Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture!

You've spent your whole life "fighting" for women. You've tried your hardest to protect them from all of the "horrible" men in this world. So, what do you do when a big wig man with far too much power starts to blackmail you into representing him? For Esther, it was clear. She had no choice. She had to represent him in order to protect her secrets and also the ones she loves, including herself.

Esther is 51. She is rigid, and she is cold. At times, she comes across as very hypocritical with a touch of entitlement. She lacks boundaries and tends to cross line after line.

Ellie Monago paints a very clear picture, and we are able to witness Esther become more and more unhinged as we get closer and closer to uncovering Esther's secrets.

The Divorce Lawyer is a slow paced who dunnit that keeps you on your toes.

A story packed with lies, secrets and manipulation
I was swept up in the plot and whilst i thought
I knew what was going to happen the end blew
me away.
I've never read a book by this author prior to this but i will be
actively looking out for her books based up this great read.

📱E-Book Review📱

The Divorce Lawyer
Ellie Monago

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I have to admit, that this took me quite a while to really get into, finding the start rather slow going.
I think it didn't help that I wasn't instantly drawn to any of the characters either.

Esther, divorce lawyer, prides herself on what she thinks of as rescuing the women from a bad situation - usually bad men!
But then Peter turns up and blackmails her into representing him - because he knows all her secrets.

Once I'd got going with this, the pace did pick up and the suspense and tension built as the story developed.
Esther did start to grow and me as I could relate to her determination and could see that the reasons for her decisions and actions came from a place of trauma, where maybe we don't think quite as well as we should sometimes.
I liked that, in the end, she did take some time to self reflect and that in turn made her become the person I could have liked from the start - however, I'm guessing this was done on purpose to really embed her character.

The storyline was an intriguing one and I loved the twists and turns throughout - especially ta the end - I really hadn't been expecting that!

I think overall, this was well written with a good plot progression, but I'd have really loved a bigger pull at the very start just to get me hooked from the first page.
I'd definitely give the second 'The Divorce' book a go in the future.





💕Thank you to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕

This is a twisty tale full of secrets and lies. Esther is a lawyer that specializes in divorces that focus on protecting women and children from manipulative men. That is until a man, Peter, uses her secrets to force her to work for him. She will do anything necessary to protect her family and her secret. When Peter is murdered the police start asking questions. How far will Esther really go? As I read I had more questions than answers and I did not trust any character. I have to admit that I did not see the end coming!

In The Divorce Lawyer by Elie Manago we meet Esther a divorce lawyer who takes on some of the most narcissistic abusive men who are heading towards divorce and in her small way tries to take them down and her latest case however her client is Peter Trambeau a big name and tech in a pro at gaslighting egomania and whatever the opposite of #MeTo is.. do to something in Esther‘s past that Peter knows about she is force to represent him in the divorce, no matter how much she dislikes the man. The night he wins custody he throws a party it’s soon after he’s murdered this is when esters stalker begins. Esther is closed off unemotional and has an opinion of men that colors her every case she’s even that way with you and man who is clearly in love with her but is still on Esther‘s list of stalker suspects not to say she is open with women because when peters One time star employee in now billionaire an app creator of Slight, tries to befriend her she rejects this as well. She too is on a suspect list and that is for the murderer of Peter so when someone else in that sphere is found murdered she gets bumped up on the list. All Esther wanted to do was her job protect her sister dog and the children and live a solo life but it seems she has been thrown into the thick of it and must sink or swim. Can she figure out who’s stalking her or will it all get out of her control? I was so shocked by the ending of this book not because it was an OMG ending because I was like wait what? This book isn’t an awesome thriller and not your typical thriller at all I found Esther unlikable and thought she was her own worst enemy I didn’t like when she started revisiting her clients or whether I thought that in someway would help her redeem herself but I digress I would still recommend this book because the first 40% I was glued to the pages and then her inner dialogue became obsessive but I am so glad I kept reading it and I do recommend it I love books about lawyers and this is the authors second and I love the first I think aunt Esther had more redeeming qualities the book would’ve been better or if she would have at least gave them to Hughes attempts at love and friendship I didn’t like the way she loved her family so I do still recommend this book. I want to thank Bookoucher for my free arc copy via NetGalley please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of The Divorce Lawyer by Ellie Monago. I had read "The Custody Battle" by this author and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this book. I struggled with this one and felt bored. It was hard to pick up again. It didn't grab me to keep my interest. I figured out what was really going on so I read to watch it play out. This one wasn't for me but others may like it so give it a shot.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had everything that I was looking for from a psychological thriller novel. The tense atmosphere worked with what I was hoping for and enjoyed from the genre. The characters were everything that I was looking for and thought they worked overall. Ellie Monago has a great writing style and thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Esther, 51, is a well-known and respected divorce lawyer always representing the woman. She knows how to help women who are being abused by their usually sociopathic husbands to get a good divorce settlement along with the wife getting to be the primary caregiver for any children. Because of this, men do not like her.

