The Wife Between Us: A Novel

3.5 StarsUsually after I finish a book, I write my review immediately while everything is still fresh in my head. This one, I had to stew about overnight while I decided how I wanted to rate it. I won't go into the premise of the book since this novel has been out for quite awhile now and there are plenty of other reviews that do.The Wife Between Us is advertised as having twists that you won't see coming. For me, this was partially true. There is a major twist around the midway point of the book that I did see coming, however, I didn't know how the book was going to end until the final page. I thought the ending was unexpected, good, but also confusing. I must admit, I had to go back and read the epilogue a second time to "get it".For the most part, I think this book was pretty well done. Rarely does a novel keep me guessing until the end, so it earns bonus points for me just for that. I did find my mind wandering at some points and I thought it was perhaps a tad too long and repetitive. This has been a popular book for quite a long time, however, I'm glad I found it out sale. It's certainly worth a read, but not at full price.

This is an escapist novel, with a mysterious tone which largely fails to captivate. The characters lacked depth, & a hinted nefarious act fails to materialize. The plot was repetitive, & the characters were stereotyped. If a reader wants a novel to,pass time, this might do,the trick, but it lacked "staying power," & the surprise ending seemed trite & motionless.

I didn’t like the book at all. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but it never did. A waste of money!!!!

If I could rate this book negative 10 stars, I would. Boring, confusing, and convoluted story line.It just drags, the authors felt compelled to provide minute details on every activity, place, object, and thought.The story made no sense, and kept lulling, you to sleep, while at the same time, leaving you perplexed.....total waste of money. Do not waste your money. Borrow, this one from the library, if you need a cure for insomnia.

First, it must be said that this book is not “Gone Girl” and the comparison mentioned on the book jacket is utterly ludicrous. This book is not written so much as it is constructed and orchestrated. It is heavily plot-driven, but the plot is not riveting or absorbing. The intrepid reader keeps turning pages in hopes that the book will gain momentum or that the writing quality will improve, but the promises of the novel never materialize. The characters seem trite, wooden, one-dimensional and Harlequin-romance-inspired. Nellie is flaky, flighty, ditzy and hesitant. It takes her over 200 pages to grow a backbone. Prior to that, she has subsumed her every thought and desire, in an effort to please and placate her wealthy, mercurial husband, whom she decides to get to know better “after” her marriage??? There is no discernible chemistry, compatibility or believable bond between them. Richard is the solicitous (read: controlling) spouse who alternately dotes on, and gradually terrorizes, his often-clueless wife. If the reader can tolerate this drivel, a mystery then ensues amid all the cheesy domestic drama. Conceivably, it is supposed to be a heart-stopping, twisty, page-turner with shocking revelations, but the book misses the mark on so many levels. It is not well-written. None of the characters are particularly likable, save for Samantha and Duke. The reader is told about the characters, but never shown. The characters lack depth and sufficient backstories. The pace moves swiftly enough, but the action is contrived and formulaic. Plot twists at the expense of actual content. This book is light, escapism that tries too hard to be more than it is. It jumps on the psychological thriller bandwagon like so many others, but the true accolades belong solely to its predecessors.

A contrived plot with vacuous characters that only the equally mindless could care about. I found it especially laughable that the authors felt compelled to include an epilogue that added one last bit of far-fetched nonsense.

The writing by the authors was very good, excellent, in fact. Unfortunately, that is the only positive thing I can say about this book.The book starts off very slow. The chapters alternate between what appears to be Richard's ex-wife and his new bride to be. One chapter is in the first person and the next in the third person. The first seven chapters are just back and forth and very little is happening. No plot and no character development. This portion of the book was difficult to endure.Then the authors used a cheap gimmick to fool the reader. It turns out at about the half-way point in the book that both women are the same person. Instead of one being the future bride to be, it is the dumped wife before she married Richard, not Richard's future wife. The authors even used different names so as to confuse the reader. When the charade is revealed, the reader feels lied to and deceived.The end is really no twist or surprise as some reviewers claim. I saw it coming miles away. Why else have the subplot of the affair with her professor years ago? What other purpose would that part of the story serve?I also disliked that the narrator was unreliable. At times she was upset her husband dumped her for a younger woman. And then later on, she claimed she orchestrated his falling in love with his secretary so that he would divorce her. OK, which is it? She seemed bi-polar to me.Overall, I was disappointed with the story. It was too predictable and as a reader, I felt cheated by the cheap device the authors used to trick the reader. I would have preferred the authors told the story directly. It could have been much better.

The book did keep me interested enough to want to find out how it ended, however the ending was very disappointing, lots of things were hinted out throughout the book, but the ending was far too simple. I felt the authors had deliberately mislead the readers by hinting that there was some complicated back story that was going to come out at the end and explain why one of the main characters behaved the way he did, this was my reason for keeping on reading but the end felt very flat and left me thinking is that it.One of the main character changes personality part way through the book, which made it hard to believe that the three parts of the book were all part of the same story. At lot of her actions in the later parts of the book conflicted with how she was behaving in the first part. The book ends with an Epilogue which is totally unbelievable, and was not needed.By the end of the book I felt a little cheated as I felt the beginning of the book promised so much, but the ending was a real let down.

A recommendation from a friend led me to this book, a first read from this author for me and I went in completely blind.The book is set in three parts, at the end of each I had whiplash trying to work out which way this story was going. It was pacy, twisty and totally confusing. It left you always questioning, at one point I began to doubt anything or anyone in the story was real!I definitely recommend going in blind like I did, avoiding any spoilers, to get the full impact of the story.I'm at a loss how to rate and review it , but I will definitely be recommending this book to friends.

Turgid read. A real struggle to wade through the mire of this book. The number of times the authors went on about a crate of ' Raveneau Wine ' made me feel like smashing a few bottles over their heads !! Did they write in separate rooms and just cut and paste this story together ? Chapter 37 makes no sense where the ex wife is hiding in wardrobe - don't bother buying this book just wait until it's remaindered or in your local charity shop where my copy will soon be heading.

Fairly average story of a control freak mistreating his wife. I did not find it gripping until close to the end and did not find the "twist" at end to be very believable.

The same old story, controlling husband, drippy wife, very confusing jumping around. The twist at the end added nothing to the story as by now I couldn't care less what happened to any of the characters. Rather clunky writing it read like a bad translation.