Overall, this is a good book for its genre (domestic or family thriller I would call it). I enjoyed the way the narrative was written, with two different POV's and timelines. Pippa's POV being "Now" and "Then", and Amanda's POV being "Before" and "After". I thought this made things piece together nicely as the story went along, although sometimes Amanda's POV seemed a little unnecessary. The author touches on a lot of topics, mental health, dysfunctional/toxic relationships, and lies. While there were a few twists I saw coming, there were still some that definitely surprised me. I also did this one on audiobook and the narration was really good which is alway a plus. I would give this book a 2.5-3 stars. Again, I think people who really love this genre would enjoy this. I, personally, have a hard time finding books in this genre that really stick out to me.

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan for the audio ARC!

3.5 rounded to 4 stars

Audiobooks make it possible for me to cook, drive, clean the house, and do a myriad of other things while enjoying a story. One thing I have discovered, though, is that I have far more tolerance for a slow audiobook than when I actually read a book.

In this case, the narration was very good and most of the story moved along. Pippa and Gabe live in a beautiful seaside home that is located on a cliff. What they didn’t realize when they moved there is that their cliffside location was infamous for jumpers wanting to commit suicide.

Gabe is a stay-at-home dad who has been able to talk several out of jumping. One particular jumper appears when his wife, Pippa, a lawyer, is home. In this case, the jumper does end up going off the cliff and dying, but had Pippa glimpsed her husband reaching for the lady or pushing?

The point of view uniquely goes back and forth between Amanda, the jumper, and Pippa. That may not feel necessarily unusual, but the viewpoints go before and after the jump occurs. So that means at times the perspective is from the dead jumper.

My Concerns
To a large degree thriller and suspense didn’t apply. Plus the flow of the story felt slightly off.

Final Thoughts
The narration and the story had no trouble holding my interest until the middle, where it felt a bit repetitive and thus slowed it down.

This is still a thumbs-up. However, one of my favorite books by this author is The Good Sister.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC.

A big thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This is one of those books where you begin at the end and the rest of the story flashes back to slowly reveal how and why the characters got to this particular point. While I did enjoy the setup, I did not love the characters. At first, it was easy to root for our MC, but as the book progressed, her naïveté and willingness to ignore her husband’s erratic behavior was annoying. I found myself not really caring one way or the other about her marriage or the circumstances of the mysterious death. It wasn’t a bad domestic thriller, but this one was underwhelming for me as a whole.

The audio, however, was great. I enjoyed the narrator.

3.5/5

I enjoyed this fast paced thriller turned family drama. There was a nice twist to this one and it kept you kind of knowing what to expect but still guessing along the way. I think Hepworth fans will enjoy it and if you haven't tried one of Hepworth's books yet, this would be a good one to start with to get a feel for how she tells a story through multiple POVs and converging timelines.

Listen if you like:
💔 Domestic Thriller
🔍 Mysteries
✌🏻Two POV
🧠 Mental Health Representation
📖 Short Chapters
🧐 Unreliable Narrator

Last year I read The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth so when this one was listed on NetGalley I couldn’t help but request it.

This one definitely missed some of that thriller/suspense I was hoping for and felt more like a mystery than a thriller of what happened versus a pulse pounding thriller.

One thing I really loved was getting a POV from beyond the grave as the pieces were slowly put together of what happened at the cliff that day and why.

If you like domestic mysteries with some slight thriller moments I’d highly recommend this one especially on audio as it was well done! Thank you to Macmillan audio for my ARC of this one!

As a spouse, this novel left me feeling a little sick inside. Some people will read that line and take it to be negative, an indication that this isn't a good book. On the contrary, I thought it was a very good work of domestic suspense. The story flows along quite nicely, especially considering there are four different perspectives: Pippa Then, Pippa Now, Amanda Before, Amanda After. Nothing is linear, and this is what largely sets up the twists.

There's a lot of serious subject matter regarding mental health to ponder in The Soulmate. I wonder if Sally Hepworth consulted with mental health professionals as part of her research. I'm not sure if it really matters. Where does the diagnosis end and the person begin? Can they truly be separated? At what point are you allowed to announce that you have done enough and it is acceptable to quit?

