Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this copy.

There’s no place like home” – that’s what I tell myself as I pull another flawless meal from the oven. This perfect house on a quiet street was supposed to be my sanctuary, a place to recover. But everything changed the moment I saw that woman in the charity shop. She triggered something dark, buried deep within my memory…

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of The Housewife. I was anticipating this book because I loved Secrets Between Us but I was disappointed, it was very repetitive and drawn out. The ending was good but I figured it out about a third of the book. I stuck with it because it held a bit of my attention but I expected better.

This was a well written psychological thriller, it grabbed you and kept you guessing from the beginning and didn't let go until the end. I would recommend this book.

Well done domestic suspenser. I guessed the plot quickly and determined who the "bad" guy was. The suspense and tension came from the players around the main character - was one of them out to get her? Who can she trust? Is she really losing her mind - again?

Satisfying ending but the Epilogue - hmmmm…..

I was absolutely drawn in by this book, what an amazing, cleverly written read, with a twist that will leave you gob smacked, I loved every minute of this book, it's a definitely a highly recommended read.

Diane and Paul married after a 2 month courtship. Diane stopped working in IT when she has her baby, Emma, who is now 3 years old. The problem is that Diana lost over a year of memories... She knew that she had been in a private hospital for a few weeks: that's about it

Paul has been less than amorous toward Diane and would like to see his daughter go to nursery school (and for his wife to get a job). This all happens quickly; Emma likes "school" and Diane's paranoia and panic attacks return. (As do the blackouts?) Diane volunteers for one day and falls from a blackout. She does not return to the charity shop she volunteered at. Instead, she feeds her paranoia with wine and painkillers. Eventually, Anne, from the charity shop, is the only one Diane can trust. Anne makes a living writing fantasy fiction.

Soon paranoia becomes Diane's best friend and she spirals down the road to insanity. She (?) imagines a strange woman, her husband's affairs, baby cries and falls prey to negative thoughts.

What will happen?

An EXCELLENT story with a great plot and well developed characters!
Many Thanks yo Bookouture and NetGalley for an extremely interesting read!

The Housewife by Valerie Keogh is a fabulous domestic noir. I could not turn the pages quickly enough through the slow building tension that raised the hairs on the back of my neck from the very start.

Diane meets Paul, and the two marry weeks later folowing a whirwind courtship. Daughter Emma joins the couple very shortly afterward. Four years on, we learn that Diane has had a very difficult time over the last year, with large gaps in her memory, and a stint in a psychiatric facility. Tension and almost unbearable suspense build when Diane is convinced that a woman is stalking her, turning up at both her daughter's school, and on her own street. Further adding to her confusion and unease, Diane is convinced that she can hear a baby crying in the house, yet husband Paul denies hearing any such thing. Is Diane having a relapse or is Paul, for whatever reason, trying to push her over the edge?

This was a wonderful read, and I was enthralled from the first page. I honestly did not know which way things were going to swing for Diane until the very end. I would love to read more from this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this wonderful ARC.

Now this is how a book should be done!! The Housewife gripped me quickly and refused to let go until I'd reached the final page. Valerie has such a way with words, I felt myself going crazy reading this..I just needed to know how it all came together and when it did it was brilliant. Overall it was a dramatic read and I would highly recommend. 5/5!

Having read and enjoyed Secrets Between Us, I was thrilled to grab an ARC of The Housewife. Valerie excels at creating tense, character-driven stories, building atmosphere between them and making the reader want to race to the finish line.

The Housewife is a prime example of excellent domestic noir, a slow-building, creeping sense that something isn't quite right. This is my favourite kind of thriller novel, the type that drip-feeds information, resulting in a knot in my stomach and a breathless need to know what was going on. The twist, when it came, was dark and shocking, and I held my breath until I reached the end.

The Housewife is the second of Keogh’s thrillers under the auspices of Bookouture. Secrets Between Us, my favourite thriller of 2018, her first. But this one is very different.

I don’t know if any of you are fans of Irish literature but there’s shades of that famous of all famous Irish playwrights, Seán O’Casey’s Kitchen-sink masterpiece, ‘Juno and the Paycock’, to be found amongst the pages of The Housewife. Keogh has taken a situation, a day in the life of a housewife and turned it inside-out and upside-down. After all there’s little to find that’s exciting in the day-to-day chores of washing, ironing, shopping and cleaning for a husband and small child – rewarding perhaps but exciting? No. But there’s something lurking, some element just out of the corner of the reader’s eye that is uncomfortable. Amongst the cooking and cleaning the husband is a little too controlling. The drive for Diane to be that impossible of all things – perfect – unsettling. And when she decides to try and get back into the workplace after a period of ill-health? Tragic.

There are no heroes between the pages of Keogh’s novel. There are no millionaires, yachts, blonde bombshells or other unrealistic characters. Here Keogh has made the ordinary extraordinary. The monotonous, riveting. Housework will never seem the same again and housewives? They each have a story to tell.

More please.