[REVIEW] Pretty Little Wife

title: Pretty Little Wife

author: Darby Kane
genre: adult fiction, mystery
published: December 29th 2020 by William Morrow Paperbacks
my copy: eGalley, 416 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 3 / 5 stars
goodreads

Debut author Darby Kane thrills with this twisty domestic suspense novel that asks one central question: shouldn’t a dead husband stay dead? 

Lila Ridgefield lives in an idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Lila isn’t what she seems. A student vanished months ago. Now, Lila’s husband, Aaron, is also missing. At first these cases are treated as horrible coincidences until it’s discovered the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection, if there even is one. Little do they know they might be stumbling over only part of the truth…. 

With the small town in an uproar, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except Lila, his wife. She’s definitely confused about her missing husband but only because she was the last person to see his body, and now it’s gone.

started strong but didn't hold up for me.

It's a suspense. The usual thing: a wife, a husband, they look perfect on the outside. Yes to that trope? Then there's that tagline: there's more than one way to end a marriage. Yes to that? It's all so good, to be honest.

Pretty Little Wife follows Lila who found something from her husband that she shouldn't have. He tells her it's nothing. And she lives on with that thought until one day, her husband went missing. She was so sure, she left him and his car in the school parking, and yet he wasn't there. Told in alternating points of view of Lila and Ginny, the lead investigator of Aaron's disappearance, this book takes turns and really keeps you intrigued through and through.

The more I let this book sit through in my head, the more I think it's actually better than when I finished it. As I said, I like how it started. It was strong and it really kept me intrigued. It also features a podcast which somehow made the story more interesting because it added more layers to the mystery aspect especially since it also talks about Aaron's disappearance.

I find it quite hard to talk about this book without giving anything away since it's a mystery thriller but here are a few more things for me: (1) it talks quite a bit about gaslighting and it emphasizes on it a lot, (2) went over women being smart and deserves to get the same treatment as men (it focused so much on how smart and better women are that at some point, it makes me feel that it wants to say that women are better than men, but I don't want to put it that way) I generally like them both, Lila the former lawyer with a dark past and Ginny, the investigator who want to see justice happen, and  in the end, (3) I didn't really care about the mystery, the resolution, or the reveal. Aside from the fact that I saw it coming, I wasn't really on board with what's happening. So in general, it's just a me-thing.

OVERALL, Pretty Little Wife is a mystery/suspense with an intriguing plot. It kept me hooked until the end because I wanted to be sure of the ending. The podcast aspect, while I feel sometimes lacking, was a really good aspect of the novel. Read this if: (1) you want strong women main characters, (2) you're intrigued by the plot, and (3) you're up for the usual thriller/suspense trope.

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