A woman wakes, confused and disorientated. She doesn't now her name or recognise her surroundings. She is cared for by a housekeeper but has no mempory of her husband or home or even the last few years of her life. She believes she is being kept prisoner and finds evidence that her husband's first wife may have been murdered...
The Other Wife is an intense and uncomfortable psychological thriller.
The opening chapter had me intrigued but was difficult to comprehend. The timeline then goes back 5 days to show the events immediately before the crisis. Again, there was a lot of confusion due to the narrator's own mental state.
Initially I didn't like this book. The woman's overwhelming fear and confusion was quite unpleasant. The big twist was easy to guess but I couldn't put the book down and liked it much more once I'd finished it and could see the concept as a whole.
The writing style is vivid and I was utterly absorbed in the lives of the characters. It is written in the first person from a perspective that is very unreliable. There are strong echoes of 'mad wife' tropes from Rebecca and Jane Eyre but the book is very modern.
The Other Wife is vividly written but often uncomfortable, powerfully emotional but almost overwhelmingly so.

This is billed as a psychological suspense rather than a thriller and it’s an apt description. Told through the thoughts of the main character, Mrs Langdon, this is a claustrophobic account of her experiences as she struggles to unravel what is happening to her.

It’s hard to reveal much about the plot without giving away spoilers but it’s a cleverly written narrative that keeps you guessing about the motives of the different characters and I found myself constantly speculating as I read.

An intriguing read despite the difficult subject matter.

With thanks to the author, Rachel at Random Resources and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to participate in the tour.

Great book! I was hooked from the start.
I wasn't sure who to believe and that goes to show how good the writing was. Absolutely brilliant.

The other wife was my first book by the author Danielle Ramsay and I really enjoyed the book. Full of twists and turns. Highly recommend!

I found this book a little bit slow and challenging to get into especially in the beginning. The storyline didn't fully capture my interest unfortunately.

New fear unlocked! 

A woman wakes up in a stark white bedroom - everything is white down to the very clothes she wears, she has no idea who or where she is. A whiteboard in the corner of the room is the only thing that gives her any information. Another woman spoon feeds her soggy eggs and piles her with medication. Who is she why does she need all these pills? Who is the woman who is making her eat?

Being locked in her own mind she has no recollection that she is Mrs Langdon and the woman feeding her is Mrs Taylor the housekeeper. Every morning it is the same routine, frustratingly so for Mrs Langdon, and she fears she is being held in her room against her will, and she tries to escape on several occasions only to end up walking back up in her room the next day.


This was a brilliant read, I had an inkling what was truly happening to her, but still reading it all unfold you could really feel the panic and tension radiating from the pages.


4 stars

This was such a brilliant, twisty read that kept you on your toes throughout, with the suspense palpable right up until the closing pages.

Everything is white; the room, your clothing - pretty much like a psychiatric unit - but apparently this is what you wanted according to your husband...but can you trust him, what exactly happened to the first Mrs Langdon?

Dunstrafne Castle was the perfect setting, it was old, isolated and had an eerie atmosphere about it that worked its way under your skin.

The Other Wife is a well plotted thriller with unreliable narrators and a killer ending.

Definitely one to recommend.

I felt that this book had so much potential when I read the synopsis, however it left me really disappointed and not enjoying it. The only time the story picked up was right at the end before that it was so slow and I really wanted to put it down and give up.

This book was so good at making you feel the panic and hopelessness that Mrs Langdon was feeling. It’s tricky to go into too much detail about anything as it could give bits of the book away. While I had guessed what was going on it was done really well and I was really intrigued by the character and wanted to know more about them especially Mrs Taylor she was one aspect of the book I couldn’t figure out until the end.

I did shed a tear at the ending which I most definitely did not expect.

A dark and twisty read that I couldn't put down and read in one sitting. I can't say much without giving it away and I think this is a book that definitely gives more if you go in blind

The Other Wife by Danielle Ramsay

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

The wife is always the last to know... What if everything you believed was a lie? Your life...your marriage…your very existence.

What if the person lying to you is your husband, the man who claims to love you more than anything in the world?

Isolated in his remote Scottish ancestral home on the pretext that you are psychologically fragile and recovering from a breakdown, this home has become a prison. As the days slip by in a haze of confusion and a cocktail of drugs administered by a loyal housekeeper, you begin to piece together the fragments of your life and stumble on a terrifying secret.

What if you discover you weren't his first wife, and nor will you be the last? That he plans to replace you, to make you disappear - just like the first wife. Just how far would you go to save your life and prove your husband's a murderer?

My Opinion

I couldn't tell you what it was about this book but it really appealed to me. I started reading this book when I really didn't have the time as it just jumped out at me as a a book I needed to read ASAP. This is such an enjoyable read and there are some great twists to keep you guessing. It is difficult to say much without giving away any spoilers, but this thriller is definitely worth reading.