When she is approached by billionaire Peter Trombone to represent him against his wife in a divorce, she at first says no. But he tells her that he knows something that she did and will expose her unless she agrees. The divorce process is cold, cruel, and abusive to the man’s wife with him getting primary custody of their young son.

Peter made his money through inventing technology apps. Some he actually invented and some he stole. He is a hard man and no one says no to him. Avery is a female technology inventor who has become a billionaire herself. She, too, gets what she wants.

Esther’s father had been a harsh man to her and her sister, Dot, which has influenced Esther to remain single and to make it her mission to save women from abusive husbands.

When both Peter and Avery end up shot to death, the police are trying to piece together who may have done this. At the same time, Esther is being harassed via a tech app and she wonders if someone is after her.

This story is way too long and rather boring at times. The characters are mostly unlikable which h makes it hard for the reader to feel sympathy for anyone which can be what draws a reader to like a book. Unfortunately, this one was just OK.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I tried, I really tried to finish but when I had picked up three different books in between reading sessions and finished all of them, I decided to bite the bullet and put this one to rest.
I’m sure there are people who will love this, it was a little slow for my taste but that’s a personal opinion. I didn’t like the main character either, I feel like that made a huge difference because I had no one to root for.

The Divorce Lawyer is a very slow burn of a story which unfortunately did not work for me. It did not have the twists and turns that I would expect from this type of book and there wasn't one likeable character in the whole book. It wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

Thank you, Bookouture and NetGalley, for my place on this recent book tour.

This psychological thriller has many unexpected twists and turns that kept me hooked throughout. Although a bit of a slow burn for my personal preferences, I soon became engrossed in the storyline, and it didn’t take long to find the writing style flowed well.

The narrative revolved around blackmail and stalking, heightening the suspense and maintaining my interest. The characters were not just well-developed but also had layers of secrets and motivations that were unveiled as the plot progressed. The protagonist, Esther, was a particularly intricate character, and I found myself deeply engrossed in her journey.

Including a lawyer theme was a unique and intriguing aspect of the story. It added extra depth to the plot and held my attention until the end.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes psychological thrillers or stories with a legal aspect or theme. It is a well-written and captivating novel that will keep you guessing until the end.

This was such a good book! It was so different than I expected! It had great character development. The storyline was well thought out. It had several twists, plus a surprising twist at the end!

Thanks to NetGalley and the editors for an ARC of this book. This is my honest and unsolicited review.

I loved this book! Was the main character Esther likeable? She was a character I loved to hate, yet I found myself rooting for her. I found that I truly loved the self-reflection she did while the plot developed. Esther is intelligent, powerful, and a ruthless family attorney. She thinks she’s helping families by eliminating bad men from their kids’ lives, but is she duly helping? I can relate to Esther and the way she operated from a place of trauma. She thought she was doing the right thing for her clients and society, but her thinking was one tracked. As time goes on, we see Esther self-reflect and think about her actions. I thought it was commendable that she took the time to self-reflect and become selfless in the end.

