The Starter Wife by Nina Laurin is an enjoyable domestic suspense story about a "second"wife who starts to question the suicide of her husband's first wife.

This book was not great when it came to the narrations, it was all over the place. there was no clear indication to the change of narrator.

the ending was disappointing as there were many plot holes in the book.
The idea and storyline was different but executed not so greatly.

I received a digital arc of this from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It has taken me a while to read this - I'm working my way through a long list of books to read!

I was unsure of this book judging by previous reviews but thought I'd give it a go anyway. Firstly, the narrations are a bit all over the place and jump between the two without making it clear the narrator has changed - there's claire and then an anonymous narrator who seems obsessed with byron. Then three quarters of the way in there is another character to get your head around and work out how it all slots in place.

I was left very disappointed with the ending - lots of unanswered questions and a cliffhanger ending which cuts off mid sentence. Not great and very underwhelming. I am left feeling more than a little confused about how it all panned out. I can't really say anything else without spoiling it.

Unfortunately I didn’t love this one as much as I was hoping to. I liked the idea behind it and the storyline, but it fell flat for me. I can see why some people love this one, but it just wasn’t for me.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Raced through this book and couldn't put it down. It's fast paced and very clever. I wasn't sure where it was going at first but once it started to unfold, it was really good.

I wasn't entirely sure I was going to finish this book, it started off a bit slow and I struggled to get into it. Thankfully it picked up towards the end and the story began to make sense.

I'm very mixed on this book - whilst I thought the premis was very intriging, I struggled with the perspectives we saw and thought it was very confusing as to what was going on. I'm sure that it's obviously mean to be like that so that you don't know who's who but yet again I saw the twist coming a mile off and foudn that the the chapters from differeing perspectives just made the book messy and I feel like it could have been done slightly better.

This book was full on Crazy! I actually don't really know what I have just read.....how to review this. It was a very twisty book and at sometimes confusing if I am honest. Was Claire going mad, suffering from a mental health issue or was she just plain delusional??

Claire will do anything to keep her husband Byron, but living in the shadow of his wife who committed suicide Colleen, she is struggling to hold it all together. And when everything ties together at the end I was still left confused at certain things but overall I loved this twisted tale.

I didn’t really know what to make of this to be honest. It didn’t grip me but I enjoyed it while i read it. However I don’t know if I’m just dumb but I didn’t know what was going on half the time and I didn’t see the twist coming but I also struggled to get my head round who was who and what the hell was going on. That being said I think I would read more from this author. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Mulholland Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A good read, but I feel like I've read this story before. I think this premise of the story has been done many times now unfortunately.

I enjoyed reading this book although at some points in the story I found there were a lot of loose ends. Claire is the second wife of college professor Byron. His first wife died (or did she)? She was an aspiring artist and Byron loved her and missed her. This was apparent from the fact that all her possessions are still in the house for second wife Claire to see and dwell on every day. What lengths will Claire go to so that she is the one that Byron spends his time thinking about? Slightly confusing in parts but enjoyable,

This book is a psychological thriller mainly regarding the lengths a wife will go to to keep her husband
I gave read many books like this and did not find this book to be original. However, that said. I did enjoy the book and found it a sinister and dark read. It had plenty of twists and throughout and kept me entertained

While I enjoyed this enough to give it four stars, it has to be said that it makes for a confusing read, with different timelines not being made clear, presumably to maintain the mystery, and, quite frankly, highly implausible behaviour on the part of just about every single character.

I still found it highly entertaining, despite its many flaws, which is why the high rating, but it did start to lose me the further into the book I got and if I hadn't read it while on holiday and in need of light escapism, I may not have rated it so highly.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I couldn't really get into this story. Another one where one woman wants the man another already has.

This psychological thriller was full of suspense and kept me hooked all the way through until the end. The characters were interesting and the story was great. I will be keeping an eye out for more by this author in the future.
Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this

Holy moly - this was a brawny thriller and everything about this book was superb. The characters, the narration, the twists the plot were all excellent. I loved The Starter Wife for being an extremely refreshing take on the female sociopath trope . This was one of those books where everyone is not particularly personable but you love it anyway.

A really fantastic read and well worth five stars!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Mulholland Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

The story of 2 wives and husband Byron. Pay attention if you read this and rely on nothing! Claire is the much younger wife of an English professor in college and there’s some mystery as to what happened to wife number one. I liked the start and end very much but not the middle all that much. It was a bit confusing and there’s a few loose ends/questions but it was quite a scary ride as we follow Claire’s journey. No one comes out of this take very well as they are all deeply flawed and most unpleasant but if anyone is up for a crazy, unforgettable story, then give this one a go!
Three and a half star rating.

I felt that the plot of The starter wife came across like a made for t.v movie.
An ok read but instantly forgettable..I wasn’t gripped by the book and wasn’t surprised by the outcome.The storyline told from different perspectives was confusing, but I’m sure it would make sense were you to read it again... which I don’t intend to !
Perhaps it would have helped if you could feel some empathy for the characters but I didn’t warm to any of them .

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of “The Starter Wife” for an honest review.

This was an excellent read. Not something I would usually pick up but It had me hooked from the outset and throughout. Will be keeping an eye out for more in the future.