The book was a suspenseful, uneasy plot. The idea of Gabby confessing her secret to a stranger was interesting, but the plot was a slow burn, which I didn't enjoy. The twist at the end was not surprising, but the whole idea of this book was a good one.

👄 M I S T R E S S M O N D A Y review 👄 featuring “The Younger Woman” by Cate Ray!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Gabby and Fred are newly empty nesters after dropping their daughter off at college. Now it’s just the two of them alone in a massive house … and what should be the beginning of a new chapter for them turns into a nightmare.

Gabby realizes that she genuwinely hates her husband and now that her kids have left home she no longer wants to be tethered to Fred. After a few drinks one night, Gabby finds herself confessing her true feelings about Fred to a complete stranger she meets at a bar. She even goes as far as telling this woman that she wishes Fred was dead. No big deal … she will never see her again. RIGHT??? 🤯

Gabby thinks nothing of the drunken conversation until she begins to receive taunting text messages from this woman. Was this meeting pure coincidence or was Gabby actually being targeted?? And how is her husband involved??

What follows is one hell of a game of cat and mouse mixed with looming threats, lies, manipulation, dark secrets and malicious intentions. All it takes is one drunken conversation to spark a domino effect of DRAMA and TWISTED events! Get your popcorn ready folks!

Thank you kindly to @cateraywriter @parkrowbooks @harpercollinsca @htpbooks @netgalley for my #gifted advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on February 25, 2025!

Wow….. what an interesting read… plot twist I never saw coming … a wife and mother who becomes an empty nester left with just a miserable marriage to keep her company. Gabby, the wife, goes out to drown her sorrows where she meets Ellis and in her drunken stupor confesses that she wishes her husband was dead. When Gabby tries to figure out what’s going on with her husband and who Ellis really is, things start to get interesting…

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to arc read this book .

Gabby and Fred are now empty nesters and are just not connecting. When Gabby truly examines their relationship, she knows something much change. After confronting Fred, their story takes a twisty and dangerous ride. This was a good thriller.

I’m normally not a huge fan of a slower burn with the intensity picking up in the end but it worked for me here. I liked the idea of Gabby confessing a dark secret to a total stranger, the whole concept of it being easier to be candid with someone you don’t know is interesting and I can see how it could be true. The suspense here was quieter, a sense of uneasiness, especially not knowing what Ellis goals and motivations were so maybe that’s why a slow burn made sense for me. There was something almost intoxicating about this book, enough so that even though the big twist wasn’t a surprise to me, I wasn’t bothered that much. If you enjoy books about secrets with a cat and mouse vibe try this!

This book had me glued to the pages and my couch until the very last page!!
After dropping their daughter off at college and watching her husband drool over every woman who is younger than her, Gabby has come to the realization she hates her husband! Their now empty nesters and she feels like this is her chance to for a new beginning, one that her husband isn’t walking all over her. The only problem she doesn’t want to lose her house that was left to her. One night at her local bar and a few to many drinks, she spills her guts to the mysterious and beautiful Ellis. Gabby makes the deadly mistake: she tells Ellis she wishes her husband were dead. What happens next is a cat and mouse game, one that is hard to tell whose the cat or the mouse… the story unfolds in a showing way and that left my jaw on tbr ground!! Whose playing who?

I struggled to connect with the characters and guessed the twist early on. So while I did enjoy the fast pace, this won’t go down as a favorite I’m sorry to say.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was so drawn to the concept here, but from the start just could NOT find my way into this one... The eponymous younger woman irritated me. So did the put-upon wife. I found them entirely too stereotypical and flat and despite an intriguing blurb found myself bored early on. This one wasn't at all for me...

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing/Park Row and NetGalley for an early copy of The Younger Woman. This started as a bit queasy with the mom looking at the girl as erotic, didn’t sit right with me and there really is no reason why it was included in the book. Otherwise, this was a good read, kept my interest and I didn’t want to put it down. I am so glad I stayed with it. Be careful what you say when you drink!

