The Younger Wife in Aussie Readers

Mar 27, 2022 Brenda rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3500-2022, 2021-release, family, aussie-authors, suspense, own-read

The meeting with their father鈥檚 new love interest, Heather Wisher, saw siblings Tully and Rachel varying between suspicion and anger. Heather was the sisters鈥� ages, their father in his sixties. What was her goal? Plus, their father, Stephen, was still married to their mother, Pam. Admittedly she had dementia and was in a nursing home, but their disgust at the father and more, at Heather, was palpable.

Secrets, omissions, lies 鈥� all rippled through Stephen鈥檚 family. Rachel鈥檚 secret was one she ha ...more

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Dec 29, 2021 Jenny (Bookbookowl) rated it it was amazing

Thank you to Macmillan Australia, for providing me with a copy of this book, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review!

Rachael and Tully have been caring for their mother, who has dementia, while dealing with their own stressors in life. When their Dad introduced them to his new girlfriend, Heather, they鈥檙e not exactly thrilled that she鈥檚 the same age as them 鈥� or that their dad is actually still married to their mother. Upon hearing they鈥檙e getting married, the sisters both start to turn ...more

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Apr 26, 2022 Lisa Heidke rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sisters, Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father is engaged to Heather, a woman in her early 30's and younger than the sisters. Not only that, their father is still married to their mother who is in a home with advanced Alzheimers. Okay... As with all family suspenses, everyone has secrets they want kept hidden. There's domestic abuse, rape, eating disorders, kleptomania, and murder.
It was a good read but I felt there wasn't enough time given to any one issue or character ...more

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Apr 01, 2022 Kathryn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 4-stars, australian-authors, audiobooks, 2022-reading-list

I listened to this as an audiobook, and it took a little while to get into the book, but once I did, I enjoyed it. I thought it was going to be a bit lightweight at first, but each character ended up with an issue to deal with that had some depth to it. I thought it was well done. But the ending felt a little anti-climactic, but it was still an engaging read throughout.

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Dec 07, 2021 Nicola Marsh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-authors, domestic-suspense, read-in-2021

I gave this book 5 stars for the sheer readability factor.
One of those easy-reading page-turners you don't want to put down and I read it in a day.

The plot twists are fairly easy to pick and there are trigger subjects throughout, but watching the lives of Pam, Tully, Rachel, the younger wife Heather and Stephen unfold is like watching a juicy soap opera.
You want to discover how it all ends. ...more

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Apr 05, 2022 Kathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth is a fast-moving domestic mystery.

Heart surgeon Stephen Aston blindsides his adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, with his announcement he is engaged to much younger interior designer, Heather Wisher. Tully and Rachel are even more stunned when he also tells them he is divorcing their mother, Pamela. The sisters are not all happy to be gaining a stepmother nor are they pleased about Stephen鈥檚 divorce plans.

Tully and her husband Sonny are parents of two 4.5 stars.

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth is a fast-moving domestic mystery.

Heart surgeon Stephen Aston blindsides his adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, with his announcement he is engaged to much younger interior designer, Heather Wisher. Tully and Rachel are even more stunned when he also tells them he is divorcing their mother, Pamela. The sisters are not all happy to be gaining a stepmother nor are they pleased about Stephen鈥檚 divorce plans.

Tully and her husband Sonny are parents of two sons who are five and almost three. Tully鈥檚 stress levels are through the roof as she navigates upcoming changes for her family and the situation with her parents and Heather. She has always had severe anxiety and her coping mechanism is about to land her trouble. Will Sonny stand by her when the truth is revealed?

Rachel is a sought-after baker who devotes all her time to her business. She has not dated since she was a teenager and she too is keeping a secret from her loved ones. Her new delivery person is quite unexpected and she finally begins to emerge from her shell.

Heather has not been honest about her past but she certain Stephen will not learn the truth. She never intended to fall in love with a married man but she eagerly grabs hold of her chance for happiness. But after moving in with her husband to be, Heather begins to notice things about Stephen that leave her questioning her decision about her future. Can she trust her interpretations of unsettling events?

