The Younger Wife starts with a wedding gone wrong. An elderly man is marrying a young woman with his daughters as bridesmaids and his ex wife with them. Then suddenly, a sound is heard and everybody is in the dilemma of what happened and who is hurt.

The plot is written in multiple POV’s of the daughters Tully and Rachel and Stephen’s girlfriend/wife Heather. Each character has a story of their own and the author was successful in delivering the past and present of each characters and how it impacted their overall behaviour.
The author was able to shed light on few social issues like rape, kleptomania disease, eating disorder, abuse etc.

To be honest, the plot was more of a family drama in a lot and the only point where my tension was up was almost towards the end. Also, at times it felt like the same scenario was repeated multiple times. I would have appreciated if the author has sticker to the plot from first.

Overall a good read for those who love suspenseful stories with a lot of family drama.

A very cleverly written novel with delicious secrets scattered throughout the pages.

It is written from three POV with flashforwards to the wedding day. Each of these three narrators (sisters Rachel and Tully, and the new wife Heather) does an excellent job of building the tension and creating drama. There are themes of addiction and self-loathing, and the characters were believable and relatable in their traumas. There is a fourth POV, the unknown wedding guest, and that adds to the mystery and suspense.

I enjoyed the easy pace – in fact it draws you in and before you know it, you simply must read “one more page”. I also enjoyed the effortless character development. They were all beautiful and flawed at the same time, and I felt a sadness for each one of them.

The tension is created slowly and deftly, and by the end of the novel I had experienced a few *gasps out loud* moments. And I thought the ending was just right!

#netgalley #sallyhepworth #theyoungerwife #hodder&stoughton

Once again, Sally Hepworth proves she's a master at chronicling complicated family life. A truly absorbing novel which I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish (Love the cover too)

I was really looking forward to this novel as I've heard great things about the author. It's a domestic drama focusing on Tully and Rachel and their family. The sisters discover that their father is going to remarry despite the fact that that he's still married to their mother who is in a care home. The novel explores their reactions to their father's new wife, Heather and the family secrets that are uncovered. For me this was more of a contemporary family drama than a thriller and I found it difficult to engage with the characters. It was fairly slow paced and for me never really picked up enough pace to become a gripping read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I always enjoy this authors books.
I don’t start her books with the word “thriller” in mind but the word “suspense “, my reasoning is this.

She doesn’t (for me) keep me on the edge of my seat or have me biting my nails in anticipation. But she certainly fills my need for me being alert and suspenseful.
Sometimes it’s almost like a contemporary with a thriller overture for me personally.

Imagine….
Man married to woman for years…..
Has now got grown children.
He’s a highly respected medical person.

His wife now has dementia and in a home.

He meets a Younger woman who then becomes his wife. He’s now divorced his unwell wife.

Of course not all the siblings are happy with this, but, ……

Straightforward although difficult decisions right?

WRONG

There’s a whole heap of reveals in here.
A domestic suspense it sure is but with quite a few revelations along the way.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

If you like domestic thriller undertones in your books….here’s one.
If you want to get to shouting at your characters….here’s several.
If you don’t like putting to much effort into ‘figuring stuff out’ …here’s your chance.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Suspenseful domestic thriller set in Australia.

Sisters Tully and Heather grew up in a picture perfect and wealthy family. But now everything is starting to crumble around them. Their mother has dementia and their father has started dating a woman the same age as his daughters. As we dig deeper it becomes clear that beneath the facade, they are all keeping secrets from each other.

Yet another Sally Hepworth fabulous read.
Great writing particularly on the relationship between Heather (the new wife to be) and the daughters. A shaky start as one might expect but gradually a bond is formed.
I enjoyed the way we are taken back to see what happened in each characters past giving us insight to there behaviour in the present.
I also appreciated the fact that each new character brought into the story was there for a good reason and it was easy to follow who was who. I dislike that so many authors bring so many characters into a book unnecessarily.
If you only take one book on holiday make it this one.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

TW : sexual abuse, physical and verbal assault, kleptomania, gaslighting

'The Younger Wife' is a dysfunctional family drama more than a who-dun-it thriller, even though it starts out like that. It deals with various themes like relationship with younger partner, abuse, autism, financial loss, different ways of coping with emotions and others (see TW above).