The plot developed at a great pace. The suspense building was there as I was furiously flipping the pages to discover what would happen next. There were twists and turns that were appropriate, and some of them gave me pause. This was very different from Monago’s last book, The Custody Battle, but I enjoyed it just as much.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book was so great. It’s been a while since I’ve read a psychological thriller, and I thoroughly enjoyed all the twists and turns, and the surprise ending.

Esther’s family motto is “Esther knows best”, but does she really? Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Ellie Monago for allowing me to read and review an advance reader copy of The Divorce Lawyer!

I really liked this book!! This thriller really pulled me in right from the start. From what I read from the synopsis of the book, I had NO IDEA what was coming in this book. There’s murder, stalking, egotistical billionaires, and crazy intense/scary Silicon Valley tech in this book.

Esther was a really riveting main character to me. She’s obviously flawed, but she is ruthless as an attorney, doing her best to get what she thinks is best for her clients. The character arc for Esther in this story was SO impressive to me. We start the book with a slightly egotistical, Esther-Knows-Best, morally superior Esther, but she is so broken down by the end of the book. From her own investigations into who is stalking her and who committed the murders, Esther comes to realize that she may not have been doing what was in the best interest of her clients, and she may very well be making their situations exponentially worse. Esther goes from believing that she is one of the best people that she knows, to completely hating herself and everything that she has done, overwhelmed by guilt for her actions.

I feel like we don’t normally see this level of character development in thrillers. They’re usually focused on the mystery, twists, and turns, but Esther as a character really impressed me throughout this book. From “celebrating” Peter Tramboni “winning” his divorce settlement in the beginning of the book, to taking drastic action that is much to her detriment to protect someone she loves at the end of this book, I feel like the Esther we end this book with is completely different than the Esther we started this book with.

I definitely did not guess the ending of this book. I had absolutely no idea who the murderer was or who was stalking Esther until the twist reveals happened. I love a book that keeps me guessing until the end! I highly recommend this book to fans of the thriller and mystery genres, and to fans of Freida McFadden and Jeneva Rose!

This book was a cautionary tale about what happens when you stray from your convictions about what is the morally right thing to do. It's also a wake-up call about the ubiquitousness of surveillance and technologies that can be used for evil in the wrong hands.

Monago builds on the character of Esther, who insists that she deals in "family law" not divorce. But up until now, she has worked as an advocate for women in what she considers bad relationships, working to win custody battles. Peter seems determined to threaten to expose her secret, forcing her to take his custody case, and someone is anonymously messaging her with ominous disappearing texts in an app called Sleight, which was created by Peter's prodigy, Avery, Ellie begins to spiral down wondering if she really is the "good" person she thought she was, and if now Avery, or even her boyfriend, know her secret too.

The author is a practicing therapist, so there is a ring of truth to the custody and mediator portions of the book. Almost all of the characters in the book were unlikeable, so not everyone will like it, but it was quick-paced and an interesting read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance reader's copy.

In The Divorce Lawyer, an advocate for women finds herself representing the man this time and he is far from needing her advocacy. There are twists and turns and a surprise at the end!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

Overall this book wasn’t giving a suspenseful novel that I’m used to or the legal thriller vibe I get from other authors.
The Avery mystery went unsolved. Was her purpose just for the #metoo movement?
The moment with the child custody mediator felt manufactured…
Maybe 🌟🌟?

Absolutely loved this book! Kept me guessing! Was a real page turner and kept my attention the whole time!

This was my first book by Ellie Monago and I didn't realize it was part of a series, however I think that this book worked as a standalone. The one piece that might have worked better was my connection with Esther. I found it slow to decide if she was going to be a likeable or unlikeable character. Throughout the book, the reader follows Esther's point of view as she is being stalked and a suspect in an investigation. This book gets the reader to reflect on how far will one go to protect those they love? By the end of the book, I found myself hoping the best for Esther and enjoyed watching her character arc grow. Once the plot took off a bit more, I couldn't stop reading as I tried to figure out with Esther what was going on and who could be trusted! Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!