'My Lovely Wife' is a book that intrigued me from the get-go. From the first chapter I realised that this will be a different sort of thriller and I felt the author would most certainly have a few surprises up her sleeve. However, sadly, it fell short of my expectations.

This is the story of a married couple and their children. It is told by the husband/father, from his point of view. Please don't ask me this character's name as for the life of me I tried to look it up before writing this review and I couldn't find it. I'm pretty sure the author never actually mentions it (which I thought was odd since the whole book is given to us from his pov!). His wife is Millicent and they have two teenage kids, Rory and Jenna. To anyone on the outside, this looks like a fairly 'normal-looking' family... However from behind their home's closed door, it's immediately evident that while the kids act their age, the parents are pretty messed up individuals. Both husband and wife have a daytime job and they balance family and work life like million other couples. But at night, after tending to the kids and house chores, they plot murders together. One by one we get to know who their victims were and how they lured them into their trap. But for how long can they go on this killing spree before getting caught? Something, somewhere must give and then what happens?

Okay, I know some of my reader friends have read and raved about this book, and that served its purpose in making me want to read it. However, I'm sorry to say I was not overly impressed by the end. At the beginning, the book kept my interest high and I wanted to know what happens next. I was enjoying it until... the level of crazy got a bit too much as far as I'm concerned. I don't like far-fetched stories and this one became more far-fetched and flat the more I progressed with the book.

I thought the family dynamic was very odd and I couldn't warm to any of the characters. The kids did nothing but whine about this and that. The relationship between the son and his father was very unrealistic. I thought the husband was all too happy being under his wife's thumb. While he was very good at going out and luring the next victim, he was practically terrified of his wife. Millicent is crazy and very unpredictable. She always wants to have the last say at home about everything. She takes decisions and acts on them. She was given free rein to do what she likes, when she likes, without having to answer any questions, which her husband was afraid to ask.

The ending was just another major disappointment for me. It was quite hurried, ridiculous and unsatisfactory.

Sorry about this. I hate writing such reviews. With thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for approving my request to read and review a copy of this book through Netgalley.

A bit different this one, told from the husband's viewpoint as he aids and abets his wife in a series of murders, whilst maintaining their outward appearance of a normal family with two children. There are twists and turns, although I did manage to guess correctly how the final part of the book would play out. That maybe just me and the fact I have read so many crime/thrillers over the years.

Quick read and like Samantha Downing's fast paced style, although jumping back to past events in the middle of some chapters was a little distracting.

Was in a bit of a reading slump after not being gripped by the last few thrillers I have read. I even wondered if I was getting sick of the genre but no I just needed the right book. This gripped me right from the start and did not let go til the last page. Absolutely brilliant!

First of all let me say that if you think you’ve read all the stories about dysfunctional families well My Lovely Wife takes it to another level. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I love a flawed character and well this book is packed full of them! My Lovely Wife puts the spotlight on a marriage and on one family in particular along with showing the fear as a serial killer is on the loose. I always find a book even more engaging when a family looks pretty perfect to an outsider but then as you scratch away at the surface there is so much more just waiting for you to uncover.

Samantha Downing has very cleverly crafted a story that made me feel like a fly on the wall along with creating a tense and creepy undercurrent. This unease and dark gritty edge runs throughout as more secrets and revelations are carefully and unexpectedly unravelled. This is a dark story and I hated having to put it down mainly because of the way I was kept on my toes wondering what would happen next. This book took me on quite a ride with twists perfectly placed to create even more tension!

I guess I’m trying to be as vague as I can regarding the plot even though I could probably talk about every little detail. Of course I won’t because let’s be honest finding those things out for yourself is what it’s all about. However I will finish by saying that My Lovely Wife is clever, twisted and full of surprises!

I really enjoyed this book, the plot is excellent it is a real page turner. A normal suburban family but what goes on behind closed doors. Is it him? Is it her? Is it both of them? Is it a know murderer? The twists and turns in the book made it an engrossing read. I wasn't disappointed with the ending either. Well done Samantha Downing I will look forward to your next book with relish

Two and a half star rating.
Normal, everyday family? Don’t you believe it after the things this lot get up to! What could have been an exceptional story was ruined by so many mundane descriptions, so in some respects was more of a kitchen sink drama than a thriller. The start was ok, the last part was too, but the middle was where it got stuck in a rut. Needless to say hardly anyone was nice, no one to cheer for. The cover was very enticing and would grab anyone’s attention. So just like the old curate’s egg, this book was good in parts!

An explosive new debut novel, I’d heard a lot about this book before I started to read it and I liked the premise; a seemingly normal suburban couple with a nasty secret about what they like to do in their spare time – abduct and murder young women. The male protagonist never reveals his name to us, in fact the only name we know him by is Tobias; even though we know this is a lie from the very start. Married to the love of his life, Millicent, with two teenage children, he is a disaffected tennis coach and seems a little bored with his oh-so-perfect life. Early on we know he’s up to no good when we find him out one night, fishing for their next victim -however quite quickly the tables turn and he ends up getting a bit of a shock when he finds out what Millicent has been up to for the last year.

For all the hype I heard, I should have realised. Described as ‘Dexter meets Mr and Mrs Smith’, well, I loved Dexter and hated Mr and Mrs Smith, and I kind of felt like that with this novel. I didn’t really like any of the characters so I didn’t get very invested in them. I saw the ‘big’ twist coming from very early on, and I felt that the main story arc, and the behaviour of the characters involved became more and more unlikely as the book went on. There were some quite major plot holes, and although I think it would translate really well to screen, I didn’t feel the latter half of the book quite matched up to the fast-paced start.