This was my second book by the author. I was easily absorbed in the drama, even though some aspects felt off to me. The ending was good, I liked how it might make the reader rethink what they read. It made me feel sad and angry when I read about the gaslighting and emotional blackmailing. The book deals with much important topics that we see around us.

The quote I mentioned above resonated a bit with me because I have seen people around me put up masks of bravery, only to break down once they reach their homes. I think, like how the book shows, it's only human to have some chinks in the armor.

I finished reading it in one sitting, so that must be a sign that I enjoyed reading it! This book has also made me realise that dysfunctional family drama is not my cup of tea. Nevertheless it was a solid read.

Three women’s lives are turned upside down when a wedding turns bloody - literally.

This is a WILD RIDE, with a slow burn, character driven plot focusing on 3 women each suffering from a different mental health issue.

I also flew through this thanks to the short chapters.

Really enjoyed this! Reminded me of People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd, but I think that might have just been because I rarely read books in this genre. Also really enjoyed the Australian setting because I'm tired of US-centric books. Give me all the Tim Tams.

My only complaint would be I wish the abuse had been more 'proven' at the end of the novel? I felt like it was too ambigious for Rachel to attack her Dad, I feel like she should have seen more to be like 'lol, nut him with a candlestick'.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A dysfunctional family drama marketed as a mystery/thriller.

I was really sorry to say this one just didn’t do it for me, especially with the ending. None of the characters were redeeming in the slightest.

The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives.

I Loved the good sister from the same author that I read a while ago so was excited to read The younger wife. This book did not let me down, the same twists and turns and keeps you guessing what is going on and who is good or bad. Family politics, secrets, illness, new loves - everything tangled in an interesting web I just couldn't put down. The ending did not disappoint.

I really need to look up other books by the same author now and can't wait for the next one!

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Sally Hepworth for an ARC in return for an honest review.

The Husband, The Former Wife, The Daughters and The Younger Wife, what can go wrong?

I have always been a fan of Sally Hepworth. This book is just pure genius, it gives a new definition to the term 'gas-lighting' which I think is really important. It is dark and completely thrilling. You don't know who to trust or who is right. All questions are answered by the end. I genuinely cannot recommend this enough. Perfect for fans of Adele Parks and Heidi Parks.

This is the first Sally Hepworth book that I've read and even though I am aware of her previous books, something about this really drew me in and made me want to read it.
I also (even though I shouldn't judge a book by its cover) really liked the modern cover.
This was a proper page turner and had me hooked almost immediately.
It's a family drama that also has intrigue, a good few laughs and some thriller elements too. It also dealt with more topics and issues than I expected.
I was a little bit let down by the ending but overall, I would definitely recommend this book to others.
I will also be going back and reading more of Sally Hepworth's previous books and look forward to seeing what she does next.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Last year Sally Hepworth set the bar pretty high for herself with “The good sister”, one of my favorite reads of the year. Now she’s back with “The younger wife”, another domestic suspense tale that, although not as exciting as her previous book, still makes a pretty enjoyable read.

The book takes off with a wedding scene between Stephen Aston and her young bride Heather. In attendance are Tully and Rachel, Stephen’s daughters, both of them older than the bride. But also in attendance is Pamela, Stephen’s ex wife, whom he divorced after she was diagnosed with dementia (so classy, right?). After the ceremony is done a sudden scream, a thud and lots of confusion suggest there won’t be a happy ever after but, who was the victim?

From there the book goes back a year to tell the story of how they got there through the alternating voices of Tully, Rachel and Heather. Soon we learn all three woman have some skeletons in their closets so they end up being not so reliable narrators after all.

Sally Hepworth does family dynamics really well and “The younger wife” is another great example as, despite not being that much suspense throughout the story, she still manages to deliver a really engrossing and unputdownable story.

I liked how my perceptions of the different characters kept changing as the story progressed, what made the reading experience much more interesting as it was never clear who you could trust.

