The Wife Between Us | Spoiler-Free Book Review

Standalone | 346 Pages | 2018

The Wife Between Us at a Glance

• Overall Rating: ★★★★
• Heroine: Which one?
• Dude: Older, but not wiser
• Twisty: Solid twist
• Brutality: Minor abuse scenes

Pairs Well With

Let’s just hydrate with some water on this one.

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Review

TW: Domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug-addiction.

Finally, the thriller that I wanted.

The genre has been disappointing me lately, so I was pleased that this book hit the mark. Mind-bendy and sometimes creepy AF, this hit home for me, so much that I had to set it down a few times. You think you know who the villain is? DO YOU? Okay, maybe, but it’s still a fantastic ride.

We follow two POV characters, Vanessa, who’s husband, Richard, has left her and Nellie, who is about to marry Richard, but keeps encountering strange coincidences. Is someone following Nellie? Is Vanessa off of her rocker?

We see the disintegration of Vanessa and Richard’s marriage through flashbacks, all the while, present-day Vanessa is stalking his new fiance. She seems dead set on stopping the wedding. Calling him, going to his apartment and following her to work. It’s also clear that Vanessa is recovering from an alcohol problem and dealing with the emotional turmoil of losing her mother, who died of an overdose. Vanessa comes off as menacing and a serious threat to anyone who tries to be with Richard. She truly does need help, but as we see through the flashbacks… Richard was quite controlling and losing his control has made her spiral.

Meanwhile, Nellie is preparing for her wedding to Richard. She is moving out of her apartment, ending her teaching school year and getting ready for the happiest day of her life. But as she packs up her schoolroom, she sees someone watching her. Then her photographer is cancelled by a caller that says they are Nellie and she has to beg them to show up last minute and squeeze her in. Strange occurrences keep happening the closer she gets to the wedding. 

So what is happening and who is responsible? That is the major question for the first half of the book. Then we get a really fun twist and get to see how Vanessa, Nellie and Richard move forward.

I’ll be honest, I saw the twist. But my two friends were floored and had to reread sections. I didn’t mind that I guessed it though because honestly, the entire thing was really well done. From beginning to end, this book is just flat-out well written. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster reliving Vanessa and Richard’s Marriage and seeing Nellie be pulled in by an older man. 

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Have you read The Wife Between Us? Let me know what you thought in the comments! 

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