Samantha Downing

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND RICHARD & JUDY PICK HOW WELL DO YOU REALLY KNOW THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST? Their life was just like yours. Nice house, great kids, the perfect life. But they have a very dark secret. You might think you've read stories like this before. You're wrong. ______________ SHORTLISTED FOR ITW THRILLER AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL, THE EDGAR AWARD AND THE GOODREADS AWARDS. WINNER OF THE DEAD GOOD READER AWARDS. 'The twist at the end of the first chapter made me read through the night' Jane Corry, bestselling author of The Dead Ex 'The most gripping psychological thriller of 2019' Stylist 'The next Gone Girl' Marie Claire 'A twisty, audacious, Gone Girl-y psychological thriller. The book that everyone is going to be talking about' Red 'Wow! My Lovely Wife is a stunner - full of twists, well-drawn characters, and riveting suspense' Harlan Coben 'Dexter meets Gone Girl - I loved this this brilliantly dark and twisted novel. One of the best books I've read this year' C.J. Tudor 'Absolutely unputdownable' Liv Constantine

The gripping Richard & Judy thriller that will give you chills this winter

My Lovely Wife

April 29, 2024: I just finished this book, and all I can say is that I want to read more of Samantha Downing's works. I was half-hearted whether I should side with 'Tobias' or not. Yes, there are some plot holes, but personally, I still find this book worth picking up. All I can say is that Millicent is a real psycho. Would definitely look for other Samantha Downing's books.

Kath

It was overall a good read, I dislike the ending tho

yena 

Gone Girl vibes but much more poorly executed. I feel like every part of the book I was excited to read about got skipped over and we moved to the next chapter. As always, hard to be into the book when the protagonist is shitty and makes dumb choices. Fairly obvious “twists” throughout. 

Paige Paul

Izabela Borges

Starting out this book I almost didn’t go through with reading it. I would give it a 2. I don’t really like 1st person stories for mysteries/thrillers since it has a huge bias and it’s hard to guess the ending; also it was hard to sympathize with a couple of serial killers.

But I must admit that by mid book I was completely obsessed and needed to finish it as fast as I could. There’s a lot of unexpected turns even if the end is something it will probably go through your mind some times in the beginning and you will discard that idea because how easy could it be? And how dumb could the husband be to not have suspected it sooner? (view spoiler)[Also, you never find out the husband’s name throughout the book, which I realized only when writing this review. (hide spoiler)]

I give it a solid 4.5 but you have to get to the middle of the book to feel it as good as this.

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE INSTANT #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER USA Today bestseller Edgar + ITW Thriller Award nominee for Best First Novel “Think: Dexter but sexier.”—theSkimm “A dark and irresistible debut.”—People “Will shock even the savviest suspense readers.”—Real Simple Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting... Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

Suyash Goylit

A great plot with lukewarm execution and one hell of a last chapter 

The plot was great, a bored couple murdering women in cold blood to spice up their marriage. Simple, dark, and to the point. However, the novel wasn't impressive at the very least. The story felt disjointed at multiple places due to the start-stop style of storytelling. Non-linear storytelling isn't an unprecedented or bad way of doing things, however, it broke the immersion on numerous occasions. Multiple perspectives could have helped immensely in a plot like this but wasn't preferred for some reason. The writing also felt a little loose, which wouldn't have been much of an issue had the other aspects been air-tight. The cathartic and somewhat surprising ending, however, redeemed the entire thing to some extent. Overall, a great plot with lukewarm execution and one hell of a last chapter.

(view spoiler)[First of all, both the big mysteries, Millicent being the one who tortured her sister and not the other way around, and her framing Tobias wasn't mysteries at all. The first one was probably not even written as the mystery as there weren't just hints but it was crystal clear from very early on. The second instance was definitely intended as the shocking reveal but it didn't deliver. Millicent was portrayed as a psychopath, yet the readers are expected to be surprised when she does something like that? It was still written as this shocking chapter to pull the rug under the reader's feet. Additionally, Millicent was shown as this psychopath who did everything for her and her family. A better direction would have been her sticking with Tobias till the very end or at least struggling with the idea of framing him. Those tedious accounts of home life were so boring but it could have been easily redeemed had it been done for some sort of character development of Millicent. The whole jealous wife thing felt jarring, if not out of character.

Furthermore, the single perspective style didn't work remotely well here. I understand it might have been done in order to build up the mystery even more and antagonize Millicent while building up sympathy for Tobias. However, it would have worked if I wasn't bored of reading what he thought or did for 300 pages. Adding Millicent's perspective wouldn't have just helped with this, but also given her character more depth and solved the previous problem.

On the other hand, the last chapter was written brilliantly. Jenna stabbing Millicent is obvious in hindsight, but somehow I didn't see it coming. The last scene in the bedroom was amazing and I could feel the tension. If not for the start-stop style, this tension would have been present throughout and it could have been a much better story. (hide spoiler)]

Grace M

A very fun, clever read that I have mixed feelings about. While I enjoyed this read, some of it was a little predictable and I felt like the story pulled it’s punches at times. It thoroughly succeeded in the realm of page-turning tension!

jess larry

** spoiler alert **
           2.5 

plot twists trop tirés par les cheveux, & globally unrealistic plot (you're telling me police found noooothing wrong with him, even despite the fact that he went around pretending he was deaf ? like is that not fishy ??)? jsp it just seems too easy & unsatisfying

also the fact that she left absolutely no clues seems a bit much, like the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense

that last sentence doesn't seem right with me too, i know the author was tryna make us have a 😨 moment but it doesn't make sense for him to STILL doing all that when he seemed to be remorseful? idk

i also disliked les sauts dans le passé or wordsalad mid action like i do not care, get back to the point

overall meh, i didn't dnf it tho & it was a pretty nice read (despite the stupid plot twists) so passable

