successful app highlighting all the free labor women are always doing unnoticed by their families. It was fun to see behind the scenes of a startup to create a consumer app, but the plot also followed the women’s personal lives, with a fast pace and some fun snappy humor. The women are all very different – a tech genius, a teacher, and a trust fund baby – and I liked some more than others, but they all held my attention, and this wasn’t one of those multiple POV books where I’m just skimming through hoping to get back to my favorite character’s plotline soon. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Talk about the ultimate revenge these three friends get on their ex husbands. Lauren is the mother of twins and also a freelance app developer. She had just found out her husband had been paying for sexual favors. Madeline her friend was well off money wise and her ex husband lived in England and they shared a daughter. Then Sophie had two boys with her ex husband and her biggest problem was very little money to live on and her love of social media. They were celebrating Lauren divorce when Madeleine made a comment about a wife’s app. This would help the women with the mental load that they had. These women were tired of doing chores all the time that other people got paid and without any recognition from their spouses.

Lauren set to work making sure the wife’s app came to fruition. She dumped a lot of money and time into this endeavor. The camaraderie between these women was awesome to see. They each had their own issues that they needed to overcome. For instance sex was used to feel like she mattered, no self confidence for one she didn’t no how to go about her feelings, lied to most of the marriage and the babysitter.

Pick this book up for a laugh out loud about some of the predicaments but also for the friendships amongst these women.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

There were several things I liked about this book - acknowledging the common gap between partners in a relationship, even if both partners are working, and especially once children enter the picture. I enjoyed the overall concept of the app and following the three co-founders as they grew and healed from divorces. While the author brings up the topic that gig economy work often exploits lower-income workers (who may be spouses and parents and have high Mental Loads of their own) to the advantage of higher-income individuals, it seems a little off that the character says, "we'll try and find a solution" and then it's never addressed again. I understand that this is not a non-fiction book that purports to have the solution to these questions of gig workers so I'm not knocking down my rating or recommendation based on that, it just feels like a weird aside. Overall, I found this to be fast-paced and enjoyable! 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

THE WIFE APP by Carolyn Mackler
PUB DATE: June 29 (thanks to @Simon.Books & @netgalley for the ARC!)

👰‍♀️📲👩‍💻💖
3.75 STARS

✨ FOR FANS OF: #girlbosses, Sex and the City, tech startup lore like The Social Network or Silicon Valley

⭐️WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Three NYC 40-something friends decide to build an app to monetize the mental load they carry as women of their households, stick it to their exes, & have a wild ride in the process.

WHAT I LIKED:
🌟the three perspectives & characters were all nicely distinct from each other! I enjoyed Lauren’s point of view the most but found myself looking forward to the other two’s sections as well, which doesn’t always happen!
🌟 the premise of a Wife App intrigued me— I actually liked the details around fundraising & the processes of startup tech.
🌟 I found myself liking the humor & dialogue in this novel more than I was expecting! I don’t think it’s the best-written dialogue in terms of length, but I did like the way it helped the story flow.

WHAT I DIDN’T:
☁️ discussions of privilege, gender, & class in this book felt a little Feminism Lite, like a Princess Diaries version of The Social Network.
☁️ all of the men in this story were ghastly in a way that almost trivialized the importance of the book’s premise, like caricatures of patriarchy? Like all three of you have the most idiotic ex-husbands ever? How did that happen?
☁️The ending was a little too buttoned-up for me, but I feel like some would categorize this as a romance? Just a little too improbable for me to suspend disbelief.

⭐️OVERALL: sometimes I feel like I can only recommend some things to specific people, but this would be a good beach read for pretty much anyone!

‼️ Check trigger warnings, as always.