The Younger Wife is a compelling domestic mystery that is very suspenseful. Tully鈥檚 deep-seated issues are becoming impossible to control. Rachel鈥檚 fears have held her hostage for decades but will she finally be able to move past them? Heather is surprisingly easy to like but is marrying Stephen the right decision? Can Tully and Rachel trust their mother鈥檚 shocking declarations? With plenty of questions to answer, Sally Hepworth brings this suspenseful domestic mystery to an absolutely jaw-dropping conclusion.
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Nov 27, 2021 Bree T rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aww2021, mystery, australian

I have read all of Sally鈥檚 Hepworth鈥檚 other books except one (only because I am too fragile for the subject matter) and I think she鈥檚 a fabulous writer. She has always written incredibly compelling books that you can sink into and emerge, hours later, when you鈥檝e turned the last page, completely unaware of the time that has passed. And this book was actually not an exception. I鈥檇 already finished one book the day I picked it up 鈥� my hockey team were playing and it was first intermission and the I have read all of Sally鈥檚 Hepworth鈥檚 other books except one (only because I am too fragile for the subject matter) and I think she鈥檚 a fabulous writer. She has always written incredibly compelling books that you can sink into and emerge, hours later, when you鈥檝e turned the last page, completely unaware of the time that has passed. And this book was actually not an exception. I鈥檇 already finished one book the day I picked it up 鈥� my hockey team were playing and it was first intermission and the stream I鈥檓 using doesn鈥檛 always show the intermission show, sometimes it just plays a generic screen with annoying music telling me it鈥檚 a commercial break. So I picked this up to read during that鈥�.and ended up reading the entire thing in one sitting. When the hockey came back, it鈥檚 not like it was going to distract me. We ended up losing 4-1 anyway and for the most part, reading this was a much better way to spend my time.

Tully is horrified when her father asks her to lunch to meet Heather, only to then announce that they鈥檙e engaged. For one, her father is still married. To her mother. And Heather is younger than both Tully and her sister Rachel are. For Tully, it鈥檚 one more thing in her world that鈥檚 slowly getting out of control. And she鈥檚 powerless to stop it. Rachel is less outwardly distraught by the news but she鈥檚 got her own problems to deal with as well.

I thought the set up of this was excellent 鈥� Tully and Rachel are around late thirties, Tully is married with two young sons and Rachel is single. The women are slowly losing their mother. She has Alzheimers and is now in a care facility and now their father is marrying again. In some ways, neither of them can begrudge him this. Their mother has not been herself for a while now and things will only get much worse. But in other ways鈥�.it feels incredibly crass to be getting engaged. Whilst their mother is still alive. And still married to their father. And to a woman who is younger than they are, that they do not know. Who was the interior designer that their parents hired to remodel their house.

It would鈥檝e been really easy to portray Heather as the simplest of villains here. It鈥檚 the default setting in fiction for a younger women marrying an older man, especially when that older man has daughters. But Hepworth took the time to make Heather much more than the caricature she could鈥檝e easily been, giving the reader a chance to see her through Tully鈥檚 eyes before giving us Heather鈥檚 perspective and her background.

So much of the set up was great but I have to admit, the further I got into it and the more secrets started spilling out, I started to wonder if perhaps there was just a little too much crammed into the one story. Too many issues to really give Hepworth the chance to explore all of them in depth and with the time that each would take to honestly flesh out properly what each one really meant for the characters. I felt that this was particularly true of Rachel. That for me, needed much more time and also, some more devotion to it in the aftermath. I also felt that it was somewhat true for Heather and her past. Even some of Tully鈥檚 issues (and there are a multitude) felt only touched on and could鈥檝e easily been developed a little more.

I also flat out hated the final chapter or 2nd epilogue or whatever it was. I do not think that needed to be there, and that of all issues, that wasn鈥檛 the one to introduce ambiguity into (or to attempt to). If that had been left out, I probably would鈥檝e still had some issues with so much that had been crammed in there but I wouldn鈥檛 have finished the book feeling like I did. I can鈥檛 remember really getting irritated about a literary device before like that, it felt like a last minute flippant attempt to be clever, to introduce doubt but it鈥檚 the sort of issue that鈥檚 damaging to portray that. I didn鈥檛 like it unfortunately.

Not my favourite.
...more

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Oct 31, 2021 Janine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-review, net-galley

The Younger Wife is Sally Hepworth's new domestic thriller and what a book it is!
I don't think I have ever read a book with every character having issues!!
It starts with a wedding and ends with the wedding! First of all there is Stephen - the groom, who has two daughters from his previous marriage - Tully seems to have it all but in fact is a closet shoplifter, Rachel has beauty and talent but is hiding an incident that has affected her whole life and she finds comfort in food. Heather is the ne ...more

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Jan 17, 2022 Dee-Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance, strong-women, movie-material, warm-fuzzy, domestic-violence, five-star, mental-health, australian-authors, mystery, surprise-twist

So good. The blurb on the cover did not quite match the story, however really liked it. I really liked that all the chapters were from the different women鈥檚 perspectives.

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