Thank you to Justine Sha and Harlequin Trade Publishing for my advance copy of The Last Wife in exchange for my honest review!
The Last Wife is a tale which perfectly encapsulates the saying, “oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Marie and Nina are best friends and Marie promises Nina that she will take care of her family when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness. When Marie starts to do this things fall apart and yet come together.
Marie ends up divorcing her husband when she finds out he’s been having an affair and the other woman has fallen pregnant. It deeply hurts Marie as she has been trying for years to have a baby and failed. She takes this opportunity to move in on Stuart, Nina’s widow, and take over her family.
I did not find this to be a thriller, yet there were a few suspenseful parts to this one. A big part of this book is a trip to Ibiza where Nina, Marie, and their old friend Camilla which took place 10 years prior. Marie’s boyfriend, Charlie, died on that trip and she can’t really get over it. She blames Nina and Camilla on the death of Charlie and won’t stop until she hears what she wants to hear.
All the characters in this one are weird. There’s something a little off with all of them. Just when you think maybe Marie is the one manipulating everything the other characters do things and you just think everyone is trying to control and manipulate the situation. It’s really just a bit bizarre.
This book was not particularly for me and I thought the ending completely fell flat. I don’t want to give too much away, but Marie made it out to seem like a different situation and then suddenly in the end all is well.
3 stars. I was engaged enough with the writing to plow through this one, but if I’m honest I didn’t really care about this one. I could take it or leave it, yet I’m sure some of you out there will love this one and eat it up…it just wasn’t my cup of tea. If you enjoyed Karen Hamilton’s previous novel The Perfect Girlfriend you will absolutely enjoy this one as well!
Title: The Last Wife
Author: Karen Hamilton
Genre(s): Fiction, Suspense, Mystery
Publisher: Graydon House
Release Date: July 7, 2020
Find it here on Goodreads
Donna's Reading Chair 
Great review! I enjoyed this book but I know what you mean. I feel like Marie was manipulated by the people around her as much as she was manipulating them.
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It was crazy…and then the end I was like, wait, what?!? All is well and everything is fine?! WHAT?! Haha…I just thought the flow to that was like…come on now, we could have some dark thoughts being spoken as we pretend all is well!
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