Wow! What a deeply chilling and disturbing book! Most of us are aware of the discrepancy between real life and that portrayed on social media but maybe not the lengths people go to to perpetrate their own myths.
However, I was previously unaware of the trad wife lifestyle and I found it frightening that in this current climate of many onslaught against women's rights, incels, men self identifying as women to access actual women's safe spaces, reproduction restrictions in the US, the appalling situation in Afghanistan there are women choosing a life where they are totally subservient to all men.
This was so well depicted I even had bad dreams around it. I am still undecided as to whether or not Madison was a victim or a villain but she was definitely unpleasant.
A strong narrative which will definitely make you think.

Wow! Sit down and hold on for the ride! This the first book I’ve read from this author and I didn't want to put down.
Just as I love a psychological thriller to be and the ending was just perfect. A stunningly compulsive read from a truly brilliant author!

I was hooked from the first page and blown away wow! This book was twisty , dark, disturbing and emotional.

This book explored topics such as Domestic Violence and violence against women and girls and I felt like the author did this is diligent and sensitive way.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me!

This was such a uniquely dark and intriguing tale. Loved the different perspectives switching after each chapter because it kept me guessing and wanting more. It poked fun but also shared truth about a real thing happening in our culture today. Very well written.

This is a new author for me and while not a new genre it was a very different take. Influencer and tradwife homemaker Madison is at the number one slot but needs to keep posting new content to keep that slot. When a secret from her past threatens her family she needs to find a way to keep it buried.

I didn’t think I’d like this book but I absolutely sped through it. Told from different perspectives but all comes clear at the end. Worth a read.

Was not a fan of this book. Had trouble staying interested in it. I’m not sure what the author could have done to make it better.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

This book took me a hot minute to read. I was engaged at the very beginning and the premise of the book was quite interesting. I felt the book really lagged in spots and I found myself not excited to pick it up. I’m giving this 3 starts because quite honestly I didn’t guess the twist until it happened and I love books like that. Overall it was a good read, I liked the story line but was somewhat slow.

2.5/5 stars

The title drew me in, and the plot kept me reading (I had trouble putting it down and read it in two days!). The twists are great, but at the end of the day, too much felt forced to make those twists happen. There was also a lot of abuse, and while some of it was necessary to the story, it did feel excessive at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQDigital for an advanced copy of this book.

The book opens to an arresting start. A text message that Madison March is dead. A well renowned influencer who had it all as a dutiful perfect wife and mother of four beautiful children. To her thousands of followers, she was a delight as she allowed them to peep into her daily life through her carefully directed and edited posts. Her life was to die for as she showed them how homestead living could work to produce an aspirational lifestyle.

But like all things on social media, it is not the reality. As soon as the camera’s stop filming her numerous re-takes, her home-made produce goes back into their bags and jars and her sweet little children are shooed off to Lori, the loyal housekeeper. Madison has far too much to do albeit she doesn’t actually do much.

Events start to take a sinister turn when Cally a long-term follower, arrives as the new tutor. She can’t help but notice the stereotypical roles reinforced in the household. “The housemaids' tales” meets Montana. As the plot thickens it is evident that Madison and Lori’s bond is based on emotional blackmail and past mistakes.

This is a fast-paced novel with plenty of thrills and mysteries along the way. Its insight into the world of social media is also interesting. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication.

Wow, hooked right from the prologue I loved this book and could not put it down.
Written from the point of view of several characters it’s easy to follow whom is narrating. Just when you think you have twigged the plot there’s a twist you just don't see coming which for me makes a great book. Highly recommended

had big hopes for this book because it’s totally my type of read. However, I encountered some serious trouble with the ambiance. The story is set in Montana ; however, it features a lot of slang, and the writing style has a distinctly British tone, (maybe people speak as that in Montana I have no idea) which often left me feeling confused and out of place. I understand that this might just be a personal reaction. The narrative unfolds at a very slow pace, which led to moments of boredom for me. While I found some of the characters quite engaging, there were others that seemed completely unnecessary—though I recognize that my opinion may not hold much weight. Ultimately, if you enjoy this type of book, it could be an interesting read for you.

***Actually 4.5 stars but that’s not an option***

Wow, did I enjoy this book! We all know social media isn’t always real life but this book showed just how far people can (and do!) go to make life seem perfect. That real life relatability is what drew me in to the book but the story of Madison and her family are what kept me coming back to read. I knew there were secrets within the confines of the March homestead but I didn’t see ALL those secrets coming! All I can say is WOW!

The Tradwife’s Secret by Leeanne Childs, Madison March lives in Montana with her husband Michael and four kids Molly, Milo, Mason, and Mia. She also lives with her longtime best friend/maid Laura, her two tech gurus a new tutor Kyla. She had to hire a new tutor because the last one slept with her husband Michael., Madison March has millions of followers on Instagram because she is a traditional wife who feels her husband is the head of the household and what he says goes… Or else. Madison is so fearful of losing traction and followers every photo must be perfect and she will do anything to keep it this way. And another POV we meet Brianna, she ran away with high school boyfriend Jonah to be homesteaders and because she isn’t married her family no longer speaks to her. she sees all the women on Instagram using the hashtag tradwife and it’s so troubled by the fact they make it look so easy when Brianna is having such a hard time adapting to her new life. She reaches out to the #TradWifes account but sadly no one responds. When these two POV‘s come together things will turn explosive in Madison will go viral for all the wrong reasons. This is a doozy of a book I do want to say however it is a big pet peeve of mine when British people try and write books set in America and yet still have the character speaking British and ending their sentences and questions eating cheese toast and just other minor things I noticed that really does irritate me but having said that I still thought this book was very well done. They had great twist and surprises it was just an OMG awesome book! If you like great thrillers and don’t mind the things I’ve mentioned, then you will absolutely enjoy this book. I do want to say in both relationships there is mental and physical abuse and I didn’t even get into Kylie story and OMG hers is just as crazy. This was really a good book. #NetGalley,#HQDigital, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #LeanneChilds, #TheTradWife’sSecret,