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row books for the ARC of The Younger Woman.

I finished this book in two days, which I haven’t done in a while. It was an engaging thriller that provided some interesting background on the past. Around 70% in, I predicted a twist, but it still kept me hooked and eager to keep reading.

Release date: February 25th 2025

This is the second book I've read this year that reminded me of Strangers on a Train, and I'm not mad about it. A slow burn but a thrilling, twisted ending, you'll be thinking about this for a long time!

Book: The Younger Woman
Author: Cate Ray
Rating: 2 Out of 5 Stars

I want to thank the publisher, Park Row, for sending me an ARC. I could not get into this one. It’s not a bad book, but it was not for me. It’s sad because I thought I would enjoy this one a lot.

In this one, we follow Gabby and Fred, who are adjusting to life as empty nesters when Gabby has a startling revelation: she can no longer stand her husband. One night, while at a bar, she meets a mysterious younger woman named Ellis. In a moment of drunken vulnerability, Gabby confesses her darkest thoughts—that she wishes Fred were dead. At first, Gabby dismisses the encounter as a fleeting, drunken mistake, but when she tries to find Ellis again, she discovers something unsettling. Ellis may not be who she claimed to be, and the truth behind their brief connection becomes more sinister than Gabby could have imagined. As Gabby digs deeper into Ellis's past and begins to question Fred's secrets, she finds herself caught in a dangerous web of deception. Trust becomes a fragile thing and the line between victim and perpetrator blurs. How far is Gabby willing to go to uncover the truth—and who will ultimately be the target in this high-stakes game of lies and manipulation?

The setup for this one was great. We have a couple, whose children have moved out and they now must adjust to that. Gabby struggles with this. She goes out and gets drunk. While drunk, she comes to realize something, something that she had never truly felt before: she hates her husband and wants him gone. Not only does she realize this, but she tells, Ellis, who is a complete stranger about it. It’s supposed to be a drunken moment and that’s all. However, the more time passes, the more Gabby realizes that she may be in too deep. This is something that normally pulls me right in with thrillers. I love the idea of two people coming together and plotting, only for one of them not to be so serious about it. I love the idea of cat and mouse, which is what we have here. Gabby digs and digs. The further she gets in, the more she comes to realize that this whole situation is more complicated. Lines are blurred and she must work through all of this to figure it out.

This is where my engagement stopped with the story. I had a difficult time connecting with the story and the characters. It felt like something was missing from the story to drive it home. I felt like there were a lot of good things in here, but I didn’t feel it. The emotional impact that I was expecting from this book was not there. For example, I knew what Gabby was supposed to be feeling. She is a mom struggling with her children moving out and it has caused some emotional roller coaster, but if we hadn’t been told that, I don’t think I would have known. I know this is what drives Gabby’s actions, but the punch was not there. It felt like she was even disconnected from what was going on. I would have liked to see this all fleshed out a bit more.

I think that is why I had a very difficult time getting into this story. I could not get connected with what was happening. Normally, thrillers pull me right in. I love the rush I get whenever I am reading one, but I did not get that with this one. I wanted to because the setup is amazing.

Overall, this was a miss for me.

This book comes on February 25, 2025.

Always remember your conversations - especially with strangers!!

Gabby finds out she made a grave mistake one night by saying things she shouldn't have.

As Gabby and Fred say goodbye to their daughter, Gabby realizes she won’t be able to handle being an empty nester with Fred.

To ease her sorrow, Gabby heads to a bar, has too much to drink, and tells a total stranger, Ellis, that she can’t find later, that she wishes her husband was dead.

Things turn weird because Gabby can’t remember a thing from that night but feels someone is watching her. She gets messages from someone she thinks is the mysterious Ellis, but can’t seem to get in touch with her.

A friend’s husband then confirms that Fred has been cheating on Gabby for years with a younger woman. Could this woman be Ellis?

Find out what happens as we slowly follow what is going on.

I do have to say I was wondering why the book went back to when one of the characters was younger, but it is an essential part of the story.

