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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Christ on a cracker, this book was something else! Halfway through I was feeling all smug with myself thinking I had things ALL figured out. Turns out I did not.
Christ on a cracker, this book was something else! Halfway through I was feeling all smug with myself thinking I had things ALL figured out. Turns out I did not.
Thought it was going to be rubbish, but honestly was so good. Didn’t see the twists at all.
This was different to what the blurb makes it out to be. It's a slow burn domestic thriller about a recently widowed woman whose life is slowly unravels as her family's past comes back to haunt her.
While it has an engaging storyline, I had trouble with the uneven pacing. It's slow with mostly characters I found hard to relate to but the last quarter was a compelling read. Even when I thought I had it all figured it, the author managed to surprise me at the end.
I'd recommend this to newbies of the genre. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the e-ARC.
While it has an engaging storyline, I had trouble with the uneven pacing. It's slow with mostly characters I found hard to relate to but the last quarter was a compelling read. Even when I thought I had it all figured it, the author managed to surprise me at the end.
I'd recommend this to newbies of the genre. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the e-ARC.
Six weeks ago, she lost her husband as he left for a skiing trip he was destined to never return from. Now, everything has fallen apart. He was never going to finish that bloody book he was always writing, they were never going to have couples night with their best friends again, their son would never get to see him again.
But tonight, everything is perfect. Or at least, it looks perfect. She's just got home from work at the local GP surgery, the table is set, dinner is cooking, and her son is talking to him happily in the other room. But he isn't her husband. She doesn't know why he's here, why he won't go away, and just how he managed to get so much leverage over her, she's going to figure it out but for now she'll play along. Because there's one thing she knows - everyone lies, even her.
"I don't believe in fate, just science."
The Trapped Wife was not what I expected. Following the story of Dr Jennifer Miller, her late husband Jeremy and a strange intruder in her life who she met one night months ago but now is holding things over her head to keep her close. Immediately, I was intruiged by this woman who'd lost everything and was trying to hold together some semblance of normality for her teenage son. I empathized with her from the moment we met - but I ranged from adoring her, hating her, being utterly infuriated with her and falling in love with her all over again.
Written from multiple point of views but still easy to follow, we see Jennifers life unfold and get a glimpse into the past of a troubled young boy who we slowly get to know and wait for his place in the puzzle to be revealed.
This Domestic-Noir thriller was slow-paced but always had something happening - and knowing that Samantha Hayes is a master of deception kept me firmly on the edge of my seat as the suspense bubbled over. She almost lets the reader guess some of the twists coming, lulling them into a false sense of security before unleashing one shocking, bloody revelation after another.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you Samantha Hayes, Bookouture and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.
But tonight, everything is perfect. Or at least, it looks perfect. She's just got home from work at the local GP surgery, the table is set, dinner is cooking, and her son is talking to him happily in the other room. But he isn't her husband. She doesn't know why he's here, why he won't go away, and just how he managed to get so much leverage over her, she's going to figure it out but for now she'll play along. Because there's one thing she knows - everyone lies, even her.
"I don't believe in fate, just science."
The Trapped Wife was not what I expected. Following the story of Dr Jennifer Miller, her late husband Jeremy and a strange intruder in her life who she met one night months ago but now is holding things over her head to keep her close. Immediately, I was intruiged by this woman who'd lost everything and was trying to hold together some semblance of normality for her teenage son. I empathized with her from the moment we met - but I ranged from adoring her, hating her, being utterly infuriated with her and falling in love with her all over again.
Written from multiple point of views but still easy to follow, we see Jennifers life unfold and get a glimpse into the past of a troubled young boy who we slowly get to know and wait for his place in the puzzle to be revealed.
This Domestic-Noir thriller was slow-paced but always had something happening - and knowing that Samantha Hayes is a master of deception kept me firmly on the edge of my seat as the suspense bubbled over. She almost lets the reader guess some of the twists coming, lulling them into a false sense of security before unleashing one shocking, bloody revelation after another.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you Samantha Hayes, Bookouture and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
What do you do when there is someone in your house that you don't trust? Who knows something about you that would shatter your life? Who is toying with you and clearly enjoying it? Those are the questions that The Trapped Wife intends to ask, but neither the questions nor the answers truly stuck for me. Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
So first of all this blurb is misleading, specifically that first paragraph. I don't want to start of a review negatively, but it does set readers up for a bad reading experience if the blurb is so off. The blurb employs, or hints at, a different kind of suspense, a different kind of plot, almost, than we actually get in the book, so after I got about three chapters in I had to make sure I was reading the right book. I'm all about keeping things mysterious, but let's not be inaccurate. Because Thrillers depend on getting off to a good start! We need to know what we're in for, so that we stick with it when the tension rises. And The Trapped Wife gets off to an amazing start, dropping you right into Jennifer's mind. Her stress and confusion is palpable and it hooks you immediately.
