An Instant Bestseller!The New York Times USA Today The Globe and Mail The Toronto StarNew York Times bestselling author Tarryn Fisher delivers a pulse-pounding, fast-paced suspense novel that will leave you breathless. A thriller you won’t be able to put down!Imagine that your husband has two other wives.You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this … wives.
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself.
But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.
You thought you were fine with your arrangement, but you can’t help yourself: you track her down, and, under false pretenses, you strike up a friendship. Hannah has no idea who you really are. Then Hannah starts showing up to your coffee dates with telltale bruises, and you realize she’s being abused by her husband. Who, of course, is also your husband. But you’ve never known him to be violent, ever.
Who exactly is your husband, and how far would you be willing to go to find out?
And who is his mysterious third wife?
“Nail-biting, heart-clenchingly good.”—New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Torre
“[A] lightning-fast plot.”—Kirkus
“Suspense fans will be rewarded.”—Publishers Weekly
“Some sharp twists.”—Booklist
Don’t miss The Wrong Family, the next gripping, unputdownable, twist-filled thriller from Tarryn Fisher!
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I had been dying to read this one from the very first time I heard about it. It sounded like the kind of story I could really get lost in and I was absolutely right! I was immediately sucked in to the story and couldn’t wait to find out what each new page had in store for me. I spent much of the book thinking one thing then the universe was flipped upside down and I was in the middle of a totally different story. When I started reading I would have never expected it to end like it did but man oh man, it was an epic ending that’s for sure.
A riveting read that winds along the tangled pathways and distorted perceptions of a psychotic mind. Hard to put down.
Delightfully twisted and highly deranged.
Oh what a ride you will go on, not knowing where this book will take you.
Imagine being in love with a man who is also in love with two other women. Two other wives who you know nothing about until the day you do know more and your husband no longer seems to be the man you fell in love with and married. A man who makes you question your sanity. But you must keep your wits about you to ensure the safety of one of the wives because now you see where the truth lies.
The Wives will hold you captive in it’s gripping tale of the lives of four and lines that have blurred. You must uncover what is real and what is just the imaginings of someone who has lost the connect with fact.
Holy Moly!
Talk about whiplash! I feel as if I was just thrown back about 50 feet with the abrupt ending in the denouement of this wildly inventive and intense story of trauma, abuse, and manipulation.
Initially, I thought I recognized the shape of this story. I was prepared for an intimate perspective of a rebellious wife in a plural marriage. I imagined the result of her rebellion and looked forward to reading about the ultimate liberation of the first person narrator, who is the middle wife awakening from her complete and total devotion to, infatuation of, and fog of lust for her husband.
I was repulsed yet intrigued with this character revealing her complete loss of personal definition of self beyond her identity as a woman sharing intimacy with a man who needed more than one woman to devote most of herself, if not all of herself, to him. While listening to her character develop through the early plot points, she became for me less and less of a reliable narrator and this is when the real fun begins. From this point forward my head was spinning in a dizzy of the psychological pathologies I thought
I glimpsed in every character of this twisted tale of “gaslighting “and manipulation. Only to find that my guess was half right or entirely wrong.
Readers…this one is heart breaking, but instructive. This woman gains invaluable insight into her self as she unravels this careful construct of her personae rooted in her “love” for her husband and complete disabusement of an authentic personhood rooted in her own unique and separate self.
When traumatized enough, isolated enough, damaged enough, we all are susceptible to manipulation by a grifter, sheister, cult-leader, fraudster, public figure (uh…hum) or cold-hearted lothrio. So much so, there is a dissociation from the reality of anything existing outside the perimeter or anything that may be threatening to the construct shaped by the manipulator in the psyche of their intended target In other words, a “cognitive dissonance”.
Okay here it comes…I wonder if there is a current observable phenomenon in our society that served as a bit of inspiration for the idea that one can surrender their identity and immerse themselves so completely in the fictitious, false and completely self-serving version of events and reality created by a predator posing as a good person or lover… in the public provenance, they are often referred to as…charlatans.
How does someone break free from this prison of the heart where the mind follows and dear Lord…what happens after? This is the “juicy part” and sheer brilliance of the read.
Oh but that last part…for who I know myself to be… I am ashamed to say I enjoyed it a little too much. Perhaps it is the effect of the times we live in or the frustrations of this day that let my inner demons out to play.
I was vastly entertained, yet, duly forewarned.
How brilliant!
Very good read!!
THE WIVES
By Taryn Fisher
Well this book was a real page turner but for me, it did not live up to the hype that has been surrounding it.
The book is told from the viewpoint of one main character, the second wife named Thursday and it seems like such a great plot and storyline until the twists and turns of this psychological thriller begin. At this point, it gets to be too much, somewhat unbelievable and over the top. I think too many storylines were thrown in at the end to make the story more trivial and all it did was make it a difficult read from that point on. If it just stuck with a few twists and not so much explaining about the past to create last minute storylines then I would say this book could have been a great climatic reading experience.
