This is a real thriller of a book from Rebecca de Winter. Her writing is excellent and she really tells a story well. I devoured it!

This book has it all: toxic relationships, drama, secrets, betrayal & heartache. A domestic thriller that will pull you in. Get ready for edge of your seat reading & a book you won’t want to put down.

I gobbled this thriller up, it was a terrific read. I need to investigate whether or not this author has further books. The story went in crazy direction and kept my attention the entire way through. It does have a few triggers that I may warn people before reading. The only negative I saw was sometime the timelines were a bit wonky and it was a bit hard to follow where I was. But small negative, overall it was a great read.

I loved this book! It drew me in from the start and although the story was dark, the characters were compelling. This is my first book by this author, but won’t be my last

An interesting way to tell the story. I wasn't sure about it at times, it occasionally felt stillted. But overall it was a good read. Some hard hitting subjects at times.

Emily has it all—a wonderful husband and a precious daughter. But behind it all is the secret that haunts her and could bring her perfect world down if her past were revealed.
She thought her past was behind her until she is suddenly approached by a former lover who could bring that world down by exposing her as the woman she once was. Emily is suddenly caught in a dangerous web of deceit as she desperately finds a way to protect herself and her child from the evils of her past. It is a gripping edge-of-the-seat thriller, full of twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the surprising ending.

3.5 Stars

It's a good story, it didn't entertain me so much during the development of the book; except for some fragments where I felt complete despair and frustration with the story of the protagonist. The ending was good 👍🏻🤩

Emily is a good woman who in her youth lived some strong experiences, so that explains the reason for her actions and her personality.

The interesting well-developed characters but my favorite was Emily.

Thank you Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing me this ARC!! 👍🏻

Overall, the Second Marriage wasn’t my cup of tea, I appreciated the theme and direction but I never connected with the book.

The characters don’t act like actual humans act. People (and book characters) aren’t always logical but it happened too much to feel real. For example, Emily finds out her husband is cheating, she’s really upset but continues to hang out with the lady. Nope, that wouldn’t happen.

Emily is a "not like other girls" type of girl. She is unlikable but I didn't mind that much. She cannot accept the most logical conclusion and that felt grating after a while. This feeds back into the characters not feeling real.

Finally, there's lots of hopping between different years. The author added lots of cultural references and did so showing Emily's POV at that time. I love that. The problem is that some of the references don't match the dates. It happened so often that it distracted me, Here are some examples:

The gardener in Spring 2015 wouldn't make a TikTok. TikTok was created in late 2016 and wasn't popular until around 2019ish.

Emily references Leo Di Caprio's Great Gatsby movie in a chapter that happened in 2005. That movie wasn't out then.

There are other examples but I'll leave it there. I wouldn't normally notice these things but it made me second-guess all the references.

I appreciate the opportunity to review this book.

This is a thriller based on several toxic relationships linked to Emily or Brigham as she is also known. The book touches on power based relationships and how for many the balance between men and women is still not even.
The tale begins with Emily being interviewed in prison; why is she there? Is she a victim or villain?
Not read anything like this before but thoroughly enjoyed this book from the start. Thank you Rebecca de Winter for a great read.

This book started out with such promise. In the end though, it's too much drama and hardly any mystery. It comes off more as a rant than an actual story.

I cannot in good conscience feel sorry for the MC and I definitely could not relate to her. I finished the entire book hoping things would change, but it promised a lot and did not deliver. There are huge plot holes in this that have not been filled in.

Just a woman's history back and forth that ends up with a woman's death. I'm sorry, but that's not a true mystery.

Emily knowingly ending back up in her own misery makes her very unlikable. Nothing was explained well. Plus, the hypocrisy was just astounding.

I really wanted to like this and I absolutely hate giving bad reviews. But honestly compels me to list why I have such issues with this book.

I do not recommend this book.

Thanks for to Net Galley, the publisher, and to Rebecca de Winter for the ability to read and review this book. All opinions are mine and are completely honest.

This book took me down a path I was not expecting and I was totally blindsided. That being said, I really enjoyed this one and found myself putting aside other books to finish this one. You can somewhat surmise what will ultimately happen by reading the prologue but how the story unfolded was totally unexpected.

This one will have you skipping your responsibilities to finish.

