The After Wife is an emotionally charged and heartbreaking story about love, loss, longing, and belonging. Written by Cass Hunter, this story focuses on Aidan and Rachel’s romance, and how their lives are affected after Rachel passes away.

Aidan and Rachel were the picture of a perfect love. They were two young people who, even in the face of adversity, believed in their connection and its ability to defy death. When Rachel is gone, it’s up to Aidan to keep their love alive. To help him in this journey, Rachel leaves behind her life’s work — a gift of love in the form of iRachel, a new form of artificial intelligence that helps to simulate Rachel’s voice and character, so Aidan and their daughter can stay connected to her.

This book is a gripping, beautiful story that will have you captivated until the very end. Hunter captures the intense and overwhelming emotions of loss, while also weaving in themes of resilience and hope. The After Wife is a novel that will linger with readers long after they’ve read the last page.

A wonderful story of loss, love and family. Spectacular writing, wonderful characters and a touching story. I loved everything about this book.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This book is one you would perhaps call a marmite read. Meaning, some will love it, and some will not. I loved the book and found it so heartbreaking and endearing all in one. Recommended.

It’s a heart warming tale where AI has become a reality. Rachel the wife is a scientist and dies suddenly leaving in place a AI robot IRachel. I couldn’t put down and shows all human emotions, including love, loss and grief and yet it had me laughing and aswell as crying, I would definitely recommend it.

Very topical premise in these days of technology, AI, etc. Really captured the emotional side of the story well - husband & daughter both missing Rachel, but struggling to come to terms with having her likeness right there in front of them, reminding them of their loss & grief. Some touching moments, parts that make you smile, and overall a really well told tale.

A very different book but brilliant and well worth reading just fir it's oddness. I liked it quite a lot

Sorry to say but I struggled with this book and although it was a great idea for a story about love and loss, iRachael freaked me out a bit. However I appreciate this is not my normal genre but read it via a NetGalley Kindle download to try something new. Also, my kindle copy had a lot of typing mistakes in it, where random $ or @ or ~ # characters were used in words/sentences instead of alphabetical characters! and this made it hard to follow at times.

The After wife is a book for our modern, fully automated times, but there is also a timeless feel to the main theme of the story.

How do we fill the gaps in our Hearts, Families and Homes when a sudden death takes a loved one?

We start from a simple place. A brilliant lady scientist, her Clever but purposefully unambitious husband and their gifted but rudderless daughter are content in their lives. This seemingly comfortable existence is blown apart by the catastrophic loss of Mum Rachel, the repercussions of this reveals the cracks in that happiness that had been bubbling under the surface.

Emotionally dense, it raises many moral questions, should Rachel have been open about her condition?
Did she consider the emotion impact of inserting a female robot which mines her memories, thoughts and observations to guide it's responses?

Created as a prototype with Altruism at the core as a fatigueless home aid in Hospitals and Care Homes I-Rachel's presence and very existence catalyses more change than could ever have been imagined.

At heart this is a gentle family drama, deftly examining Grief, parenthood, and the horror of a sudden loss, but also delves into the slower more pervasive destruction and damage dementia wreaks. In this capacity it is a highly effective story and engaging to the reader, but the addition of I-Rachel is a thing of brilliance that elevates the story to another level. It allows for examination of the concepts of self-autonomy, how emotions are more complicated than both physiological and chemical reactions, allowing the reader to question;

What Is Love?

Are Machines capable of human emotion if fed enough pertinent data?

The Science -Fiction geek in me is picky, so I would have liked the book to have tackled more of the moral questions of an AI with human attributes placed in Servitude poses, but I do think that readers not necessarily drawn to this kind of book will be tempted by the distinct whiff of the Channel Four Show "Humans" . I enjoyed it very much.

The emotional heart of the book is the real reactions the I-Rachel invokes as a "person " in her own right rather than an intentional facsimile of the real thing. It is the gradual humanising that created the moment of pure Human emotion that I felt at the story's end. This is not Science Fiction, this is not fantastical it is a truly Human story from start to finish and I loved it all the more for that

Rachel is a high flying computer expert, married to Aiden who also works in computers but not quite as driven as his exceptional wife. When she dies she leaves him and their daughter Chloe something to help them through the dark days that follow. Well this is certainly different and quite intriguing but I can’t make my mind up as to whether it should be shelved as science fiction or as a tearjerker! Aiden was no live wire, a bit dull and Rachel was far more interested in work than her family. I liked the quirkiness of this book but it wasn’t without a degree of predictability. It was actually quite thought provoking too and makes you wonder about the possibilities in the future.