The story begins through the eyes of a wife, Thursday, in a polygamist relationship (not a traditional polygamist marriage; as you learn while reading) and her husband and his other two wives. The wives all live separately and have no knowledge of each other’s names, where they live or what they look like. That is until one of them finds a scrap of paper in her husbands pocket with the name of one of the other wives. This leads to the the downfall of everything that was working so perfectly for them all this time. Or were things not perfect? Was this the beginning to startling revelations about what each wife thought they knew and make them question if they really know the man that is their “husband”.
When one wife sets off to find out about the others, she discovers some horrible truths and begins to fear for the safety of herself and the other wives. But, what if there is another psychological twist and the one wife is mentally deranged and making it all up or is her husband just good at covering his tracks?
You will have to decide this one for yourself. I definitely enjoyed reading but I was let down by the hype. So I still encourage you to read if you are on the fence but I honestly can only give it 1/2 Stars.
Excellent narration and as usual Tarryn has a special way with words, that crosses genres.
My expectations of The Wives wasn’t high. I thought it was going to be a typical psychological thriller. I should have known from the blurb that wasn’t the case. I loved the twisted journey that this book took me on!!
The plotline of The Wives was full of twists and turns. What I loved about this book was how the author cast doubt on all the main characters. I also liked how she did lightning-fast shifts in the plotline. It was amazing to read and kept my attention to the stories.
I loved Thursday, but I didn’t understand why she would stay in a relationship where she saw her husband once a week. I am not well versed in polygamous/polyamorous relationships, but that scream something was off to me. I loved her slow descent into insanity. There were scenes where I wanted to scream, “No, don’t!!”
I didn’t like Seth. He was responsible for what happened. But, at the same time, I felt terrible for him. He had a hellacious childhood and was scarred by that. He did try to help, but it was too little too late.
Regina was a mystery for the entire book. I couldn’t quite get a handle on her. She had an agenda and was going to carry it out. I do think that she got what she deserved in the end. How she got it, though, I didn’t agree with.
The mystery/thriller/suspense angle of the book was well written. I will say that this book played major mind games with me for the entire book!! Which, again, kept me glued to it. I needed to see what happened.
The end of the book was insane. I couldn’t believe the twists in the plot that were revealed. The major one shocked the heck out me. The other twist that involved Regina shocked me. Mainly because of what happened.
Whoa! What a twisted psychological mind screw! At every turn I thought I had everything straight and then Tarryn ripped the rug out from under me and pointed me in a different direction…and then did it again. I’m still sitting here with my mouth hanging open. I love unpredictable, original storylines that leave you searching for the truth and vindication for the heroine. There are so many characters in the “gray area” where they aren’t clearly white or black hats. Such an addictive page turner that entertained me from beginning to end.
Have you ever read a book that has you questioning everything? Those are the types of reads I enjoy the most and Tarryn Fisher not only led me down a road of mind-boggling confusion, but she had me dying to separate truth from fiction! Being inside Thursday’s mind… talk about a trip. She’s married and her husband has two other wives. These women are not supposed to know anything about each other aside from the random things their husband might mention. When Thursday gets a clue about one of the other wive’s identities, she can’t let it go. She has to know who she is, what she does, and what she offers their husband that hasn’t been provided. What she finds is far more than she expected and nothing will ever be the same again.
It would be unfair to you, my fellow readers, to give any more details than this. I encourage you all to go into this story blindly. Be aware that these are unchartered waters and it’s all about keeping afloat. Enjoy the journey and get lost in the secrets, lies and truths that surround these characters. Intensely captivating and profoundly enthralling, The Wives will keep you guessing right to the end!
First, there isn’t a single likable character in this crazy, twisted, dark tale. Nope, not a single redeeming quality among them. And the beauty of it is I loved every single minute of it. For most of the book, it’s varying degrees of dislike, depending on where I was and what I thought was happening, so at any given point, I might like one person less than I did at another point in the story. And such is the level of crazy this story reaches. Tarryn Fisher completely messed with my mind in all the best ways. Just go ahead and get your neck brace because this one will give you some serious whiplash. I won’t go into details about any certain point or character because this is one that really needs to be read spoiler-free, just suffice it to say that every single time you think you know what’s happening, the author sows a seed of doubt to have you second-guessing yourself. Or maybe that was just me? It’s entirely possible, but I will say that rarely am I fooled by red herrings or crazy twists in a thriller, which I suppose comes from reading so many of them. Then along comes The Wives, and not only did it keep me guessing right up to the very end, but it held me captive. I could not put this book down. Even when I turned that last page, I had to sit and digest it all. This is what a psychological thriller is supposed to be, this is what it is supposed to do, and The Wives is not a book I’m likely to forget any time soon.
