I was sure I had this book figured out early on and I was so wrong! I loved all the twists and turns, I didn’t want to put it down. The ending was good, too, I felt like everything pulled together well.

Two Dead Wives is Adele Parks’ companion title to Woman Last Seen (but it does function successfully as a stand alone story). London is entering Covid lockdown when Kylie Gillingham is reported missing, by both of her husbands. This wrinkle in the story is what draws intense media interest and makes unraveling fact from fiction that much harder for the detectives investigating. This contemporary domestic thriller is told from multiple perspectives including both husbands, the lead detective, Kylie’s best friend, and her stepsons. The mystery is intriguing and the use of lockdown restrictions as a staging device is clever.

3.5/5

Despite having had mixed feelings about Woman Last Seen I was intrigued when I saw this one would be the follow up to it. The ending of WLS in particular wasn’t for me so I was hopeful this would help explain more and it totally did. You could easily read this one its own though too, events from the previous books are explained throughly and this was better than the first for me anyway.

There are several viewpoints here and while most are clear cut and make sense to the story the perspective of Stacie threw me off at first. She didn’t seem to be connected in any way but as things moved along I saw where she would probably fit in and I was right. So slightly predictable and the storyline overall is a little outrageous but overall I had fun with this one. The author tends to write slow burn mysteries that always feel a bit long and drawn out, but if you really wanna settle in with a book this may be for you.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

This was a good read. I did guess the storyline pretty fast but still couldn’t put it down. I love a good multiple POV!

Well the description of this book was amazing and I was very pleased to be able to read it. The only down side
I found out quickly on was that this was a sequel and I never read book one. My bad. However as it turns out not reading the previous book has no effect on this story as it can be read as a stand alone. So that left me very pleased and after this book I can't wait to read the first one, if not just to get a little bit more of a backstory. I do feel however that there are a lot of very important character developments that happen in book one that are just assumed that the reader knows so it makes reveals in this book less shocking because I didn't understand the relevance to them. This book has no warm up and just throws you right into the chaos a woman is missing. This was unlike what I was used to reading but it was a very interesting technique that had me hooked and dying to see was was going on. I think that might be partly because the build up might have been in book one but whatever the reasons are I enjoyed that. Kylie Gillingham is missing and on one knows what really happened to her. Her family is rocked when they realised she was living a double life and it is starting to complicate her missing person investigation. Now throw in Stacey. Stacey is a woman struggling with memory loss and and now she keeps having visions of two men that she can't seem to remember. Who are these men? How are the two women connected? Are they connected? And do these men have anything to do with Kylie or her disappearance? I do think that I'm going to have to read the first book and then give this one another shot because I feel that it will change a lot of things for me. Not my favourite book however I do love how it was written. It really grabbed me and the writing was great. Not overly descriptive just enough to really
throw you into the story. I loved the way that Adel Parks wrote each character and I found myself desperate for answers. What I didn't like however was I found the plot to be a little dry at times and I found myself putting it down a lot, that and all of the characters made it very hard to keep track of what was going on in the plot. Not a bad read overall and even if I didn't love every part there were still lots that I did enjoy. So that would make this about an average book for me overall. I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out even if I probably wasn't the target demographic.

Adele Parks is one my favorite authors but I could not get into this book at all. I tried really hard but it just didn't hold my attention. I didn't really love the plot and I kept putting it down and reading something else. It just wasn't for me but doesn't alter my love for Adele!

TWO DEAD WIVES

This was an interesting read. Multiple POVs and timelines. It’s also set in the world post-COVID, so that, too, added interest (though it did get a little old seeing it from multiple perspectives).

It has a central mystery, with others too. It also involves a storytelling device that I’m pretty meh about (amnesia), but there’s enough there to keep interest.

Overall, 3.6.

T W I S T E D 🌀 T U E S D A Y mini review featuring “Two Dead Wives” by Adele Parks!

Kylie Gillingham has gone missing. She has also been leading a DOUBLE LIFE: one being an upper class socialite wife to one husband and the other being a loving and devoted mother to two boys to ANOTHER husband. Both husbands are the prime suspects in her disappearance, as well as her 16 year old troubled stepson. All three are not taking Kylie’s lies and betrayals well at all.

