I'd seen some dodgy reviews of this one so was a little apprehensive, but I actually really liked the slow-burn element to this that others seemed not to enjoy. The characters were shocking, the undertone of gender roles and family dynamics kept me reading on as much as the dictatorial goings on. Overall, I'd say give this one a go!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.

3.5 star review

Laura Lăzărescu is a lawyer, a junior associate in a law firm that embarks on the biggest case of the century: defending infamous Marija Popa, the wife of the Yanussian dictator, Constantin Popa, accused of many crimes.

She’s orginially from Yanussia, however, her family emigrated when she was seven years old. Laura always felt that the move changed her family, especially her mother Gabriela, who back in Yanussia was always warm and loving. As soon as they left, Laura’s mother became cold and aloof, and Laura always blamed herself.

Laura travels to Yanussia accompanied by two senior associates, Cristian Pavel and Jude Greenwood. It soon transpires that it wasn’t a coincidence that Laura was sent there. It seems that Marija personally requested Laura’s presence.

Marija starts to spin her web of deceit and manipulations and Laura becomes entangled in it.

I loved the idea behind the book, however, I didn’t love its execution. I found the two main characters (especially Marija) very detached from everything and everyone. Marija exploited Laura’s weaknesses to her own advantage. Laura, on the other hand, was gullible and I found her actions very irksome, particularly when concerning her mother.

I found it extremely hard to warm to any of the characters in this story, hence my rating. It is my personal opinion only – you, on the other hand, might love this book!

I would like to thank Headline Review for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this title.

A slow burner with most of the action happening towards the final third-ish of the book. An intriguing read filled with lots of secrets.

This was a book with an identity crisis. At the start, we’re presented with an enigmatic, charismatic woman, the widow of a communist dictator, who is standing trial for crimes she claimed her husband committed without her knowledge. At the end, we’re presented with a Handmaid’s-Tale-style commentary on state control of women’s reproduction. Did we successfully get from A to Z? I’m not sure.

The opening of the book was really strong. Laura, the main character, is a young lawyer in the UK who grew up in the fictional country of Yanussia. When the former First Lady of said country, Marija Popa, is put on trial, and Laura’s company is hired to defend her, she is put on the case purely because her citizenship means they won’t have to wait for a Visa. As she meets Marija we begin to see that things are not all as they seem, and that Laura’s past is more intertwined with the Popa regime than she realised.

So the first third of the book? Brilliant. Due to the framing device we already know (or can guess) how the trial will end, but there’s plenty of intrigue, plenty of mystery, and I am stoked and ready for a legal battle for the ages. Except we never got to the legal battle. All of that happened off-screen, and instead we went through a meandering look through Laura’s past until the final twist came.

I have very strong opinions about what makes a good twist. The perfect plot twist in my eyes is the end of season 1 of The Good Place, and it’s a great comparison for other thriller-style twists. My rule is that for a plot twist like this to be convincing, then a) we must have enough information that retrospectively it’s the only thing that makes sense and b) it has to be a surprise. Too often the first part of my rule is ignored, and that was the case here. Without spoiling the ending, while there were a couple of bread crumbs, it didn’t really match either plotwise or tonally with the rest of the book. In fact, it felt like the start of a whole other book.

This book was a mixed bag for me. There was the start of two great books in there, but ultimately they didn’t combine to make an even better one.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I feel like this had the potential to blow me away but unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. I did like the angle that Berry took in the whole lawyer dynamic within the greater political sphere, as I thought that was a unique take on this type of story. However, I ultimately felt that, while the story started and ended on stronger notes, the majority of the book became overcomplicated, introducing lots of characters and information that I felt made the novel too dense and oversaturated. The concept of The Dictator's Wife is very strong, but I did just feel that there was too much going on. The combination of Marija's upcoming trial and all the work the lawyers were doing for that, as well as Laura's own investigations and her internal struggle with being back in her home country just made the story hard to follow in the end. The twist at the end had the potential to be great but it did just feel like too much to pack into one book.

