Timely, satisfying story taking on the mental load that’s often unfairly pushed on women.

During a chat about how their ex husband’s took the unpaid work they did for granted friends, Lauren, Sophie and Madeline, hatch a plan for an app that monetizes the mental load.

While this delves into how invisible this load is to men, the many ways relationships (familial and romantic) can be fraught this is ultimately a romance with an edge.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise of this book. It hit on a lot of important points surrounding women and their roles within marriages. I especially liked how inclusive the book was and the MCs' different backgrounds. However, this book definitely had its issues, no matter how well intended. The plot also didn't flow as well as it should have with the time jumps. It was clear the author wanted to keep a "realistic" timeline, but it made for awkward reading.

The first 50% of this book was really intriguing! There are three main characters that we follow:
-Lauren: finds out her husband has been unfaithful, then divorces him and they navigate being co-parents to their kids, Amelia and Cady
-Madeline: single parent of teenage Arabella, who may go live with her dad for a year in London
-Sophie: who is caught up in FOMO of her ex-husband, his second wife and their family

The women realize they have done so much labor as "wives" for free so they create an app to get paid for it! Fun enough premise, and it frustrates me to no end that this is such a universal theme that so many people can relate to. Cishet men: DO BETTER. BE GROWN UPS. WE'RE OVER YOUR BULLS$H%&

Anyway, I felt like the middle dragged on a bit but I did appreciate the parenting issues they tackle, such as navigating conversations around sexuality, gender identity (non binary character), friendships and when their co-parent begins dating a new partner.

I'd read the author's young adult novels and thought this was a fun first adult novel for her!

The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler is a treat that showcases women’s perseverance and entrepreneurship. This novel follows three best friends who decide to monetize the mental load and seek revenge on their ex-husbands. As their app becomes a roaring success, their lives take unexpected turns, testing their strength and friendship.

Mackler’s storytelling is engaging and filled with humor, making it easy to get lost in the lives of these dynamic women. While the ending feels a bit rushed compared to the well-paced beginning, it doesn’t overshadow the overall enjoyment of the story.

The concept of the Wife App is intriguing and serves as a clever commentary on modern marriage. Mackler expertly combines elements of revenge and redemption, resulting in a rollercoaster ride of emotions that keeps readers invested until the very end.

In conclusion, The Wife App is a highly entertaining debut novel from Carolyn Mackler, showcasing her ability to craft compelling characters and explore themes of friendship and empowerment. Despite a slightly rushed ending, this book is a delightful read that reflects on the complexities of love, entrepreneurship, and self-discovery. I highly recommend it, giving it 4 stars for its engaging storytelling and relatable characters.

I am not typically someone who reads contemporary fiction, but wow this really blew me away! I thoroughly enjoyed the female friendships and self-reflection aspects of this book. Each of the main characters really felt like 3 different people as I was reading their perspectives. I also really enjoyed getting into the minds of each of the characters as well, seeing into their lives and thoughts really added to the realistic story-line. As far as the concept of having a Wife App, this was so interesting. I feel like this could really have been a true story, I will be recommending this to everyone! I can't wait to see what else this author puts out. A new "auto-buy" for me.

I had such high hopes for this book but unfortunately it fell flat for me. The sex scenes in this book felt awkward to me. The 3 main characters seemed so unrelatable it was hard for me to get through. For me the premise of this book seemed so interesting but unfortunately I don’t think it was well executed. Thank you for the arc net galley

I enjoyed this one! The whole concept was hilarious and all too real. Carrying to load of the family unfortunately can fall on just one person's shoulders and it can feel all consuming. It is a fresh and funny take on the what would you do if you could change something idea.

I feel seen! This book perfectly captures the weight that wifes and mothers bear…. Men need this book to understand what mental burden is! And we need a real life wife app ASAP! A perfect summer read.

This book is such a smart cultural critique on the labor that women do in their everyday lives. As a sociologist, I loved how it takes academic ideas and interweaves them into this story. I loved the story about the wife app, but even more I loved the stories of each of the women. I tore through this because I had to know what happened to each one.

I love the premise. The mental load of motherhood and of being a wife is not talked about enough. Monetizing a solution seems brilliant. I just didn't care enough about any of the characters. The hot topic issues seemed stuck in to check a box without any real heart or development. At times, the situations were repetitive, and it felt like a slog to get through.

This book was a really enjoyable read! It’s told from 3 different perspectives, which I don’t typically like but it was perfect for this story as they were easy to follow. I don’t read a lot of books that deal with the enormity of what mothers and wives have to deal with, so this was definitely worth the read!

I enjoyed everything about this book! The premise was so original. It was told in 3 POVs and I liked every character equally, which is rare. I didn't mind when the character changed because I was vested in all of their lives. The writing style was terrific. It was a little steamy. I definitely look forward to more from this author.

Let me first say that I really liked the premise of “The Wife App”: three smart, capable friends who have been devalued by their (now ex) partners turn their rage into profit by developing the Wife App - a gig app that charges for mental load duties as well as the undervalued physical duties that often accompany the role of wife and mother. The execution of the premise, however, just didn’t deliver for me.

