I did not relate to this book. I did persevere but felt frustrated by the way it evolved. A marriage that was thriving on the couple working together to murder young women who met their criteria . The family unit included two children affected by the scenario evolving before them through their parents subterfuge and malice. I found the storyline contrived.

Well...what can I tell you about this book? I did bought it would be just another psychological thriller, but it really isn’t! It’s about a married couple with kids and ordinary jobs, leading an ordinary life,... but they’re not. They’re not ordinary and their life is not ordinary - they have a dark secret. Then comes the reveal and then a twist, followed by another and just when you think you know what’s going to happen, there’s another twist! Riveting, unsettling, scary, unputdownable, weird, creepy, fantastic. Read it and see what you think.

Wow! This book had me guessing all the way through, then when the penny finally dropped it was an outstanding twist. Excellently written and perfectly executed. Highly recommended.

A great first novel.
Not really what I expected but very gripping and had me hooked from the beginning.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of The Lovely Wife. All the opinions and views discussed are my own.

I’m not sure what it is about this book, it is exactly the premise in a book that I would love, but for some reason I just found this a bit…boring. Although I don’t feel that is the right word – it just didn’t grip me or keep me intrigued. I wasn’t overly bothered about any characters in the book, and I really wasn’t that bothered about the twists. It’s very strange because this book was written well and Downing clearly knows how to string a book together. I just didn’t get this one. I do think the book started out very strong and had a very unique and intriguing plot line but I think about half way through the author just lost the plot points and deviated away from the main arc of the story.

I think what honestly confused me most about this story is the fact that the wife is living this secret life of murder – killing women that her husband has even dared breathe at, whilst maintaining a perfect family life and work life. I get that the story itself is quite unbelievable with a murdering couple on the loose, but the fact that she manages to keep the first woman alive for a year and no one in her family noticed this is just insane. INSANE. It also seems quite strange as we get the impression that the husband is just doing this for his wife, and yet he is the one to suggest it and also is the one to stalk the women. I feel like there was a bit of confusion really about who was behind all of this. Especially as at the end he is still using the Tobias ruse on women??

There were some interesting twists in the book; the wife having known about him sleeping with some of the women throughout the entire book and having set him up for these murders. I thought this was a good twist, although I wasn’t quite sure how it worked in reality. And the fact that he just chills in his friends house throughout his entire time “on the run” is just a bit unbelievable. We also get the twist of Millicent being the abusive sibling in her relationship with her sister, but I honestly saw this coming. It just seemed too obvious to me but I honestly didn’t understand how it worked – surely her sister would have had injuries throughout her childhood? Again it was a plot point that seemed interesting but honestly just didn’t work out properly for me.

I think the main issue for these characters was their lack of motivation. The motivation for the first murders are clear; to kill the sister and kill the friend who knows too much. But I never really understood why they wanted to go on murdering women?? It was never fully explained they just seemed to find the idea sexy?? Millicent is arguably a very cold character in all areas of her life, and the husband (who I am pretty sure doesn’t even get a name) is just a bit of a bland sap.

But can we talk about one of the biggest WTF moments that ruined this book for me overall. That ending. I can accept that the police would have been able to realise and accept that Millicent is the one who had been holding the women hostage and killing them BUT why did the husband just get away scot free?! That never made sense to me – with the whole Tobias ruse, I just cannot believe that the police would not have thought that he was involved in some aspect of it. Also I don’t think we ever learn why Millicent was poisoning her daughter do we?

This book honestly wasn’t awful; I think it had a really interesting and unique premise I just don’t think it quite lived up to it’s ideal. Not a book i’ll be purchasing sadly.

3.75 and more towards adding on than minus.

It’s definitely a thriller fan needs to read.


I’ve read the book.
Then as usual I check out some trusted friends reviews.

Why do I do this? Because as a book reviewer I don’t want to be influenced by any reader. My choice is to make up my own mind, plus I don’t want to know anything about the book I’m about to read only the blurb.

So having explained that, I can say I fall somewhere in the middle of the ratings.

I loved this book!
I loved that it kept me anxious, that it made me flip pages quicker than trying to swat a fly.
I liked how the story was unfolding until.....
It got a bit crazy when consequences to family happened.

If you read it.....no....when you read it (because you must) you will fully understand my comments.

My eagerness to finish it was real. Yes I was loving the tension.

But I couldn’t get free from that niggling voice in my head when I was halfway through saying “Sue, this is crazy stuff”

At the end when it all came together I understood that “it” wasn’t crazy, it was the “person” who was crazy.

It fell a bit flat in certain areas for me.

I’ve sat on this review for two days.
I wanted to come down from the high and think logically.

You want a good thriller?
This is it.
You like tension?
This is it.
You like family related books?
This is it.
You want crazy?
Oh boy, this is it.

I’m so glad I read it.

The authors work is impeccable and so easy to follow.
However, I land somewhere in the middle with my thoughts.

Enjoyment level. 10/10
Tension. 10/10
Keeping my attention 9/10
Craziness 10/10
Upon reflection 6/10

My thought processes whilst reading 6/10
Belief 5/10
Content 5/10
Madness 10/10

So why do I fall in the middle of the ratings?
Because of the kids.
Because of the dad.