The Dictators Wife by Freya Berry. Just pretend I took this photo on my kindle. I was SO excited for this and I had really high hopes for it and it just fell a bit short. It was a slow start, Laura is part of a legal team, fighting the case for the wife of a dictator who had control over the country her parents fled from. It did not get faster in pace. When Laura finally gets to meet said wife, and it takes a minute, she’s written almost too much like a stereotypical dictators wife. She’s too complicated and too arrogant. Think Eva Peron but she’s not Madonna and she’s not clever and she’s old. She’s just not evil enough. I think I got a bit deflated with it as the story went on and nothing was really happening. There were lots of chats with the wife and with the other team members and a totally irrelevant boyfriend and then not much more happened. By the time we actually got to the trial I just didn’t have an interest. Some aspects of this book were great, I loved the descriptions of life under the regime and the shopping trips and the hidden shoe collections but there just wasn’t enough of it. Laura was a bit of a drip and I don’t know if it’s just me but I didn’t think the wife had this cult like energy that should could make anyone do anything she wanted. She just came across as a rich old lady. This just wasn’t for me but my take away from it is dump your boyfriend he’s boring.

Really liked the premise of this book, hoping to find it insidiously sinister and creepy, whilst thought-provoking and moving. I think this book went someway in trying to achieve this but the prose style was just too inhibitive for me. The train of thought of our protagonist was just too confusing, jumping around from memory to memory, creating a disjointed feel that had little sense of flow or cohesion. On that basis I could not finish this book as I just found it too hard to follow. This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this ARC.

I found this book to be compelling - an interesting and engaging read. It has a dark storyline, but the writing style makes you want to read on.

As a History teacher, I find this book to be fascinating and definitely one that I would recommend to colleagues, and older students.

This is a fascinating read about the position of the wife of a dictator. Please note that the country in which the story is based is fictional and that the content, although well researched, is a mix of political and social ideas from a breath of history and place.
I found the writing a little slow and too descriptive with details of conversation which were not always of great interest or necessary.
It is fashionable in literature to write a story from an onlookers or extra character's point of view as is the case in this book. However I did not feel that we really needed Laura and her part somewhat complicated the readers understanding.
I feel that I would had had more sympathy and authenticity in reading such a book if it had been more completely based on historic facts.

I want to thank NetGalley, Headline and the author, Freya Berry, for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was what immediately drew me in. Marija Popa, wife of the dead former dictator, is on trial accused of being complicit in her husband’s actions. The story is narrated by Laura, one of her defence team and also a native Yanussian (a fictional country in Eastern Europe - the setting of the novel). Unfortunately, I felt this book fell rather flat.

You are constantly debating how you feel towards Marija throughout the book, but the resolution does not feel satisfying. Too many plot points are ambiguous or never resolved - a real pet peeve for me in mystery/thriller books. For example, I would have liked to have known more about Pavel’s connection with Marija or what was behind that door or, even bigger, more of the reasoning behind Laura’s final big decision.

The pace of the book is very slow and does get a bit too wrapped up in over-flowery descriptions that pull you out of the suspense. It was also quite jumpy in places and some of the prose was almost hallucinatory, making it difficult to distinguish what was real or not. It all got a bit too confusing for me towards the end.

I also think this novel would have been a lot more successful if it did not focus so much on the story of Laura. I cared more about Marija as a character and it took away from the author’s opportunity to explore her complex character more deeply.

The strongest point of this novel for me was the author’s crafting of the setting. The descriptions of Yanussia were atmospheric and the political commentary resulting from years of a country in turmoil were very well done.

Overall, this debut had good points but I feel like it very much struggled to reach its potential.

What an interesting idea for a book, focusing on the wife of a dictator and not the dictator. The story is fascinating and the main characters interesting to create a satisfying read but it didn't quite grip me as much as I expected it to.

I really enjoyed listening to this audio booked, I felt the narration was great and was great to have a book on historical fiction, I did not warm to the main character and the book did jump about abit, but was good to see things from an inside view of how it would be to live in a communist society. The story unfolds nicely although I didn’t fully believe in some of the relationships. I would definitely recommend to anyone that loves historical fiction.

