Joint Review: The First Wife by Erica Spindler

Author: Eric Spindler
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Dte of publication: February 2015

An idealistic young woman marries a man she barely knows only to discover his first wife disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As a child, Bailey Browne dreamed of a knight in shining armor swooping in to rescue her and her mother. As she grew older, those dreams transformed, becoming ones of a mysterious stranger who swept her off her feet and whisked her away from her ordinary existence; then, suddenly, there he was. Despite the ten-year difference in their ages and her working class upbringing and his of privilege, Logan Abbott and Bailey fall deeply in love. Marriage quickly follows.

But when Logan brings her home to his horse farm in Louisiana, a magnificent estate on ninety wooded acres, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. A tragic family history Bailey knew nothing about surfaces, along with whisperings about the disappearance of his first wife and rumors about women from the area who have gone missing, and when another woman disappears, all signs point to her husband's involvement.

I actually enjoyed The First Wife.  The book definitely has a soap opera feel to it.  I have seen others describe the book as something you would see in a Lifetime movie. You know, a guy and girl meet on vacation and instantly fall in love and marry.  The girl has no family and must uncover all of her new husbands secrets.  Can she really trust him?  This book would make a good movie.
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The story has a few twists that I didn't see coming.  You don't know who is telling the truth. I totally didn't call the ending! I liked the memory loss scenario. The reader discovers what happens right long with Bailey. I definitely recommend this book.  

So I liked that this book took place in Louisiana and the audiobook reader didn't give people ridiculous accents.  I also liked that it took place in a sort of "non-traditional" part of the state.

However, I don't watch soap operas because I can't stand all the melodrama.  I felt like all the characters in this book were hysterical half the time.  They were always crying or shouting or screaming.  I just wanted to tell everyone to chill out.

While this book wasn't really my cup of tea, it wasn't badly written.  The story was interesting.  The twists and turns were pretty good.  The drama overload just got to me after awhile and made this book less than pleasing to read.