But if there was one thing that caught me by surprise was the ending. I had heard it was controversial and now I understand why. It is completely open to reader’s interpretation and it would make a great discussion point in a buddy read. You might not agree with it, but the journey there was so much fun that it was a solid 4 ⭐️ for me.

Entertaining story with an engaging style and a surprising ending that will let you be judge and jury.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Younger Wife is an unputdownable mystery filled with plenty of secrets and twists. The story begins with a wedding ending in blood. Wealthy Stephen is marrying a younger woman, Heather. Heather is half his age. And Stephen's wife, the mother of his two daughters, is in a care facility with Alzheimers. Can the daughters figure out what this woman really wants and stop the wedding? The story is filled with twists and an unputdownable plot. The characters are well-developed. Highly recommended!!

Domestic drama is one of my favourite genres but I don’t get to explore it very often. Straddling both the psychological thriller and the contemporary fiction, books like this usually bring together both ends of my reading tastes together perfectly. So, I was delighted to be approved for this tasty-sounding read!

Stephen Aston is a well-respected surgeon, whose beloved wife Pam’s dementia is sadly taking hold. Stephen has fallen in love with Heather, an interior designer who was hired to give the Aston family home a makeover but has now landed herself an older, wealthy fiance in Stephen. Stephen’s daughters Tully and Rachel are understandably wary of Heather and what she really wants from their father. But is Heather the real villain and are there more secrets in the Aston family that either daughter realised?

Heather looks very much like the typical ‘younger wife’. She’s pretty, clever, ambitious and appears to be harbouring a world of secrets. I was suspicious of her and I couldn’t decide whether I could trust her or not. I loved this because it meant that my mindset matched up with Tully and Rachel’s for most of the narrative. Going on that journey with the sisters made it that little more immersive for me, which was great fun.

Rachel has a secret that she has been keeping from everyone for years. However, Heather appears to have figured it out after only meeting Rachel a couple of times. Granted, I knew what it was before it was revealed but I was inside Rachel’s head some of the time, so I have no idea how Heather knew! Although she doesn’t come out with it explicitly, Heather does gently probe at the darkness within Rachel in her efforts to befriend her. I found Heather quite unsettling but I still wanted to find out everything about her.

Domestic abuse is a major theme in the book and typical attitudes towards it are explored very authentically. Although we are becoming rightly more critical, we still live in a world where rich white men have a certain level of protection. They are considered the ‘good guys’ of society and almost incapable of doing bad things. This book turns that on its head and really makes the reader challenge ideals that we’ve all been raised with. Monsters aren’t always who the world tells you they are.

The Younger Wife is a page-turning drama with some thought-provoking subject matter. I was completely hooked on the mysteries that gradually unfolded throughout the book and I loved the pacing of the reveals. While I tried to figure things out, I didn’t figure out the final one and I love that! Be aware of triggers for domestic violence and sexual abuse.

I loved The Good Sister and thought I would love this just as much, but unfortunately this novel fell a bit flat for me. I really liked the 3 POV‘s and spleens of the women, but the story was very much predictable. The Ending was too abrupt, I would’ve wanted to know how the sisters and Heather‘s life turned out after the devastating event. This didn’t feel like a thriller more like general fiction family drama. I hope that Ms. Hepworths new book releases will blow me away again.

Thank you NetGalley / Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton (one of my favourite publishers) and NetGalley for this eARC of "The Younger Wife" by Sally Hepworth.

I didnt know what to expect by the cover and the factor that Sally Hepworth writes thrillers. But I did enjoy this read! The whole story of the girls going through life and the consistent abuser getting killed felt like some karma. I hated Stephen - which was brilliant storytelling especially as he was abusive and deceitful throughout the tale. I enjoyed the alternating POVs and felt it worked perfectly with the story. My only qualm was the ending, it felt empty in comparison to the rest of Hepworth's story.

I really really enjoyed this book!

I thought it was a clever, realistic portrayal of family life, trauma and the embodiment that no one ever leaves childhood unscarred.

I could really relate to all 3 main (female!) characters and it always helps me to enjoy the book more and more.

I wish there was more of it! I will surely be coming back for more of Sally Hepworth's work!

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC!