My Rating ~ Five Stars

RELEASE DATE: 19 November 2021

Format: E-Arc

Publisher: Bookouture

Pages: 237

Blurb

You can never truly know what goes on behind closed doors…

My darling son, Sam, is marrying his childhood sweetheart and I couldn’t be prouder of the man he’s grown into. Walking out on his abusive father all those years ago was the best thing I ever did. And today he stands, tall and handsome, saying ‘I do’ to my dream daughter-in-law. If I hadn’t pushed them together all those years ago, he might never have found a girl as perfect as Lauren. It’s true what they say, mother always knows best.

But weeks later, Lauren is dead and police cars fill the driveway of their idyllic countryside home. As they question Sam, I sense he’s hiding something. Why won’t he look me in the eye? And who does he rush off to meet as soon as the police are gone?

Desperate, I do what every good mother would do: I let myself into Sam and Lauren’s bedroom. What I see, I will never be able to forget. My son’s beautiful new wife was hiding a dangerous secret. Can I clear my son’s name? And could my life be in danger now too?

Review

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

Sam and Lauren are newlyweds and their families have been lifelong friends. Spending holidays together, sharing the trials of parenting and growing up and the joy of being part of one big family, the mothers, Helen and Georgie are the best of friends. That all comes crashing down just three months after the wedding, with Lauren dead at the bottom of the stairs in the cottage they’d moved in to. When the police reveal they’re treating her death as a murder, secrets and lies start floating to the surface. Did any of them really know each other as well as they thought they did? As Georgie fights to clear her son as a suspect, she finds herself facing more and more stories she’d rather not know.

The New Wife was such a twisty read! My heart ached for most of the book, watching the aftermath of Lauren’s death tear each and every character apart. I suspected I knew the outcome so many times, but I never figured it out until it was presented to me at the very end 😅

I’ve read and enjoyed one other Sue Watson novel before but I think I’ll pick up more of her books. Her writing style is so addictive! The New Wife is fast paced right from the beginning. You’ll find no slow burn, irrelevant storylines here. Just a compulsive read with plenty of shocking twists and turns!