An Amazon Charts bestseller.
She’s a total stranger. But she knows who you are… secret. But there’s more to Nora than meets the eye. It’s impossible—does she already know what Suzi did?
Meanwhile, Elle spends her days in her perfect home, fixated on keeping up appearances. But when her husband betrays her, it unravels a secret going all the way back to her childhood. She’ll do whatever it takes to hold on to him, even if that means murder. After all, she’s done it before…
Caught up in their own secrets and lies, these strangers will soon realise they have more in common than they could ever have imagined. When a shocking event brings them together, their lives will never be the same again.
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Many thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In The Other Wife by Claire McGowan we have a delicious gem of domestic suspense. Cool, aloof Nora and harried, hapless Suzi find themselves neighbors in the secluded English countryside. Nora, recently widowed, is trying to come to terms with the death of her husband and the ensuing loss of income. Suzi, pregnant and relocated somewhat reluctantly from London at the behest of her husband, is trying to adjust to the loss of her busy, full life, her job, and her friends. She is also wrestling with her infidelity with a man who suddenly disappeared.
It isn’t difficult to figure out the link that ties Suzi and Nora. Nor is it hard to see that Suzi’s husband is controlling every aspect of her life, isolating her further and further from her former life and increasing her dependency on him. But what Nora, Nick, and Suzi do about the consequences of Suzi’s infedility will surprise you. The way these three people go off the rails is fascinating, much like a train wreck.
None of these people are very likeable. I am pretty sure all three are sociopathic, if not downright psychopaths. Nora’s transformations and amoral solutions to her problems are disturbing, to say the least. Nick’s treatment of Suzi is despicable, but she is so convinced her lying and cheating are justified you can almost sympathize with the jerk. And that’s the genius of Ms. McGowan’s writing. Your moral compass gets turned on its ear as each new revelation shows the characters in a different light.
Like many psychological and domestic thrillers the story is told out of sequence. This is typical of the genre, but I found the sudden leap two months forward and insertion of the police detectives a bit jarring, especially when the story snapped back to the usual timeframe. It took me out of the narrative and I had to regroup my thoughts. However, this is only a personal note and may not happen to any other readers. It is not a criticism of the book.
This is a great read for those who like a darker tale for the holidays. Events occur in a bitter English winter, right around Christmas, and gives a nice respite from the steady diet of peace and good cheer. Give yourself a crackling fire (or pop one on the screen) and get ready to be twisted like a candy cane.
I literally could not put this book down. I read it in one big gulp!!!
3.5 stars rounded up
The Other Wife is a story of jealousy and revenge. When Suzi has an affair with a man she meets at a conference, she believes she has found her true love. Now she is pregnant, the man seems to have vanished, and Suzi’s husband, Nick, has become increasingly controlling. Stressed out, Suzi confesses everything to her new neighbor, Nora, not knowing that Nora already knows all about the affair.
Told using varying timelines, this story kept my interest, but in the end, things seemed too neatly tied up, and too many unlikely things happened. Still,I look forward to the author’s next novel.
I love Claire McGowan’s writing style.
Suzi is a young married woman who is pregnant. She suspects her husband Nick is having an affair when she’s the one that had an affair. When Suzi became pregnant, they moved out of London to a remote location with only a few houses nearby. Suddenly, Nora moves in across the street from them. Nora is a widow whose husband had recently passed away. The unlikely pair become friends and Suzi starts thinking she is losing her mind because strange things keep happening at her house.
There are a lot of characters in this book and several twists. I had figured out one part of it but did not anticipate the ending. The book definitely could have continued as there was a storyline there but it wouldn’t be necessary to continue.
The twists and turns kept me reading until the very last page. The characters were real, flawed people just trying to do the best they could.
Claire McGowan’s books are so good. I love her suspenseful writing style. She hasn’t disappointed me yet.
It was hard to follow the story line with the characters changing from chapter to chapter.
The other wife is book that I wasn’t expecting. It was like a bad lifetime movie. There were twists and turns to the book however this book was so boring and confusing at first. Then I realized that Suzi is pregnant and she had no idea who’s baby it was and she was sleeping with another man. Nora’s husband who basically ghosted here. Suzi was so confusing and cried through literally 90% of the book. I did not like her as character or even as person but I feel for her. I understand why she cheated on her husband Nick he was stalking her every move and knew where she went and when. She blamed herself a lot because Nick mentally abused her. He was not a good husband to her and for her to step out I don’t shame her on that.
Nora well she was a conundrum at first but then I realized she was Eleanor. The wife of the husband Suzi had been sleeping with and she was now a widow. (Suzi didn’t realize this for like 50% of the book) Nora as I will call her was crazy in so many words. She wanted revenge against Suzi. She is also a victim in this story.
3 stars is all I could give this book because it didn’t get good until the end. And that’s when the twists and turns really started to pick and most of them were like duh knew that was going to happen. I hated reading this book. Between the British lingo they tossed so heavily at the beginning and the slow burn of the story I was over it.
Took me a bit to get really drawn in, but I did! Good, fairly quick read with good plot twists!
