Thank you to Thriller Book Lovers The Pulse for another fantastic summer thriller!

"The Second Mrs. Strom" is the thrilling sequel to Kaira Rouda's "Best Day Ever," the book that first hooked me on her writing. I couldn't get enough and eagerly sought advance copies of her new releases when they became available!

As soon as I started listening to the audiobook, Paul's unforgettable selfish and whiney voice came rushing back, making me shiver with disgust and fascination. The narrator did an outstanding job of returning me to Paul's world. I couldn't wait to see him get his comeuppance!

While "The Second Mrs. Strom" is a standalone novel, I highly recommend reading "Best Day Ever" because it's just that good. Paul's despicable and self-centered nature is genuinely memorable. A year into his new marriage, he's in for a rude awakening when he realizes his new wife, Cecilia, won't bow to his every whim.

This book is a wild, exciting ride filled with wit and suspense. Watching Cecilia toy with Paul and put him in his place while he obliviously embarrasses himself is pure entertainment.

Thanks to Bookouture and Bookouture Audio for the advanced reading. copies provided via NetGalley. I received copies of the audiobook and ebook from the publisher. All opions are my own.

The insufferable Paul Strom has returned! This book is just as captivating as the first.

Paul and his new wife, Cecilia, celebrate their first anniversary in Paris. He's still obnoxious and arrogant, but Cecilia has a few tricks up her sleeve.

These two, Paul and Cecilia, are a perfect match for dysfunction, creating a tension-filled narrative. I particularly enjoyed the perspectives of both characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a free copy of this book.

The Second Mrs Strom by Kaira Rouda, the sequel to Best Day Ever! Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse for my #GIFTED copies! I listened to the audiobook and read the ebook! My opinions are voluntary and my own!

Has Paul Strom met his match with his young, new wife, Cecilia? I think so! While in attendance of his “older lover’s” funeral, Paul meets Cecelia. Young, ambitious, beautiful and broke. Paul has just been left a fortune and needs a new wife!
Cecilia will be perfect as the next Mrs Strom — malleable, subservient and future mother to his 3 future children….well, that’s his dream at least.

Unfortunately, for Paul, Cecelia isn’t as malleable as he’d like and he is turning back to his old ways.

When Paul and Cecelia go to Paris for their first year Anniversary, Paul has a surprise for her, but, unbeknownst to Paul, Cecilia may just be at him to the punchline!

My thoughts:
Woah! Just as ‘Best Day Ever’, I LOVED this wicked thriller! Oh, Paul, I love you so much, you narcissistic psycho! You are just too funny and way too confident! A speedy, fun and entertaining read that fans of Freida McFadden must read! This can be read as a stand alone but would be better to read the first book!

If you read the first book, you know Paul’s best day ever didn’t go so well. Will his best night ever with his new wife, Cecilia, fare better?

Often the sequel is a letdown, but The Second Mrs. Strom doesn’t disappoint! Paul is back and up to his usual tricks. However, Cecilia isn’t what she seems. She has secrets and an ulterior motive. Has Paul met his match?

The Second Mrs. Strom definitely keeps you guessing. Who’s good? Who’s bad? Are they all bad?

It was a fun, fast paced read with that I completely devoured. Suspense thriller fans won’t want to miss a second trip on this wild ride!

I received an early copy of this book.

Wow! Kaira Rouda does it again! Fantastic characters that kept me flipping pages long past my bedtime. From beginning to end this was like a roller coaster ride with countless twists and turns. There was no way to know who to trust. Tense, creepy and all round great read.
Thank you NetGalley, Kaira Rouda and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Narcissist Paul Strom, star of Rouda's earlier book, Best Day Ever, is back with a lot of money, a new wife and all kinds of crazy musings. He and his new wife, Cecelia, are in Paris celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Paul cozied up to elderly and super rich Esther, collected her fortune after she died and then married the much younger Cecelia. At first things seem to be going pretty well, but the deeper things go, the more we realize there is trouble in paradise.

I was excited to read this and also concerned. I loved Paul Strom in the first book, much like I loved Joe Goldberg from You, but the subsequent books all went downhill. That wasn't the case with this one. I still found Paul entertaining for the most part, although I will say this book started to drag from about 60-80%. It felt repetitive during that time. This book changes timelines throughout, alternating between the trip to Paris, when Cecelia and Paul met in Palm Beach, their life in Malibu. That could have gotten confusing but it actually worked pretty well. Overall I liked it but don't knwo that I would need any more of Paul at this point.

Cecilia and Paul fell in love at first sight. The icing on the cake is that Paul inherited a ton of money and they can create a new life with no limitations. Sounds perfect, right? As with any good mystery, things aren’t exactly as they seem. Who is the monster here - Paul or Cecilia? Read on to find out!

I am obsessed with this book. It's a thriller about a husband and wife in Paris on their one-year anniversary. I'm obsessed because the characters are terrible people, but in a funny hilarious way.

It just so happened that I am reading this book before the Olympics in Paris, so it's great timing. If you've been to Paris before, you can imagine where the characters are, and if you haven't visited, the author describes the location in great detail.

Paul made me LOL so often in this book. He's egotistical and thinks he is so classy and refined but he's not. His wife and all of the Parisians remind him of that the entire time.

In summary, I loved the characters and the setting. It was the perfect summer read. Thanks for the advance review copy.

This book was full of deplorable characters and situations; in other words, it was dark and delicious! The protago, its was very difficult to tolerate, but I pushed through because of the compelling plot. This book proves that there is still plenty to be done on the sinister marriage trope. Rouda has a way of snaking into your brain and making you belief one thing, while making the reality a complete surprise. Bravo! Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Best Day Ever is my favorite Kaira Rouda book Paul Strom is one of the most despicable characters ever written. He is married again and is now back and up to his same old ways. But Paul may have met his match in his latest wife…or has he??? The scheming and twists and turns kept me reading to this book and finished in one day!!!

