This was fantastic. The story kept me hooked into every page. Read in 2 days because it was so fabulous. New favourite alert!!

Set in 2014 as Nigeria is starting to go through political turmoil. Generations of Nigerian's return to their homeland, bringing with them wife's and families of many different nationalities.
Adjusting to the new lifestyle and traditional ways is challenging for all.
Nicole feels trapped in her marriage and living with her in-laws.
Can she leave? Can she get her children out with her or will she be stopped?
Many scenarios unfold as her aunt tries to uncover the truth about her disappearance.
Eye opening and well written

I lived in Africa for some years (and loved it) but kept missing out on trips to Nigeria, so was keen to read The Lagos Wife. This depiction of the affluent lifestyles and mores was fascinating, as were the the societal divisions. The ex-pat wives club and the cliques within were brought to life with skill – a picture painted of the frustrations and limitations of said wives. The sense of betrayal and entrapment woven throughout – who to trust? How to escape? – and the secrets long buried kept the pages turning. The somewhat mysterious ending leads me to conclude there will be a sequel, which I shall endeavour to read.

Nicole has left London with her husband, to live in Lagos. When she disappears without a trace her aunt Claudine flies to Nigeria to find her, she discovers her nieces perfect life is not all it seems. I found myself enthralled by every aspect of this book from the eye catching cover design to the well-drawn characters. It proved to be an intriguing, delightful, and effortlessly enjoyable read.

Interesting read. Well plotted exploring the meaning of family life both in the UK and Nigeria. Like the duel timelines and different character pov threads. Good twist. All in all an eye opening read

A small view into the lives of women who become married to Nigerian men. Their lives and how they are treated within the family and business world. Socially pleasing to look at, but without a voice.

A story of a broken family and how the sisters try to make their own way in the world., without upsetting their husbands and the males of the family. Should they really be seen and not heard?

Is there going to be a sequel to this book as it left you out on a limb at the end?

Thank you Net Galley for letting me read this book.

Glamour, intrigue and mystery!

Young and beautiful Nicole Oruware is The Lagos Wife. She lives a privileged life with her handsome husband, her sons and in-laws in the city that some called ‘the Dubai of Africa’. Money is no object for her and her friends. Her magnificent home, overlooking Lagos lagoon, is the envy of many in her social circle. She spends her time socialising; her troubled childhood has been left behind and she has everything she needs. And yet…

When Nicole goes missing after a boat trip, her aunt Claudine flies to Nigeria from the UK to try to track her down. Nicole was brought up by her aunt but they have been out of contact for some time. When Claudine arrives, she has an uncomfortable feeling that all is not as it seems. The Oruware family are charming but they make light of the situation and nobody is actively searching for her niece. They have not even notified the police. They even admit that they are saving face, and that the community will shun them if they admit that Nicole is missing. The more Claudine investigates, the more likely it seems that cracks had begun to appear in Nicole’s perfect existence. Claudine is desperate to know what happened to her – whether she is dead or alive – but no-one is prepared to help. Lagos is a place where everyone is hiding behind a façade and nothing is as it seems.

The book’s chapters alternate between two points of view: Nicole’s story – “Before” – and Claudine’s investigation – “After”. (The terms relate to before and after Nicole’s disappearance.) The plot is very skilfully managed, keeping readers guessing about what happened right until the extremely clever twist at the end. We sense Claudine’s mood as she is frustrated at every turn. By gradually revealing Nicole’s experiences in parallel with Claudine’s, we learn more about their family background and the secrets they are keeping.

Nicole is a Nigerwife – an organisation for women of all nationalities and ethnicities who have married a rich Nigerian and moved to Lagos. The Nigerwives meet and support each other in a “sisters all” bond as they acclimatise to the artificial existence that they all lead. Nicole’s childhood was in stark contrast to her current lifestyle. She was brought up by Claudine as a second-generation Jamaican immigrant to the UK. When Claudine approaches the Nigerwives for help, once again everyone is superficially pleasant but she isn’t sure who she can trust. In digging into what happened to Nicole, she is reminded of uncomfortable truths about herself.

Vanessa Walters’ vivid descriptions transport us to Lagos, with its oppressive heat and dangerous flooding to its shiny – but unfinished – building projects. The author was a Nigerwife herself, and the first-hand knowledge that she has acquired is cleverly deployed to create a wonderful sense of place and of Lagos’s people in her novel. It is clear that, in Lagos, there is a sharp divide between those who belong to the best families and have benefited from the country’s wealth and those who exist only to serve others. Some lives are worth less than others and contradicting those who hold the power is a dangerous game. This is a fascinating insight into a community that few will have experienced. Yet there are many themes and situations that readers will recognise, and it is this that draws us in and keeps the pages turning right to the end. A very enjoyable read.

This was an interesting, enjoyable read. I liked the style of writing and found it very easy to read. It delves into Nigerian life and the life of Nigerwives, foreign women that have married Nigerian men and have moved there.
The only thing that let it down was the ambiguous ending, which I'm not a fan of.

Love everything about this book. From the cover to the characters, it’s an exemplary mystery to get lost in. Though it’s focus is on a missing woman, the cultural narrative and the backstory is as compelling and there are more than a few surprises at the end.

If you like a book with multiple points of view in multiple timelines. You’ll like this story. I thought it was well written and fast paced.

Originally of West Indian descent and a British citizen, Nicole Oruwari is the young and beautiful wife of a wealthy Nigerian man, and the mother of two little boys, who has spent the last several years living in the lap of luxury in a lavish compound with her in-laws. So you would think that when she goes missing, no stone would be left unturned in the hunt for her.

But as her visiting aunt Claudine, who has her own fraught past with Nicole to contend with, finds out - when she comes from London to Lagos to check on how the search for Nicole is progressing - the situation is far from the fast-moving investigation she has been imagining.

On the contrary, both Nicole's in-laws and her husband Tonye seem far from invested in the search - and the police are also remarkably non-committal regarding her possible whereabouts. But there are reasons for that, as
Claudine begins to discover, to her dismay.

"Nigerwife" is a (non-derogatory) term used to describe the foreign wives of Nigerian men, and is also the title of an association of women set up to look after these ex-pat wives' interests and to help them adapt to Nigerian society.
And what some of the Nigerwives eventually realise is just how little power they have in a society where their standing is based on the regard (or lack thereof) in which they are held by their husbands and in-law families...

What happened to Nicole emerges slowly and in somewhat ambiguous terms. In the meantime, what the reader learns is a great deal about the culture and values of Nigerian society and what it means to be a Nigerwife, which I found quite interesting.

In my opinion, this is not a conventional domestic thriller, but it is a story worth reading, and something of a cautionary tale.

I'm afraid I feel like I read a completely different book from the blurb writers as I found this quite flat and a bit superficial. Big and emotive things happen but they're passed over in a blink and aren't given narrative importance. It's also a bit hard to get a firm handle on characters.

What I enjoyed most was the details of everyday Nigerian life: weddings, children's parties, the relationships in and out of marriage. The dramatic plot with the requisite twist at the end didn't work for me - sorry.