Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This one was pretty fast paced and enjoyable.
It sings to the tune of a murder "who dunnit" mystery with twists and turns throughout. I enjoy a good psychological thriller with journal entries if done well and this one was done well. The ending was crazy and really creative with the twists

How would it feel to live in the shadow of your husband's ex wife who went missing and was never found? Anna loves Cary and she loves Harper, her step daughter, even more. She would be a fool to go digging into their past, right? Some secrets are better left undiscovered, but Anna can't help it. She needs to know what happened to the woman before her.

I am a thriller fan and love books with twists and turns; this book had all of that and more. This is a book that you won't want to put down and can't keep reading due to anxiety at the same time! This book was slightly reminiscent of Behind Closed Doors in my opinion, but the twists greatly deviated. I would recommend this book if you love books with unpredictable endings, but please be sure to check your trigger warnings as some parts were hard for me to read.

What a web weaver Ruhi is.
Me while reading:
What?

What???

Whaaaatttt??!!?!

And just when I think it’s over… WHAT???!!!

Cary’s wife has disappeared, leaving him a single father to an infant. Anna meets him at the office she is managing. He’s seeking psychological treatment and she’s looking for a little more than friendship.

It’s not long before their friendship blossoms and Anna meets Harper, Cary’s 10 month old baby girl. She immediately falls in love with her little angel.

Their relationship continues to deepen as they get to know each other. He invites her to live with him at his home. Once his wife is declared dead, they can consider next steps. Then she meets her partners mother in law. Expectantly, Juliet is not a big fan of the girls trying to take her missing daughter’s place. Everything in the beautiful home becomes hostile. This all comes before the twists start.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the audio version.
I want to say I did enjoy the book I honestly wanted to know what happened next as I was reading it. Do I think it has "Shocking twists and turns".... Not really... I didn't find myself saying oh wow .. didn't see that coming. I felt but reviews saying "shocking twists and turns" I was excited to read it and then was disappointed when just to me it was not shocking at all and kind of a let down. But I am sure many people would think it was good twists and turns. All in all it was an interesting book and story plot. I would read from this author again. At least the author has me wanting to know what happened in the end.

From a common blueprint to a twisted conclusion….

2.5 stars.

When Anna meets handsome surgeon Cary, their romance seems like a fairytale. She quickly moves in with him and his little daughter Harper in a quiet suburb, and tries her best to fit into her posh new surroundings. But Cary‘s wife Presley disappeared a year ago, and her shadow looms large in Anna’s new life. And soon, Anna begins to harbor suspicions about what really happened to her.

This entire book felt eerily familiar, and if it wasn‘t a new release, I couldn‘t have sworn I hadn‘t read it before. A mix of „The Wife Between Us“, „Gone Girl“, a myriad of generic domestic thrillers, and some „The Hand that Rocked the Cradle“ imagery thrown in for all the weird and frankly concerning obsession with someone else‘s child, the only truly original thing about this story was the twist at the end, and only because it requires such a suspension of belief that you could not have come up with it on your own. Crazy as it was, the ending did at least make the characters and their actions make more sense, especially Anna, who sadly undergoes a complete character assassination in part 2 and just becomes terribly unlikeable.

Nevertheless, with the exception of baby Harper, all the main characters are or turn out to be truly horrible and/or seriously crazy, which is always risky in a thriller because you stop caring about who might end up dead. The story itself moves along at an okay pace, but I felt the book tried to cram too many - often overused - potential plot lines into one story. The four parts didn‘t help, as they made the story seem more distorted than necessary.

Side note: Speaking of Harper, I was extremely confused by her - she is just a baby when Anna first meets her but then suddenly seems all grown up, even though by Anna‘s account, not much time has gone by. And why is Cary not more of a suspect in the disappearance of his wife? The whole police investigation (then and now) made no sense to me at all.

Overall, the story didn‘t hold my interest enough because for most of the book, it felt like I‘d „been there, read that“ before - and the final twist, while unexpected, was a bit too out there for me, though it did feel satisfying.

I listened to the audio book, and immensely appreciated the trigger warnings at the very beginning of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

„His Last Wife“ is slated to be published on April 25, 2024.

For context - i listened to the Audio version of this book.

This is the first book i have read by this author - and it will most certainly not be the last.

Completely unputtdownable listen for me - Bravo Ruhi!!!

