JP Delaney just keeps getting better and better with each new novel. I know when I start a new book by this author I won't be getting any sleep until I finish it. The new wife was so gripping filled with twists and turns that had me racing through it. Excellent.

★★ 2.5 stars

Your place in the sun comes with a problem...

Oh how I was excited to delve into a new J.P. Delaney thriller after being enraptured by both "Playing Nice" and "My Darling Daughter" which were exceptional to say the least. Unfortunately, this one didn't hit that same mark for me, sadly. I'm not sure what it was but I have found that books where the stories are set abroad (and generally in the Mediterranean) have a strange sense about them. It could have something to do with the language or the way the law is interpreted there or whatever. I think I've only read one or two that were really intriguing from start to finish. I could count them on one hand.

This one started off interestingly enough but then it started to veer off into stranger territory and by the final 10 percent I was going "what the...?" The author toyed with the idea of a "My Cousin Rachel" kind of tale about inheritance and whatnot but, although I've not read du Maurier's book, I can't say it was a complete success. I guess I can see what he was aiming for but I think it missed the mark and I much prefer his devious tales of the previous two thrillers of his I read and loved.

THE NEW WIFE is a slow burn story. It's not really a thriller, despite its genre, which kind of makes it a strange read in itself because I'm not sure how to categorise it. Reading the many other reviews on this book I see will put me in the minority because I really can't say I liked it despite ploughing on to finish it in the hope that it would deliver a twist and thus redeem itself...but that was not to be. When the twist came, I thought nicely played and then it just went off tangent into even stranger territory and then I was going...just no. Conversations taking place with his dead father? Hallucinations in the pool, in the mountains and in bed? Were any of these real or were they just imaginings? I couldn't quite tell. And then the abrupt end to the narrative with a twist that gives us what? Unanswered questions? Loose ends? No. Thanks, but no thanks.

Aside from the fact I did not enjoy this book, I would still read another by Delaney because I know he is capable of such clever tactics that deliver thrills and chills in equal measure. And for that, I will keep coming back...and hope his next one will deliver that same twisted thrill factor.

I would like to thank #JPDelaney, #Netgalley and #QuercusBooks for an ARC of #TheNewWife in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

I've enjoyed J P Delaney's books in the past but, this didn't do it for me. I found it slow and quite boring. I wasn't glued to the book at all a d was glad to finish it. Only giving this one 3 stars. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I've really enjoyed the author's previous novels but sadly found The New Wife to be a disappointing read.

When Finn Hensen's father dies leaving his Mallorcan farmhouse to Finn and his sister Jess, they discover that their father has recently remarried and his new wife is still living in the farmhouse. Finn travels to Mallorca to gain possession of their inheritance but soon discovers the situation is more complex than he expected.

This was a mixed read for me. I enjoyed the first part of the novel - I liked the atmospheric Mallorcan setting and the descriptions of the farmhouse which gave a real sense of place. However this did not feel like a thriller and was slow paced with little tension. I found Finn to be intensely unpleasant and his behaviour was appalling and ridiculous and the women characters had no depth to them. As the novel progressed it became increasingly unbelievable and annoying.

Sadly not a novel that I would recommend but other reviewers have enjoyed it and I would recommend seeking out the author's back catalogue.
2.5 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

An intriguing story set in the tramuntana hills of Mallorca where love blossoms in the olive groves. However trust becomes doubt and doubt becomes mistrust. The reader is left wondering who to trust and who to doubt.

2.5 stars - I normally love JP Delaney's books and find the short chapters addictive but this one fell flat for me. The twist at the end was mediocre and the ending was anti-climatic. It doesn't put me off the author but this isn't one of their best

A thrilling tale of manipulation and obsession impossible to put down.

Set in the island of Mallorca, Delaney delivers once again in creating a feeling of unease in a beautiful setting. With this group of ambiguous characters, no one can be trusted, no one is who they appear to be. As the story develops, Delaney creates a intriguing and deceptive story line that left me questioning all the characters, their motives and intentions. While I didn't find the characters particularly likeable, they are really well developed. Delaney gives a backstory for all the characters, leaving no detail out. The exchanges and interactions between the characters are very well written, and I was left with the feeling that there was a hidden meaning behind some of them.

There are quite a few twists and unexpected turns. I thought I had the ending figured out, turns out I didn't.

Read this is less than 24 hours. It's one of those books: quick and addictive.

More twists and turns than the Sa Calobra Road.

Set in Mallorca this book had more of the air of the 1930s than a modern day tale. Perhaps it was the remote farmhouse setting, as modern technology was hardly mentioned. I felt it gave an eerie but calm feel to the story.

Finn and his sister Jess inherit a farmhouse in Mallorca. Their estranged Father recently remarried and neither of them have met the new wife. However, due to an arrangement with their late Mother, Finn and Jess actually inherit the farmhouse not the new wife.

