Oh my gosh, this book, this character...
Never have I disliked a character so much...
Meet Marie, so consumed by jealousy and wanting what her friend Nina had.
All throughout her life, she wanted what Nina has, she wants Nina's friends, Nina's family and when Nina passes away, she eventually wants Nina's life....
She became so overpowering, suffocating Nina in the process when she was alive...
Feeling somehow she is keeping a promise to her friend to look after her family, she moves herself into Nina's home and in the blink of an eye ensnares Nina's husband Stuart using the oldest trick in the book.
She is so devious and manipulative.
I found it irritating at times that it seemed so easy for her to erase Nina from her family home...
There didn't seem to be anyone willing to stand up to her and fight for Nina's memory with the exception of Nina's mum Deborah maybe...
They were all immersed in their own grief that by the time they stood up to take action, it was too late...
When Marie feels she has it all, she finally has what she wanted, she discovers her friend wasn't all she seemed and was hiding secrets of her own.
I needed to have my wits about me reading this one I felt...
I never quite knew who was telling the truth. Marie seemed to be engulfed in lies...she never seemed able to tell the truth...
A dark story for sure, one that is quick in pace and will have you shouting at all of the characters.
Well worth your time...💕

The Last Wife

The blurb for this book was so intriguing I was really looking forward to reading it.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book at all. I really wanted too and it had all the makings of a great thriller but I feel the opening was too vague and didn't draw me in. I had to re read the first couple of pages a few times as I just couldn't see the scene.

Marie's motivations were clear but the reasoning seemed very lacklustre and I struggled to ever see her point of view.

The whole thing with Camilla quickly went straight into farcical and I didn't understand Stuart's character at all.

I felt very sorry for those poor children though.

I think to properly connect to the book it should have started differently....I don't understand the whole first chapter being about Ben. Think it needed to have been about Nina and Marie and their friendship...so that we had a solid base to the rest of the story.

If you don't really care about the characters then anything that comes after doesn't have the same impact...as I didn't understand or care about Marie at all...I wasn't concerned who was sending her hate mail etc so all the reveals weren't thrilling or surprising.

I really did want to love this book and I have heard great things about Karen Hamilton's previous book which I will be interested to read...but this one just wasn't for me unfortunately.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dark, tense and oh so twisted, Karen Hamilton’s The Last Wife is a masterpiece of domestic suspense that will chill readers to the bone.

Nina and Marie had been the best of friends. Inseparable, supportive and always there for one another, the bond between the two of them was more like that of sisters than best friends. Whatever life chose to throw at them, Nina and Marie were always there ready to lend a listening ear or a supportive shoulder to cry on. Nothing was going to tear the two of them apart – until a shocking diagnosis of a terminal illness. Nina might not have long to live, but she has made Marie promise to look out for and take care of her family. But was this a wise decision? How well did Nina know Marie? Was her friendship as genuine as she always believed it to be? Or was there a sinister undercurrent she simply was not aware of?

Jealous and envy had been two emotions which Marie had been very familiar with. She always aspired to be like her friend and to have the perfect life which her friend took for granted. With Nina dying, the coast is clear for Marie to swoop in and finally lay claim to all that had been denied to her. Marie is absolutely ruthless in her quest to step into her best friend’s shoes and she will stop at nothing until victory is hers. However, Marie shouldn’t get too comfortable, because she hadn’t hidden her bitterness from her late friend as well as she thought because Nina had explosive secrets of her own. Secrets which are about to come out into the light…

With more twists than a rollercoaster, Karen Hamilton’s The Last Wife is a hair-raising thriller that will send readers’ heart rates through the roof. Shocking, compulsive and so brilliantly plotted readers will be up half the night desperately turning the pages, The Last Wife is a tale of jealousy, vengeance and shocking revelations from a master storyteller.

I expected this to be a exciting suspense thriller but instead I got a very slow paced and boring family drama. Sorry but this book wasn’t for me.

The Last Wife; dark and claustrophobic

Crikey – if ever there is a book to remind you of the old adage ‘be careful what you wish for,’ The Last Wife is definitely it.