Compelling but claustrophobic with a sense of impending doom throughout, this book is a gripping and unexpectedly timely look at the aftermath of war and dictator regimes. With a central character of a spouse accused of her husband's war crimes at its centre, the morally grey characters populating this novel keep it intriguing, especially as Marija is complex, manipulative and often vile but I couldn't put it down as I had to know the resolution. I didn't connect with the protagonist, but the strong sense of place in Eastern Europe through excellent world building really made this feel absorbing, especially with the constant motif of degradation or rot and the conformity of the bees. The concept of a woman as villain is still novel and slightly tricky, and I really enjoyed the ending.

Historic in nature, once you start reading it there's no going back. The pace is smooth, the writing is amazing and was deep into the book and could shake it out of my mind. If you're favourite genre is historical fiction, go ahead and read it.

I wish I could get more invested in these kinds of books - enjoyable if you are very into this genre

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

It's a debut?! Complicit Lady Macbeth or Innocent? Impressive stuff.

Through the eyes of another, we are offered a window on the titular character. And those eyes may not be the most reliable, even if she is a lawyer. Laura bookends her own narrative by attending the funeral of Marija Popa, once wife of a dictator, both vilified and adored in her own right, a contentious public figure that Laura herself had dealings with earlier in her life.

We then revisit this period, when Laura is part of the team of lawyers returning to her home country of Yanussia to defend Popa, accused of being party to widespread fraud and other dictator-friendly crimes. Laura's parents left Yanussia when she was young, she is prepared to meet a manipulative serpent... but instead finds herself falling for the older woman's intense intelligence and magnetism. Will the evidence show innocence? Acquiescence? Co-operation or collaboration?

Laura's own family hides Yanussian secrets, her loyalties are tested, her own instincts alert to deception. Her findings will impact many, including her own kin.

Almost thriller-like, a mystery, 20th century dystopia, with dark humour (a Communist version of Monopoly raises a wry smile) and it has a lot to say for itself.

There are many quotable moments within, some memorable characters you can see as they walk into rooms. The author really does captivate in her descriptions:
"Our client was a hypnotic blend of Joan of Arc and Imelda Marcos; both goddess and she-devil, princess and tyrant, martyr and uber-b*tch."

You empathise with Laura's confusion, and at the same time use her for her insights to those around her. The book may speak through her, but Marija is in every page, almost like Rebecca in du Maurier's novel, also named after the character who pervades every scene, whether on- or off-stage.

A dark and powerful portrayal of power and of personality. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

I found this very slow paced, confusing and very complex in parts. I got a bit lost. Frustrating as some things were so ambiguous and were never resolved. Mainly the things I wanted to know. The relationships didn't feel real and I never really understood the relationship between the two main characters. I suspect this will be a Marmite book and others with love it. Not for me though.

Couldn’t put this book down! As a history graduate, I just loved the idea of this book as it considers a whole new perspective. I wish this book could have been longer and maybe developed a few of the points a bit more, but the whole thing felt so realistic, I loved it

Wow just wow!! What a book!! This is an absolute gem from start to finish. I cannot believe this is a debut novel. For me, this is up there with the Handmaid’s Tale. It is an absolutely fabulous read and everyone should read it.

We meet Laura, her family fled an oppressive regime when she was a child. As an adult, Laura returns to the country to defend the dictator’s wife. This is both fascinating and completely unputdownable. I have devoured page after page in just one sitting.

The Dictator’s Wife is a questionable character, I’ve found myself torn between sympathy and wanting to hate her. This is compelling and engaging from the first page. I have been caught up completely in this and found myself racing through to find out what was going to happen.

The shocking element for me, was the treatment of women at childbearing age. This is definitely the part that has made me relate back to Margaret Atwood. I have been so keen to read on and find out more about this.

There is absolutely no way I could predict where this was going. That ending is just superb. This is a book worthy of all the stars, it is phenomenal and I’ve loved it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️