Stacie Jones is recovering from a cancer treatment surgery that saved her life. Being left with amnesia post surgery has left her father to be her primary caregiver. Together they live a secluded life in a seaside town which makes it difficult for Stacie to put her memories back together again.

A bigamist, memory loss and a sinister connection between two families leads to a giant TWIST that will leave you breathless! This is a sequel to “Woman Last Seen”, but can be read as a stand-alone no problem!

Thank you kindly to @_mira_books_ @htpbooks @harpercollinsca @netgalley @adele_parks for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on December 26, 2023!

Must read the first one "Both of You" This made no sense 80% of the book because I had not read the first. Each time I wanted to give it up, I made myself dig in and stay with it. This author is very talented, but My mistake in not reading the first one.
A great premise: Two husbands, one wife and she happens to be missing which leads us to finding out Kai, Leigh or Kylie is a bigamist. In one life, she lives with her wealthy husband, Daan. In her other life, she is a devoted stepmother to two boys and wife to Mark. Their worlds collide.
Add in another character, Stacie with brain cancer, living with her dad after leaving this town and leaving her fiance at the altar. Her world is going to collide with all of them.
Then there is Fiona, which steps into Mark's life to help with the boys. She was not only helping with the boys.....
This is set up now and then...now is the COVID pandemic, which refreshes our memory if you have forgotten.
"Both of You" does set up why Kylie is in two marriages. Whether it is complicated or confusing, may just be me for not heeding to it being a sequel... I think I would have loved it!
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!
I had guessed the storyline a few chapters in but kept reading, there were plenty of twists and turns that I hadn’t guessed along the way! It wasn’t very fast paced, and didn’t grip my attention until the last 1/4 of the book - I couldn’t put it down then!! Surprisingly I found out when I finished that this was a sequel! I had no idea! I still enjoyed this story as a stand alone and not having read the first, and thought the ending was great!

What I Didn’t Like:
-There are multiple POV characters and you don’t know how they relate all up front. Some readers love this, some don’t. I mention it in case you don’t. Also, the different POV characters all read very similar. Similar language, similar sentence structure. Nothing to separate them or keep them straight.
-When you make the jump to Stacie, it feels like an entirely different story. While I’m sure that was intentional, it sort of killed the flow and vibe we had going. It was like trying to get into a completely new story. Plus, we were in Stacie’s story for long enough that I started to wonder if we were ever going to go back to the other stories.
-There are chapters from the “villains” POV that sort of spoil too much of the mystery for me. But I like to be surprised and not everyone will agree with me on this one.

What I Did Like:
+The story makes good use of sentence structure to give the prose a rhythm and cadence that’s pleasing.
+The mystery is intriguing. As is the goal, you immediately wonder what happened to the missing woman. When you drop into Stacie’s story, you immediately start to wonder about her background as well. It’s definitely one that keeps you turning pages on the hunt for answers.
+This one stands alone. Evidently it is the second book to use these characters but by itself it amps up the mystery instead of focusing on the contemporary drama of the characters.

Who Should Read This One:
-Fans of contemporary family drama type stories who want a little darker and more mysterious will like this one (alone or with its predecessor)

Kylie Gillingham is missing, presumed dead. Kylie Gillingham is also a bigamist who goes by Leigh Fletcher and Kai Janssen. After being kidnapped and held in an apartment a few floors under her own with husband #2 Daan, Kylie's body is nowhere to be found and London detectives Clements and Tanner are struggling to put the pieces together. Told from various perspectives of the characters directly involved in Kylie's life and Stacie Jones, a woman recovering from brain cancer with no long-term memory living on the Dorset coast with her dad, Two Dead Wives was a mystery that I could not put down. The pacing is fast and suspenseful, I read it straight through in one day. Somehow, the author transforms two of the characters from people on the surface you would think are terrible people to sympathetic, relatable people that you're rooting for in the end. I wasn't aware until I read the note at the end that this is the sequel to a previous novel and I was quite surprised because it is fantastic as a standalone. I didn't feel like I was missing any backstory, as can tend to happen in sequels.

I did not realize this was a sequel but I was able to follow along easily. This book was solidly “okay.” A bit hard to follow in the beginning. Fairly predictable. I wasn’t immediately sucked in but still wanted to finish it.