Release Date: December 30, 2019
Actual Rating: 4.25 stars
Standalone | Psychological Thriller
WOW! What an ending. I know I should have seen it a mile away, but I was still shocked at how everything played out. Tarryn Fisher writes phenomenal psychological mind benders and I know I’ll continue devouring her books if they continue on a path like this. Readers don’t go into this book expecting it to be a romance because it’s not. This is a psychological thriller with epic twists and turns that will leave you shook! There are some moments where the book became a little slow for me, but once I got to about 60% I flew through the pages right until the end. I felt a desperate need to find out where Tarryn was going to take the story and while there may have been a few moments where I struggled, it was worth it! I loved the ending. I loved the slow burn/slow build of the characters (and their psych). I loved getting inside the head of someone who is clearly unreliable and seeing them process the world around them. I know many readers are going to devour this thrilling read just like I did!
I won’t talk about the plot because it would spoil the entire story. However, I will say that if you enjoy books like THE WIFE BETWEEN US or VERITY BY COLLEEN HOOVER then you won’t want to miss this. It’s truly a thrilling read with stunning twists! Exactly what I needed in a book at this moment.
I can’t wait to see what Tarryn brings us next!
Holy Moly did this book send my mind reeling! I went into the book more or less blind. All I knew was the narrator was one of three wives of the same man, and that the women didn’t know each other by anything other than the day of the week their husband had assigned to them.
This has so many twists and turns that I never knew who or what to trust. The shifting truth had me caught up in Thursday’s ordeal as she tried to do what she thought was best for everyone in her life. I quickly found her to be an unreliable narrator, which had me questioning not only what people told her, but also how she perceived events as well. As the characters are fleshed out I found myself not trusting anyone, and having a hard time sympathising with any of them. There are lies, manipulation, doubts, and threats woven intricately throughout the story.
I spent most of the book uncomfortable. The challenge of this book is sorting through to the truth. This is not a genre I read often, so I struggle to rate it when I do. I can’t use my usual judgements to differentiate between 3, 4, or 5 stars. Will I read this again? No. Will I recommend it to people who love psychological reads? Absolutely. Was I comfortable as I read? Absolutely not. Even weeks later, I’m still not sure how to rate The Wives, it is well written to the point that even though I was unsettled, I couldn’t put it down until it was finished.
ARC provided for review purposes
I am going to keep it simple. THIS BOOK IS EXCEPTIONAL. THIS BOOK IS SPECIAL. THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU FEEL EVERYTHING SO VIVIDLY LIKE IT’S A PHYSICAL REACTION. You will love and hate and then love the characters. Innumerable facets weave in and out of the plot. The intriguing, fascinating and sickening aspects of human psyche. The games of Id. The secrets after secrets bombarding your mind.I am still reeling and I am still not sure what is true and what is false. This is the very definition of emotional twilight zone. This book must be in your 2019 list. Tarryn Fisher has created a masterpiece.
This is categorically a psychological thriller but the range of emotions is ASTOUNDING ! The characters will do scandalous and unimaginable things. And those made the characters true , honest and relatable. There are only grey characters in the story. The husband and all three wives. I felt like I am going crazy half of the time. The illusions are deceiving. The truths are disbelieving. The emotions will scrape your heart raw. My jaw is hurting from dropping to the floor way too many times. My heart is all over the places and buzzing with crooked feelings.
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher is definitely one of the best thrillers I have read. The words are pure gems dripping in dark suspense and mysterious sensations.
Received ARC through Netgalley and Wildfire Marketing Solutions for honest review
If you like a dose of gas-lighting, and mystery, and psychological thrillers, and some polygamy thrown in there, you will like this book. I read it almost in one sitting because I had to know if I was the crazy one or if… Well, you have to read it. I picked up an advance copy from Book Expo. Comes out later this year.
The Wives by Tarryn Fischer
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Thursday is crazy about her husband Seth. So she has agreed to an odd arrangement and shares him with two other wives. She knows nothing about these wives and has never met them. The agreement is that the wives all stay separated.
She is happy with their arrangement until one day she finds something about one of the other wives and becomes curious! After meeting another wife Thursday realizes her husband isn’t necessarily the same with all the wives. She starts to question who she really married and investigates more!
I will just say the last page had me jaw dropped! I highly recommend this book! It is super fast paced and keeps you guessing what could Thursday find next!! If you haven’t read this make it your next read.
This book was a good solid read. I’d totally try another future book by this author!
You can check out my booktube video review at https://youtu.be/I9LVNQ1OKZE
or read my review on my blog at https://lisasiefert.com/book-review-the-wives-by-tarryn-fisher/
This was a pretty good book, not one of my favorites. The ending was unpredictable but getting there was a bit of a chore. Overall a decent read.
I enjoyed this book, though I was a bit disappointed in the poor editing (second HarperCollins book this has happened with in as many months). The twist was interesting and not one I expected. I wish there had been a bit more closure regarding Seth but since this was written from a singular POV, I understand why it didn’t happen. Some of the gigantic leaps in logic were disappointing but explained away by the ending. Overall, a decent read.
Great book!