Welcome to my review of The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. I have read and loved Sally Hepworth novels before, so this was an easy choice. I enjoyed this twisted and exciting plot and the portrayal of various situations.
The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives.
Tully and Rachel Aston are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn’t even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
Announcing his plan to divorce and then remarry, the news of Stephen and Heather’s engagement sets a chain a family implosion. With their mother unable to speak for herself, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets and what this new woman really wants.
Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win over Tully and Rachel, all the while carrying the burden of the secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, they are all hiding something.
A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that’s only the beginning . . .
Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives (2015), The Things We Keep (2016) The Mother’s Promise (2017), The Family Next Door (2018), The Mother In Law (April 2019), The Good Sister (April 2021) and The Younger Wife (April 2022). Hollywood actress and producer, Amy Poehler, has optioned The Mother In Law for a TV series.
Sally’s books have been labelled “enchanting” by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publisher’s Weekly, and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally’s novels as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing”. Sally’s novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 10+ languages.
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.
Tully and Rachel are obviously quite upset when their father announces his new relationship with Heather. Especially since their mother, Pam, to whom he is still married, is in a care home due to her Alzheimers. They are frosty on their first lunch together. Still, Rachel tries her best with the situation, even when he announces he will divorce her mother so he can marry Heather. Of course, Heather is younger than either of Stephen’s daughters, which just makes matters worse.
There are a lot of serious issues covered in this book: gaslighting, rape, domestic abuse, kleptomania, anxiety, eating disorders, death and Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, not all of them were dealt with particularly well, particularly the rape and abuse.
I enjoyed the plot of The Younger Wife. The story focuses on the views of Tully, Rachel and Heather and their experiences. The characters each have a dark backstory. They all want to hide this from the rest of the world. In my experience, this is very common. But, as I often tell my children, you never really know what’s happening in someone else’s life, and this book shows that brilliantly.
I didn’t warm much to any of the characters, which felt like a big drawback. The characters are so important, but I just didn’t feel the empathy towards them that I would have liked to have aside from Pam. I also didn’t enjoy the relationship between Rachel and her new beau Darcy. Why did he have to be handsome and funny? Why did she get over the fears that have held over her for almost twenty years so suddenly? I felt that was annoying and did not accurately portray how she would have behaved.
I have read some other reviews which mentioned the ‘bad ending’, but I didn’t feel this way. I felt the ending was left a little ambiguous because that’s how you feel when you are in a similar situation, especially gaslighting. Is it you that’s going mad, or are you being abused? How can he be the horrible man you think he is when everyone else loves and respects him? I liked this aspect. Sally Hepworth doesn’t presume to tell you what you should believe or your thoughts.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. There are many trigger warnings and much to dislike but also a lot to like. I felt that Sally Hepworth did a great job of portraying the fears of three thirty-ish-year-old women, how they would likely act, and their experiences of an abusive man, whether they noticed it or not directly.
| Title | The Younger Wife |
| Author | Sally Hepworth |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | eARC |
| Page Count | 353 Pages |
| Genre | Contemporary |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Release Date | 7th April 2022 |
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