Today I’m delighted to be sharing my review of The After Wife by Cass Hunter as part of the blog tour.



About this book…

When Rachel and Aidan fell in love, they thought it was forever.

She was a brilliant, high-flying scientist. He was her loving and supportive husband.

Now she’s gone, and Aidan must carry on and raise their daughter alone.

But Rachel has left behind her life’s work, a gift of love to see them through the dark days after her death.

A gift called iRachel.

My review…

This is a rather unique book, unlike anything else I have read recently! Although I’ve seen a similar theme used in films such as AI, I’ve never actually come across it’s use in this genre before! But I’m always up for a challenge and was incredibly intrigued by the blurb so got stuck in straightaway!

A warning for the emotional among you that you may need tissues pretty much from the start of this. Rachel is living a perfect life with her husband and daughter until an accident takes her away from them. But Rachel had a little trick up her sleeve to provide comfort to her devastated family-the gift of iRachel. This cleverly designed artificial intelligence experiment has been a closely guarded secret by brilliant scientist Rachel and she is about to use all the information left to her to comfort the two people that Rachel loved the most.

It was incredibly easy to become involved in the lives of those that Rachel had left behind. Seeing the effects of Rachel’s loss from multiple points of view I was able to see how they coped with their bereavement, each needing different things from iRachel. I connected more with Chloe as I felt her loss the most due to her age. Teenage girls always think they don’t need their mums anymore but it’s probably the time they need them the most-teenage girls can be vicious!! Chloe’s relationship with her peers started to unravel at a time she really needed the support of her mother. Would iRachel be able to support Chloe as a real mother would? Would it be easier if she had all the empathy of a true parent or not?

This is quite an emotional storyline despite the rather unusual scientific plot. I found myself holding my breath, unable to contemplate how the author would bring everything to a satisfactory conclusion i.e. One that I was happy with!!! iRachel was a wonderful character and I wanted her to become “a real person” with real feelings and emotions so she could experience life to the fullest potential and not be restricted by her own capabilities.

The After Wife was a heartbreaking tale of loss, acceptance and finding the courage to move forward and to keep on living. If I had one tiny little quibble about the plot, I have to say that I would have found the creation of iRachels personality and endeavour would have had more meaning and a greater significance if Rachel had known she was going to die so young instead of her dying accidentally. Just a minor point but I felt it would have made her programming of iRachel more pertinent. But this didn’t detract from this wonderful exploration of what it is to be alive and that although we have our differences, we share a common humanity that is hard to ignore.

A lovely book that means I will look out for more by this author in the future.

Wow. What a beautiful story. A one of a kind. Unique. I don’t think I can say that I have read anything similar to this before. My heart broke at the beginning and it broke again at the end. It sure was hard to keep a dry eye towards the end. A stunning, powerful and thought provoking story.

The After Wife is beautiful written and I felt the story just connected to me. It’s beautiful. The story is told through each of the characters and I loved each and every character. I don’t want to give much away, but it ia a beautiful story with a beautiful meaning behind it all. Have I said beautiful enough yet? That’s all I cam say. A must read from me. A well deserved five stars. A story that’s going to stick with me and in my heart for a long time. Stunning.

I was really intrigued by this story and having read it is a great concept that has been really well executed!

I loved the idea behind the story and it has a great plot. The writing style is great and it makes it a very easy story to read, but be warned you may need tissues as it did make me feel quite emotional in places!

It has very well developed characters and I really enjoyed getting to know them. I didn’t want to put the book down and was hooked from a third of the way through to the end – I am glad I started it when I knew I could just sit down and enjoy it. It was a pleasure to read.

4.5 stars from me for this one rounded up to 5 stars for Goodreads and Amazon, a very enjoyable read – highly recommended!

I found it really hard to get in to this book but once I did I found it a bit preposterous. It was certainly readable and at times enjoyable but quite creepy with the touching and the mention of the ability to have sex. As for the bit in the restaurant. I really had to forego belief that anyone would go to such a restaurant..