I can say no more than that.

But there’s some whole lot of crazy in this read that will pull you and grab you.

The more mundane a world, the more unexpected anything out of the ordinary is. Downing sets that up perfectly, a happily married couple living a cliched life - the country club, the gated community, their jobs, even their kids. Everything just a bit too shiny and perfect. So when we see behind the facade? Everything just becomes far too interesting.

This is a great story about the lives behind the smiles. The charade of lives when viewed from the outside. Everything looks so idyllic, and yet virtually every character is hiding something. Of course, not all secrets are equal, but that's what gives this story the twists and turns which make it so enthralling. Those perfect people down the street, and just how imperfect they can be when they think nobody's watching. The moment a piece of information turns a friendly smile into a creepy smile.

These wonderfully two-dimensional people come alive as we learn more. Suddenly we have people who we need to know more about. It's not hard to escape that people become more interesting when they aren't perfect, and this little community quickly becomes fascinating. As the plot fleshes out I found myself more and more hooked. The storyline builds so gracefully that twists can come out of nowhere and leave you hurrying to read the next chapter. It's paced so well although that it's not compulsive reading, but it is something you'll reach for eagerly.

This is a book that has to be read to be appreciated, and luckily it's a book well-worth reading!

Well, there’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been voiced about this book other than it’s five huge hearts from me!

🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤

This was a magnificent masterpiece that took me by surprise as I was expecting a fairly standard run-of-the-mill thriller. When I started to read it I was absolutely blown away with the cleverness of Samantha Downing's writing.

“My Lovely Wife” was just shocking, addictive and barmy. Many thrillers are chilling but not many of them are as chilling as this and it held me in its vice-like grip all the way through.

The brilliant ending was totally unexpected and this book will be, without doubt, one of my favourite reads of the year.

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and the author, Samantha Downing for my complimentary copy of My Lovely Wife. My honest review is entirely voluntary.

My first thought is I will never trust anyone again.

It is one of those novels that you want to read with the curtains open or all the lights on and the sound of your family within earshot.

Hidden Oaks is a closed community in the US. Something most of us in the UK only understand through TV e.g. Desperate Housewives. The author has created the idea of it being a town which helps the non-USA reader.

By some miracle Millicent and... find each other (we never find out his name). Both had problematic childhoods, we are told that his parents ignored him most of the time and that Millicent’s sister abused and tried to kill her.

17 years later they are married with two children, Jenna and Rory. He plays tennis and she sells real estate. They are presented as a normal couple except we know that he is cheating on her by pretending to be Tobias and deaf. There seems to be a hidden agenda for his being in bars and talking to women, as when he gets home his wife asks him all about Petra, the woman he cheated with. She does not appear to mind his infidelity.

There's something odd and slowly the reader is told the story of their past and current life, how they do things which you would not expect as if it is just a common interest between a married couple.
It's true what they say you never know what goes on behind closed doors and this novel highlights just how horrific that can be.

The novel is expertly written to reel the reader in Slowly by telling us about what's going on in tiny fragments. Not a novel for the faint of heart but definitely one for those who want something more distinctive than your usual thriller mystery.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

An ordinary married couple who live in Florida with their two teenage daughters but they are hiding a dark secret. Starting with Millicent's sister, they begin a spree of kidnap, torturing and murdering women for no apparent reason. Lots of twists and turns throughout.

The story is very predictable which lacks continuity in places. The plot has quite a few holes and the two main characters have no substance to convince the reader that they are capable of their actions.

Quite disappointed

Disappointing. I was intrigued by the blurb and tempted by comparison to Dexter and Mr and Mrs Smith. The book turned out to be not particularly well-written, with a few predictable twists and full of mundane unnecessary detail about what the characters were wearing, eating etc. I did finish it but had to skim-read the last chapters. This one wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin (UK) for the review copy. This is an unbiased review of the author's work and style. If you want plot lines and spoilers please see the publishers blurb and other reviewers' reports.
This particular yarn was not to my taste and I had difficulty in believing in some of the characters, but given the nature of the story these difficulties were not nearly as weird as the plot. If you like your reads to be off the curve then this is for you.
For a debut novel this is very impressive.I found some of the writing a little stilted and scenarios tend to repeat not verbatim but in context, that said she has produced a page turner. The author has the knack of pulling you along whilst cleverly hinting at other undeclared aspects of the story for which she then makes you wait. I suspect she will become a formidable writer.

We meet our lead character in a bar, he calls himself Tobias, says he's deaf and goes home with a woman he has just met. He then goes back to where he lives and tells us, "At home, all is quiet. My wife, Millicent, is still in bed. I have been married to her for fifteen years, and she does not call me Tobias. We have two kids; Rory is fourteen, and Jenna is one year younger." Naughty, naughty you may be thinking, and you'd be right. But infidelity isn't the half of it...

My Lovely Wife is a psychological thriller that explores the themes of how much do you really know the person you are married to and how far would you actually go to please them - that one person you are completely in love with, devoted to. In this case, Millicent is the object of affection, "She is the woman I should not have been able to get."

