Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, contemporary, Romance, retelling
Year of release: 2021
Release Date: 28th July 2021
Rating 🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
Meet Jane. Newly arrived at Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates–a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewellery off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie–not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she’s always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past–or his–catches up to her?
Review
Jane Bell has recently arrived in Birmingham, Alabama USA, the 20-year-old has had a few jobs since arriving in town but sadly none of them have inspired Jane until she comes across Thornfield Estates deep down she knows people like her don’t call the estate home.
Unable to stop dreaming of the greener grass behind the gates of the community but with a bank account that is in need of an injection and a creep of a roommate to keep off her back and out of her room. Jane must come up with a plan and fast.
Unbeknownst to her Jane’s prayers are about to be answered, she has recently started walking the dogs of the bored housewives she envies in none other than Thornfield Estates. One morning whilst out walking one of her client’s pampered pouch, Jane meets none other than Eddie Rochester, Thornfield’s most mysterious resident who happens to be recently widowed.
However, Jane knows that people like Eddie Rochester don’t just fall from the sky, Eddie whose funny, smart, and handsome with a bank balance and post code Jane has only ever dreamed of, she must play it cool not rock the boat if she wants to be more to the residents of Thornfield Estates than the dog walker.
Jane and Eddie form an instant connection, Jane’s curiosity and attraction towards Eddie grows, Jane discovers that Eddie’s wife Bea and her best friend Blanche died in a boating accident, but Jane realises the more she tries to find out about these women and the accident the more questions she has.
Will Jane Bell ever be able to call the gated community home? Or will her plans fall apart and the mask she’s wearing fall off exposing her and the past she’s desperate to forget?
I was instantly drawn to The Wife Upstairs thanks to the promise of gated community, grass is greener, money, romance and most of all a Mystery, Thriller twist. I can see many readers being drawn to this modern- day take on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre even if you’re not drawn to Retellings or the Mystery Thriller genre.
I believe The Wife Upstairs has for this reader many strengths that kept me turning the pages, I loved author Rachel Hawkins descriptive writing when it come to the elements, characters and Thornfield, it wasn’t to over the top to the point of boredom.
“There’s a trick to spinning lies. You have to embed the truth in there, just a glimmer of it. That’s the part that will catch people, and it’s what makes the rest of your lies sould like truth, too.”
― Rachel Hawkins, The Wife Upstairs
Were the characters developed and interesting?
Jane makes for a character I couldn’t help but love to hate, although I understand her desire to live a life where the grass is greener on the other side, I just couldn’t appreciate all sides. Her selfishness was something that did grate on my nerves towards the middle and ending chapters.
Where there any details that didn’t make sense?
After finishing this book, I must say I was surprised at the lack of detail given to the minor characters especially in the conclusion, I’m not sure why they featured so heavily throughout the book and not all during the conclusion. This made for a plot hole.
I personally believe that the ending was for the most part was strong but could’ve been made stronger if only a few details were addressed hence my 3-star rating.
The plot experienced highs and lows during Bea’s storyline, they just fell flat to me for the most part in the conflict resolution section however the book did seem to gain momentum; but overall, the story was slow moving; this may bother some readers.
“Had I brought this here? This sordidness, this violence? Did it cling to me like some kind of virus, infecting anyone who got close to me?”
― Rachel Hawkins, The Wife Upstairs
The Wife Upstairs was very skilled at building to reveal the plot twist, I too found this one of the reason’s whilst this was a memorable read.
I’ll admit I had thought I guessed the ending much sooner but then the twist unveiled itself and I was happily proved wrong.
Overall, I was pleased to have read this book, but I was a little disappointed, however, I am still keen to read the Author’s future offerings.
Whilst reading I was reminded a little of The Therapist by P.A. Paris.
Recommended to a mature audience, if you are a fan of Domestic Fiction, with Mystery & Thriller elements look no further than The Wife Upstairs.