However, I did have a slight, and it was very slight, lump in my throat for the last couple of pages.

I read this book a few weeks ago and am still thinking about it and if that’s not an endorsement for this beautiful book I don’t know what is. The After Wife appealed to my Sci-Fi nerd brain primarily but soon had me caught up in everything else that it is about. Love, loss, what makes us human and dealing with grief, it’s all there.

Rachel and Aidan have the perfect life; the only issue would be that Rachel’s career comes first and she has sacrificed a lot of time with Aidan and their daughter Chloe pursuing her dream. After her death it becomes clear what this dream was, she (with her lab partner Luke) has created iRachel a prototype of a human android. The only problem…this android is the double of Rachel. Suddenly after the shocking passing of his wife Aidan ends up taking iRachel home (Rachel employs a little emotional blackmail from the grave here) so that it/her emotional development can be studied in a home environment. Now, I had to ask myself how I would feel. I’m a similar age to Rachel with a 15 year old daughter; would this robot be a help emotionally or an awful daily reminder of what was missing? This is explored wonderfully throughout the novel and we ride the rollercoaster of emotions that Aidan and Chloe experience.

I’m a huge fan of the TV series Black Mirror/Humans/Westworld and the idea that a synthetic being could develop emotionally. How would they be treated in the real world? A slave? A monster? What sets us apart and makes us human; isn’t it life and experiences? The After Wife may not be set in a time that long from now. Recently AI intelligence mastered a board game that we have played for thousands of years and within three days had mastered the game and created moves that humans had not discovered. AI is being used now in the medical industry to solve scientific problems we have been unable to. Okay – so it’s a long way from creating a domestic android but when you look at how fast this things are progressing? It certainly makes you think!

You can probably tell that I adored this book and really invested a lot of my emotions into it, I probably won’t cry again for a while, my heart of stone has been bled dry. I recently re-read a few pages to refresh my memory for this review and my lip wobbled. Go buy it, and plenty of tissues – it’s the perfect read to get lost in! All the stars (and tears) to The After Wife.

5 stars

This is a compelling and poignant story about love, relationships, grief and what being human is all about.

Wonderfully written with characters you can't help but invest in, this book gently triggered every emotion in me, it's really hard to review this one without spoilers but trust me it's really original, incredibly touching and I would love to see this made into a film.

One that I will be recommending far and wide - Many thanks to NetGalley for opportunity to read this fabulous book, My honest thoughts and opinion are expressed in this review.

The sign of a good book is remembering the story but the sign of brilliant book is becoming emotional about the characters, especially when one is an Artificial Intelligence. I have literally used up my emotional allowance for the month today while I read this book. I never met Rachel in the story but I got to know her probably better than the other characters. At first I can't really say that I liked this career obsessed woman who appeared to put work before anything else, including her husband and a daughter that seemed to disappoint her.
I at first thought what she did to her family was quite cruel. Imagine losing your wife and in 15-year-old Chloe's case, her mother, to have her replaced after her death with an Artificial Intelligence in her own image! Whoa that would really play your with head, especially when you are some what blackmailed into letting it live with you. All on the hush, hush too.
What a belting story this is. iRachel, was brimming with so much factual information and memories of Rachel's life but no idea of emotion, unless assessed through physical signs. The story is told through all the main characters thoughts, Aiden, Chloe, Luke Rachel's working partner, Aidan's mother Sinead and of course iRachel. Watching iRachel grow was like watching a new baby finding out about the world, it was so very intimate in its purity of the joy she felt at the smallest things we take for granted. It was like her eyes opened a little more each day. She wasn't the only one that went through changes though. iRachel wasn't a replica of Rachel. I loved her logic, felt pity for her and was truly amazed at how she adapted to situations.
Such a cruel world outside four walls of protection and a beautiful story of love and regrets. A belting story with copious amounts of tissues piled up at my side. Loved iRachel, the last few charpters were amazing. Brilliant end!