THE YOUNGER WOMAN gets intense as the book ends and things get wrapped up.

Find out what will haunt Gabby for the rest of her life in this creative, evasive, slow burn thriller. 4/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

“The Younger Woman” by Cate Ray is a domestic thriller. Gabby, an empty nester, realizes that she hates her husband. After too many drinks, Gabby’s tongue loosens and she informs Ellis, a stranger, that if her husband were dead, that would be best. As soon as I read that, I wondered if this book was going to be an updated version of “Stranger on a Train,” but - no, it wasn’t. It turns out that Ellis wasn’t who she presented to be (though from the initial meeting I think Gabby wasn’t thinking too straight anyway) and things begin to unfold and unravel. For me, this book had a few too many negatives (a bit unrealistic and I couldn’t really trust any of the characters), but I could see this in a dramatized format and being rather interesting to view.

Thanks for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. It was a great read with many twists and turns. It kept me hooked right until the end.

This was a fun, thrilling ride right from the beginning. The author did a great job of immediately making the reader feel sympathy for Gabby and her plight; dislike and disgust for Fred; and questions about Ellis' motives. Truth be told, parts of the marriage struggles hit a little too close to home and sounded a whole lot like my ex-husband- but I really felt that added to making the characters all that more believable and realistic. I think readers will be able to figure out who Ellis is and what her intentions are before the ending, as I was able to do; it didn't detract from the book in any way, thankfully. I also believe that it will appeal to a wide variety of readers, but I will also be recommending it, all the same. I look forward to reading what Cate Ray writes next.

A woman’s confession about her husband sparks a dangerous cat-and-mouse game in this riveting domestic thriller!! Great read! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, a great who done it and a few crazy twists and turns! The story was very interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Now that Gabby is an empty nester, she realizes she hates her husband. When she meets a stranger, Ellis, she divulges this after too many drinks and says she wishes he was dead. After Gabby tries to track Ellis down but it seems she may not be who she says she is.

This one didn’t pick up for me until the very end when it was revealed what was going on. It was slower paced through out, which sometimes is okay, but I kept feeling like I was missing something. It just didn’t have that connect for me. I did like how the past ended up connecting with the present.

“Because there’s something I’m missing - have been missing right from the start. And until I know what it is, the possibility of it is going to terrorize me.”

The Younger Woman comes out 2/25.

A newly empty nester comes to terms that she's no longer in love with her husband, especially since she can no longer trust him. After drinking a bit too much, Gabby tells a stranger she wishes her husband were dead and soon realizes that this new person she's confided also isn't as truthful as she initially thought.

I thought this was a fast paced thriller. I loved the back story of Gabby's beloved home and the question of who Ellis really is.

I found this book to be a bit unrealistic and maybe a bit dramatic at the end, but I think it would make for an amazing action packed movie.

My heart broke for the children characters, but didn't care for them as adults.

All in all, a good, fast paced thriller.

Oh dear , I ended up DNF'ing this one sadly , I really wanted to enjoy this one as I liked Good Husbands.

What threw me off was the main character Gabby , she has just dropped off their daughter to University and now her and her husband Fred are empty nesters ( and I can totally relate I am there currently ) ...BUT what gave me the ick was instantly Gabby is crying , then thinking how much she hates her husband and how can she leave him. Then with in 24 hours she meets for cocktails with her BFF , and her friend has to leave quickly so Gabby stays behind when a young woman not much older than her daughter befriends her and instantly Gabby is telling her all her dark secrets and she is almost infatuated with the young woman calling her lollipop in her head, admiring her big hard firm breasts and legs , she even tells us in her head I know i'm unhinged ... like ok really , it gave me the ick and being a mother of grown daughters I found this woman repulsive and could not relate, it felt wrong .

I LOVE a good unhinged character read, but unfortunately this one got under my skin.

Thank you Netgalley , Harlequin Trade Publishing and Cate Ray for this ARC .

Respectfully Another Read by Angie