When a woman goes missing, the first suspect is always the husband, right? Well what if that woman had two husbands? And what if she was living two completely separate lives, with completely different names and families? Two Dead Wives tells of a woman missing who has just that. Two husbands who are just finding out about each other. One, a widowed father of two boys who immediately files for divorce upon finding out his wife's scandalous secret; another, a young, gorgeous millionaire who sees other mistresses on the side. Can the police piece together this intricate mystery?

Although I did enjoy reading this book, I had a lot of trouble with plot holes. The main plot hole is this: how can a woman be LEGALLY married (she is "wanted" for the crime of bigamy) by two false names? Was there no background check or information? Is it really that easy? Also, when living so close to both husbands, how did she spend her time? Her nights? How is it possible that this woman kept two completely separate lives, families, and husbands within a close range? Where was she telling these men she was when she was with the other? I know that at one point it mentioned that she said she was "with her sick mother" but for how long? How did she alternate this? I just can't conceptualize this in reality. What about different clothes she wears different places? How does she explain these things?
This may be a British thing (I'm American) but do doors in Britain lock from the inside with a key? This is another plot hole I was questioning. Almost all doors I've seen in the US have the lock that will lock people OUT but can't lock people IN. This is just something I was questioning.

I also didn't really love any of the characters. I thought the character with the most depth was Oli, the main character's stepson, but even he didn't really have much of a personality besides teenage angst and love for his little brother.
Without including spoilers in my review, I thought almost all characters were incredibly dull and I wasn't invested in what happened whatsoever. Okay this woman is missing but it barely described who she was so I didn't even care. Ditto with almost all other characters.

I did learn that this book is a sequel, so maybe it's just not good as a stand-alone. I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt that most character development had been included in the first novel. I'm hoping that maybe the first novel explained a little bit more of her double life-style and the logistics behind this.

I gave this book two stars for lackluster characters, a logistically improbable storyline, and not enough to keep my brain invested.
Thank you to Adele Parks, Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adele Parks is always a hit or miss for me and this one was a hit. A gripping, complex, and twisty story featuring quite unlikeable characters.
It kept me guessing and surprising with each twists. Well plotted and well written
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I stumbled upon this thriller without realizing it was part of a series, but it was a great stand-alone read. The story hooked me right away with its intense plot and constant twists. It’s got this cool setup where you can see the story from different angles, which kept me guessing and invested in figuring out what was happening.

The main plot centers around a woman named Kylie who's gone missing. She had a pretty complicated life, juggling relationships with two husbands, complicating the investigation. The cops, DCI Clemens and Tanner are all over her wealthy husband, Daan, thinking he’s the key to the whole thing. But there's also Mark and his son Oli, who are dealing with the shock of finding out about Kylie's double life.

Then there's Stacie Jones, living this quiet life in a small town, dealing with memory loss from cancer treatment. She keeps having these visions of two guys she can't remember, which adds another twist to the mystery. I was constantly wondering how her story tied in with Kylie’s disappearance.

What I liked about this book was how it made you see Kylie in a different light. At first, you might think she’s the bad guy for leading this double life, but as you get into the story, you see more to her than that. The way the tension builds up to the climax was super engaging, and I found myself really rooting for some of the characters, especially Oli and Seb. Jumping into this book without any background from the prequel was a great move for me. It let me enjoy the suspense and surprises all the more.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC!

Two Dead Wives is the story of one woman who has two husbands. It is the second book in a series, and the first one tells us how she got to the point of having two husbands. It was a little confusing, and had I read the first book it may have made more sense, but I didn’t really vibe with the main character. And I knew the ending before I got there. It’s not a bad book, just missed the mark.

First of all, I love Adel Parks (I follow her on Insta, you should too!). 2nd, sadly, I did not love this book. I liked it, the story is there, but the first half was slow, multiple POV slows the pace. A woman with two husbands is missing and presumed dead. Both husbands are suspects (it’s always the husband, right?). It’s set during the Covid lockdown, honestly that’s the only way this story could work. There are so many red herrings! The pace picks up in the second half and the story comes to fruition with a satisfying, if far fetched ending. It would make a great Netflix series.

I couldn’t get into this book. I really tried but kept reading the same paragraphs over and over again just couldn’t get into it

A woman who has 2 husbands is missing, presumed dead, and the latest husband is accused of her murder. Her 2 stepsons cannot accept that she is dead, and the woman's friend is ready to take care of them as well as the husbands that she left behind.