For one, the three women didn’t have distinct voices. For the life of me, I couldn’t tell the difference between Sophie and Lauren for the majority of the book. I also couldn’t distinguish which ex husband went with which character. None of the characters felt fully fleshed out and the surface level details just got muddled for me.

Also, there was so much cringey sex descriptions in this book that I think it detracted from what was initially a powerful message. In addition to the sex, at times it felt like the author was working from a list of “hot topics” and linking them to characters here and there to make the book more buzz-worthy.

The book felt very slow at times and just didn’t fully reach that A-ha moment I was hoping for. It was a decent book but I think the interesting premise could have been executed in a more powerful manner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advance electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie are best friends who are over worked with a full mental load . To stick it to their ex husband, they invent an app that monetizes the invisible drudgery of everyday life that is mostly taken care of by wives, ex-wives, and mothers. Overwhelmed by how much day to day work they have to do to keep their lives running smoothly, they toy with the idea of "hiring" a wife. As an ex-wife and single mother, I could certainly relate to this story. I mean, wWho wouldn’t want someone else to handle all the tedium of daily living? The concept was interesting and the writing was done well, but ultimately these women were not happy people and I think they needed more joy interspersed in the book. The end was appropriate to the story if not wholly satisfying.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. I loved the idea of the book, but I actually didn’t like the book at all. I wanted to put it down at 50%, but I’m no quitter. Going into it I thought, “YES! Working moms and wives, this is it. This is for us. Stick it to the man!” (not all husbands are bad, so don’t come for me)

The synopsis says 3 working moms who create a Wife App to get back at their ex-husbands and get paid for taking on so much of the mental load of raising kids. This screamed feminism. Awesome! The book even starts out with a quote from Sylvia Federici! As a working wife and mother I wanted this to be relatable because a lot of men truly don’t understand the work load of being a working mom. In the beginning it’s all very much about the moms and the mental load. However, the app had been created and “anyone can join the Wife App. Female or male.” Booooooo! 👎🏼 I felt like that took away from the whole point of understanding the “mental load” of women and wives.

The characters and the story were just all over the place and I found it difficult to follow at times. Glad others loved it, just wasn’t a hit for me.

"The Wife App" is a unique premise and does a solid job at exploring the mental/invisible load of women. While I enjoyed it I wasn't ravenous for more. Interesting and a little different, it's worth a read.

NetGalley provided the review copy in exchange for my honest opinion (thanks!).

The Wife App is a cute idea for a story. Three women decide to harness their skills of organization and getting things done to create an app that allows people to hire "wives" to complete all the tedious tasks in their lives: summer camp forms, permission slips, and preschool applications, for example.

Each of the women comes with a backstory of relationship drama. The storyline flips back and forth among the three women and also mingles the story of the app's creation and execution with the women's personal dramas.

While the idea was good, the book did not really hold my attention. It ran out of steam with the various wife job examples, making the book seem longer than necessary. The personal dramas were interesting, but then seemed to wrap up hurriedly at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed this book; it was a solid four star read for me! It was easy to identify with aspects of all three women. The mental load as a wife and mother is often not seen in my reading so I enjoyed how relatable this book was. I loved being able to see the women take an idea and turn it into a business and all of the challenges that came along with the process. The alternating POVs kept the chapters engaging. Overall this was a fun quick read I would recommend to anyone who spends part of their days navigating life as "default" parent or spouse.

Thank you NetGalley for the prerelease Advanced Readers Copy of The Wife App , due for release June 27, 2023, and author Carolyn Mackler's first adult novel.

First of all, kudos to Ms. Mackler for securing a blurb by the Goddess herself, Judy Bloom! Very impressive.

I liked this book quite a lot, and felt Ms. Mackler had a little bit of everyone represented in the book, so most readers will relate on some level. The women seemed pretty smart and had a nice self-development trajectory through the story, and also a nice evolution in their relationships with their kids.

The book is totally geared toward women and I would characterize it as women's lit for those married with kids, mid-20's on up. I loved the idea of the app and can totally see something like that working. I 100% relate to the wives' Mental Load. There should literally be pre-marital and pre-children training courses to alert couples to all of the *Adulting* decisions and actions encompassed in living as a married couple, especially with children. But enough of that.

Is the book predictable in that the plot is tied up with a bow at the end? In general, yes, and that's ok and pretty much expected in this genre. I liked that aspect of it. It tries very hard to include many levels of socio-economic status and does get just a bit into gender identity and non-hetero relationships. I don't recall much in the way of ethnic diversity. My biggest gripe is the multiple use of the C You Next Tuesday word, despite this book not featuring super graphic sex scenes (and even then we can maybe consider using actual anatomy words). I can understand using the word once for shock value, but 3 times is a choice by the author, and not one I support as a reader. It was out of character for the writing in the rest of the book, and I feel will alienate many women readers.

With all that said, I would definitely recommend it and a strong 4-stars for me.

Five stars! I've been telling all of my friends that they need to read this new book - it's just the best! I didn't have high hopes that it would be as good as it was... I loved the three friends and how they stand up for each other and themselves and their kids. The story is well written flowing from one character's chapter to the next and so on. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I was invested and entertained throughout!