Dead To Her by Sarah Pinborough is a thoroughly entertaining story. It covers so many themes, love, jealousy, revenge, prestige, wealth and romance to name a few.
I have not read any of Sarah Pinborough's work previous to this, but I now know this matter needs rectifying double quick!
The story introduces us to Marcie Maddox,a woman living in opulence, with luxury yachts, absolutely stunning mansions and the fancy country clubs to hand in Savannah, Georgia. She is the second wife of Jason and finding it hard to keep his attention. This gets even worse when William Radford IV, his boss returns with a new wife, Kaisha. It really isn't too much time before Jason and Keisha are attracted to each other and we find Marcie fighting for her place .We are treated to an absolute blistering ride alongside the rich and famous of Savannah.
This is a book were it is very hard to find a likeable character but, boy, I enjoyed it and it makes its mark. Both Marcia and Keisha are aware that being a second wife means they can't put a foot wrong and neither of them are willing to relinquish the life.They are both from the wrong side of the tracks and realise how easy it is to go back there. we see Marcie uses everything in her power, including a little voodoo in order to keep her place in society, it is that important.
An brilliantly well plotted story, with well developed characters showing exactly what women will do in desperation. I was loving the Savannah life that's for sure! The world building was fabulous! Not keen on the machinations of it though.Loved the suspense throughout,did keep me wondering. All in all a really good read!
Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the tour and Harper Collins and netgalley for the copy of the book.

Review will appear a link below on Fri 14th Aug

Today is the final day of the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough, so how fitting it is that for the last few weeks our weather her has been almost as sultry as the privileged world depicted in the book.

Set in the US city of Savannah, Dead to Her gives us an old-money world in which second wife Marcie Maddox has managed to immerse herself. But can this world accommodate another second wife when young, beautiful and haunted Keisha enters the picture?

I was incredibly impressed with this book, which is a properly immersive thriller, using a combination of superstition, the stifling weather of a hot, Southern summer and the equally stifling world of money and oneupmanship that exists among the so-called elites of the world.

Sarah Pinborough seems to use the Savannah heat almost like in a Tennessee Williams play, giving the impression that had Keisha arrived in the society circle at some other time of year, events might not have played out as they did. She also uses superstition and voodoo to add menace to the story, and this works very well. As a confirmed old cynic, I was impressed that it didn’t matter if I believed in those things, I just had to believe that Keisha believed them and, as the story progressed, these threads of voodoo and old Southern magic are cleverly added to the mix.

This is one of those books where it’s really not clear who to root for. All of the main characters have considerably more bad points than good – except, perhaps Keisha who has clearly married for money, but comes from a bad domestic background – and there is a certain satisfaction to the ending, even more so after the epilogue, as you realise that all those misdeeds will be paid for in full. It’s a clever way to wrap things up while still leaving the when, where, how to your imagination.

Having now read this, I’ve bumped Behind Her Eyes and Cross Her Heart up my reading list – definitely excited to read what comes next…

4.5 stars
Dead To Her is another deliciously dark, entertaining and addictive read from this talented author. It’s a fast paced story of revenge and murder which was very hard to put down.

Firstly the characters were very interesting creations who I really wasn’t sure I liked at the beginning. As the story goes on and we learn more about their past I started to warm to them and even feel a little bit of sympathy towards them. Both woman come from poor backgrounds and had interesting childhoods especially Keisha who was raised by her witch doctor uncle and an aunt that practices dark voodoo which was quite eye opening to read about.

The Georgia setting was perfect for the story with the heat and racial tensions there helping to add to the atmosphere in the book. I’m quite glad I’m unlikely to ever set foot in such a social group as I’m not sure I could cope with the woman’s attitudes towards each other as they were quite toxic at times.

The book starts off slow but soon picks up pace to become a thrilling and highly entertaining read. There are lots of twists which made me turn the pages faster and helped keep me guessing until the rather shocking ending. Overall I think this would be a great book to enjoy in the sun this summer!

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Harper Collins for my copy of this book.

Sarah Pinborough’s books are always unique. This time we are in America following the relationships of two couples. Sexual tension brews in the air from the new young wife of the older man whose wife has just died. It looks like she has married for money and is perusing her new husbands business partner. Weird things start to happen and she is convinced that she is cursed.
It’s so hard to review this book without giving anything away! Read it, you won’t regret it,

Sarah Pinborough is an excellent author! I enjoy her books. I will definitely read other books she writes in the future.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this book and it did go on slightly longer then I thought but it was a really good read. Telling the tale of a small affluent community and the arrival of a new second wife ....scandal galore and a decent read !

So this is the second Sarah Pinborough Book I’ve read, the first being The Language Of Dying. Yes I’m probably one of the few who hasn’t read Behind Her Eyes.

