Happy Publication Day to Ruhi Choudhary, on the release of her new standalone thriller, His Last Wife. I have been enjoying her crime thriller series, Detective Mackenzie Price, so when I was offered the opportunity to read and review His last Wife, I happily accepted.

His Last Wife by Ruhi Choudhary, Narrated by Penelope Rawlins & Kelly Burke

Published April 25th 2024 by Bookouture, Bookouture Audio

“Do not go in there, Anna. Never go in there.” The words ring in my head as I pick the lock to the only room in the house that the man I love tells me I’m not allowed to enter. Trembling as I step inside, I’m about to finally find out what happened to his last wife…

Everyone thinks my life is bliss. The love of my life, Cary, and I live in our dream home and we have a beautiful little girl, Harper. I may not have given birth to her, but I’m her mommy now. But there’s one thing we never talk about…

Cary’s wife before me, Presley, was perfect in every way. But she went missing a long time ago. Cary was distraught when he told me how she was abducted from her car, leaving behind a pool of blood. No one saw a thing.

The neighbors are always gossiping about Presley. I try to ignore them, but one day I hear something that makes my stomach flip. Presley was abducted from her home. The home I now live in. Cary lied to me about the car. But why?

As I search our beautiful home for answers, I stumble across Presley’s diary. My heart thunders in my chest as I discover the truth: Cary had something to do with his wife’s disappearance. And I’m terrified I might be next.

But Cary doesn’t know that I have a secret too. He doesn’t know how far I’ve gone to get this perfect life, and how much further I’ll go to keep it…

An unbelievably gripping psychological thriller, His Last Wife will have you flipping the pages until you reach the final, breathtaking twist. Fans of Don’t Let Her Stay, The Housemaid and The Perfect Marriage won’t be able to put this jaw-dropping read down!

5 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

After setting her sights on Cary, Anna believes she has found an ideal partner. His wife disappeared a year earlier, believed dead, and he has a young daughter, Harper, who quickly adapts to her new “mommy”. Anna moved into Cary’s home, but his first wife, Presley’s mother also lives there. She is not happy and does everything she can to sabotage Anna being accepted in the community. Anna is having a hard time living in the shadow of perfect Presley, but wins over Harper easily. All seems to be going well, until Anna finds Presley’s diary and begins to suspect that Cary is not what he seems.

As I began reading His Last Wife, I thought I knew where this story was going, but boy was I wrong. Ruhi Choudhary has added several twists that took me on a roller coaster ride to find out what happened to Presley, as well as what secrets Anna was hiding. I felt bad for Anna, the newbie to the neighbourhood, always compared to Presley, talked about behind her back, and not included in the many things the women did together. She wanted to keep some of her own identity, but Cary wanted to turn her into the “perfect” wife. I loved little Harper. I know she was young, but she had her own character traits. She seemed to accept Anna quickly as her new mother, but it had been a year, and Anna was devoted to her. This is a story full of lies, secrets, deceit, jealousy, desire, manipulation and twists. The ending was very satisfying with all ends tied up and left me with a smile on my face. Yes, you will need to suspend belief, but I just went with it. Several reviewers have commented on the generic cover, but as you read this one, you will understand the significance of the red door. I was fortunate to have both the audiobook and ebook, to do a read listen. The narration by Penelope Rawlins & Kelly Burke was excellent. I liked that the major female characters each had their own voice, and the ages of the characters came through in the performance. Although, this is the first time I have heard Kelly Burke, I have enjoyed Penelope Rawlins’ performances in the past. I recommend this book in whatever format you enjoy.

Buy Link(s): https://geni.us/B0CTMW8D9Jsocial

Meet the Author: Ruhi Choudhary discovered her passion for writing when she was seven years old and wrote her first Star Trek episode. Being a fan of the dark and twisted, she found her calling in crime thrillers.

She likes to write stories that make you a little uncomfortable and characters that you struggle to make up your mind about but stay with you.

She lives in Toronto and spends her days training to be a scientist and wishing it rained more often!

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