A trip to Mallorca is called for to ensure they do not have squatters. So Finn agrees to go and sort out the inheritance rights. When he gets there he is not at all prepared for what he finds. He definitely doesn't recognise the characteristics being described as those of his late father. Did he change that much?

I found this book a little like a magic square puzzle. Just as you thought you were getting to the truth you realised there were so many dead ends to stop you from getting there. For me it was a real page turner and I found the writing easy and enjoyable to read as with other books by this author. Though this is not in the usual vein of the earlier books it is nonetheless for me a masterpiece.

Absolutely brilliant, as ever J P Delaney does not disappoint ! Characters that you feel totally involved with and all the twists and turns that you expect. Loved the darkness in the story and the grip it had on me from the first page to the last.

Thank you to NetGally and the publishers for this ARC.

I’m usually a bit fan of JP Delaneys books but I feel like this one missed the mark a little bit.
I disliked Finn from the start and most of the other characters were pretty un likeable as well.

Even though I wasn’t a big fan of the story it was still easy to read as JP Delaney has a lovely writing style.

I didn’t see the twist coming at the end but since that character gave me the ick I wasn’t super surprised!

JP Delany has a way of making me buying the weirdest plot ideas from him. His writing is easy to read and follow and usually it gets me into a reading flow. That just happens with this book, although it is a bit bonkers.

Finn and Jess grew up on the beautiful island of Mallorca. Their parents were free thinking hippies with not much talent for parenting. Their mother finally left her husband and moved to England with the children. After her death their hardly had contact to their not so beloved father, who they called OB, the old bastard. But when they learn that he died, too, they remember that his finca is now theirs. And with the rising land prices they think they finally get something good from the OB by selling it. But their father was married for the third time when he died and someone has to bring the news to the widow, that the finca she is living in is not hers to inherit and she has to leave. Jess has to look after her children so the task falls to Finn. When he arrives at the island he learns that the widow is quite charming and her daughter even more so. And they put some effort and money into the house and transformed it from a rundown molded thing into something beautiful. Finn gets enamored by the women, especially the daughter, the house, the farming and the island again, even when the police is suspicious about his father’ sudden death. He gets entangled into their lives and their problems and develops the feeling that he has to help them. But maybe they are just playing him.

This is a crazy story. But you have to be patient because the book is quiet slow and not really a thriller. Some readers were annoyed by Finn and his stupid behavior. He makes one bad decision after the other. I was quite amused and could not stop reading to find out what stupid thing he was doing next. Of course you think you know where this is heading but there is a twist at the end which shows everything in a different light. This and the ending may be not the right thing for everyone. I enjoyed it and had fun reading it.

A great summer read! Finn and Jess are brother and sister who inherit their dad’s finca and their childhood home in the Mallorcan hills, but residing in the house are their dad’s most-recent wife and her adult daughter. Finn goes out Mallorca to settle the estate, and things become complicated as there are suspicions surrounding his father’s death and the status of the wife and daughter.

This is a novel that will surprise you with its twists and turns, and challenge you in the quest for the truth.

I enjoyed this book immensely and have only marked it down by one star because personally I find it frustrating when you as a reader are left with so many questions (although I fully appreciate that this is the point of the novel!). I just felt that there didn’t have to be quite so much left unresolved as there was.

I'm normally a fan of JP Delaney's books and I accept that we all have an 'off day' at work, so perhaps this is that.
The characters are simply not very likeable, there's no one to root for from the start and the plot is a bit of a cat and mouse tale.
Ruenza and Rose are flat, predictable characters and none of the plot points seem fully fleshed out. The ending feels rather rushed and I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a romance or a mystery or a combination of both.
All that aside, it is still entertaining and perfectly readable. It doesn't compare well to previous JP Delaney novels so I wouldn't read it twice but I don't regret reading it.

While I am a massive fan of JP Delaney and have read all previous novels, this one left me feeling a tad disappointed. I found Finn extremely annoying the whole way through and thought he was being taken for a complete mug the whole time. Yes, I was surprised when Jess revealed his stalkerish tendencies but then I felt things got weirder from that point. And this guy did literally no work the whole time he was living abroad.

Another great book! A bit of a slow burner at the start but it soon picked up.I thought I knew what was going to happen at the end but my predictions were wrong!
Briefly, the story is about Finn and Jess (his sister). They are having to travel to Mallorca because their father has passed away. There isn't alot of love lost for their father but they having to go and sort the inheritance out, in particular the house, to sell it and carry on living their lives. However, their father had remarried and also had a step-daughter and they have nowhere to live, if the house is sold. Things start to become an issue and the story would be spoilt if I continued. I don't do spoilers
It's a well written book, grab a copy!
Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus books for a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This was such a sumptuous summer read. The beautiful descriptions of Mallorca left me feeling that I was there.