Marcie is happy. She’s married to a gorgeous successful lawyer, she’s part of a well-to-do circle of friends. Enter stage left Keisha…. and her entrance changes everything!!!

This book is very different to my previous experience of Pinborough but equally very similar. This is less morbid but equally as dark and twisted. The imagery is fantastic, I had no issue following Marcie through this rocky journey. And what a journey it is!! The deeper I traveled into this privileged community, the more twisted the lengths people go for those they love get. You name it, they probably did it… and there is little Marcie can do as she sees cracks start to appear in her relationships.

Dead To Her is a tense thriller questioning loyalties under a community determined to look good. Nothing is quite what it seems… I thoroughly enjoyed this read and need to book in reading Cross Her Heart and Behind Her Eyes.

I had been really looking forward to reading this book. But sadly it just wasn’t for me. All that black magic just put me right off it

Dead To Her is the second book I’ve read by Sarah Pinborough, having loved “Behind Her Eyes” I was looking forward to reading this one but I hate to say it didn’t quite do it for me.
Marcie is the glamorous second wife to Jason, they live in a mansion like house in Savannah, Georgia living the good life with Marcie not working and socialising among the other rich women. Life ticks along until her husbands business partner brings home his new wife, Keisha, then things start to liven up.
Keisha has a lot of back history but I was more interested in Marcie and how she ended up where she was, this is leaked to you throughout the book. There are twists along the way but I was waiting for a big OMG moment but for me it didn’t come. The ending leaves you on a cliff but I’m pretty sure what Jason chose.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Wealthy couples living in elite Savannah, GA society with their boutique law firms, charity events, boats at the marina, luncheons at the club, and then a plot turn so unexpected it literally caused me to gasp. Pinborough has a way of making the tension build for both the characters and the reader. It’s a true psychological thriller and you aren’t quite sure which of these flawed characters you want to root for—“they were all poison in one way or another, and maybe she was the only one honest enough to see it.”

Lots of twists in this book, as well as some interesting characters. I really didn’t like most of the characters except one, but that didn’t stop me from reading and trying to figure out what was going on. It was an enjoyable read. If you like thrillers with lots of twists and turns, give it a chance - you might love it! Seems people either love or hate it, and I fall in the middle.

Be prepared to face the unexpected throughout this book. The suspense really ramps up a little past the halfway point. I did manage to figure out the who-done-it but not the why and it was so obscured by a convoluted series of events that I expect most readers will find this surprise ending very satisfying. Set aside some time to gulp this one down and you may want to leave the lights on.

My Thoughts: for me this is a really hard book to review, not because it was bad, I really enjoyed it. – it just didn’t seem like much of a thriller to me until the last 100 pages.

It has a very slow build to it, we are following Marcie who is married to one of the Elite in Savannah & the book opens on the wedding day of William – the head of the group – & Keisha is new wife who is a lot younger than him!

Instantly Marcie feels threatened, because she is no longer the youngest in the group, the only saving grace is that she is also no longer the only second wife, so maybe she won’t be the one that’s constantly looked down on anymore.

It very quickly become clear that Marcie and Keisha have secrets buried deep that they don’t want the group to find out, but secrets always have a way of making themselves known, don’t they?

I would say the first half of this book is getting to know the characters, their quirks and what makes them tick, I appreciated this because I felt like I really knew them, that nothing would surprise me about them but not was I wrong 😂

Because the story is very heavily focused on Marcie and Keisha, with a little bit of William and Jason thrown in you don’t seem to notice what the background characters are up to!

The last half of the book started setting the scene for that big mystery & I was pulled in all sorts of different directions trying to work out where the story was going!

Needless to say when the big event happens I didn’t see it coming & I definitely didn’t work out who was behind it all, the book kept me guessing all the way through!

This is the first novel of Sarah’s that I have picked up and I will definitely be looking at her back catalogue in the future.

I've read a lot of thrillers recently where I've worked out pretty quickly what the twist would be, or who the killer was, Dead to Her was a refreshing change - I had absolutely no idea of who the culprit was or their motivation so it was a real read by the seat of your pants book!

Keisha is the second wife of the all powerful William Radford, she is plucked from her London life as a waitress to go and live in Savannah and adjust to mixing with 'the set'.

Marcie is married to Jason, William's business partner, at first she isn't a fan of the new Mrs Radford, particularly as she suspects Jason of having an affair with her, but then she goes out on a night out with Keisha and thinks take a wild turn.

This book has it all, secrets, affairs a dastardly plot and even a bit of voodoo to add into the mix, it all leads to a heady, hot, Savannah style storm!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

I loved this steamy, surprising thriller, in which the sultry setting of Savannah, Georgia, was almost a character in itself. Marcie Maddox is the second wife of wealthy, handsome Jason, and well established in the glittering social circle in their town. But when another of their circle, William, returns from London with his young and beautiful new wife Keisha in tow, Marcie's nose is put out of joint - even more so when the sparks begin to fly between Keisha and Jason...