This is the second novel from best selling author Karen Hamilton, and just like her debut The Perfect Girlfriend, this is a twisting narrative with a complex, unlikeable protagonist. When I had the privilege of meeting Karen a couple of years ago on the book tour of her first novel she said that as her life is so ‘wheels on the bus,’ she wanted to create someone who is so horrible and so different from her. She successfully did that in her first book and there’s no doubt about it, in the creation of The Last Wife, she does it again but with added clout. I don’t think any of the characters have many endearing qualities in this second book.

This is a novel about friendship, but in my view a very complicated, toxic friendship. Marie is grieving her best friend Nina, a young mother who died from a terminal illness. In the last days of Nina’s life, Marie promised to be there for Nina’s husband and young children. But since childhood Marie has always been clingy and obsessive towards Nina (don’t worry – that is not a spoiler).

The steps Marie takes ‘to be there’ for Nina’s family are unnerving. I swear, Marie gave me the shivers. There is no doubt about it – Marie is a troubled individual who is far from innocent. But in her blind determination to get what she’s always craved, she uncovers the ugly secrets of a sinister past that Nina was desperate to conceal from the world. And the secrets involve Marie.

The Last Wife is a claustrophobic, intriguing read but I did struggle to relate and empathise with any of the characters. For me the plot was compelling but quite exaggerated. It is an interesting narrative that explores human relationships and the power within these relationships – especially the dark, toxic power within a ‘friendship’.

Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of the blog tour of The Last Wife. To read the reviews from my fellow book bloggers, please see below.

Happy reading everyone! 🙂

This is a story about secrets and lies. The plot was very twisted and not quite believable. I found it hard to empathise with any of the characters as they all seemed to have their own selfish agendas.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This review will go live on 24 June at the link below:
Hi and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Last Wife! Many thanks to Anne for having me on the tour and to Wildfire (Headline) for the eARC via NetGalley.

There I was once again trying to walk away from a blog tour, but ah what futile efforts, how could I possibly say no to a book by the author of The Perfect Girlfriend?! Dear reader, I have to admit, I did not try very hard 😁

I read a lot and I’ll admit that after a few months, I don’t often remember much of a book’s plot, but there is always something that sticks, and with The Perfect Girlfriend it was the main character, who was so twisted and delusional and decidedly unlikeable that I loved her! I couldn’t help but go into The Last Wife hoping for the same, and Ms Hamilton did not let me down. Main character Marie is extremely irritating but in the best way! (Does that make any kind of sense to you, or is it just me who loves a highly unlikeable character just as much as a loveable one, and at times perhaps even more?) I do have to note that although Marie comes off as twisted and delusional in the first part of the book, I did feel that by the end of the book she’d lost some of her edge and she’d grown as a person. Either that or I came round to her way of thinking, in which case you might want to direct me to the nearest psychiatrist 😳

The Last Wife shows us a toxic female friendship, but in another manner than we’re used to: Nina has died, and having had sufficient time to get all her ducks in a row before having to say goodbye, she has bestowed upon her best friend Marie her dying wish: for Marie to take care of Nina’s children and husband. Naturally, Marie would love nothing more than to do just that, but Marie wouldn’t be Marie if she didn’t aim for some personal gain in the process. The more we learn about these women, their friends, and the men they love(d), the more question marks I mentally added to each and every character. Suffice it to say that if you only enjoy books with nicely likeable characters, you’d better look elsewhere, all of the characters here feel at least a little dodgy (kids and Goldie the dog not included).

Between trying to figure out Marie and trying to predict what she’d do next, trying to guess what everyone was hiding and trying to solve some recent and some older puzzles, The Last Wife kept me entertained, involved and on my toes throughout, and I’m already looking forward to the next Karen Hamilton novel. If you’re in the market for a psychological thriller with unlikeable and slightly unhinged characters, do check this one out.