Jennifer is not having a great time. Her husband has recently died in a ski accident, she is pregnant and now her new patient, Scott, who seems eerily familiar, won't leave her alone. After revealing his intentions and his role in her past, Scott forces his way into her home and life, leaving Jennifer with seemingly little options of regaining her independence and former happiness. But this is only half the plot. Occasionally we pop back in time, to two unhappy schoolkids, who squash bugs and lament their home-lives. As their actions escalate, you can't help but wonder how this relates to Jennifer. I'm going to have to be honest and say that the link between the two plotlines didn't work for me. While Hayes successfully wrongfoots you in fun ways here and there, this subplot takes away from the pace of the novel. Hayes does mention in an afterword that one scene in this subplot was where The Trapped Wife started for her, so I can see why it was important for her, but it didn't really add much for me, despite the history it presents. I also struggled connecting to Jennifer, who is mainly reactive in many parts of the novel. Scott himself is a question mark of a character, in that he is technically the worst but I can't form a proper picture of him. A lot of aspects of his character make sense on their own but not in combination. There is a whole set of side-characters, many of whom play important roles in the narrative but don't feel fully realized on their own.
A quick SPOILER alert, please skip to the word SAFE ZONE below if you don't want any kind of spoilers, or angry rants from me! Are we good? Ok. Here is something I'm really beginning to dislike in domestic thriller books. We all know I love a good unreliable narrator, I love being surprised like that or being constantly unsure like that. What I do not like is when a narrator is revealed to have been lying to the reader, in the sense that the interior monologue and thoughts that we have been seeing has been actively misleading. Don't convince me she is worried about her husband, about his affair, all these things, if she has at least some of the answers already. (Yes, I'm aware the blurb says she lies, but then show us how she does it, let us build suspicion without explaining it away immediately!) That's not an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is either a narrator whose own perception of their actions is off or inaccurate, or a narrator who is actively narrating and therefore misleading. In The Trapped Wife we have an omniscient narrator, instead, who should know the truth, being omniscient. Through them we get to see inside a variety of characters' minds, but what we see there should be the truth. If you want to cut away before revealing something, please do, but don't write twists that undercut your own work, don't leave things hanging in a way that doesn't make sense! Especially when the build-up to it becomes a bit agonizing and therefore also annoying. The SAFE ZONE starts here! I had to get that rant out. thank you for bearing with me.
The Trapped Wife feels long, which was odd. I enjoyed much of the pacing, of the slow unraveling of characters and plot, but then at a certain point it did begin to drag. About halfway through the novel I begun to wonder whether Samantha Hayes wasn't trying to do too much. We have a missing husband, a house intruder, we also have family tension, strained friendships, and concerns about a blurry night. It was specifically the latter which felt majorly underworked, which was a shame since it is meant to fuel so much of the tension. Also, considering the themes it deals with, it should have been handled with care. And then there is the historic subplot where we deal with troubled childhoods, murder, and teen angst. It all adds up to a lot of "something", but it never entirely connects for me. Sometimes it felt like there was two great books inside of The Trapped Wife which, by being combined, lost some of their power. However, Hayes does keep your attention, she does make you want to keep reading, to follow it all to the bitter end. I will definitely be giving some of Hayes' other books a read, as I do think she has all the tools needed to make for a great thriller. Sadly this one just wasn't it for me.
While there were many aspects of The Trapped Wife that I did enjoy, it ends up trying to do too much, which leads to much of it not working for me.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-trapped-wife-by-samantha-hayes.html
So first of all this blurb is misleading, specifically that first paragraph. I don't want to start of a review negatively, but it does set readers up for a bad reading experience if the blurb is so off. The blurb employs, or hints at, a different kind of suspense, a different kind of plot, almost, than we actually get in the book, so after I got about three chapters in I had to make sure I was reading the right book. I'm all about keeping things mysterious, but let's not be inaccurate. Because Thrillers depend on getting off to a good start! We need to know what we're in for, so that we stick with it when the tension rises. And The Trapped Wife gets off to an amazing start, dropping you right into Jennifer's mind. Her stress and confusion is palpable and it hooks you immediately.
Jennifer is not having a great time. Her husband has recently died in a ski accident, she is pregnant and now her new patient, Scott, who seems eerily familiar, won't leave her alone. After revealing his intentions and his role in her past, Scott forces his way into her home and life, leaving Jennifer with seemingly little options of regaining her independence and former happiness. But this is only half the plot. Occasionally we pop back in time, to two unhappy schoolkids, who squash bugs and lament their home-lives. As their actions escalate, you can't help but wonder how this relates to Jennifer. I'm going to have to be honest and say that the link between the two plotlines didn't work for me. While Hayes successfully wrongfoots you in fun ways here and there, this subplot takes away from the pace of the novel. Hayes does mention in an afterword that one scene in this subplot was where The Trapped Wife started for her, so I can see why it was important for her, but it didn't really add much for me, despite the history it presents. I also struggled connecting to Jennifer, who is mainly reactive in many parts of the novel. Scott himself is a question mark of a character, in that he is technically the worst but I can't form a proper picture of him. A lot of aspects of his character make sense on their own but not in combination. There is a whole set of side-characters, many of whom play important roles in the narrative but don't feel fully realized on their own.