Overall, however, I did enjoy the writing style and the book is gripping in places – I read it over two days and even though I was suspending my disbelief in places, it kept my interest long enough to want to find out what happened.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My Lovely Wife follows our narrator and his.. lovely wife, and tells the story of their marriage and how they keep it full of passion and love. Spoiler: it involves murder.

So I received an arc of this book an embarrassingly long time ago and I've been meaning to get to it forever, but I'm dreadful when it comes to my arcs (I'm sorry!). It seems like everyone has read this book since I got it and everyone talks about how tense and twisty it is, along with how the story keeps you on your toes.

I will admit the book is full of great twists and turns, but the one problem I had with this book was the narrator. He was very passive compared to his wife, and he came across as a bit weak. I hated him. He was just bland and I struggled to see what Millicent saw in him?

Anyway, it was a good story but not as great as I was expecting.

I had seen plenty of rave reviews for this book and had been looking forward to reading it! While I enjoyed it, I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the end. A good story, heinous characters and an interesting premise, but it just wasn’t the full package for me!

This book will keep you reading and reading every day. I’ve not read a book in a while that keeps me guessing until the end. I haven’t read any of Samantha Downing before but this has converted me to now follow Samantha. Well done and excellent read. Thank you to NetGalley in return for this honest review.

I enjoyed this book. I was apprehensive when looking at some of the reviews but I thought i’ll give it a try so glad I did. A very good psychological thriller. A married couple with a dark secret with many twists and turns.

Thank You to NetGalley, Samantha Downing and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for giving me the chance to read this twisted and dark book.

Well this is like no other book that I have read, it is full of twists and turns, dark ones too. I just loved it when I got into it. I do not want to say anything about the plot as it will spoil it for anyone who wants to read this book.

Samantha Downing has done a really good job with writing this book, I do not know where she gets all the dark and twisty ideas from. I certainly was not expecting some of what happened to actually happen. There were moments when I was reading this that I wanted to put the book in the draw amd just forget about it as some times and got a little bit frightened, but I carried on reading and I am so glad that I did. Again I was not expecting that.

Well done Samanthayou have done a great job with this book, if your next books are as dark and as twisty as this one was I shall be keeping an eye out for them. I think you may have gained another fan through me.

I would recommend this book if you want to be scared just that litle tiny bit.

This story is told from a husbands perspective, and follows his life with his wife, Millicent, and two children, Jenna and Rory. It is a tale about the love he has for his family, and the lengths he will go to to keep his wife happy. There are many surprises throughout which gives the overall story great shock value. Well worth the read!

Wow - Thoroughly enjoyed this book, a dark and chilling story, with a little twist at the end. Really hard to put down, you just want to keep reading. Was sad to finish the book, was really enjoying it, and looked forward to each time I had a few spare mins to read more. Recommended to work colleagues, and they have also fed back with good reviews.

What a gem of a book this turned out to be. Not only do we have a serial killer; we have two. Not only do we have two serial killers; we have a married couple who are serial killers. Can this book get any crazier? You bet it can!

Candidly told through the eyes of the husband, the reader is given a twisted insight into the couple's extracurricular activities - namely plotting, luring and killing. To all intents and purposes Millicent and her husband are the normal suburban couple. They both have full-time careers and a busy home life raising two teenage kids. But behind the facade lurks a deadly secret. . .

I really enjoyed this book. Fast-paced and with two very interesting characters at the heart of the action, it puts a new spin on the serial killer genre. As far as murders go, the descriptions weren't particularly vivid or gory, but the plot does make for uncomfortable reading at times. I thought it was refreshing, suspenseful and well-written. I look forward to seeing what author Samantha Downing produces next.

Wow. What a page turner. I never knew quite where this book was going and I didn’t predict the ending.

It’s quite dark in a good way, it reminds me of Dexter the TV series.

Great characters, great story line, I’m sad that it’s over!

A dark and mysterious thriller, perfectly captured my attention from the beginning. I enjoyed reading this all the way through(and in one sitting), and have already recommended it to a friend!

I confess I wasn't crazy about this one and only continued reading because I'd downloaded it from NetGalley and felt I should leave a review. If I'd had a print edition I would definitely have been skimming the pages wildly from about a third of the way through. Neither of the main characters are in the least bit likeable and, having read a number of psychological thrillers before, I wasn't in the least bit surprised by the wife being less than lovely. Possibly the best bit was the ambiguity at the very end of the book Because of the set-up of the book, with neither of the main characters being likeable, and none of the murder victims appearing on the page for long enough to have a personality it wasn't that easy to particularly care that much what happened - although to be fair I DID carry on reading and DID want to know how it ended - but not so much that I wanted to read every page.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC, which I have enjoyed reading.
This is Samantha Downing’s debut book and it is an engrossing read. It is about a serial killer, who also is a wife and mother and an estate agent. It is a very entertaining book and extremely clever.
Millicent is a very clever and astute woman and is happily married with two children. Her husband knows that she has killed and he helps her. The whole storyline is about how the couple set up another serial killer to take the blame and when that fails the wife then sets up her husband.
A highly improbable story but very entertaining.
Recommended.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

This is a story about a married couple. They met, fell in love and had two beautiful children. So far, so ordinary. But they have a very dark secret. It's a story with a twist. And then another. And another. You might think you've read stories like this before. You'd be wrong.

This one, for me, was honestly very overhyped. While the plot itself sounded very intriguing and made me want to read on, it ended up being rather predictable and far-fetched. With unlikeable characters and no real character development, I ended up being very disappointed in this one. Meh not one I'd recommend.