Mystery about a group of friends with secrets who go on a cruise together but they don't all make it back. I have enjoyed books from the author before but this one wasn't a favorite. Natasha is a nurse recently married to wealthy and dashing Daniel. She and Daniel don't love each other but she enjoys being able to give up her job and to be able to enjoy the luxuries his money provides. She has a group of three friends who are all married and one day Daniel invites Natasha and her friends and husbands to a cruise to Zanzibar. The descriptions of the luxury cruise are well done and made me wish I could book the same cruise.

The characters however didn't make sense to me. The women all seemed to dislike each other and none of them seemed happy to be on the cruise so I didn't understand why they would accept the offer. We are also told these women knew each other a long time, they were all single career women at one time and are now empty nesters since their children are all grown. Yet the women are also all aged 39-40 which would have to mean they had their children as teenagers so how could they have also been career women? They also all despise Daniel and the reasons are not revealed until later but it made me keep wondering why they agreed to the cruise.

Each woman has some sort of secret and two of the friends are flirting with or have had romantic encounters with Daniel at one time or another so we are set up with a story where each woman, including Daniel's wife have a reason to cause him harm. The mystery element isn't very suspenseful and since we never find out much about Daniel or his background , it is difficult to care about what might happen to him. The ending had a bit of a twist but we didn't know enough about the characters to judge whether it was believable or not. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Wives by Valerie Keogh is a whole wild journey with a jaw-dropping end! Like what the actual Fck???? FFS is this really how this story ends?
The story grabbed me from the first page and I was invested in the characters and understanding what the hell is going on.
The Wife Club was cute! The way they (friends) worked together through the years! They knew each other! I loved the friendship dynamic!

When Natasha meets charismatic Danie she is positive the good part of life just started. She was so wrong! This is where the trouble starts!

The start of the book was more like a women's fiction, and I was wondering, where all this was going but the end twists left me gasping... WTF!!! I just could not believe it! I went back to reread... yup! It left me kind of speechless.

When Natasha meets Daniel, she knows her life is made. Rich, handsome and charming, Daniel will make the perfect husband. Even if she won’t make the perfect wife…
She is thrilled when Daniel suggests an all-expenses paid cruise for Natasha, her friends, Barbara, Tracy Ann and Michelle, and their husbands. What better way to show everyone that Natasha has finally made it?

This a well written, well paced easy read. It would make a great summer read. Valerie Keogh has a wonderful way of creating well rounded and three dimensional characters and this book is no exception. The story has a killer twist at the end too.

Is this the holiday of a lifetime? Or, the holiday from hell?

Valerie Keogh has crafted an interesting set of characters within this book, with a well woven story of intertwining lives... Including connections that have been kept secret from the other members of the group, and some that are a far cry from innocent.

This book was a well paced mystery, with some twists and turns along the way. An enjoyable, easy to keep turning the pages kind of read.

It just couldn't put it down! It was so quick to read with short chapters - no unnecessary descriptions and perfect amount of dialogue to the characters’ thoughts. Really enjoyed the fact that there were various POVs but the main one was Natasha’s. I almost want to know what the husbands thought of the situations too!

You could really tell each character had different personality and it all came through in their individual chapters. Great suspense and the pace at which things were revealed at. The book had me gripped from start to finish!

I would totally recommend this to anyone - especially to those who love a bit of drama and mystery!

4 couples go on a cruise, someone ends up dead, and it seems like everybody has a motive…

This novel is consistently unsettling but I still can’t believe that any of the couples would agree to go on the cruise in the first place, given what we learn by the end.

A solid 3.5 stars for The Wives, with the very surprising twist at the end almost enough to bump it up to 4 stars.

Sinister things happening on a cruise ship? Sign me up. We start off getting to know Natasha and her story of wanting to be a nurse. She meets Daniel who is handsome and rich. They get married and Daniel wants to take not only Natasha, but three of her best friends and their spouses on an all expense paid vacation. Sounds great right? Wrong!! These friends of Natasha all seem to have a reason to want to kill Daniel. What did Daniel do? How many secrets will be uncovered? This was a great one with a few great twists. Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC.

I loved the setting of a cruise ship and it was perfectly claustrophobic for this whodunnit storyline with four friends as the main characters.. Who doesn't love dysfunctional relationships in a thriller? I enjoyed being in the heads of the four wives and learning why each of them wanted the dastardly Daniel dead. Packed with lies and manipulation, this book had me whizzing through the pages to find out how it would all end. And what an ending. I was not expecting THAT to happen!!! Read this and tell me you guessed the ending, because you won't. Enthralling, and deliciously wicked.

The twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end! Sometimes I appreciate a good thriller that can suck you in, a palate cleanser.