From the blurb, I was expecting a revenge thriller / affair. This was SO much more than that, and I was constantly surprised by the twists and turns (and the ending was SO GOOD!!!). I loved that it had a Dynasty-type feel to it, but with far more style and substance. The characters are beautifully realised and complex, and I loved the writing style. I couldn't put this one down.

Will absolutely be recommending this one to anyone who'll listen!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley who provided me with a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you marry for money, you’ll earn every penny of it…

When down-on-her-luck waitress Marcie met successful attorney Jason Maddox, sparks flew. Feathers were ruffled when Jason divorced his first wife, but that’s all in the past, and Marcie is now happily ensconced as the second Mrs. Maddox. As such, Marcie enjoys all the trappings of the elite Savannah society to which Jason belongs. It’s five-star all the way for the former waitress from Boise, Idaho. Marcie may not have been ‘born to it’ and she knows the Savannah ‘old money’ set will always see her as an outsider, but she can live with that. The big house helps. As does the country club. Oh, and the endless shopping sprees – those help too.

At thirty-five, Marcie is a good deal younger and more glamorous than the botoxed-to-the-eyeballs first-wives in her set, and so when Jason’s boss, the recently-widowed William, returns from a trip to Europe with a much younger second-wife in tow, Marcie is less than pleased. At twenty-two, Keisha, an obvious gold-digger, is not only younger than Marcie, she’s more beautiful too. And ever since she arrived in town, Keisha has been flirting up a storm with Marcie’s husband, Jason…

There may be trouble ahead.

If you’re a regular reader of Sarah Pinborough’s novels, then you’ll know to expect the unexpected. That’s certainly the case with Dead to Her, which might seem like a delicious summer thriller of errant husbands and warring wives, but is actually deeper, darker, and far deadlier than that. Dead to Her is wicked with a twist – and a whole lot of strange. If you liked Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes, you’ll enjoy this.

It's not that I don't like domestic thrillers.... I don't like slow paced ones that are so character focused, such as this one, where the plot becomes directionless. I read over half this book and I still could not tell in which direction it was going, more often than note it felt like a fumbling in the dark, unsure of where to go. What I did enjoy, was the dynamic between the women in this book and the Savannah life.

THIS MUST BE MADE INTO A MOVIE!!
When I first started this book I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it as it obviously didn’t fall into either of my main chick lit/psychological thriller genres but within the first couple of chapters I was hooked.
The dark, secretive characters give compulsive reading and I was soon racing through the chapters desperate to see who dunnit!!
This is such a well written thriller that is destined for the big screen

I really really wanted to enjoy this as I adored Behind Her Eyes....this just missed the mark for me and was far fetched and and didn’t hold my interest.

I LOVED this book, so much so that I took days longer than I typically would reading it because I didn’t want to finish it! Every single chapter could be a scene from a movie:
“The room was a forest fire of hidden resentments waiting to flare up and it would only take one spark in a comment to get it started, and she didn’t have the energy for a fight tonight”.
The ending all unfolded beautifully - like an old fashioned Agatha Christie novel. Every piece of small information - right from the start of the book - slotted in perfectly...

The characters are so vivid and different, insecure Marcie and bright, beautiful keisha. Even the dead characters have a personality, with ‘saint Eleanors’ painting still hanging from the wall and her bedroom left abandoned. The insight into Louisiana Voodoo also made me shiver - this was written about with such fear, with mysterious characters making voodoo dolls and juju balls.

The only flaw for me is the UK cover, it has nothing to do with the actual book... there was a pool mentioned once whilst the two main female characters were bonding. However, throughout the book I found myself googling pictures of Savannah and Spanish Moss hanging from trees and the mansion lined streets... I can’t help but think that there was so much potential here for something more enticing to be on the cover. Don’t let the cover put you off reading this book - it gave me low expectations for it and the author smashed them within the first few chapters.

Thanks to NetGalley for the book

This was different to my usual choice of read but something about it appealed when I requested it. I loved it. So many twists and turns throughout, I couldn’t put it down.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Sarah Pinborough has done it again. If you want a thriller that you will find hard to put down then look no further than #DeadToHer.

#CrossHerHeart was one of my favourite books of last year so I had high expectations, which this book met. No spoilers but everything from the characters who to put it mildly are all unlikeable, which I believe was Pinborough’s intention, to the sultry heat of the southern setting are superb. There are so many twists and turns the book will keep you on your toes. Is anyone who they say they are? You’ll have to read to find out. How’s that for a teaser. I also loved the hints of Voodoo a topic that has always interested me, this adds another intriguing layer to the book. And did I mention the killer ending.

Get yourself a cocktail or a glass of wine this weekend and settle down for a sexy, thrilling not to be missed summer thriller.

A not to be missed ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five