A quick SPOILER alert, please skip to the word SAFE ZONE below if you don't want any kind of spoilers, or angry rants from me! Are we good? Ok. Here is something I'm really beginning to dislike in domestic thriller books. We all know I love a good unreliable narrator, I love being surprised like that or being constantly unsure like that. What I do not like is when a narrator is revealed to have been lying to the reader, in the sense that the interior monologue and thoughts that we have been seeing has been actively misleading. Don't convince me she is worried about her husband, about his affair, all these things, if she has at least some of the answers already. (Yes, I'm aware the blurb says she lies, but then show us how she does it, let us build suspicion without explaining it away immediately!) That's not an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is either a narrator whose own perception of their actions is off or inaccurate, or a narrator who is actively narrating and therefore misleading. In The Trapped Wife we have an omniscient narrator, instead, who should know the truth, being omniscient. Through them we get to see inside a variety of characters' minds, but what we see there should be the truth. If you want to cut away before revealing something, please do, but don't write twists that undercut your own work, don't leave things hanging in a way that doesn't make sense! Especially when the build-up to it becomes a bit agonizing and therefore also annoying. The SAFE ZONE starts here! I had to get that rant out. thank you for bearing with me.
The Trapped Wife feels long, which was odd. I enjoyed much of the pacing, of the slow unraveling of characters and plot, but then at a certain point it did begin to drag. About halfway through the novel I begun to wonder whether Samantha Hayes wasn't trying to do too much. We have a missing husband, a house intruder, we also have family tension, strained friendships, and concerns about a blurry night. It was specifically the latter which felt majorly underworked, which was a shame since it is meant to fuel so much of the tension. Also, considering the themes it deals with, it should have been handled with care. And then there is the historic subplot where we deal with troubled childhoods, murder, and teen angst. It all adds up to a lot of "something", but it never entirely connects for me. Sometimes it felt like there was two great books inside of The Trapped Wife which, by being combined, lost some of their power. However, Hayes does keep your attention, she does make you want to keep reading, to follow it all to the bitter end. I will definitely be giving some of Hayes' other books a read, as I do think she has all the tools needed to make for a great thriller. Sadly this one just wasn't it for me.
While there were many aspects of The Trapped Wife that I did enjoy, it ends up trying to do too much, which leads to much of it not working for me.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-trapped-wife-by-samantha-hayes.html
Well I DID NOT see that coming. WOAH- Def worth holding on to get to the last few pages of this one...
It’s not often a tag line on a book really delivers what is promised. However in this case it is shockingly accurate. Anyone who says they guessed this is either psychic or a little fibber.
Told from Jen and her best friend Rhonda’s perspectives, and also with a past narrative from two schoolchildren. You are blindly lured into believing this is a domestic drama about a woman whose husband has died in an avalanche and who was possibly drugged and raped while away at a work conference.
The slow pace at the start gives you time to really get to know the characters, or so I thought. Jen is a local GP and mum to Kieran and has just discovered she is pregnant. Not her dead husbands as they were no longer sleeping together, paranoia and insecurity of an affair playing a part in him sleeping on the couch before the fatal accident.
Rhonda is a teacher and mum to Caitlin, thank heavens for her as she was the character that made the most sense and was a voice of reason when the waters became muddied. Even though Jen is keeping the news of her pregnancy from her, she repeatedly showed her loyalty to their friendship.
Then there is the new patient at the GP surgery, Scott Shaw who has just moved to the area but seems familiar and dangerous.
I really can’t say much more about any of the other characters or the plot except to say the connections that bring the plot and subplots together will blow your mind. This book really is one of those that the less you know the better. The twists are belters and the author’s note at the end was even a shocker!
Told from Jen and her best friend Rhonda’s perspectives, and also with a past narrative from two schoolchildren. You are blindly lured into believing this is a domestic drama about a woman whose husband has died in an avalanche and who was possibly drugged and raped while away at a work conference.
The slow pace at the start gives you time to really get to know the characters, or so I thought. Jen is a local GP and mum to Kieran and has just discovered she is pregnant. Not her dead husbands as they were no longer sleeping together, paranoia and insecurity of an affair playing a part in him sleeping on the couch before the fatal accident.
Rhonda is a teacher and mum to Caitlin, thank heavens for her as she was the character that made the most sense and was a voice of reason when the waters became muddied. Even though Jen is keeping the news of her pregnancy from her, she repeatedly showed her loyalty to their friendship.
Then there is the new patient at the GP surgery, Scott Shaw who has just moved to the area but seems familiar and dangerous.
I really can’t say much more about any of the other characters or the plot except to say the connections that bring the plot and subplots together will blow your mind. This book really is one of those that the less you know the better. The twists are belters and the author’s note at the end was even a shocker!