This is satisfying clickbaity fluff that I read in one day because it was fun and dramatic and pacy.

Madison is recognisable to any adult woman who is even mildly online and plays the villain beautifully. The topic of the right wing patriarchy is very of the moment and the whole thriller-y mess is great soapy entertainment.

This was a new author for me but I liked the sound of the novel from the description. It was an entertaining read and kept me interested the whole way through.

This was a slow burn but very interesting read I love it nice and fast paced read I love how the story came together

I had a lot of issues with this title.

First off, the formatting was very strange in my kindle, with wide gaps in paragraphs and odd looking breaks in the “internet” texts.

The story is set in Montana with characters from places like New York. They’re using UK colloquialisms. The spelling is also UK.

We do not ask for a lie-down. We want a nap. We look out the windshield of a car, not a windscreen.

The errors just kept knocking me out of the story, and I DNF at 68%

Wow, what a ride! I really enjoyed this one. I'm not going to spoil anything for anybody, but the story begins one way and takes a major shift later on. I did NOT see that coming.

I feel like the story builds at a normal pace, with the storyline advertised (tradwife starts blog, hires tutor for the kids), and you think you have a sense of what the basic storyline will be. But then a new thread is woven in, and then another, and then a huge bomb drops and you realize that you had NO idea what was going on the whole time. This is not going to be a book where you get bored halfway through.

The only thing that was a bit distracting for me is that at the time that I read it (pre-publication), there were kind of a lot of Britishisms that didn't fit with a U.S.-based country living tradwife. I'm not sure if those will remain or if they'll be edited out by publication time. Even with that, though, it's a great read.

I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.

From the outside, Madison March has a pretty perfect life: hundreds of thousands tune into her social media, watching her make granola for the well-behaved children and picking vegetables for a wholesome family meal on the homestead once her husband returns home from working outdoors. It’s idyllic, isn’t it? But what if it’s not as wonderful as she’s making out, and what if secrets are all too easy to be exposed? It’s quite a twisty novel, with a good array of different voices and characters. And if you’ve watched any shows around homesteads or traditional wives, you’ll love this.

I jumped into this book eager to read it! I was not expecting some tid bits of Ruby Franke's life and how likely so many of the lives of a social media influencer family lives. The secrets, the lies, the false perfection. All of it we see behind rose colored glasses but with this book we confront the reality while also throwing in thrills and suspense. I like reading about the lives of social media controlled families being threatened, attacked and ultimately facing the reality of their own truths. This is 100% an absolute must read.

As someone who lives a lot of my life online and have seen many of these trends firsthand, I was excited to read The Tradwife’s Secret.

Madison March is a Tradwife influencer - her every moment in the homestead kitchen with her children gloriously captured on social media for women of all walks of life to aspire and long for. However, when Cally starts her job as the March’s family tutor, she starts to realise that not everything you see online can be trusted…

This thriller is based on such a topical subject - particularly in line with the shift in American ideals and politics that we have been witnessing from across the globe. We see the Tradwife trend all over Instagram and Tiktok, and influencers hold a great sway in our buying habits as well as our political ideals. I did like that although the book has a lot to say about the darker side of this industry, it does so in a way which always felt in keeping with the narrative – it never felt too much like the reader was being preached to. It simply shined a spotlight on what was happening behind closed doors and allowed us to create our own conclusions. I’m hoping that this might get across how dangerous this lifestyle can be to those who aspire to it, without alienating them straight away.

The book is split into three perspectives – Tradwife influencer Madison, tutor Cally who is seeing into Madison’s world for the first time and aspiring tradwife Brianna, lured in by everything she’s been sold on social media and giving up her life to start her own homestead with her husband. These women show the darker side of these beliefs – the women all aspire to the ideals of fame, money and family but the more they are drawn in, the more they are taken advantage of by men wanting abuse and control. Some of the scenes are a difficult read and it can be triggering in places, but I think this is necessary to show just how curated and fake these lifestyles can be and how women can easily find themselves trapped.

There is a great narrative technique used in this book - I won’t say more to avoid spoilers. Sadly, I had guessed what was happening quite early on, but it was still fun to be on the ride of finding out the specific details. The very end had an annoyingly convenient element that was never fully explained, which took away the realism a little – if it had been added into the motivations of one of the characters rather than being a random accident, I think it would have been stronger for it.

Overall, The Tradwife’s Secret is a twisty thriller which has a strong message behind it. It is perfectly placed for the society we are in - which puts fame and influence above all else, no matter the cost. Thank you to NetGalley & HQ Stories for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.