So, more about our narrator: He is not deaf and he is not called Tobias, but we never find out his name (I thought I had just missed it somewhere, but then saw a Q&A with the author on goodreads where she confirmed she never divulged his real name, mainly because she never gave him one!) Our unnamed narrator is a tennis coach in a luxury members club, he has a dry, sometimes clipped tone with a sarcastic tinge. ("I am hired by parents who believe their child is a prodigy, a champion, a future role model. So far, they have all been wrong.") His voice sometimes has a weirdly stilted rhythm to it, but I liked this, it gave the read a distinct feel and (we soon discover) it fit his character as he is a bit of a weird guy.

Yes, he and his wife decide to keep their marriage fresh and exciting with a spot of murder. As you do. "'Did I marry a psychopath?' she said. I laughed. So did she." He pretends to be Tobias to lure their latest victim. All is going swimmingly for them, until Millicent decides to up the stakes and bring another killer into the mix: Owen Oliver Riley. He's a serial killer of legend in Woodview who, years ago, killed nine women, was captured, escaped and is now back... or is he?

Our narrator is a complex - and very intriguing - character. Despite his murderous pastime, he loves domestic life with his wife and two children and would do anything to protect that. He is not emotionless or apathetic and towards the end it almost feels like we are supposed to be sympathetic for his situation - but I wasn't buying that, he has a pretty warped view of things. I don't want to add any spoilers so won't go into detail about the other characters, but they all felt rounded and played great roles in the story.

This is a clever, fast-paced read with just the right amount of macabre, it planted seeds that pointed towards the ending but importantly managed to maintain its shock factor for those last few chapters. A deliciously dark thriller - perfect for your summer reading list.

Well this was great fun. Full of dark humour and some genuinely unsettling subject matter, My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing is a very impressive debut novel.

It’s hard to say anything about the story really without going into spoiler territory. It’s the story of Millicent and her husband(who’s name we never actually get despite him being the narrator of the book) and their two children. Living in suburbia, it’s clear from the start that they are no ordinary couple.
We do have some flashback stories in the first half of the book which adds greatly to the overall feel of the book and helps us understand our main characters.

There’s not much to complain about here. It does have the odd lull and maybe could have done with some slightly tighter editing but maybe that’s me looking for isssues with the book. The subject matter was right up my street and it didn’t disappoint. Disturbing in places but splatters(pun intended) of dark humour are never far away. Even the title of the book brings a little smile to my face.

The final few chapters really ramp up the tension and excitement and conclude with what I found a thoroughly satisfying ending.

A hugely impressive debut, I’m really excited to see what this author comes up with next.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Penguin UK-Michael Joseph and Samantha Downing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Scary and disturbing, just what you want form a good thriller! This will grab you from the start and leave you wondering how much you can trust those around you!

What an addictive story!! I was hooked....couldn't wait to be able to keep reading it again and loved it!! Such an unusual storyline, odd and bizarre but keeps you wanting more - to understand. I loved the characters, as much as you can do in this book!! The parents are messed up, the implications are harming their children and others. The twists just kept coming and although I worked out what was happening a few chapters from the big twist, I still enjoyed it...more so probably because I needed to see how the author would make it work....but she did and it was brilliant!! Well worth picking up if you're a thriller fan ❤

‘Hmmm’ I thought a few chapters into this book...is this really for me?
But yet I couldn’t stop reading....in the beginning.

A normal family?...husband and wife married for 15 years with two children but what lengths does the husband have to keep his wife Millicent happy and his marriage alive. That’s all I’m going to say about the synopsis as it’s one of these books where its best not to know.
This started great for me but as I read on I really started to loose interest. I really didn’t like any of the characters (I presume we’re not meant to) and I really didn’t care what happened to them or the family. Consequently I didn’t quite put it aside but I did start skimming. The narration by the unnamed husband didn’t really work for me either, maybe that’s where it fell flat.
I’m glad I had a chance to read it as I see a number of positive reviews out there but don’t think this was one for me.

Thankyou to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

This book took me in and hooked me right from the start. I didn't think it was going to be as dark and creepy as it was. I won't say to much on the plot as this would give away to much.
A husband and wife, on the surface have a very ordinary life, happy with kids, however 15 years into their marriage and they now want to spicy things up with a hobby, how they go about this is nothing of the likes of a normal couple.
The characters are great, Millicent is actually bat shit crazy and this really made her character stand out. The writing was good with a steady pace and brilliant creepy atmospheric settings.

Wow... a book that really twists your mind around. the plot gets you hooked and by the end of the book I found myself looking at people around me with a lot of suspicion! Definitely recommended!

This was a dark and twisty trip down the rabbit hole of a dysfunctional marriage. Millicent and her spouse become bored with their marriage after fifteen hard years and decide to spice it up by killing innocent women. Together, they become the ultimate killing machine, with lots of twists and turns as they avoid the police and provide an innocent face to their neighbors and their teen children. I was amazed at how fast-paced the story was and the twist at the end was a huge surprise! This is a debut novel, but fans of psychological thrillers would never be able to guess that by how well the author writes and entices her readers. It was highly entertaining it a bit unbelievable and horrifying at times!