Rating 4/5

A woman wakes up and finds herself in a strange room in what looks like a castle. She sees a man with two dogs on the beach below who seems faintly recognisable. She knows she is his second wife, his other wife died and there are things around she knows belonged to the other wife. The housekeeper, who refers to her as Mrs Langdon, tells her she suffers from migraines and that for her not to remember things is quite normal and that she had a mental breakdown a while back. There are no mirrors and she feels as if she doesn't recognise herself- her hair is much shorter as she feels it and she is wary of taking the pills the housekeeper wants her to have.

This book begins as waking into a nightmare and is rather dark and twisty. It's a very descriptive read as much is about Mrs Langdon’s feelings and thoughts and that which is around her. I found myself racing through this, it's one of those reads that is quite unsettling in a way, as the reader doesn't know how she got there in the first place. A very different, chilling dark-ish read that had me enthralled.
For more reviews please follow me on Twitter or Threads @nickisbookblog
-----------------------------

This new release had massive potential, but unfortunately, it was too predictable for my preferences. Despite this, I enjoyed the story's concept. Because of the easy-to-follow storyline, I read the whole book quickly. The main character was well-created and focused on her recovery and discovery of secrets. Although I didn't fully connect with her, she was still a notable protagonist.

This book is worth reading if you're a fan of fast-flowing thriller mysteries. It is enjoyable if you do not expect to be blown away.

I absolutely love thrillers that center around a marriage. It makes you wonder if you ever really true can know a person.

The Other Wife is like living a nightmare, I could feel the MCs struggles. It was intense at times and overall a dark and disturbing story, in only the best way.

The book started as if I was going to love it, but didn't. I found it very slow and not much happened until the end. The explanations of how the injury affected her made the ending much better. I did the all of the time in the house could have had more drama.

White room, white clothes, whiteboard. An unnamed woman keeps waking up in an all white room with no trace of personal effects. She is fed a few spoonfuls of soggy eggs and given a cup full of pills. She doesn't know who or where she is and is covered in bruises. With shades of "Jane Eyre "and "Rebecca," this story has one of my least favorite themes which is women being gaslighted and held hostage. Yet, the first person stream of consciousness writing has a mesmerizing effect. I felt a great deal of empathy for this poor woman who had amnesia but felt strongly that she was in danger. In reality she is Mrs. Langdon, wife of a Scottish Laird named James and being taken care of by his housekeeper Mrs. Taylor. Mrs. Taylor feeds her the pills and will only tell her to consult the whiteboard on the wall which has her name and the details of where she is and why she is sleeping all the time (migraines). Mrs. Langdon tries to escape but she is too ill and thin and she is often locked in her room. How will she ever get away?

There is a big twist in the book but I thought it was very obvious what was going on. I appreciated the fast pace and sense of danger in the book but I also thought the "real story' didn't match the conversations and actions of the other people involved. Everyone was mean to this woman even her doctor who kept repeating that she was a friend of the husbands. I didn't like the ending and felt it was missing a big moment for the main character. Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

The writing in this book is utterly claustrophobic, and you can really feel the same sense of being trapped as the main character, both within the house and within her own mind. The entirety of the book mostly takes place in the same building, which added an extra layer of dread due to the proximity of all of the characters and the lack of control the main character has over the situation. The atmosphere of this book was exceptionally well-crafted.

Like some other reviewers, I guessed a certain plot point quite early on, but it did not really detract from my enjoyment of the book. Rather it painted the main character’s fears and struggles in a different, but no less interesting, light. I found the ending of the book a little underwhelming, though I thought that it was done well for the type of ending that the author wanted. Overall, fans of psychological thriller books that happen mostly within one’s own mind will find this a fast and fun read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC. This is my honest review.

3/5 When you can’t trust your own thoughts, who can you trust?

The protagonist finds herself in a stark white room, cared for by an unsympathetic housekeeper who tells her that she's suffering from memory loss caused by her migraines. She's kept drugged, confined to her room. I had a hard time identifying with the woman because, as convinced as she is that she's not Mrs. Langdon and doesn't belong in the remote Scottish estate with this man who claimes to be her husband, she never explains where she thinks she should be. The first half of the book is extremely repetetive and absolutely drags. Then it got better. I had guessed the big twist, but the way the author pulls it all together is much more satisfying than I expected it to be. This is a unique domestic thriller with a traditional Gothic feel to it.

This book is a slow burn!

It was confusing and there was alot going on.

Not my favorite! Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review

When she wakes in the middle of the story line with no memory of the past, the present or the future, Mrs Langdon struggles to push past the drugs and remember something, anything. Danielle Ramsey takes readers along as she builds the characters and their back stories until we're shocked as the thriller launches the question "why can't she remember". Ramsey gives us plenty of clues but there's some twists that come out of no where to keep us guessing.