Questions like these are why I still feel unsettled when I think about the The Soulmate. I'm not entirely sure why-- I think the book blurb for the US version sets up the story accurately. I don't see how you could read it and expect you were getting yourself into a cozy. I think Sally Hepworth does right by all of her characters. The ending felt fair, and not entirely unhappy. You don't usually think about mysteries and thrillers being realistic fiction, but there you go!

This was the second audiobook I have read that Barrie Kreinik helped narrate, and once again I enjoyed her work immensely. She's now officially part of my narrators to seek list. Jessica Douglas-Henry's voice seemed a little mature for a woman who was only supposed to be 52, but I thought everything else about her work served Amanda's character well. Jessica Douglas-Henry and Barrie Kreinik also collaborated on Sally Hepworth's audiobook for The Younger Wife. I'd like to read it next.

I would like to thank Macmillan Audio for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.

This was a fun read but it wasn’t that surprising of a read. At the end, I kind of realized I was never really absorbed by what was going on with these characters. Honestly, I didn’t care what happened to any of them or why. At the end, I felt underwhelmed by the motivations and miscommunications. My favorite thing about The Soulmate was definitely the setting. Hepsworth creates a unique atmosphere with the cliff setting that I really enjoyed.

Narrators Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry did a wonderful job and kept the book moving along. It was over before I knew it. Though the story underwhelmed me in the end, it was the perfect book to listen to while doing chores and not being in the headspace for something too complicated.

Okay first things first: I don’t listen to audiobooks a ton. I can count on one hand how many I’ve listened to but once I start one I get truly lost in it! I love Sally’s books so I thought I’d do something different and go for the audio on this one!

I’m glad I did! The narrator is super cozy, despite the fact that the contents aren’t, her voice set the vibes just right.

It was also a plus that the chapters are short. I lose attention quickly when it comes to audiobooks but I was surprised how much book I was able to cover in a short amount of time just listening.

There’s an interesting POV, that I won’t say anything more to spoil, but I liked the uniqueness of it. Not a ton of thrillers have this and I always like when I see it.

If you’re a Sally fan, you’re gonna love this one too!

This is the fifth book I've read by Hepworth and I always like her writing. This had a couple of minor issues for me and felt a bit slow in the middle, but I liked the ending and thought the twists were interesting. Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit.

The story is told from the dual perspectives of Pippa, who lives in the house on the cliffside with her husband Gabe, and Amanda, the woman who just died. Amanda was an interesting perspective and gave you insight into her marriage and her husband's activities.

I was frustrated by Pippa and her tolerance for certain things in her marriage. It made her come across as a bit pathetic to me at times. There were also some things she should have put together regarding the mystery, but she didn't, and on some level it seemed like she must have chosen not to. I was also very frustrated by a doctor due to a diagnosis that clearly didn't fit and seemed unrealistic to me.

Otherwise, I thought the story was great. I enjoyed trying to figure out what happened and why. Some small pieces I figured out and some I guessed at, but there were certainly more unexpected twists at the end. I liked the dual perspectives and thought they were well-spaced. I also found the shifts from before and after the death easy to follow. The chapters are labeled by who is narrating and when, but it was clear enough from the context in the chapters.

I was feeling like I was in a bit of a slump while reading this and not making much progress with any of my books. I decided to request the audiobook while in the middle of it. The audio was narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry. It was very well-done and I would recommend it. It helped to draw me back in and keep me engaged. I am so appreciative that I was able to add the audio.

I look forward to seeing what Hepworth comes out with next. I plan to continue reading her work.

This is my third Sally Hepworth book and I was hooked from the start!
I was pretty suspicious of Gabe from the start, something just didn’t feel right with the situation with “his palms being up” or maybe I’ve just read too many thrillers? Haha, at any rate, I read, or listened, in about two days. I loved the dual POV’s, Pippa’s (then and now) and Amanda’s (before and after). The house being so close to the cliff and Pippa and Gabe having two young daughters didn’t put me off too much, as other reviewers have said, it didn’t affect my review in any way.
I was pretty sure I knew which way this was going but there were a few twists along the way, especially the secret at the end that I don’t think anyone was expecting. I highly enjoyed this and think it would be a great read for enjoyers of thrillers, mysteries and family dramas!

