The Younger Wife: A Novel

I enjoyed this book on the whole and will check out her other books.

Sally Hepworth writes brilliant family drama and The Younger Wife is no exception. Her characters are beautifully developed and I was left wanting to know more. Where are they now and how are they going? While dealing with difficult subject matter, there was love and humour and warmth. Thoroughly recommend x

Still not sure how much suspension of disbelief is necessary here. Is it possible that a successful doctor can be a serial abuser yet so successful a gaslighter that the women involved (daughters and wives) are unaware of it? Whatever. The plot romps on at a mile a minute as these quirky and dysfunctional characters slide over the waterfall of death only to find themselves saner and wiser in the refreshing plunge pool of life. There’s kleptomania, eating and baking your way past teenage rape, pension fraud, toddlers refusing to eat with hands, a barrister mis-investing $2m with dire results, psychologists, a murderous dad in prison, Alzheimer’s etc. What’s not to like? I highlighted a couple of wise remarks about the role of fathers in a child’s life.

I am at about a 4.35 ⭐ for this one. First of all I am super excited for a main character with the same name as me ~ although my name is pretty common I don't see it too often in my reads, so that's fun 👏 The story is told by: Heather ~ fiancee of Dr Stephen Aston, who happens to be around the age of his daughters, (gold digger alert?) Tully ~ youngest daughter of Stephen, married to Sonny with 2 boys. Rachel ~oldest daughter of Stephen who owns her own bakery business. An attendee of the wedding ~ identity revealed later in the book. I don't want to say too much and risk giving spoilers, but this book is full of secret after secret after secret. And everyone had one or two. Although the plot is not overly unique, it is executed close to flawlessly and I was totally kept intrigued throughout. Each character was well developed and had their our interesting issues that brought the whole story together. I really love that when there are multiple perspectives there are then multiple narrators ~ it helps me keep track of who's who. Barrie Kreinik, Caroline Lee, Jessica Douglas-Henry, Zoe Carides all did an excellent job keeping me engaged with the story. I think I'll always be a Sally Hepworth fan. *Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio and Sally Hepworth for the advance audiobook. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

This is a Netgalley ARC review. All opinions are solely my own. The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth will take the reader on an emotional roller coaster. This is written from several points of view and none of them are insignificant. When the book started I thought I could see where this was going: older doctor leaves sick wife for younger version and daughters aren't thrilled. Yeah. It goes there a bit but the twists this book takes are surprising. I was most intrigued by the very different psychological disorders that this book explores. I was really glad that Rachel's backstory was not what I thought it would be. There are definitely triggers in this book so proceed at your own risk.