Three best friends, Madeline, Lauren, and Sophie, are navigating life as divorced moms trying to juggle jobs as well as their children’s activities. While celebrating Lauren’s recent divorce, they come up with an app idea where people hire a “wife” to help them with things that their husbands took for granted when they were married - school applications, doctor’s appointments, and housework. As their app grows, they maneuver through their own family issues and love lives.

I enjoyed the book and reminded me of The First Wives Club. I found it hard to keep track of who was who and who belonged with whom though. Everything seemed to wrap up except for one persons’ relationship and wish that was more resolved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. This was a quick, light read and I was intrigued by the concept. However, I found the characters generally unlikeable and felt like the book was a bit scattered - it tried to tackle so many issues and characters that each one felt very surface level and did not fully develop.

Fun, entertaining, and fluffy read. The pace is fine and the writing is descriptive and appropriately light. However, at times it feels like the author had a checklist of issues she wanted to cover and forced the plot to accommodate, usually through the child characters.

While tackling the very real relationship dynamics of unpaid emotional labor, some characters were more sympathetic than others and their romantic relationships needed more depth. It took way too long for the characters to evolve.

There’s a brief mention on the exploitative nature of gig work but not much more. The story is more entertaining if this hypocritical structure is ignored, but it’s disappointing that the resolution wasn’t more rewarding. Recognizing women’s unpaid emotional labor by outsourcing it to gig labor is a good start to the conversation but the story’s resolution is unfulfilling.

I did enjoy some of the characters and very much felt seen regarding my own emotional labor. Just don’t expect that story to be anything more than lighthearted and fun!

Thank you NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy of The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler. This was a cute, quick read. It didn't leave as much of an impact on me as I would hope, but it was enjoyable. It was a unique concept. I would recommend this to authors who want something quick and light to read!

What a fun read! It was such a page turner as you learned more about the three women navigating their various circumstances. Will definitely be recommending to friends!

Thanks @netgalley for this book! Three women, frustrated with ex-husbands and the mental load of mothering develop an app to help spouses fulfill the daily demands of being a "wife" while navigating their own lives in NYC. It was a cute easy weekend read.

The Wife App was fantastic! I love the concept and the book was so engaging. I wanted to see how each character was progressing and loved having the chapters change perspective throughout the book.

This one had me at the premise: Three friends join together to create a new app to outsource typical wife jobs like filling out school paperwork and running errands. I found the story entertaining but some of the relationships were a bit over the top.

I loved the character development, riveting plot and smart, surprising conclusions of storylines (Sophie’s HEA was well played and I never saw it coming). It’s a nice and promising start! I am looking forward to read the future books by this author!

This was a delightful book. What if wives (and some others) could have a "Wife" take over their Mental Load? Need cupcakes for a birthday at school, need to arrange carpet cleaners, appliance repairs, installing new tile? Just assign it to your "Wife" via the app. This is the surface story, but below the surface is how the wives and former wives who came up with the app learn the facts about being wives while being "Wives" on the app.

I would definitely recommend this as a good read in women's literature.

This is a story of three women, best friends, all single mothers, but living in different circumstances. One is wealthy, one is a tech professional who just dumped her cheating husband, the other is struggling more and has a self-absorbed ex. In a bar they come up with an idea to monetize the work wives do via an app. Over the next year they make it a reality.
This is a review of an e-Galley provided by NetGalley.

Reading the description of this book I thought it sounded pretty intriguing. I liked the idea behind it and premise of the story and loved the idea of an App to help simplify everything wives do at home. I was entertained and liked the behind the scenes stuff about developing the app and troubleshooting once its launched. I will say I never really connected to the main characters and wasn't that invested in their lives or really rooting for them. I'm rounding up 3.5 to 4 stars in this one because I was interested in the story and genuinely wanted to see what would happen. I want to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to get this ARC. This is my first approach to Carolyn Mackler. When I read the synopsis, I was very excited to read this book, unfortunately I couldn't relate to the characters. I am a mom that work full time so I thought this story was going to feel pretty close to home but that was not the case. I'd still like to read more about the author, it is just that this book was not for me.
The Wife App publishes June 27, 2023.