While The Soulmate was definitely a page-turner, I was ultimately disappointed in it. Sally Hepworth has written a story about two different couples whose lives intersect. Pippa and Gabe live, with their two little girls, in a house right near a cliff that is known for people trying to jump off there to commit suicide. It seems that it’s right by a walking path and the first thought that struck me was - why on earth isn’t there some sort of big fence or other barrier by this place? It’s well-known enough to have a nickname of The Drop! Who in their right mind would buy a house right next to this spot when you have two very young children? So right away, I had my doubts about the sanity of this couple. Pippa’s husband Gabe seems to be talented at talking people “down.” So far, as the book begins, he has prevented seven possible suicides.

Chapters are told from either Pippa’s point of view (POV) or that of another woman, Amanda. They are labeled as Now or Before for Pippa’s chapters and After or Before for Amanda’s. I didn’t really enjoy the constant back and forth of this, but the author did a good job of labeling the chapters so it wasn’t confusing for the reader/listener.

There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, including one huge reveal/twist near the end of the book. That one I didn’t see coming, although there were some clues along the way, once I’d thought about it.

Unfortunately, none of the main characters were particularly appealing, which made it a bit hard to get fully invested in their lives.

The author, in a note at the end of the book says it’s “an exploration of the bad and good sides of marriage… I like to think of it as a murderous love story.” So it that sounds like something you’d like, pick this one up. For me, it wasn’t her best book.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient and allowed me to speed through the story. The audiobook has two distinct narrators, one for Pippa and one for Amanda, who both do a wonderful job: Barrie Kreinik and Jessica Douglas-Henry. Since the story takes place in Australia, I enjoyed listening to the Australian accents of the narrators.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

I voluntarily listened to an advanced copy of The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

First, I would like to say how much I enjoyed this narrator. Her voice perfectly fit the tones of the various characters in the book and kept me invested in the story. Very well done.

Secondly, I loved this book. I went in thinking the plot was going to be one thing, and at every turn, I was surprised. It is rare to find a suspense novel that doesn't easily guessed plot arcs. And while I did figure out the overall huge mystery, all the various details and reasons why were a complete surprise. I was very satisfied with this book and gave it 5/5 stars.

Near a quaint cottage by the sea is a dangerous cliff. A cliff that has become a popular spot for those wishing to end their lives. When Pippa and Gabe moved in, they had no idea how the cliff and those who seek it out would alter their lives. Repeatedly, Gabe has rescued those who have come, convincing them not to jump. Now someone is gone forever, and Pippa isn’t sure if she jumped, or if Gabe somehow caused the death of that woman.

This was my first Hepworth novel and it was a fun ride! I found the beginning quite compelling, and thought the structure of the book was excellent. As I continued reading, I thought parts of the story were a little predictable, but still enjoyed the journey!

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Sally Hepworth delivers consistently and this book is no exception. It's a solid hit. In a time when "domestic thrillers" saturate the market and are largely forgettable, Hepworth manages to still strike a unique note. While this is a "thriller" (and some of aspects of it are genuinely over-the-top and a little cringe), it's also a study of a marriage and mental illness. If you peel the layers of this book away -- the bigger, showier, look-at-me parts -- and leave only the quiet story of a house with a view of a suicide spot, of people struggling with their inner demons, this book becomes quite unique and lovely, rising above some of the others in the genre. If you read it as only another thriller though, you still won't be disappointed! It's a stay-up-all-night-to-figure-it-out kind of book. The narration is a delight. Hepworth fans will love it, and it will likely bring a lot of new readers to her work.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Very Good

This was my first book by Sally and I will absolutely be reading some more from her! The short chapters were everything 🤌🏼 and I loved the mixed timeline/character POV & allllll the twists.

This thriller really highlights the good and bad sides of marriage and how that plays a role in many of our unknown actions.

