If you’re searching for a grippingly psychological thriller, then look no further!! First wife’s Shadow is my first book by this author and it definitely won’t be my last! I normally tend to read fast paced books but I truly enjoyed the slow steady burn to get to the juicy plot twist after plot twist the author provided. The ending will have you both mind boggled and smiling. This story is filled with love, hate, trust, dishonesty, and mind tricking experiences that’ll have you questioning your own sanity. I highly recommend First wife’s Shadow as soon as it hits publication day!

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for an Audiobook Arc in exchange for an honest review!

“That’s a money thing, the ultimate privilege of being rich: you get to believe in the fairy tale of fairness; you think people have the energy to do the right thing, when most of us just get by doing something.”

When everyone is lying and even the manipulators find themselves manipulated it makes for one hell af a fast paced whodunit!

And holy hell I GUESSED THE TWIST! This is monumental guys. I never see the twist coming. *pats self on back* Overall this is a page flipping, edge of your seat, fast paced thriller that I read in a day.

The audiobook is so addictive. Great accent. Great narration. Just great!

Thank you yo Netgalley, Harlequin Audio, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and the author for the ALC and ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a compulsive audiobook to listen to! The narration really brought the story to life! I couldn’t put this one down! I had to know what the heck was going on! The story was a bit over the top at times, but made it only that much more enjoyable. The author did a great job weaving all of the characters together at the end! I found the ending to be very satisfying! It’s definitely a hard one to say much about without giving anything away!

If you enjoy domestic thrillers with lots of lies, money, and twists then I definitely recommend checking this one out!

First Wife’s Shadow was a roller coaster read that I did want to end. Five stars is not enough. Narration was great.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I've been struggling lately to find a thriller that keeps me guessing, and this one did just that. I was pulled right into the story from the beginning. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, the story would go in a direction I didn't see coming. This was my first book by the author, but I'll definitely be checking out more books by Adele Parks.

I loved the narration of this audiobook.

Talk about one heck of a twisty ride!!! Wow!! What started out as a slow burn domestic thriller turned out to be full of surprises! I absolutely loved the narrator’s voice! Probably my favorite out of fiction listens I have done!

I will give the minimal details or it would give everything away! Man meets woman, they date. Man and woman fall in love. However, is something more dark lurking in the background?

I highly recommend you go into this one blind! Please! I didn’t read the synopsis and I’m so glad I didn’t!!

I alternated between the arc and the audio. Massive thanks to Mira, Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub date 3/18/2025

This was my second Adele Parks book and it was an enjoyable domestic thriller. The plot and multiple POV kept me interested in seeing what would happen next, and I really liked the surprises that were throughout the book. Not only were there surprises, but the ending was unexpected but satisfying! I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration. She did an excellent job portraying the characters.

Emma's got everything she needs in life: she's a successful
CEO, has two close best-friends, owns a gorgeous home in the
woods, and is a billionaire. Now that she's in her mid-forties,
she's given up on the idea of finding a husband and is content
with that. Until she meets photographer and widower Matthew
and quickly becomes enamored. Though he's younger and not
even remotely wealthy, he is kind and attentive and fun. Then a
string of unusual events has Emma worrying for her safety and
her friends worrying that she's rushed into her relationship.


So many thriller authors these days seem to love outlandish
twists, but @adele_parks isn't one of them. I was apprehensive
at the mid-point that things were going to go a bit haywire and
so relieved when they didn't. The twist was great, and with the
clues Parks laid, it was predictable (which it SHOULD be), it just
wasn't blatantly obvious (which it SHOULDNT be). This was a
step up from a popcorn thriller but was just as easy to read one,
I tandem read/listened, and preferred the audio for this
one..such a fan British accent.

This was one of the twistiest thrillers I’ve read in ages. At first I was a bit skeptical because I too believed there was paranormal going on.
The first twist came and I was hooked and the twists just kept on coming…
Highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick twisty thriller!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarlequinTradePublishing for the book #FirstWifesShadow by #AdeleParks. This book is packed with revenge, jealousy and lots of secrets and it blew me away! So good! Emma meets a younger Matthew during a business trip. They immediately start a relationship and things move way fast. Emma always feels second best to his dead first wife. But things aren’t as they seem and Emma soon discovers she doesn’t know who to trust and if she is imagining things.

Such a fun take on the dead wife/gaslit woman tropes! I couldn’t stop listening to this audiobook and when the first major twist hit, I literally gasped. Such a terrific listen. My first book by Adele Parks, but it won’t be my last! Thank you Harlequin Audio & NetGalley for my copy.

This book was great. I love books where you don’t know if you want trust the main character or her thoughts and there were amazing plot twists. I also enjoyed that the characters took us in so many different directions. The narration was awesome too!