I will say that there are some triggers warnings that should be included in this book so please be mindful and look up triggers prior to reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn't read the synopsis so didn't quite know what to expect. It seems at first a straightforward thriller about a woman in prison revealing why she killed her husband. But it turned out to be far more than that: a surprisingly feminist treatise about coercive control and a woman's revenge (which could also be construed as justice). It took a while before the scales fell from Emily's eyes and she realised how badly she and friends had been treated by wealthy older men at parties. One friend had been found dead, but it was regarded as an accident.
I found the story slow to unfold and reach the boil. Emily as a character both infuriated and fascinated me, an ideal combination!

Thank you for the opportunity to preview The Second Marriage.
Interesting plot with a self absorbed woman who claims to be the victim but is also the villain of a murder.
Emily resides in jail for a murder. She is beautiful and in many ways enchanting. She is granting an interview with a young woman, Naomi. The purpose is the Naomi to complete her thesis but she also wants to know why Emily committed murder. Emily had everything- money, looks, wealthy friends.
The story goes back in time as Emily tells her story.
Sometimes the dialogue was too much information and was meaningless. Overall good book with a satisfying ending. 3.5 stars

an awesome domestic thriller!!!! quite the page turner, especially the very last 10% of the book!!! highly recommend!!!!

Toxic people and toxic relationships abound in this book. A quick read but missed the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Enjoyable domestic thriller with a powerful and original protagonist voice. Em is a gripping character and I loved her sense of justifiable rage and her disdain for some of the mundane things in her life. The novel works both as a moral tale that highlights abuse but also as a parody of modern life with well observed putfowns about contemporary life.
The sense of building tension worked well as did the three timeliness which were intercut.

This book had me hooked from the start.
There’s two timeline and perspectives. Naomi’s perspective and Emily’s perspective. The story is centered on Emily’s life. She’s incarcerated for killing her husband. There’s so many parts of Emily’s life that show how she ended up in that position.

You almost feel bad for Emily. She’s an interesting character.
I wouldn’t say this book is a thriller more family drama or domestic drama.

Name of Book: The Second Marriage
Author: Rebecca de Winter
Publisher: Storm Publishing
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: September 26, 2024
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 310

Prologue starts with Naomi who is writing her PhD thesis and interviewing women. She states Emily would be perfect and then visits her in prison.
Things had been perfect for Emily perfect life - perfect husband- perfect daughter. However with Emily is now in prison. Not sure if her life had ever been ‘perfect’.

Story was more complicated not sure if that is the correct word but definitely more involved than I expected.

I want to thank to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this early this early eGalley
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 26, 2024.

Such a good book had me hooked and will recommend to others. I want to read more by this author and will look out for similar books

There are several undisclosed book trigger warnings!! Please look them up before reading this book.

I would call this more of a domestic drama with a side of abusive relationships. I went into this novel expecting a thriller with crazy twists and secrets kept by the husband and the wife (Emily), and the mysterious prologue only furthered that conception.

Basically the novel is split between 3 timelines: the early 2000s, where Emily was in college; the 2010s where Emily went from one marriage to her second; and 2023, where Emily is being interviewed by a PhD student while behind bars for some unknown crime. The crime is slowly revealed in the drama of the 3 storylines and their eventual intersection.

I thought the character of Emily was enjoyably morally grey. So many terrible and traumatic things happened to her in her formative years, yet she did some not great things to people who loved her in return. Liam was the unlikeable villain that he was written to be, and I am content with the way his storyline ends.

My biggest qualm with this book was that the first and second halves felt like completely different novels. In the first part, Emily plays the part of a stay-at-home mother and housewife in a small suburban neighborhood. She has a husband, daughter and friends, and it seems really quiet. Then she randomly begins to do some not traditional housewife things and the story is derailed from there. The second half of the story explores her abusive and exploitive relationship with a man from her past. The two halves don't mesh well together at all, despite some attempts to make it a cohesive story, so it felt a bit jarring. Along with that, there were a couple storylines that felt thrown in for fun (Instagram pictures, friendship with Billie, even Anna sort of) that further took away from the main plot.

Overall this was an interesting domestic drama, but I wouldn't necessarily classify it as thrilling or mysterious. It's a quick read so it's a great book for in-between books in a series or to switch up your genres briefly.