When Jess and Finn’s estranged father dies in their childhood home in Mallorca. Finn is persuaded to fly out to meet his father’s third wife and raise the subject that she will have to leave so they can sell it. His sister has suspicions that there pay have been foul play involved but as Finn gets to know his stepmother and her daughter he begins to feel that life in the finca in the beautiful Mallorcan mountains could be much more enjoyable in London.

This book was so cleverly written as I was reading I was sure that Ruensa and Rose were hiding and guilty secret and was completely shocked by the ending. The hallucinations and conversations with Finn’s dead father did make it a little confusing but entirely enjoyable.

*Unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish this until a day or two after publication date - apologies!

The New Wife is very much a smokes and mirrors tale, a tangled web of deception. What you see is not what you get, and the book even ends leaving you drawing your own conclusions, so maybe not for people who like their novels tied up in a neat bow! It is intriguing, and meanders around the tale of a house in Mallorca which has fallen into the hands of two siblings after their not-so-beloved father passes. However his wife and daughter live there and the whole situation is more than messy, especially as they are also illegal immigrants. The brother goes out to sort the affairs out and ends up staying and falling in love. But who is tricking who?

The story dragged me in and I did really enjoy it. I also adore JP Delaney novels and have read all of them.
However I found holes in this one. The biggest being around the brother who has come from an expensive bedsit (which he can barely afford) in London to sort the house out in Mallorca for a few days, and ends up staying all summer. He does barely any London based work - if any at all, and spends days, months working the farmland in Mallorca, but still has to support his life in London?? Characters are also introduced such as his sister, who plays barely a cameo role, is feisty and bitter in the first part, but a wet lettuce in the latter when she finally makes a reappearance. As if she would be!! If she was so against what was going on she would have found a way to get through to her brother or lawyer months before, despite her bro blocking her on his phone. Don’t get me wrong, if you can ignore these issues and just go along for the ride it’s a good read. But if you analyse your books you may end up a tad frustrated….

3.5 rounded down due to these niggles. Not Delaneys finest for me sorry!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am a huge fan of JP Delaney. I found the storyline of this book to be different and engaging. I loved the characters and the twists and turns. You didn't know who was lying and who was telling the truth!
I would have loved another chapter at the end of the book. I feel like it just ended abruptly. It would have been good to have a 'One Year Later' chapter so you knew where all the characters ended up.
Thank you to JP Delaney and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Well I didn't know that you could deal with a house in a divorce like this such an interesting premise which made for a great story.

I'm trying to work out how to review it without giving away spoilers. This was an addictive read and really worked
Once finished please read the afterword it makes sense of the ending.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own

EXCERPT: Did any of us speak a word that day that was true, I now wonder? Perhaps those few words that weren't in English might have been the cold unvarnished truth - a brief instruction to the older woman on how she should respond. But as for the rest - how much of it was half-lies and evasions, snares in which to catch our prey? Each of us drawing the other in, trying to bind them with threads as fine as spiders' webs, even as we ourselves were being bound.

ABOUT 'THE NEW WIFE': When Finn Hensen gets a call from his sister Jess to say their father has died, neither is heartbroken. Their parents divorced many years ago, after which their father, Jimmy, continued to live a bohemian lifestyle in sun-soaked Mallorca, while his family returned to the UK.

Ownership of his home, a beautiful but dilapidated farmhouse in the mountains, now passes to Finn and his sister. The only problem is that Jimmy recently remarried for the third time, and his new wife, Ruensa, is still living there.

The pair agree that Finn should go to Mallorca and tactfully take possession of their inheritance. When he arrives, however, Finn is surprised to find that Finca Siquia has been completely transformed into a chic Mediterranean bolthole by Ruensa - along with her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Roze. The Spanish police, meanwhile, are asking awkward questions about Jimmy's death . . . Are Ruensa and Roze the helpless victims of circumstance? Or will they stop at nothing to get Finca Siquia for themselves?

MY THOUGHTS: If you've ever been in one of those fairground crazy houses where the floor moves unpredictably as you're trying to walk, you'll have some understanding of my reading experience with 'The New Wife'.

Initially the story is a slow burn, kept interesting by Finn's inability to fully trust Ruensa and her daughter, Roze, as much as he wants to. Although Ruenza and Roze always have a perfectly logical explanation for anything Finn queries, and my sympathies initially lay with them, I found that I didn't entirely trust them either.

However, things are turned on their head towards the end of the book and I found myself questioning everything I thought I knew. The last ten percent of the book took a very strange turn and I didn't enjoy either this or the ending.

I have enjoyed Delaney's previous works, and I am probably an outlier on my feelings abiut this one, so do please read some of the more positive reviews before deciding whether or not to read The New Wife.

⭐⭐⭐

#TheNewWife #NetGalley

I: #jpdelaney @quercusbooks

T: #jpdelaney @QuercusBooks

#domesticdrama #mystery

THE AUTHOR: J. P. Delaney is the pseudonym of a writer who has previously published best-selling fiction under another name.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The New Wife by J.P. Delaney for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.