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the chance to read and review this book!!!

Book review 📖

📜The Second Mrs. Strom
✍️Kaira Rouda
📠Bookouture
📚 Mystery/Thriller Fiction
🗓️Pub date: August 16, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @bookouture for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨One might look at Paul and Cecilia’s year-old marriage and think they are madly in love. Well, they’d be wrong. In fact, one might be surprised to know that the most successful marriages are built on lies.

✨If you met Cecilia a year ago, she would be unrecognizable. Poor, alone, looking for revenge. She is still looking for revenge, but now she is rich and married, and her husband doesn’t know what’s in store for him.

✨As they wind through the cobble-stoned streets of Paris on what is supposed to be a trip of a lifetime and an anniversary getaway, the revenge is poised and ready.

✨I thought the storyline was interesting (yet predictable), but delivery a little unbelievable. The passive-aggressive dialogue build-up and pure love/hatred Paul and Cecilia have for each other had less of an impact than if it was toned down and left the reader wanting more.

#netgalley #bookouture #thesecondmrsstrom #kairarouda #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview

👀Freida McFadden fans this one is for you!!

📖If you're looking for an audiobook you can fly through without wanting to press pause at all, you need to check out THE SECOND MRS. STROM!

👀Don't read the synopsis, it gives way too much away! Go in blind and I guarantee you'll have a blast getting to know this newlywed couple with a couple secrets up their sleeves.

📖It was the perfect length so I was never bored or checking the time, the characters were fun, and the flashbacks via diary entries helped keep things interesting.

👀I definitely gasped at the twist and it made me want to go back and reread the whole book!

Our Miss Kaira Rouda has quite the wicked sense of humor, and she is back in fine form in The Second Mrs. Strom. I very much enjoyed the audio narration as well as the writing of these two deeply flawed and unlikeable characters who found eachother in West Palm Beach and migrated to Malibu. The suspense builds nicely to the end with frequent literal LOLs almost every other page. What's not to love about the inner thoughts of a former gentleman escort to an old grand dame of Palm Beach who is now petulant that his new love lacks the class of the old lady? I gobbled this book up like a delicious treat and I'm only sad that I now have to wait longer for the next Kaira Rouda book.

Ugh Paul!! I really enjoyed the first one(Best Day Ever) and flew through this story within a couple of days. It's like the guy never learns his lesson 🤣 Rouda is a new favorite of mine.

A fast paced domestic thriller that will keep you up well past your bedtime. This is my first book by Kaira Rouda but won't be my last.

I received an ARC of this book from Bookouture via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. I really wish I had realized it was a sequel, as it bothers me when I don't start at the first in the series. That being said, this book does function on its own, but it does make a lot of references to Paul's past which I would have liked to read about first. It is extremely fast-paced and I was looking for opportunities to pick it back up each time I had to stop reading. However, I was a bit disappointed in the ending - I expected more secrets to come to light, and I didn't find one main twist particularly exciting. I do enjoy this author and may in fact go back to read the first novel in the series.

Oh Paul! Back to his old ways again and with a new wife, and this time in the city of love! Celebrating their anniversary Paul and Cecilia are in Paris, a vacation many would give anything to take but each has their own idea of just how this anniversary vacation should happen. Paul thought he has learned from the mistakes he made with his first wife, but what he doesn't realize is that he may just have met his match with Cecelia. More secrets, more greed and a fast paced read to see who just ends up having the best night ever! This can be read as a standalone and the author does recall details from the Best Day Ever to help tie things together in this one. This was just as fast a read as the first one, and a great sequel. I loved the twists in this one and the slow burn of the cat and mouse game of who would end up with what in the end. Thriller Book Lovers the Pulse is excited to be reading and talking about this one! A great summer read that will make you think twice about a romantic getaway to Paris! Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the complementary ebook. This review is of my own opinion and accord.

This was my first Kaira Rouda experience and I was NOT disappointed in the slightest. This novel was nothing less of thrilling, and Kaira gave me everything I wanted as a thriller reader. The pacing of this novel is masterful, with a thrilling contrast between the present-day timeline, confined to a single day, and the flashbacks spanning several years, which intensifies the tension of their final day in Paris. Paul, the epitome of self-entitled arrogance, is a loathsome character—a true giant man-baby whose controlling nature makes him thoroughly detestable. From the very first page, the author expertly hooks the reader, drawing them into a gripping narrative. Cecilia, the strong female protagonist, consistently outsmarts Paul, staying one step ahead in their psychological duel. While this is the second book in the series, it stands strong as a standalone, though subtle hints suggest that reading the first book, “Best Day Ever,” would provide additional context.

A big thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture, Kaira Rouda, and The Pulse for this eARC.

Oh, Paul, you sly, self-centered devil! He's back, this time with his new wife, Cecelia. My feelings about Paul are all over the place – I despise him, yet I can't get enough of his antics. He’s still that arrogant guy who thinks the world owes him everything, but honestly, that's what makes the book so entertaining. Without Paul, it would be a snoozefest.

The plot? Absolutely loved it! It's well-crafted and fast-paced. Cecelia is on her own wavelength, and figuring out her path is a thrilling mystery. The dual narration from both Paul and Cecelia keeps things fresh and exciting.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for letting me dive into this ARC. Can't wait for more!

If you haven't read a book by Kaira Rouda what are you waiting for!! I've been reading her books since 2017. What I like most is that she always has a surprise twist that I don't see coming. I loved this audiobook. The narrators were perfect. I couldn't stand Paul and I didn't know if I could believe Ceclia. This is a a wild story..I can definitely recommend it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for my gifted copy.

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