The narration was top class too!

This is story of love, betrayal and secrets. With lots of plot twists and turns that i did not see coming, this book kept me gripped from beginning to end - just the kind of book i love to listen too.

5 stars brilliance.

🎧Audio Book Review🎧

His Last Wife
Ruhi Choudhary

🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was so packed with twists and turns that it's left me reeling!

What started out as a standard thriller where we are fed little bits of back story as we read, really took on a amore sinister vibe as the plot develops.

I don't really want to talk too much about the plot as there were definitely lots of shocks dotted among the familiar themes which really gave this a unique feel.

Some of the events seemed predictable but don't get too comfortable as things are definitely not all that they seem.

I really enjoyed the whole concept of this one.
I love my psychological thrillers and never get bored even if themes and ideas appear similar.
I was drawn in from the start and as more and more things are revealed, I was left really unsure about which version of events was right and who I could trust!
The twists at the end coming as a real shock!

I liked that we were shown events from a few different pov's, including an anonymous one - which isn't revealed until the very end. I had a few theories around this throughout the book, but didn't work it out until the reveal came.

The characters were really well thought out and presented which made them all relatable, even when not likable....and I loved how my perception of each of them changed (multiple times in some cases) as the story developed.

A great read which had me hooked from start to finish - a first read for me by this author but I'd be keen to read more in the future.



💕Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

Anna is moving in with the love of her life. Cary is handsome, rich and has an adorable daughter, Harper. After Cary’s wife, Presley, was abducted some time ago, Anna takes on the role as Harper’s mother. However this new ratchets to riches lifestyle is more complicated than Anna imagined. Not only does she has to handle Presley’s mother, who has a strong dislike for her, she also has to impress her new neighbours with dinner parties and get togethers. All of this would be fine if she hadn’t found Presley’d diary one day. A diary where she confesses that Cary is abusive. With a locked room she’s not allowed to enter and the dark secrets from the diary, Anna starts to winder if she really knows the man she’s fallen in love with.

We all know the set up for a domestic thriller; There’s usually a sketchy husband, a naive woman and lots of secrets. Yet I found this thriller surprising and well-executed. We mostly gets Anna’s point of view, but in between we get snippets from “the watcher”, which was a nice element to keep the suspense. Further into the novel we also get a new point of view that changes up the pace and the character dynamic.

I thought I knew where the plot was going, and though I predicted one of the twist I was surprised by others and shocked by the ending. The more we learn about Presley’s disappearance, the more complicated the mystery gets. What drives the novel is the lies and secrets both from Cary, the neighbour, the diary, but also from Anna herself. She has her own secrets that always leave the reader a bit in the dark, which I love.

I enjoyed the novel and would recommend it if you’re looking for a new and suspenseful domestic thriller.

3,75 ⭐️

His Last Wife by Ruhi Choudhary
(Narrated by Penelope Rawlins, Kelly Burke)

The stroyline was developed fantastically. Chapters after chapters. It led you to somewhere, but then there was another secret revealed. The core characters were smartly sculptured, then the author added more characters that deepened the whole story!

The narrators presented the characters very well. I could imagine how they looked like just by listening the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: April 25, 2024

His Last Wife is a domestic thriller that starts off with a storyline that is appears predictable at first, but becomes a page turner as more secrets are revealed! Each chapter unveils more secrets and lies follow with lots of twists in this thriller. It turns out the ending isn't as predictable as anticipated and the storyline was engaging.. Very interested in reading more from this author!
Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture Audible, and Ruhi Choudhary for this ARC!

This book was full of twists and turns, so much so that by the time I got to the end of it I felt fatigued from all the different directions I was being pulled. The pacing was decent and it was written well enough that it kept me interested and willing to keep going. There were a few twists that I really enjoyed and felt excited about and others that felt like they were just in there for shock value. There were places where it felt like this book was just trying to do too much. Those are the reasons I didn't give it 4 or 5 stars, but the fact that I kept reading and enjoyed it is why it got 3.

Thanks NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book was really good, until it wasn’t. I was really into this book until it just stopped making sense. Some of the things that happened were so farfetched I just couldn’t find the reasoning behind them. I did finish and I was surprised by the twist at the end.

