His Last Wife – Ruhi Choudhary

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…

Review

An almost perfect 4 stars, His Last Wife went in a lot of directions, but I liked it!

At first, you think this is just about Anna, the new girlfriend of the wealthy and respected Doctor Cary, and her trying to figure out what happened to his last wife, Presley, but it is so much more, and even though there were a lot of subplots that in the end did come together, the book never felt convoluted.

Written in first person, apart from Anna, we also read from someone else’s point of view (not divulging anything more because spoilers!) But let’s just say that I honestly didn’t predict anything but a small detail about the identity (or non-identity?) of the other chapter’s POV. Brilliant!

Obsession with motherhood takes the spotlight in His Last Wife. Even as a childfree person, I delighted in seeing this emotionalism throughout the book. The feelings of desperation and love for a child were so true, and the author did a great job at making the reader feel what Anna was feeling at all times.

The only qualm I have with the book is that the character I was rooting for didn’t get their happy ending, so, less stars because of that.

Do note that there are depictions of spousal abuse and a kind of gritty/shocking element in a plot twist, so be prepared. Overall, though, I definitely think a lot of people will like this.