I am going to have to admit that when I started reading The After Wife I was not sure if it was something I was going to enjoy as I had seen lots of reviews saying what an emotional book this was and I am not usually a big fan of this type of story. That being said I am glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave this book a chance as I really enjoyed it and found that it challenged my thinking.
When Dr Rachel Prosper died suddenly from a brain aneurysm the secrets of her work had to be shared with her grieving family in order for it to be completed. Much to her work colleagues Luke’s disgust he has to deliver iRachel to them or any progress they have made will be wiped forever. I am not sure how I would feel to have an AI robot living in my home, never mind one that looked like a recently departed relative. At first I felt the whole thing was a little creepy and a little egotistical on the part of Rachel especially as there were the feelings of a vulnerable teenager to consider. It was almost as if her project was more important than even the feelings of her husband and daughter.
The more I got into the book, the more I changed my opinion of what Rachel had clearly hoped to achieve. iRachel was being developed to help people, whether it be through illness, loneliness or just in general day to day chores. By creating the prototype in her own image she was trying to help her family through their grieving process even if they didn’t quite see it that way in the beginning. Over time both Aiden and Chloe accepted iRachel into their lives and found comfort in the hidden memories that came out at just the right time. By the end of the book they were ready and able to say goodbye to both iRachel and Rachel.
I think that anyone reading this book will certainly get a different view on what might be possible in the future. As I said at the beginning of my review The After Wife really challenged my thinking as I went from thinking that the whole concept was just too odd and unthinkable to contemplating the endless possibilities that this type of technology could achieve. This is a definite must for anyone who is looking for something that is a little bit different but at the same time deals with the real emotions of love, loss and finding the way to cope with them both.

THE AFTER WIFE by Cass Hunter is a powerful and impressive story that really took me by surprise and made me quite emotional.

Rachel and Aidan have a marriage based on a deep and everlasting love. While Rachel is a high-powered, extremely intelligent scientist, Aidan is content to work in a more relaxed setting while taking care of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Chloe. But when Rachel dies very suddenly, Aidan and Chloe are lost and miss her more than words can say while feeling every possible emotion under the sun as they grieve. But Rachel was nothing if not organised and has left them something to ease their way over the next few months, in the shape of iRachel, a special robot that looks, talks, and interacts like Rachel with Rachel's memories programmed into its core. But iRachel is more than just a robot and as she develops alongside this family, everything becomes heightened for everyone involved, and then there are those who would take iRachel away if they knew she existed ...

THE AFTER WIFE by Cass Hunter portrays the grief and shock surrounding sudden loss excellently throughout and I really felt for Chloe in particular who missed her mum so much while also feeling angry and upset that their relationship wasn't as easy and comfortable as she would have wished for. While Aidan and Chloe struggle initially with iRachel, it isn't long before they find some peace from it, and then as the story continues iRachel became a person and character in her own right to me, and my heart broke for her as she became aware of her own limitations and restrictions.

THE AFTER WIFE by Cass Hunter is a unique and enthralling story that makes you question life and whether we are living it to the fullest with those that we love, and while technology is obviously amazing in so many ways it makes you question, is there a point where we, as a society, can go too far?

This novel is a gripping read and I highly recommend it to fiction fans everywhere.

The After Wife is a bittersweet novel about humanity, identity, love and grief - and I loved it.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this book, as I hadn't actually read the blurb, but sometimes it's better to dive in without any preconceptions. It didn't take long to immerse myself into the lives of Rachel, Aidan and Chloe - ordinary lives that became so extraordinary when tragedy struck. I found myself whizzing through the pages, following the family's emotional journey as iRachel became part of the household.

This is a compelling and unique story with a modern twist - a well-crafted book that made me laugh, cry and think about the meaning of life. Despite being set in a slightly more technologically-advanced future, it all seemed very credible and believable, and the science was written seamlessly into the story. I was drawn to the contrast between iRachel, learning how to be independent, create memories and live as a human, and Aidan's mother, Sinead, whose dementia was slowly taking away her own memories, humanity and independence.

The After Wife is a thought-provoking read - a book that creates more questions than it answers. I've recently been watching the TV series Westworld, which also has humanoid robots at its heart and had already prompted so many questions. What makes us human? What gives us our unique identity? What makes us able to love those around us? Can we truly learn to experience emotion? How much do our memories and life experiences shape us?

I knew that however it ended, The After Wife would bring tears to my eyes. And it certainly did, along with a lump in my throat.