I really wanted to love this book, I thought the premise of the story sounded like it could be fun, but it just didn’t work for me, I couldn’t connect with the story, or the characters.. I am sure this will have a huge audience, unfortunately I am not part of it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance e-copy, which I voluntarily reviewed.

The concept of the book is really intriguing and current with the times -- women everywhere are trying to bring attention to how much 'mental load' they take on on a day to day basis and the impact it has on their mental and physical health, relationships, among other things.

The three women in the story have decided to do something about it, for reasons of their own. Even if I did not fully agree with some of their thoughts and actions, I realize the complex emotions involved in the process, and it was an interesting journey for them and for me as a reader.

The app itself was not fully fleshed out... and some obvious/basic steps were missed or ignored, but I understand that the book isn't about the app.

The language seemed to be a little too crass for me (I think there are classier words and subtler methods to describe their feelings and actions related to sex).

Overall, I think the premise is exciting and enticing... the execution of the story could have been better.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an ARC!

#TheWifeApp #NetGalley

This clever approach to reimagining relationships first grabs your attention as it's characters come to grips with both the pitfalls and obligations of modern marriage. Their solution- to create an app that allows some of the tasks of wifehood to be brokered to parties willing to do them for compensation - is clever with more than a ring of truth. Would be interesting to see the impact of the app on the characters 10 years down the road.

Three friends, divorced with children in separate stages of their lives come together to build an app for WIVES for hire. These WIVES complete the day to day annoying mental load tasks. This book isn't just about the app, there is lots more: rekindling romances, dealing with custody of children, finding a new love after divorce. I enjoyed meeting Lauren, Madeline and Sophie, thought all the characters were relatable and their stores, their journey of acknowledging their self-worth and self-discovery. When can I sign up for this service? I would love some relief with managing the day to day "mental load." Overall a fun easy read. A few steamy scenes. I binged it pretty quick and really enjoyed this book. Its the perfect easy read for a beach vacay this summer. Thank you NetGalley and Carolyn Mackler and Simon Books for this eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I came to this as a fan of Carolyn Mackler's YA (especially THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS), and was excited to see her venturing into adult fiction. I loved when Judy Blume made the segue with WIFEY, which was mass market fiction but brutally honest and sexy. The premise here is great: a woman shoulders all the emotional load of her marriage and parenting, only to be left for a younger woman. What does she do? She creates The Wife App, and recruits her three divorced (or about to be) best friends, Instead of doing all the work of marriage for free, they will be paid for their work, plus remain unburdened by needy or emotionally unavailable men. I buckled in for the ride, hoping to be taken on an emotional journey through three different women's marriage stories. Maybe I'm just not the right audience for this, as this felt like a humorous reality show when I wanted to dig into the characters. The three friends felt kind of cobbled together and stereotypical: the rich, beautiful sexaholic, the smart techie who's been taken for granted, and the woman with a secret. I used to love Rona Jaffe's novels, like Class Reunion, so I don't have a problem with mass market fiction. It's just that these characters didn't resonate for me as real people. It felt like their lives were more in service of the overall concept of the book than unspooling before my eyes organically. I'm sure there are many readers who will enjoy this book. Mackler is funny, and her concept is excellent I just generally don't love concept books, and prefer complicated characters.

I can already see this cutesy revenge-lite girl power novel as a quirky fun movie!

I liked the idea of this more than the actual book, but that's probably because I don't usually read women's fiction or romcoms. Alas, this was a nice mind break from doing my own wifely menial tasks.

The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the way this took marriage inequalities and ran with it without fully discussing them

Loved this one! It was a different, tech-forward look at the lives of NYC women trying to have it all. Would definitely recommend if you like rom cons or womens lit!