I’d never heard of the author before so had zero expectations for this book. The blurb intrigued me. The story sounded nice and twisted, just the way I like it. I really enjoyed this. The book turned out to be very different than I expected it to be. After reading the first few chapters, I grew very suspicious of Marie and thought she was warped. I got a sense something was off with her. The book took a lot of turns I wasn’t expecting and my initial thoughts about Marie were way off. The book is quite dark at times but very well written and engaging with completely believable characters. I quickly got lost in it. I will definitely read more work by this author.

In Karen Hamilton’s latest thriller, The Last Wife, Marie, is devastated when her best friend, Nina, loses her battle with cancer. On her deathbed, Marie makes a promise to her friend that she will look after and protect her family. But what was Marie really thinking when she made this promise? Soon after Nina dies, Marie grows close to Nina’s widow, Stuart, and they begin a relationship. This angers a lot of people who think they are disrespecting Nina’s memory. But Marie has a plan. Desperate to have a child of her own and desperate to take her friend’s place, she steers herself into the heart of Nina’s family without caring what anyone else thinks.

Marie is a calculating character. I could see that she was determined to take over from where Nina had left off, but I wasn’t sure what her true motives were here. Was she simply doing this out of loyalty to her friend? Or was this something that she had been planning for a very long time? I could see why this garnered a lot of suspicions from her friends and Stuart’s.

There is a chilling turn of events when someone starts posting horrible letters to Marie and Stuart, and Marie tries to work out who is behind them. But as she tries to work out who it is, she discovers devastating secrets about Nina’s past.

I wouldn’t describe this novel as particularly fast-paced. As the story progresses, the tension simmers as Marie gets closer to Nina’s family and when the letters start to arrive. I had the sense that someone wanted to cause Marie harm, and I had the feeling that this was someone quite close to her. I found that as we get to know more about Marie and Nina’s past, this was when the pace and the tension started to build and the revelations towards the end took me by surprise.

Although there were parts of the novel which I liked, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Karen Hamilton’s first book. I think I struggled to care for any of the main characters for the majority of this book, and I wasn’t eager to find out what happened to them. It’s not badly written; it’s just that I didn’t find the plot particularly gripping. I’ll still keep an eye out for what she writes next as I do like her writing.

I really enjoyed this book, from the very first page to the last one.

The book is told from the perspective of Marie. It’s clear from the start that Marie has some jealousy issues which has permeated her whole life. She believes the grass is greener on the other side, but sometimes the life you wish for isn’t always that wonderful.

I didn’t really connect with Marie in the way I would have liked but some of her thoughts I really related to. I enjoyed almost all the characters and their flaws, except for Camilla and Tamsin, as I’m sure we all know people we can compare their personalities to. Stuart, I found, could have had a much bigger and better part in the story, and overall I found him quite dull.
The story centres around the death of her best friend Nina, and she forces herself to be Nina’s stand in, in everything, Nina’s home, her husband and children’s life, everything. As the story goes on and delves deeper into past actions from Nina and other friends surrounding their lives it’s clear there was something bigger going on than I realised. I liked the ending as it’s left it open for own interpretation about how the story will continue but also ties it up in a manner.
Sometimes the story flitted quite quickly and I had to reread some pages, but overall I loved this twisty and turny book. I managed to read this book in less than 24 hours, it was a brilliant page turner and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

I loved Hamilton's previous novel but couldn't quite get into this twisty, turny tale of marital secrets and lies in quite the same way.

Thanks to Headline and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#TheLastWife #NetGalley

One thing that leapt out at me when reading this book is how psychologically astute Karen Hamilton's plotting is. This is not a crash-bang-wallop type of tale, but a slow-burner, with a heavy emphasis on the underlying psychological motivations of her key characters. Indeed, she draws you in - almost imperceptibly, into the claustrophobic world of her mainly female characters. Indeed, it was this intoxicating theme of the complex dynamics of female friendships, that had me invested in this tale from the get-go. The scene is beautifully set by Hamilton. We have Marie, who, after her best friend Nina passes away takes on the role of surrogate mother to Nina's children. She runs Nina's B&B, and gradually becomes Nina, to all intents and purposes. That is until the third wheel in the friendship between the two women turns up. Her name is Camilla, and her appearance changes everything... Typically, the hidden secrets held by each woman is the theme du jour of this book. In the gradually unravelling of the past, and its reappearance in the present, we have some classic literary tropes. But Hamilton deploys them in new and original ways, which is not always easy in this genre. This twisty tale also comprises some masterful storytelling, which eschews the usual clichés about toxic female friendships that are the stock-in-trade of many thriller writers. All in all, I loved every page of this tautly-plotted psychological thriller. Absolutely riveting stuff!