Told in two alternating POV’s Pippa (now and then) and Amanda (before and after). I loved getting Amanda’s perspective and seeing things unfold from her unexpected perspective.

Not knowing who to trust, what skeletons are in whose closet and just what happened on that cliff make it an intriguing read. I was constantly asking myself: where is this going? 🫣

All the secrets and lies are eventually revealed and the ending was perfection as everything came together. I highly recommend if you enjoy domestic thrillers.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this #giftedcopy 😍 This is out 4/4/23!

READ IF YOU LIKE:
👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Domestic thrillers
🎭 Family drama
🔀 Alternating Perspectives
🔄 Past Present Perspectives
📖 Short chapters
👨🏽👧🏽👧🏽 Stay at Home Dads

TW: Mental illness and suicide

Infidelity. Secrets. These are the troubles of marriage in this book. Just when you think you know someone, the haunts start to come out. This story was told in two POV - one a little unconventional.

Overall, a solid mystery with some twists, but I actually had one piece predicted in the first few chapters. Thankfully there were more to be discovered!

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and author Sally Hepworth for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced audiobook from NetGalley for this one (is that an ALC, is that a thing?) and LET ME TELL YOU, I binged this baby. 12 hours from start to finish.

I love a good multiple POV story and this one can't be beat -- it has not only dual POVs but also dual timelines for those POVs. I was completely ensnared by the mystery of piecing everything together and couldn't wait to figure out how and where everything intersected.

The narration is rock solid, well-acted and not at all distracting. The story itself is part thriller and part family drama, beautifully nuanced with subtle clues woven in, which very few do better than our queen, Sally Hepsworth.

Five giant stars!

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth #jaylammreviews

As a big Hepworth fan, I went and saw Sally last spring on her last book tour. She told us all about her upcoming book and I was so intrigued by it. Fast forward to a year later and I have the opportunity to read this book early.

This book is a really atmospheric thriller. It is set at a house that is perched on the edge of a cliff...a cliff where people come to end their life. But once, Gabe and Pippa move in, Gabe talks multiple people out of jumping. Until a woman shows up and jumps, leaving Gabe standing at the edge with his arms outstretched.

What I loved about this book was the short chapters. I love a thriller that utilizes short chapters to keep you wanting more. This book was really a slow burn look at marriage, secrets, and mental health. Not my favorite of Sally's but I still enjoyed it. I also loved that the perspective changed in the story. The perspective of the woman that jumped from the cliff was surprising and well done.

I enjoyed the audiobook very much. Fast moving and created the suspense needed.

The Good Sister is still my favorite Hepworth.

The Soulmate took readers on a twisty dive into Gabe and Pippa’s marriage and the lies that they kept for each other to protect their children. Gabe was known locally as a person who could talk people off of the ledge of the cliff behind their house. The story looks into the one person he was unable to save and the reasons for her untimely death. An interesting addition to the novel was the point of view of the person who died on the cliff. Gabe’s lies to protect himself and Pippa led to his own unraveling into mental illness. The narrator was great.

This was my first Sally Hepworth and it was not what I was expecting. This was very tame for a thriller and was more of a darker family drama. This story follows a family who live in a cottage by a cliff that is notoriously known as a suicide spot. The woman’s husband gains a reputation for being a Good Samaritan and a local hero by successfully talking people off the ledge. This story opens to a woman approaching the edge, the husband going out there to talk her out of it, but this time he fails and she does jump. However, from the scene that the wife watched from the window and the details provided by her husband some details do not seem to add up. Did she really jump, or was she pushed? Who is this woman, and how is she connected to her family?

I thought the alternating POVs were so well done and SO interesting. There is a very unique POV that absolutely took me off guard. The fast chapters were short, satisfying, and gripping. The pace was excellent, and I adored this audiobook. There were two narrators and they both did a fantastic job. I also had the book to read along with and I loved the way they changed their voices and they had great range.

Ultimately I found the story to be a little lackluster and not super memorable, but it was an exciting and intriguing fast paced thriller that I finished very quickly. I will definitely be reading more from Sally Hepworth!

Thank you so much NetGalley and MacMillan audio for this advanced listener’s copy in exchange for my honest opinion!