REVIEW: The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

Title: The Younger Wife
Author: Sally Hepworth
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik; Caroline Lee; Jessica Douglas-Henry; Zoe Carides
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: April 2022
Genre: Thriller / Suspense
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: THE HUSBAND
A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself.

THE DAUGHTERS
Tully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money.

THE FORMER WIFE
With their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is.

THE YOUNGER WIFE
Heather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them?

My Thoughts: When I was so much younger, I was all about the romance and happily ever after in my reading. I never realized how much I was missing out by not expanding my reading experiences to include thrillers and suspense stories. I am so glad it didn’t take until now to rectify that as I would have never had the wonderful experience reading this book provided. This is one of those books where I was riveted to the page in high anticipation of what was going to happen next. The drama, anxiety and fear continuously ramped up and, like several characters, wondered if I was imagining what was going on.

Though I have a few of this author’s titles in my library, The Younger Wife was my first time reading this author’s work. I will be adding more of her backlist to my library because she is that good. Her ability to create characters that are easy to empathize with as well as characters that are surprising, both good and bad are part of why I enjoyed this story so much. I thought this story was going to be about Rachel and Tully going to war with their future stepmother and conflict with their father over divorcing their mother who has dementia. This story went completely over that rail and into territory much darker, more sinister and completely unexpected. There are several trigger inducing moments in this book but the author was very concise in relating them to the story that made sense and was integral.

Additionally, the audio narration performed by Barrie Kreinik, Caroline Lee, Jessica Douglas-Henry and Zoe Carides was excellent. I love audiobooks and I am loving multiple narrators more and more. I feel it gives the story more depth and gives the reader a better insight to the characters.

My Final Verdict: Overall, this book completely knocked me off my feet. So many twists and turns that left my jaw hanging open. I’ve come to accept that not all stories get a swoon worthy happily ever after. Some stories deliver a swift punch to the throat that leaves the reader feeling as ambushed as the characters and that is a wonderful thing. I highly recommend this book and if I could give this book all the stars, I would.

Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.