Withoit being able to give a valid reason why, this book left me feeling really strange.

Don't get me wrong, I think I enjoyed it.. I couldn't put it down which is a sure sign of enjoying it BUT I'm completely unsure of the feelings it left me with.

I think the author was trying to make it out that everyone was the 'bad guy', which worked... I did mentally suspect every character but it all felt a bit odd. It just all felt a little too complicated for my liking.

It did take a good 25-30% in to the book before it grabbed me and there were times I felt it dragging BUT it was an enjoyable enough read and I'd definitely read others by this author.

2.5*

Thanks to netgalley and Headline for the ARC.

The Lady Wife #Netgalley
Wow what a book. The first couple of chapters I felt they where rushed in some ways those could have been left out. The history icomersted with in the book really beings. It’s a story of friendship, lies. Envry with twist and turns coming from various directions. It’s a powerful and a emotional mesmerising story of how far you will go for a lifelong friend and to keep a promise to look after them if anything ever happened. I liked the characters they felt believable. It’s is a medium paced book and very informative to the friendship. It’s told with emotion anger so many different feelings and I think the author as brought those feeling to life.. my only one negative was I couldn’t crap or fully believe what happened in ibiza without some come back. Or to Greg with no actual comeback. Definitely worth reading it’s really well told

Didn’t see the twist coming , I expected it to be run of the mill but it wasn’t. Hope the author has more books up her sleeve

A great read, such a roller coaster! It pulled me in from the first page worth its twists and turns. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others!

Sorry, but this one's a DNF for me...

20% of the way in and I want to throttle the main character 😬 I'm all up for unlikeable characters. Done well, they can make a book. Unfortunately, Marie is just too irritating for me and I couldn't care less about the outcome for her.

I went in expecting a thriller, but I found that there's nothing there to hold your attention or grip you to the story. No mystery, just slightly withheld information about the best friend's dying wishes. Whoop de doo 🙄

Hopefully others will get on better with this than me!!

This is another excellent page turner by Karen Hamilton. It starts off slowly but soon picks up pace. The ending is great and one that I didn’t see coming.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. I enjoyed Hamilton's debut novel, The Last Wife, so was excited to read this.
This follows a photographer called Marie, who lives with her boyfriend, Ben, and has been desperately trying for a baby. Her best friend Nina, passes away, but not before making Marie three promises she is sworn to keep. Marie helps out with taking care of Nina's children and taking on the role of running her B&B. However, when she finds that her boyfriend has cheated on her, she is distraught and moves into Nina's home. Slowly, slowly Marie begins to take over the house until Camilla appears, the other friend in the trio who moved to Canada years ago. Marie has a sour relationship with Camilla due to Camilla having an affair with Marie's then boyfriend, Charlie, who then died in an accident. But now Camilla is back...and it seems Nina had her secrets too...
This was an interesting read with themes of toxic female friendship, and the past affected the present, as well issues with trying to conceive and being a 'stepmother', however, I did find Marie (and the rest of the characters) highly unlikeable and because of that I couldn't quite warm to Marie when awful things happened to her. I found her character opportunistic and a schemer. On the whole this is a fun, engaging read with lots of twists and secrets. 4/5

This had me gripped from the very first page and even though it was my first book by this author, I would certainly be interested in reading more from her.
There were lots of twists, secrets and truths emerging, which made me not want to put the book down.
It was sad that Marie never really fitted in with the crowd. She was used but in the end she got what she wanted. It made her a stronger and in control person.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend to others.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.