An intriguing plot line that became a little too muddled with unlikeable and unreliable characters. I enjoy a good psychological suspense, and even though this had sociopathic husbands who manipulate and control their wives, deceit, betrayal, infidelity, and murder, it was less enjoyable than I was anticipating.
At first this seemed like a love story & not really a thriller. It had me trying to figure out how it was going to end & how each character was playing their role in the book.
This book starts out fast for me and does not slow down. It is such a good story that will have you holding your breathe and on the edge of your seat in parts. Told from three different POVs from three different women.
It is such a good book. Great characters and plot. I loved the descriptions and the edge of my seat thrills.
Thank you to #NetGalley #TheOtherWife and #ClairMcgowan for this awesome arc. It’s my own review.
A big 4 stars and high recommend.
While this was a slow start, and confusing at times to follow the differing storylines, it did come together nicely and once it did was hard to put down. It’s hard to summarize without giving away who’s who, which is part of how it comes together, so as not to include a spoiler, I’ll just say it’s a solid read with many twists and turns and I really liked it.
The Other Wife
by Claire McGowan
General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date Oct 24, 2019
322 pages
2
This story is told from different timelines and multiple points of view of all the women in the story. Suzi, Elle, Nora, and Eleanor. While the plot was interesting I found it moved very slow and was very confusing with all of the going back and forth in time and so many points of view. To make matters worse I did not care for nor connect with any of the characters. After 7 days of trying to read this book and making it 52% into it I finally gave up. This was my first read by this author and I will attempt to read another book by this author in the future. Many thanks to publisher, NetGalley, and the author for a ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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#TheOtherWife #NetGalley
This was a fun read – it drew me in right away with the alternating points of view as a new neighbor, Nora, moves into a cottage in a remote and isolated area. We see it from her point of view and also from Suzi’s, who lives across the street with her husband Nick, and appears anxious and edgy about every little thing. Sure, she’s pregnant and a bit scatterbrained, but there’s much more to it. The women meet and become friends, as much as they can be with the secrets they’re both keeping, that is. We also meet Elle, another anxious wife who dotes on her husband and never quite believes that their marriage is as perfect as it seems. She’s right, of course.
I can’t say that any of the twists were exactly mind blowing and you will probably see them coming, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this story as it unfolds. The female characters are likable, although Suzi is a little too extreme with her nervousness and constant unease. It would have been nice to see her with a bit more backbone and less self-pitying remorse about her past. The male characters are almost all deplorable narcissistic jerks except of course the one that helps to save the day. Male readers may be a bit turned off by this!
Even though I felt like I’ve read this tale many times before, the author keeps it fresh and the story flows easily as the lies are exposed and everything starts to unravel for the women. I found myself turning page after page, impatient to see who survives and at what cost. I wasn’t disappointed!
This book kept me on the edge of my seat with the tangled web of lies and deception. Just when I thought I had figured things out another plot twist would come along. I don’t want to say much about this book because I don’t want to give ANYTHING away.! This was the first book I’ve read by this author – after my experience with this book I will definitely be seeking out additional books that she’s written. I thought she did an exceptional job with the character development – not only with the main characters, but with the supporting characters as well. She also really set the scene of the isolated, cold, rundown cottages (Suzi’s was newly renovated, but was formerly one of the rundown cottages). A fantastic read!
Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.
The Other Wife is the first book by Claire McGowan that I have had the pleasure to read. This book defiantly kept me on edge and turning the pages. There were twists and turns, some of them, I did figure out, but some I was totally blindsided by.
The Other Wife is full of lies, deceit, betrayal and lots and lots of secrets. Most, if not all, of the characters in this book, I disliked in the best way possible. I believe that Ms. McGowan’s goal was for the reader to find most of the characters abhorrent, and in my opinion, she achieved this goal.
The Other Wife is well thought out, the writing was solid and flowed well. Unfortunately, there were some implausible parts to this book, and I felt this distracted from the overall believability, but you will have to decide for yourself.
This story is told from different timelines and multiple points of view, all expressed by the female characters, Suzi, Elle, Nora, and Eleanor, that this story revolved around. Hearing from all these different characters could get a bit confusing. But maybe that was the intent of the author, to keep us on our proverbial toes. However, there were times I wanted to shake these women and say, “Really, what is wrong with you.”
Elle is the perfect wife with the ideal husband to go along with the quintessential life. However, things are not always what they seem to be on the surface. On the other hand, Suzi’s life is a mess, most of which, in my opinion, was her own doing. Her husband, Nick, is controlling, selfish, and belittling.
Under the guise of working on their troubled marriage, Nick moves them out of London to a remote cottage in the country. Suzi is feeling very isolated and unhappy, but as luck would have it, Nora moves into the cottage next door, and they develop a friendship of sorts. This is when the book gets interesting, but that is where I will have to end my review. No spoilers for my review.
The Other Wife is a bit of a slow burn. Ms. McGowan sets the scene thoroughly for this domestic thriller, and her character development is utterly devious. Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. I feel that I must mention there is an element of spousal abuse in this book, so if this is a problem for you, steer clear of this book.
*** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. ***