This is a typical domestic thriller in which not all is it seems. If you like a book that'll keep you guessing until the end, you should enjoy this story.

I received a free copy of The Wife in the Photo from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a gritty intense thriller from the first page full of twists that keep you wanting to read more and stayed up late to finish the book to find the truth.
Would highly recommend if you like intense thrillers with a twist at the end.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Wife in the Photo by Emily Shiner

When everyone thought Warners was the perfect family, the secret underneath could break the family. Lola Warner died and left her husband Evan and daughter Jessica. Ariel knew Lola's death was not an accident and she decided to gather more evidence by being their housekeeper and to gain their trust.

This was a slow-burnt thriller and it kept me guessing who was the real murderer. The twists and ending were a bit shocking. I found it difficult to relate the book title to the story.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and Emily Shiner for this audiobook!

Pub date: Sep 7, 2023

Quick read, full of thrills! I loved this and it was right up my domestic thriller alley!

Thanks so much NetGalley, Emily Shiner and Bookouture for letting me read this before its release on Sep 1!

I enjoyed the story line, but it fell flat for me.
I prefer timeline jumps, so it felt slow as well. It was also easy to figure out.
But, it was a short read and the writing itself was good.
I would give this author another shot.
3.5/5

This was another great read!
I absolutely loved this book & did not see the all the twists.
This is my second book by Emily Shiner and I’ve been blown away by her writing style, it’s absolutely captivating!
I loved the multiple POV’s, short chapters and the twists that kept me guessing.

I will definitely recommend this to all thriller lovers & can't wait to read more of this author and her books are all on Kindle Unlimited!!

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: Sept 7, 2023
Many thanks to Bookouture & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This thriller took off like a bullet and never let up. This book had everything from characters you knew did it, and then were convinced at the same time didn't to a plot that had you prying your eyes open just to get one more sentence in because you had to know how it was going to end. Even from the very beginning I knew that this was one book that I would race through and I wasn't disappointed at all, it had everything that a good thriller needs and I loved every minute of it. The only thing that I didn't like about this book was the multiple point of view changes for every chapter it was a little jarring and hard to keep track of in the beginning even if later on I understood the significance of it all. This book swallowed the reader up and didn't finish with them until the very last sentence. I loved how this story was so full of twists and turns and it really left me
questioning everyone's motives. The book is all about our character Evan who loses his wife Lola. Not sure how he is going to manage raising his daughter Jessica, he decides in order to make things a little bit easier he will hire a new housekeeper so we are introduced to Ariel. We soon lean that Ariel knows a lot more about Evan than he originally thought and he will go to great lengths to make sure that some secrets stay secrets. Each different character has a very different motive and perspective on what actually happened with Lola, so it was very fascinating to get all of the different views. I loved the way that the characters were written but my favourite thing about this book was the fact that there were only a handful of characters so most of the book was around the four main ones. It let the reader get fully submerged in their mystery without a lot of unnecessary filler characters to confuse everything. I wish that more thriller writers took notice of Emily's
writing technique and follow suit because it makes for a really wonderful strong read. I loved this book and couldn't bring myself to put it down even when I had other commitments I found myself putting them on the back burner. If you want a book that will keep you up at night desperate for answers and this is the one for you. Great read and I'm so glad that I got the chance to check it out I can't wait to read what else she comes out with next.

I really enjoyed this book. It had me second guessing myself a lot which I love in thriller books. And that ending!!!! Loved it

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I listened to the audio version as well.
Really great book. Some super crazy turns and surprises. I was not expecting the ending at all.
Everyone merged together perfectly.
Well written and awesome read!
Better than the audio version because I couldn’t stand the male narrator in the audio version.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley.
I did not enjoy this book. The plot is wildly implausible and the characters left me cold. Their decisions and reactions made absolutely no sense.
Also I figured out the twist very early on in the book so there was no element of surprise.
Major spoilers for what bugged me about this book:
- For à chief of police, Evan is sure dumb. He doesn't run any background check on someone he allows into his home as a housekeeper. He even gives her a key! There are no security cameras in his home. He knows Ariel isn't to be trusted but he doesn't change the locks after he fires her.
- We have no idea how or why the daughter turned out to be a crazy psycho. Her mother had absolutely no idea based on her diary. Until one day her daughter kills her.
- How is it possible Evan has no idea what his sister-in-law looks like particularly after he's adopted her daughter? This stretches all bounds of credulity.
- No explanation given for why Ariel was unable to keep her daughter.
- Why does the psycho have zero interest in getting to know her biological mother?
- Crazy teen girl kills 3 people in front of her father the chief of police and he does nothing. In his inner monologue, he's thinking, I really should do something but I don't like confrontation. Seriously??
- The actions of Dakota and Miriam at the end are puzzling. Skinny teen girl is flying at you with a knife but you're too busy filming. Three adults aren't able to tackle this weirdo to the ground.
- It's repeatedly mentioned that Jessica is super skinny. Yet she's so strong neither Ariel nor her father can subdue her.
- At the end we find out Ariel is alive and for some reason she wants to have a relationship with Jessica even though she's a murderous whacko.
My eyes are rolling back in my head just writing this review. When the end scene with the 3 murders rolled around I wanted to stop reading. I only skimmed through to the end after that.
My 2 stars are for the author's writing style which I did enjoy. The book did pull me along from chapter to chapter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc. Ok, Emily Shiner, this book should be a movie! It kept me riveted the whole time and I didn't want to come back from my lunch break at work, just wanted to keep reading. The Wife in the Photo is an amazing plot about a housekeeper that gets a job for a man who's wife has died. She knows he has something to do with her death, and is determined to prove it. This was a spell binding book and I loved it!