I love this authors writing style and have enjoyed every book that I have read by her. Full of twists as secrets unfold, and the ending was a total surprise! A great book which kept me up late at night to finish it in record (for me) time..
Thank you to NetGalley, Valerie Keogh and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Natasha has married Daniel thinking that she is set for life. When he suggests a all expenses paid trip for them and her friends and their husbands she is thrilled. But someone has something to hide and some won't come out alive. The suspense is out of this world! I had no idea what was going on and I was desperate to find out! The characters I didn't like but I had fun despising them.

I am a big fan of Valerie Keoghs book and I was so excited to read this. Unfortunately I struggled to read it and found it so hard to read and finish. The plot was plausible but the characters were so poorly developed and the written felt rushed and lazy. It wasn't as good as her usual books but I am sure her next book she will be back to her brilliant self.

Four couples go on a fabulous cruise together. Sounds exciting, right? But each of these women--though claiming to be best friends--all have their own secrets that threaten to undo the camaraderie they share share, And while they are friendly with one another, it's all surface talk and there is a catty undertone beneath the smiles. Insider trading, bad meat, seduction gone awry, and lie upon lie! What's not to like?
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thanks to Boldwood Books and netgalley for this arc.
WELL this book definately had my attention , I wasn't sure it would, but I'm so glad I read it
4 friends who have been together since uni, have all moved onto the next stages of their lives,
Natasha is the only one who isn't married or wanting children, then she meets David, loaded, charming, attentive, they date for a short while and then she moves in with him and he proposes. After a small wedding David decides to book a cruise for natasha, her friends and their husbands, but why? Guilty conscience?... David is used to the best of everything, but is he playing the charmer for his own gain?????
I really enjoyed it, had lots of twists and I didn't see the end coming

I found this to be a real page turner. Although the story is told from multiple points of view it doesn’t get confusing. Having personally been on several cruises the descriptions of shipboard life are very accurate. What a twist at the end, I hadn’t been expecting that!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I try not to read other reviews before I leave my own however in this case I was curious if I was the only one who felt a certain way about this book. I will say that I agree with the majority of the reviews so far posted in that the book was very long and drawn out. The characters were doll and none of them were ones that I felt any type of connection with, more frustration than anything. If the book had been in about half as long I probably could have persevered a little better.

Since childhood Natasha has dreamt of being a nurse, but the reality is harsh, working long hours in an inconceivably demanding hospital, she has become disheartened and exhausted beyond belief. When she meets Daniel, she thinks all of her dreams have come true as he is handsome, rich and utterly charming. After a whirlwind romance and engagement, the couple are swiftly married. Tasha is pleased to be giving up work, it gives her time to recalibrate from her stressful career. She easily falls into the role of housewife, supporting her husband when called upon.

As a belated honeymoon, Daniel suggests an all-expenses paid cruise, as well as generously offering to pay for Tasha’s three best friends and their husbands. Tasha is perplexed to discover that her friends seem reluctant to accept the offer of a holiday, but they finally concede. As the ship sets sail, Tasha begins to realise that Daniel isn’t quite who he portrays to be, and that her friends and their husbands are reluctantly complicit in this duplicity.

What an amazingly gripping book. I loved this one from the very first page and it kept me hooked throughout. I was totally immersed in the plot and the descriptions of the ship were so detailed it was easy to see in my mind’s eye. The plot is compulsive with limitless tension and mind-blowing twists that left me reeling long after I had finished the book. Although I already hold Val in high regard for writing some brilliant books, for me this could possibly be her best yet.

Natasha is married Daniel who is incredibly rich. He decides they should go on an all expense paid trip and bring their couple friends. Except all of the women have a reason to want to kill Daniel, and Natasha and Daniel are both pretty shady. This was a really good thriller, and it definitely made me jump a few times!

A murder mystery set on a cruise ship featuring a group.of university friends and their husbands. I persevered with the story but the characters were boring including the charismatic baddie Daniel and the glamorous cruise liner setting was written in a lacklustre manner. .

When Natasha meets Daniel, she knows her life is made. Rich, handsome and charming, Daniel will make the perfect husband. Even if she won’t make the perfect wife…

She is thrilled when Daniel suggests an all-expenses paid cruise for Natasha, her friends, Barbara, Tracy Ann and Michelle, and their husbands. What better way to show everyone that Natasha has finally made it?

But as the ship sets sail, she learns that far from being the perfect husband, Daniel has terrible secrets that are about to be revealed. And each of the wives has their own reasons for wanting him dead.

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The wives didn’t hit the spot for me, there were so many characters and I just didn’t connect with them.
I also didn’t feel any chemistry between the characters and couples.

It was a quick read, only 299 pages. But unfortunately not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and BoldBooks for providing me this ARC.