Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Younger Wife

My actual rating for this book is 3.5, but I rounded it to 4. I enjoyed the characters and the story, but there were a ridiculous number of issues in this book.

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adriennehudson's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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buroaklifereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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brookerachel's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve seen so many mixed reviews on this. And while I agree that I’m over the unreliable female narrator, I enjoyed reading this. It was a quick, gripping read. Predictable and unrealistic (like they’ve all been lying to each other for years, and now are like “eh might as well tell the truth”) with overdone tropes, but I still enjoyed it while I was reading it.

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janjanjukebox's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth 352 pages, 9 hours and 19 minutes narrated by Barrie Kreinik, Caroline Lee, Jessica Douglas-Henry, and Zoe Carides

Genre: Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Family

Featuring: Melbourne, Australia; May-December Romance, Adult Children, Wedding, Who-Done-It, Sex off camera, Assault - off camera, Dual Timelines, Multiple POVs

Rating as a movie: PG-13 for adult content

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My thoughts: 14% - It's slower than usual, even for a domestic suspense.
90% - This book really takes off during chapters 5-7. I would have read it straight through but I need to spend some time with my family. I can't wait to go to bed.

This wasn't much of a Mystery Thriller in my book. It was a good Domestic Suspense. I pretty much had it figured out early on and I was almost right. I didn't care in the end because the unexpected side stories were really good. I knew this book was 4 stars around 40% and I held that view till the end. I loved the story the author gave at the end about what inspired her to write this story, it's often the best part of her books but it did not affect my rating. She even admitted some of her stories have been disappointing, I'm happy to report this was not one of them and I'm sure she was speaking of her earlier work anyway.

Recommend to others?: Maybe. If you enjoy domestic suspense read this book, if you need a psychological or crime thriller you may want to skip this one.

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ceedy's review against another edition

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dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

It's a well-paced story but not quite mysterious enough for me in the sense that we as the reader are not really fed clues to try and figure it out. However,

the back stories about the characters were interesting and diverse. It focused on mental health, sexual assault, abuse, childhood trauma etc. I appreciated that the characters had their own issues.

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