I really enjoyed this fast-paced PSYCHOLOGICAL thriller! Full of TWISTY secrets, REVENGE, MURDER and a jaw-dropping ending! The ending really had me surprised, which I love! I promise you, you will enjoy this read….what a THRILLING ride!

Many thanks to Bookouture, Netgalley and Emily Shiner for an advance copy. Expected to be published on September 7, 2023.

I found this a little bit predictable and I 100% figured out the end well before it was revealed. For me, this was not as much of a thriller since I knew what had happened, so that was slightly disappointing. I didn't like any of the characters - they were all extremely flawed and it has an unreliable narrator who is keeping secrets.

Even though the ending was ruined by me, I was invested enough in the book to keep picking it back up. There were some twists I didn't see coming, so I would recommend it if you like thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC of this book.

First of all I'd like to thank net galley and the publisher/author who allowed me access to this ARC. Unfortunately this book was only a 2 star for me. It was very predictable, slow paced, there was excessive detail to things that weren't relevant, and the multiple POV were confusing at times. Some chapters were labeled with the characters POV but when the character's POV continued to more than one chapterbsometimes it was labeled and other times it was not. I did enjoy the reveal of Ariel and Jessica's relationship to one another and the blackmail at the end, but other than that I found the rest to be predictable or cliche. I am not one to DNF a book (especially if it is an ARC) but I was really struggling to find interest in this book up until the 70% mark. I'd like to give my best to be author and publisher and thank you again for the opportunity to read this book.

THE WIFE IN THE PHOTO captured me within the first few chapters. I knew it would be too obvious that Evan had pushed his wife, Lola, down the stairs. The author, however, did tease me and I kept going back and forth with my thoughts. I liked the diary entries from Lola and Jessica and the different POV kept the book interesting. I did think the story was a little repetitive at times, but this didn't take away any of my enjoyment. I like Emily Shiner's style and I'll definitely be reading more of her books.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review will be shared to my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.reviews) closer to publication date

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

This is absolutely a suspense. I did have it figured out pretty much at 33%,but it was intriguing, so I kept with it. Trust me, you're going to want to read until the end. There are twists that you aren't going to see coming, beyond the obvious. Which in hindsight, is what the author was probably intending to do. Check this book out!

Evan the chief of police is nervous about what his daughter, Jessica, knows.

Evan’s wife fell down the stairs at their home.

It was ruled an accident, but others don’t believe that. They think Evan pushed her.

While Evan and Jessica are struggling with Lola’s death, the house is in a total shambles.

Evan asked his secretary if she knew someone who could be a housekeeper and cook. Miriam, his secretary, finds Ariel.

Ariel doesn’t trust Evan and plans to find proof that he killed Lola.

THE WIFE IN THE PHOTO will have you guessing and most likely guessing wrong about who did what and who is doing what.

There are lots of shady, lying characters in this fast-paced, twisty, really good book with a lot of surprises and a book you won’t want to put down.

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The Wife in the Photo by Emily Shiner
I enjoyed how this author immediately pulls you in from the first chapter. Each chapter is a different characters POV which I enjoy.
This is Evan and his daughter Jessica’s story. Lola, Jessica’s mom & Evans wife recently died after falling down a flight of stairs. Jessica is reeling out of control in self destructive ways now and Evan can’t seem to stop it. Let alone keep up with work and home chores. So he hires Ariel to help lighten the load at home, cook, clean, be a female presence for his daughter but something shady is very obviously going on and Ariel is determined to figure it out.
Although I had this book figured out by halfway I was still very intrigued to see how it would play out. I liked how the author left most chapters on a hanging note which of course made you want to go directly into the next chapter. I give this book a solid 3.5⭐️

The pace of the writing was quick, yet it took me a minute to actually get into the story, but when I did I was hooked. The characters were not as relatable and well drawn as they could have been, but up until the end I was all in. Lots of unreliable narration and plot twists aplenty to keep you guessing, all kept me reading past my bedtime. Note that the book overtook me UNTIL the end… therein lies the problem for me. I felt like some things were not tied up as well as they could have been and it felt like much was left unanswered as a set up for a sequel. It was a short book, surely a few more chapters isn’t too much to ask for. Until the very end, I would’ve given this book 5 stars, despite taking a minute to get fully into it. However, the last few pages just did me in and I will have to give it only three. (Oh, and I didn’t really understand why the book was named what it was.) Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

This was a great Thriller! I loved this book so much. It had be turned the pages so fast it was not even funny. I didn't want to be and adult and do anything the two days I read it.!! I'm new this author and will be keeping my eyes out for more book from her. Congrats Emily on this amazing book!