Can a book that opens with a dead body end with a happily-ever after? Sure. Just not for everyone. 🪦

Things I loved:
🥨 twists
👯‍♀️ Becky/Emma foils
🧠 psychological aspects

This was such a well-crafted thriller! I kept waiting to lose tension as new layers of the story were revealed, but the experience was just the opposite. If you love a good family secret, and a truly psychologically ruthless baddie, highly recommend checking this one out. 📖

Thank you MIRA for my gifted copy, and thank you Harlequin Audio for my gifted ALC!

At no point throughout all of First Wife’s Shadow did I know what was going to happen. But what I can say for sure is:

Good
For
Her.

I inhaled this book because I needed to know what was going to happen. I needed to know if this was a storyline I’ve heard before, or something completely new. It was both, and it played out so well balancing the two.

I found myself cheering at the end. Just when I thought we had reached the conclusion and I had been satisfied with whodunit, we are gifted with another surprise. And it worked. It was like the cherry on top.

If you’re looking for a super good popcorn thriller, First Wife’s Shadow is definitely it!

Emma is successful, rich, and happy being the Godmother to her friend's children. She has always done well on her own and is perfectly independent. But when she meets Matthew, a handsome widower, she thinks she has finally met her perfect match. Their relationship moves fast, and her friends worry he is only after her money. He might not have money, but he was happy to sign a prenup, so her money can't be that important to him.

But there is one small doubt in Emma's mind - Matthew's first wife. The memory of her seems to still be very present in Matthew's mind and Emma can't help but feel like she is second best to his dead wife. As jealousy and worry creep into their relationship more, Emma doesn't know who she can trust, even her own mind seems to be tricking her. Is Matthew ready to move forward or will his first wife come back to haunt them?

This book had me hating it and loving it. The first half of the book I was so annoyed with Emma. There are red flags left and right with this guy (as her friends point out to her multiple times) but she just keeps doubling down with him. She is a smart, successful 47-year-old woman that is acting like a dumb teenager. It was really starting to bug me bad (probably the only reason it's not a 5 star is how upset I was with Emma), then the first twist comes! The second half of the book takes you on a twisted ride with plenty of surprises and reveals. The narration by Kristin Atherton was great as well. An easy read and hooking popcorn thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the audiobook for review.

4⭐️ overall
3.5⭐️ for content
4.5⭐️ Narration

This is a case where I think the very well done narration helped the book along. The start of the book was very slow and plodded along making it very hard to connect with. However the narrator Kristin Atherton did a fabulous job with the recitation.

She spoke at a great pace for the 1x rate not requiring me to speed it up at all to enjoy. She gave just enough emotion to engage the listener and made the book more alluring than I expect it would be had I read the physical edition.

At the 50% mark the book picked up and I began to enjoy the story. It was very predictable but with the change in prose, pacing and the good narration, I didn’t mind.

I highly suggest getting the audiobook if you are interested in this title. I am thankful to have gotten the audio ALC for free from Harlequin Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Adele Parks is a sleeper best seller cause I am always so impressed by her thrillers! I think I've finished all of them in under 24 hours and this one was no different.

These characters had me angry screaming at my phone as I listened to the audiobook, I was so invested.

t=This book was twisty, turny, and only mildly predictable :P That's all I am going to say in fear of spoilers.

I am not always a big fan of domestic thrillers because they usually depict a weak woman being taken advantage of and I felt from the beginning that Matthew was ‘too good to be true’. However, I really liked Emma so I kept listening because I was sure she could take care of herself, and I was curious to see what she would do if Matthew turned out to be a jerk. Turns out Emma could definitely take care of herself, and she wasn’t the only one surprised by what was happening.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for allowing me to listen tot his audiobook!
First Wife's Shadow audiobook is going to be released on March 18th. Synopsis: Emma falls for Matthew, a charming widower, but as doubts about his past and his late wife’s shadow creep in, their love takes a dark turn. Soon, she’s left questioning everyone—including herself.
Narration: I really liked the accent and the voice of the narrator.
Unfortunately I was super bored and did not enjoy this one!

ARC review • pub date 03.18.25

Definitely want to read more by this author 😍

Emma is a 40-something woman content living a single life with a good job and health routine. Until one day she meets Matthew and decides maybe a companion isn’t a bad thing after all, even if he’s 11 years younger.
She soon finds out he is a widower, and as their relationship progresses, she becomes obsessed with his first wife - what she was like, how she died, and it becomes all consuming to her.

Such a great and bingeable book, I think fans of Alice Feeney and Sally Hepworth will enjoy this. This was such a fun read. Several twists that I didn’t see coming at all.

4⭐️

Thanks to Mira Books for my gifted copy and HTPbooks htp_hive for my ALC #hiveinfluencer