This is a gripping thriller with plenty of twists, turns and surprises; I was hooked from the first page. It is well written and pretty pacey with the suspense building up nicely before the tremendous ending.

Claire, a sometime writer, and Byron, a college professor, have been married for two years. Byron is twenty years older her senior and his previous wife, Colleen, appears to have committed suicide and although her body has never been found, she has been declared dead. Not only does Claire have to live in the house Byron and Colleen shared, she is also surrounded by her artwork and feels that she is living in her shadow. She is trying to be the perfect wife but is beginning to feel that the relationship is faltering. The harder she tries the worse the situation seems to become and Byron is cold and aloof. Thinking that her husband might be straying, Claire begins to dig into the past and finds rumours about how Colleen might have died and these implicate Byron. When she starts to receive menacing phone calls and emails she begins to fear that they are coming from Colleen.

It is very difficult to say more about this novel without creating spoilers but suffice to say it is clever, entertaining, full of secrets and lies and really holds your attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and MulhollandUK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley, Hodder and Stoughton, Mulholland Books and Nina Laurin, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Starter Wife.
I think the writer created a very intricate psychological conundrum in this story. All along she tried to make us champion Claire and dislike Byron, and actually, it worked on me. Where it didn't work was that although at the beginning I wanted Claire to win through and find out who was trying to wreck her relationship, I didn't like her very much, and sometimes it's difficult to invest in a story when you don't like the main character. Maybe that was the point. The author did a kind of slow release of actions that made me gasp and ask myself, why did she do that if all she was doing was trying to do was save her marriage because she loved her husband so much. Clearly at the end we discover the answer to the question. I'm in two minds about whether everyone will love it, but I know what goes into writing something like this. It's not a stroll in the park, that's for sure. Nina Laurin kept me guessing. So, job done!

What a gripping storyline, had no idea about the ending.
This was a fantastic book and I finished it in just 2 days I simply couldn't wait to get to the ending, which I was not expecting.
Look forward to reading more books by Nina Laurin.
Thank you netgalley.

It would be easy to dismiss this story as lacking originality. After all, a wife goes missing,another takes her place and is insecure about her role. However,the strength is that all is far from what it seems. There are several changes of plot which make the reader reassess the main characters. They are not what they seem. Sometimes,a woman is telling her side of the story who is hovering in the background and it can be difficult to grasp that the teller has changed. There is also an ending that some readers will consider to be disappointing. Well written with varied characters,the plot does lack originality.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Hodder and Stoughton, Mulholland Books and the author, Nina Laurin, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Starter Wife in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Wow! I certainly did not expect that ending. I loved this book.
I thought this book provided a good read. The storyline was well thought out and written with well developed characters and a remarkable twist.
Well worth a read.

#TheStarterWife #NetGalley Unfortunately, this one was not for me and I only persevered due to my commitment to give a review. I could not connect with the lead character of Clare at all and although I appreciate that you don't always have to like the main character I do need to feel some sort of connection. I found the style of writing confusing and the different time lines made me keep having tp re-read chapters to follow the plot. It is a shame because the 'blurb' about the book made it sound right up my street but sadly not on this occasion.

This book sounded like it was going to be very good but I just couldn't get into it and gave up. Sorry, this ones not for me

Did not finish - this book wasn't for me. I think I made it up to 11 percent, but by then I wasn't interested in the two female characters that so far had been the basics for this story.

'A gripping thriller'... Yes!
We meet Claire Westcott, 27, married to successfull professor in literature Byron Westcott, some 20 years her senior. Claire is not very happy. She met Byron when he was already a widower. His first wife, famous artist Colleen May, disappeared a few years ago. She seems to have been mentally unstable and presumably drowned herself. Her body was never found...
Claire's written a manuscript, but she is not succeeding in selling it. In the mean time, she takes care of Byron and that's about all she does. She wonders why Byron apparently is no longer happy with her. And why is she suddenly getting a message from Colleen?
The story is told from a few different viewpoints and the 'gripping' part is that it takes a while before the reader discovers who, besides Claire, the other voices are. We see Claire behaving more and more erratic and it doesn't take long before it is clear that all is not well in their marriage.
But who is deceiving who? And more important: why?

It was a great read, full of unexpected twists and turns, with good characters and very well written.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for this digital review copy.

I fell in love with the character of Claire, feeling her pain of living in the shadow of the former wife and even at the end, still felt love for her. With the plot twisting and turning at every corner, this book had me hooked from start to finish. The truth being revealed the way it was made me want to read more and more. Love it! A 5 star book, with 10 star characters

Claire fell in love with professor Byron westcott when she met him during her studying course at college.
She fell obsessively In love with him, and no one was allowed to get in her way, he was for her.
He had lost his first wife Colleen May under suspicious circumstances many years earlier and her body was never found..
Claire got Byron to fall in love with her, and,She will do anything to,keep him.
Her lies will eventually catch up with her.
This was quite an exciting story and interesting to work out what Claire did to get and keep her man.
But things do not always work out as you expect.

I really enjoyed this book - it has a great plot, excellent main characters and is a real page turner. I would highly recommend this book.

Having read a lot of thrillers recently I've been eager to find one that's original enough to avoid me seeing the twist a mile off and getting bored. 'The Start Wife' by Nina Laurin absolutely delivered in that respect. My mind went into overdrive trying to second-guess what was going on and yet, for the most part, I totally failed. My only small complaint I suppose is that I felt that, once the truth began being revealed, the story ended fairly quickly and I would have loved to have been suspended in the drama for a little longer and for some loose ends to be tied up. That said, I ready the book really quickly so that could also be a part of it! Admirably, I was kept totally invested despite the fact that none of the characters were really particularly likeable: people are flawed, difficult, confusing and, at times, we're only presented with one side, one person's opinion of another character. This could have resulted in characters being a little thinly drawn, and perhaps was even the case, but the web of secrets and lies that drove the drama all the way through meant that, actually, that didn't matter either way. The majority of the story is told from the point of view of Byron Westcott's second wife as she tries to follow a trail to discover what actually happened to her husband's first - or starter - wife. She gets his colleagues and ex-girlfriends on side as well as us until, of course, the old adage that everything is not always as it seems comes dramatically true.

I found that this book was a tale of three halves. The first and latter halves both had good pace and kept my interest. I thought the middle section dragged a little and I became a bit bored by Claire, Byron and the dead Collette. The ending was a little predictable but was told in a suitability dramatic way.

The Starter Wife is an ok psychological thriller but by no means gripping.Claire is married to Byron and all is well in their marriage until Claire gets a phone call from Colleen Byron's first wife who apparently died 8 years ago.But is it her or someone playing mind games ? I found the book hard going in places and i think this was because of the style in which the book was written,there is some good twists and turns along the way and although the ending was a bit sudden i would give The Starter Wife 3 stars,would i read another book from Nina Laurin ? probably not.

A fairly easy read that was on the whole enjoyable. However the storyline was a bit unbelievable at times andleft me scratching my head somewhat! It was ok.

The Starter Wife was a fun entertaining read but it wasn't realistic and completely lost me towards the end. Enjoyable but not remarkable.