Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Wife Between Us

I haven’t read a domestic thriller in a while & this one didn’t disappoint! It was full of tense scenes & moments where I thought ‘what the HELL is going on?!’ Tons of twists & turns that I didn’t see coming! It didn’t keep me up like some others have, so if you’re new to the thriller world, this may be a good starting book for you!

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Instead of focusing on the husband, Richard,

being a total POS who gets off on mentally torturing his wives, this book focuses on the mental effect that sort of abuse has on a person. Unlike other thrillers I’ve read, Richard actually ends up in rehab for his issues & you learn that they stem from his own trauma from childhood. You end up feeling sort of bad for him tbh. In most domestic thrillers, the wife is plotting to kill their husband & it usually ends with them successfully doing so (don’t get me wrong, I love a vengeful woman who goes insane!) but this book took a different route & I really ended up enjoying it more because of that.

There were 3 OH SHIT moments where I had to literally drop the book & take a lap BUT the biggest twist of them all was glossed over & kind of left to the reader to hypothesize about… there were a lot of questions about

Richard & his (VERY odd) sister, Maureen, & their childhood… I thought there would be more there, but the whole mystery of his family fell flat which was disappointing. The last twist was unnecessary & I would’ve rather read about Maureen’s weird fixation w/ her brother.

The twist was lackluster at best.

I am much harder on rating thrillers than I am other genres! Because I’ve read so many, it takes a lot to surprise me but this book delivered. But bc of a big part of the plot going unexplained, it went from a 4.5 to a 3.5 for me. BUT that all being said, this book was entertaining & anyone who is into domestic thrillers should go grab a copy!

For anyone who is sensitive about animal harm/abuse in books:

this book does NOT have any graphic animal abuse/death, but there *is* a dog that goes missing suddenly. It's sad, but since you never know what happens to him, you can imagine that he is living his best puppy life elsewhere!

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thejenstamps's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

So many twists and turns that I never saw coming. With every turning page, I craved more. Excellent suspenseful read.

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book wasn't bad, not at all, however, the premise just isn't original. I recall myself thinking that this book resemble "The Last Mrs. Parrish" by Liv Constantine (I rated it 4 stars) a few times. They're not exactly the same per se; the writing styles and the way the story is told are different, however, they still possess similar tropes. Although I did like the storytelling of "The Last Mrs. Parrish" better. I think reading "The Last Mrs. Parrish" made me anticipate most of the twists so I didn't find many of them surprising. There was a twist that I didn't anticipate, however, I felt like that twist was unnecessary and was just there for shock value.

If anyone is curious, the twist I'm referring to is Emma being the daughter of the professor that Vanessa was victim to in college and her marrying Richard to hurt Vanessa. I thought Emma's thought process was so stupid. Like, girl, you're really going to blame a college student for your father's infidelity?!🤦🏾‍♀️

Also, I think what lowered my rating for this book was that I felt like some loose threads weren't explained enough.

Like Richard's sister, Maureen, we never really get any explanation of her character and her motives. We're left to infer that she doesn't want Richard to get married and sabotages all the women that Richard courts, but we don't know anything further than that. I always got bad vibes from her and I was right considering we found out that she was the one that canceled the photographer for Vanessa's and Richard's wedding, but we're not told why. Lokwey, I know this is out of pocket, but I thought she "abused" Richard. I thought their relationship was odd.

And what happened to the dog (Duke)? We never know and I know that's such a minuscule thing, but I was tearing up reading that chapter about him. Things about dogs always just get me.🤧

Also, I think it would've been nice if we got a little look into Richard's previous wife, (Kate, I think that was her name). I just found it interesting that both Richard's previous wives were following their "replacement". And I know I keep mentioning "The Last Mrs. Parrish", (it just did this trope so much better than this book in my opinion), but just like in "The Last Mrs. Parrish" where the motives of the abuser were a bit more clear, I wish we found out what Richard's motive were when doing what he did. I know he's obviously the villain of this story but that doesn't mean he should be a flat character.

Overall, it was an okay book if you enjoy this trope and other books like it.

Also this is very inconsequential, but I don't think the people around Vanessa tried enough to warn her about Richard. They would make sly comments about how he was "too good to be true" but then wouldn't elaborate any further. Like yeah, of course, I'm going to think you're attacking my husband/boyfriend/fiance if you don't give me adequate reasons as to why you think he's off.

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fictionaladventures's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.5

This is more psychological thriller, and I just prefer your typical mystery/thriller myself. The first main plot twist I actually totally called. The couple of final twists I didn’t expect and those were pretty cool.

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