The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Heather is a young interior designer, who upon first meeting her new client, physician, Stephen Aston, is impressed with the man’s patience with his wife struggling with dementia.
He treats his wife with such care, always including her in the meetings regarding the project and seeking her input, in spite of her struggles. Heather can’t help but warm to the gentleman.
Stephen is also quite taken with Heather. She’s young, beautiful and is always kind and open with him.
Stephen’s two adult daughters, Tully and Rachel, are taken aback when their father confirms to them that he is now in a relationship with Heather. What about Mom?!
Heather is younger than the two girls. She must be after Dad’s money, what could they possibly have in common?
Stephen pushes his daughters to get to know Heather and frankly, they’re a little curious about her themselves, so they agree. That’s what I will leave you with. Well, that and the fact that this is a bit of a murder mystery…
I listened to the audiobook for The Younger Wife and definitely recommend that medium. There are different narrators for the various perspectives and it made me feel like I was actually part of the action.
The drama level is a bit reality television, but who doesn’t love that as a bit of a guilty pleasure?
I found the drama to be completely addicting, but more than that, this story turned out to be grander than the petty squabbles I anticipated given the set-up.
From the vague description of the narrative given above, you may think this will go a certain way, but Hepworth actually gave me something unexpected. I was impressed with that.
Also, Hepworth loosely explores some powerful real world issues in this that I think would make it an excellent choice to read with friends, or a book group. There’s definitely plenty of topics to discuss while reading this one.
Thank you to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review.
This is the second novel I have read from Sally Hepworth and it’s definitely safe to say that I will happily pick up anything else she writes!!