What did I just read? His Last Wife by Ruhi Choudhary has completely enthralled me. The author's mastery in character development is evident, with Presley, Cary, and Harper coming to life in a way that immersed me in their world.

Choudhary's writing style is so compelling that I was hooked from the first chapter and found it challenging to put the book down. The last four chapters are a masterpiece; they are packed with action, drama, and heart-wrenching moments that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The town of Rosedale, where the story takes place, is described in such detail that I could picture the streets, the houses, and the people living there. The portrayal of the characters' emotions and feelings is so vivid that I could understand their motivations and struggles.

The themes of adultery, abusive relationships, kidnapping, and murder in the story are woven seamlessly into the plot, making it a thrilling read. After reading this book, I cannot wait to discover more of Choudhary's work. His Last Wife is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a gripping, suspenseful novel with well-crafted characters and a riveting storyline.

I listened to this by audiobook and thought it was great. I did not expect that twist at the end, I thought I had it worked out the majority of the time and then something would spin it 180 degrees.

Sometimes I struggled to figure out the different lengths of time throughout or how long events were. I also sometimes couldn’t differentiate when we had moved onto a different scene but soon picked up on it by context.

I really liked how unlikeable all these characters were. You really got the feel of how much Anna was an outsider and how different she was to them.

I picked up on something that I didn’t like BUT it turned out to be a massive part of the plot that just flew over my head and I now really like! I definitely would go back and read this to see if I could catch all the little hints.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ruhi Choudhary for this audiobook arc!

The twist at the end of this book was quite surprising. It was a great read and the narrator was excellent.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
His Last Wife by Ruhi Choudhary is an unbelievably gripping psychological thriller, a complex story with a heart-stopping twist! So many twists! By the end of the book I already lost my speech! My jaw was on the floor and I stopped breathing! This was not just an unexpected twist - this was a twist of the year!

Cary is a dream come true man. At least everyone believes that. Anna is lucky enough to fall in love with him and his daughter Harper but she isn't ready to become a shadow of his first wife Presley. Presley's mother is there every step at the time...

This is a book of high calculations, manipulations, and unexpected twists!

Thank you for this copy!

Anna meets Cary a handsome widowed cardiologist at Psychologist office. Cary is mourning the loss of his wife and feels like he isn’t the best of company. Anna offers her friendship both are lonely and become close friends. Anna starts to fall for Cary and wishes for more. Once they become romantic things heat up quickly and they move in together.

Anna bonds quickly to Cary’s 18 month old daughter, Harper. Cary soon reveals his wife, Presley is missing did not die but she’s presumed dead. Anna has some hiccups fitting into Cary’s tight knit community. She also has a hard time living up to the rich and beautiful wife, Presley. Presley’s mother Juliette lives with Cary and isn’t accepting of the relationship of her son-in-law and Anna.

Anna learns more about Cary through a journal of Presley’s. They did not have this picture perfect marriage like she was lead to believe.

Things aren’t what they seem. Trust no one. Everyone is keeping secrets. The book picks up from its slower start in the beginning and does throw quite a few curve balls at you.

I’d rate this book at a 3.2-3.4 stars. I wasn’t blown away by the story or characters. While the twists and turns were fun they weren’t exactly exciting. I did expect a bit more. I read a lot of thriller books and it does take quite a bit to impress me. So if you’re on the fence about reading this take that into consideration.

I want to thank #NetGalley and #BookoutureAudio for the advanced copy of this book. #Hislastwife

"Do Not Go In There, Anna" kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The central mystery of Presley's disappearance and the suspicion cast on the charming Cary had me racing through the pages. The author did a fantastic job building tension and keeping me guessing about who to trust. I also enjoyed the way Anna's own past gradually unfolds, adding another layer of intrigue.

However, the ending felt a little rushed and unearned. After such a well-developed mystery, the resolution felt like a missed opportunity. It left me wanting a bit more explanation and a stronger emotional payoff. Despite that, this was a gripping and suspenseful read, and I would definitely recommend it for fans of domestic thrillers.

4+ stars

This book pulled me in pretty much right away. The description made me think it was going to go in a different direction than it did, but that wasn’t a bad thing; I certainly didn’t expect most of the ending, which was fun. I’ll have to check out other books from this writer in the future.

This book took me on a wild ride! The twists and turns that this book had was insane. I certainly wasn't expecting that when I began reading it! I highly recommend!