The Innocent Wife
by Sally Royer-Derr
Pub Date: Jan 13 2025

First I want to thank #NetGalley and #StormPublishing for giving me the opportunity to read an E-ARC of #TheInnocentWife, what a fantastic 5 star mystery/thriller! My first book I've read by author Sally Royer-Derr and I'm very impressed with her writing skills! I plan on reading many more of her books in the future.

The main character, Natalie starts a new position at her young daughter's school. She's introduced to Lucas, a beloved teacher and colleague, only Natalie knows different! Natalie remembers Lucas, (now married to Olivia a much younger woman) from her past when he was her sports coach and groomed her when she was only 15, fortunately Lucas doesn't recognize Natalie. Natalie and Olivia become friends and Natalie is trying to find a way to tell Olivia to watch out for her husband as he can't be trusted....the story gets crazy, lots of twists and turns. An excellent domestic/trhiller that was very hard to put down! I highly recommend it.

Amazing thriller.

This kept me up on the edge of my seat all the way along the book.

I will checkout the author backlist this is an amazing discovery.

Natalie Amaryllis has a daughter, Emma, 5. The little girl is starting Kindergarten today and Natalie will start a new job at Peyton Heights East Elementary as a learning support teacher. She is recently divorced from Jake and needs her job to support Emma and herself.

When Natalie was 15, her soccer coach Lucas, 25, groomed her and she fell for him. At her new job, she finds the Lucas teaches at the school too but he doesn’t recognize her. She soon learns that he is married to Olivia, a much younger woman who probably fell for him the same way Natalie did. Olivia loves to volunteer at the school and she and Natalie soon become good friends. Olivia admits that Lucas was her soccer coach and she fell for him. But now, he is controlling and she is unhappy with that. When Natalie sees how Lucas is doing the same thing with a teenage student helping in the classroom, she is furious and decides she will not let him do this again. When things escalate, Natalie realizes that someone from her past is spying on her and she is terrified. How can she save herself and Emma?

This is a good book that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. I found Natalie to be a strong woman who had suffered some hard times in her life but was willing to reach out and help Olivia hoping she could save the woman from suffering as she had. Enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was a new to me author and one I'd be interested in reading again.
For me personally there seemed to be a lot going on and not everything was answered, but I am a detailed focused reader.
It was still a good read that kept me mostly captivated from beginning to end.

I’m a huge fan of Sally Royer-Derr and her books are my “comfort reads”. When I’m in a reading slump, I know I can pick up one of her books and immerse myself into her story telling. The Innocent Wife is no exception. It’s a fast paced, easy to read domestic thriller. There’s something going on from bringing to end. With multiple storylines and told from multiple viewpoints, it’s easy to follow and ties up nicely in the end.

Natalie is a single mom with a new teaching job and befriends young Olivia, wife of her coworker, Lucas. Lucas is the charismatic school teacher everyone has a crush on, but Natalie can see right through Lucas and knows she must tell Olivia everything about her husband, including secrets from her own past that are now catching up to her.

Dw i ddim yn meddwl mod i wedi darllen llyfr efo cymaint o gyfrinachau tywyll, gorffennol cythryblus a chymeriadau amheus o'r blaen! Mae gan Sally ddawn o gyflwyno stori llawn cymeriadau sy'n eich tynnu i'w byd, yn gwneud i chi fod eisiau gwybod beth sydd am ddigwydd iddynt ac a ydynt yn llwyddo i ddianc o afael eu gorffennol tywyll. Deuddydd gymrodd hi i mi ddarganfod pwy oedd yn cuddio yn y cysgodion wrth i Natalie symud ymlaen â'i bywyd, a datgelu cyfrinachau Olivia a'i gŵr cyfarwydd. Ysgrifennu clyfar gyda stori sy'n datblygu'n gyflym a gyda chymaint o gyfrinachau does wybod pwy na beth sydd am ddod nesaf. Nofel hawdd ei darllen yn sydyn, ac sy'n clymu'r holl gymeriadau a'r straeon yn glyfar.

I don't think I've ever read a book with so many dark secrets, troubled pasts and suspicious characters before! Sally has a talent for introducing a story full of characters that draw you into their world, making you want to know what will happen to them and will they manage to escape their dark pasts! It only took me two days to discover who was lurking in the shadows as Natalie tried to move on with her life, and to unveil the secrets of Olivia and her familiar husband. Clever writing with a fast paced story and with so many secrets it's impossible to tell who or what will come next. A novel that's easy to read quickly, and that cleverly ties all the characters and stories together.

The twists in this book really had me surprised, I read it so quickly as I needed to find out the truth.

The Innocent Wife is a great book to read on a chilly winter night. I love crime and thriller books and I’m so happy I was approved of this one.
The cover captivated me at first, then a couple of chapters in and I was already hooked. The chapters are not too long, I love short chapters, it makes me keeping reading more and more. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their backstory too.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from Sally and I look forward to seeing more books from her.

THE INNOCENT WIFE - This story took a bit to get going with most of the intensity near the end. Good characters, which made the book worth reading. Interesting story lines. Good twist at the end. Interesting way Natalie solved two problems. Source: Netgalley. 3*

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
Natalie begins her new job and who should she run into by Lucas. No one knows what Lucas is to her or how he ruined her life. She is shocked to hear he is married to Olivia and she too is very young, too young to be married to him. They become friends and she so wants to share her experience with LUCAS but does she dare? A gripping read!

The Innocent Wife is a simply written domestic thriller told from several points of view.
It is entertaining enough but it lacks the thriller oomph that I have come to expect from this genre and the plot jumps around too much.
I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either, it was ok.

3⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of The Innocent Wife.

Natalie is a single mom who just got a new job at a school and moved into a new home. She is introduced to a teacher named Lucas and she is shocked because they have met before but it was twenty years ago and he really messed up her life. She also starts receiving odd gifts at home and she feels like she is being watched but by who? Is it Lucas who has remembered who she is or her crazy abusive ex who she escaped from years ago?

I enjoyed this book. Some of the twists I saw coming but others truly shocked me. I enjoyed the storyline and the writing. Overall it was a good read.

Sally Royer-Derr tells a story that could be passed on to any school. Twenty years ago, Natalie had a romantic relationship with Lucas, her soccer coach. Natalie met Lucas again when she became a teacher at the school where both of them were teachers. Lucas is now married to Olivia. Olivia and Natalie became best friends. As their friendship evolves, no secret is kept from each other. Why is Lucas so unhappy with their friendship? You must read the book to find out.

The Innocent Wife by Sally Royer-Derr is a tense and gripping domestic thriller that had me staying up late to read just one more chapter. Natalie is finally starting to reap the rewards of a peaceful life after a trauma filled past. She has a new job as a teacher support at an elementary school, a new house right across the street, and a wonderful relationship co-parenting with her ex-husband. Things take a turn when she comes face to face with the man who changed her life forever. Lucas Hanson is a charming, handsome teacher that all the ladies love. He is also Natalie's old soccer coach, the man who groomed her to be in an inappropriate relationship when she was 15. Now 20 years later, Lucas is married to a beautiful young wife and has no recollection of Natalie in the beginning. Olivia, Lucas's wife is a picture of perfection. Smiling and at Lucas's side, she sees Lucas as her safety after a troubled home life. But what secrets of Lucas's is she hiding? When Olivia and Natalie team up all the walls of Lucas's carefully constructed life fall down, and his lies and manipulation are exposed. This was definitely a page turner! An intriguing story, multiple POVs, and characters that are intense make this a great domestic thriller. This was my first book from this author but definitely not my last.
Thank you to NetGalley, Sally Royer-Derr, and Storm Publishing for this ARC opportunity. Expected publishing date is January 13 2025.

First, a huge thank you for allowing me this ARC.

This one is not your normal domestic thriller. It follows 3 points of view with the story, Natalie, Olivia and Him. The beginning sets the stage for a potential love story and then, the twists start. They come fast and hard and gripped me from page 1. Nothing is as it seems and the ending isn't what you expect.

I would love to know about the baby given up for adoption, but that loose end remains loose. Maybe an idea for another book?

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5(4.5/5)
Review:
So many lies and secrets. A hard book to put down. You'll lose sleep reading this. Strong female lead character. Women supporting women. Three povs, but mainly two. A school setting.

*Some themes could be triggering*

*All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Teachers can definitely be messed up, just like anyone else, and these are prime examples! This is the second book in a row where the Teacher and the School are central to the chaos. I’m getting a copy for my big sister, who’s a Principal, and I can't wait to see her reaction! If there was ever a predator lurking at her large High School, there's no doubt she'd spot it and take action. The writing in this book is so compelling that it makes every outrageous event feel possible, which is why I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Natalie and Olivia are the main protagonists, and I found myself relating to them, especially since their age gap mirrors the one between my sister and me. The dynamic works. One drawback is Natalie’s obliviousness to someone stalking her and her young daughter; it’s unnerving to think about someone moving your belongings and making you think you did it yourself. Who leaves a key under a flowerpot in 2025? Given Natalie’s past, that felt incredibly naive! Another point to note is Natalie's repetitive self-criticism; we understand her struggle, but it doesn't need to be emphasized so much. The worst one for me has to be why Olivia never tells Natalie what she sees. Really?

Despite these minor issues, the story is engaging and one I highly recommend. I hadn’t read this author before, but I’m thrilled to have discovered her. For those familiar with my reviews, a four-star rating typically means a five-star experience for others. I'm a voracious reader and tend to be quite discerning. Will this book keep you up at night? Not out of fear, but out of sheer curiosity about what happens next! I wholeheartedly recommend it! Thank you to #Netgalley, Storm Publishing, #SallyRoyerDerr, and #TheInnocentWife.

Thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia and Lucas have what seems on the surface a perfect life, even though there's a 20-year difference in their age. He's charming, handsome, he provides for her, dotes on her, but is it attentiveness, or has he groomed her all these years?

Natalie started a new job in a school where Lucas also works. Unbeknownst to Olivia, Natalie holds a secret from hers and Lucas's past. While Natalie has somewhat moved on from those past events, the memories still plague her, and she realizes that Lucas hasn't changed at all. Does he even recognize her? She wants to tell Olivia, but how? Now, a young woman's life might be at risk, and she has to intervene.

Even as the story unfolds and you learn more about the characters and their thoughts, there's still a sense of mystery behind it that you're itching to find out. While the story evolves around these 3 main characters, there's a secondary plot with Natalie's character, and the storytelling does become repetitive halfway through.

There were a couple of twists that were unexpected, though not quite shocking, but did help pick up the pace again.

Overall, I gave the book 3.5 stars. The writing is easy to read, and the chapters are short, which is a bonus for me in any book.

A real roller coaster of a story! I was pulled in from the first page all the way to the last page. I recommend this book if you like domestic thrillers.

This was a 5 star book for me. I did not see that ending coming and was kept on my toes the whole time, grabbing whatever time I had to read. It was absolutely amazing.