Denaiir

A good thriller, I was pleasantly surprised! It was not dark enough for me and the ending was a bit on the "let's wraps everything up with a big bow" side, a bit too easy, but the journey was enjoyable. 
The narration got me interested right away, I enjoyed it quite a lot and read it fast, but it's not dark enough to make me fall in love as much as it did other readers. 
The plot was quite original and I enjoyed the twists and turns, however it lacked the wow factor for a seasoned thriller reader. I think it's the perfect book for people who don't read very much in that genre because it's fun, fast-paced and original, but it was also predictable, only touched the surface and wasn't very dark.

Louise 

Overall I enjoyed this book, if you're looking for your next 5 star this may not be it tho🙃

Alexa M

this really lived up to the hype! i had a really fun time reading this and didn't really see anything coming, this book was not quite what i expected - in a good way. my only complaint was that the ending felt a bit cheap.

Shreya Punj

This book was such an utter waste of my time. 

If you, like me, enjoy reading about murders and victims and murderers and their victims, this is not the book for you. Why? Because the ending is clear from a thousand miles away and in a well-written story that’s never a problem, but combine it with a plot that makes zero sense, and you’ve got yourself a sleeping pill in the form of words. 

The husband is a two-dimensional git and we’re supposed to believe that he’s an “evil” genius. The wife has red hair and green eyes and is also a “lovely evil” genius. The son is a teenage stereotype and the daughter is a weepy, nerdy mess. The characters seem to be tethered to nothing—neither their own lives nor those of anyone else in the story. 

I mean, I really wanted to chuck my Kindle midway but I blazed through the book so that I could channel my anger into cleaning my house during the lockdown.

dija

celene

oh,,,my,,,gas,,,,ohmygas???! im shook u guys?! what the fudge,,,???!!!

Rachel Kanyid

This was a great thriller! I kinda saw what was coming about halfway though, but I still really enjoyed it!!

Jessica Ford

My Lovely Wife

This book was truly disturbing but I could not put it down. I did not see the plot twist coming at the end but I wasn’t completely surprised by it either. I highly recommend this book to any thriller lovers. I can’t wait to see what Downing comes up with next.

Cecilia

sophia n

* 4.5 stars

ha ha ha oh my god this was so twisted, i loved it. taking off like half a star because i knew the plot twist pretty early on, but it was REALLY well done and executed, still had tons of surprises, and honestly this whole book was just a RIDE. so much fun, so fucked up lol.

McKenzie McWhorter

Really solid book, loved the plot line and concept. It keep me wanting to come back to it and see where it went. Parts of the ending felt unrealistic but that very ending 🤯

Gisela Ayala 

This book was highly recommended by so many people and as I do with many thrillers, I decided to listen to the audiobook and what a fantastic choice that was! The narrator was great. I was completely pulled into the story and was equal parts fascinated and freaked out. I live in Central Florida and I happen to like true crime as well, so this book felt very close to home. I've seen how a crime can completely turn a community upside down and feel so involved. 

But, we see this all from the side of the villains, I should say because our main couple is a crazy, sort of relatable (in a scary way) Mr. and Mrs. Smith type of couple. I didn't know who to root for in this book, and was shook with myself when I realized how I wanted it to end. *shivers* 

I saw somethings coming but it was still shocking when things come to light. So yeah, I'm basically scared to live life now. Listen to this book.

Courtney 

Brittney Browne

This was just meh for me. The plot was okay. The characters were okay, but honestly kind of flat. I personally found Millicents character to be completely unbelievable. There is no depth or backstory provided. The history with her sister Holly really could’ve been explored a lot more to provide more depth, but we never get into that. So ultimately there really is no explanation as to why this seemingly happy normal couple all of a sudden started killing women. There are no red flags in their relationship or individual personalities that make this believable. Typically I’m a very character driven reader, and this book has no characters that I like. Which makes it difficult for me to get engaged, so maybe that was part of my problem. 
The “Twist “ at the end was not surprising at all. In fact, it would’ve been more surprising if what happened wasn’t the twist. I will say, the ending did leave me satisfied because it ends the way it should end. For what that’s worth. 
Finally, speaking as a mother who works full-time and is married to someone who also works full-time, it is completely unrealistic that these two parents who also work full-time, whose children are actively engaged in extracurriculars would ever, ever find the time to take on a venture such as stalking, abducting, torturing, and murdering people. As well as making delicious, complex homemade meals every night, which Millicent does. 
Overall, the writing was decent, the plot was OK, the characters were meh. I listened to this as an audiobook from the library, making it a good filler while I’m doing chores but I would not necessarily recommend or purchase this book.

Lauren Tabor

Ley Stanton

THAT LAST LINE. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MOVE ON FROM THIS BOOK???
this book got me better than gone girl did the first time i read it. the story keeps you distracted by giving you smaller things to figure out and then the truth slams into you when its far too late for the narrator to do anything about it.
listened to this in audio and absolutely loved it. it had my full attention in a way most audiobooks can't manage. probably one of my favorite books of the year.

Keri Elyse Scott

it was amazing. i loved it and it’s definitely a good one to read if you want to get into thrillers. the name of the main character is never said but by just reading the book you feel like you know him completely anyway. definitely read it.

My Lovely Wife The gripping Richard & Judy thriller that will give you chills this winter

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