The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

"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 sound like truth, too."

Who doesn’t love a spin on a classic novel? I love the classics but many of them are great at being adapted and put in present times. Except for Rebecca...that’s one original we all need to just stop updating and adapting. Let us all put that atrocious Netflix movie at the back of our minds and never think about it again. Okay now I’m stepping off of my soapbox. Back to this book, I haven’t read Jane Eyre in such a long time. Since high school English probably. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a top 20 or anything for me. So when I saw The Wife Upstairs was a twist on it, I shrugged and thought to myself “that’s interesting maybe I’ll check that out.” Well I did and I have some thoughts ...

Meet Jane. She’s a dog walker in Birmingham, Alabama and pretty new to the area. She walks dogs in the gated community of Thornfield Estates. Full of huge SUVS, even bigger McMansions, and extremely bored housewives. The place where no one would second guess a missing diamond earring or bracelet if Jane was to just pocket it. A place where no one would second guess if Jane is even her real name. But that all changes when Jane meets Eddie Rochester. Eddie is a grieving widow who lost his wife Bea, and her best friend in a tragic boating accident. Their bodies lost to the water forever. Jane sees such opportunity in Eddie. Not only is he rich, handsome, charismatic but he offers Jane a secure future and the protection she’s always longed for. As her relationship with Eddie grows and blossoms, she’s haunted by the legend of Bea. A true southern belle who had a true rags to riches story. How can Jane ever live up to that?! And how can she truly win over Eddie before her past or his catches up to them both?

That sounds really juicy right?! When I first started this book I couldn’t put it down! Every chapter ended on a cliffhanger and I needed to keep reading! I actually really liked Jane, no matter how much of a con artist she was. She was a woman with ambition who refused to let little things like laws get in her way. Who am I to judge? Just kidding but I enjoyed how the author made a truly unlikeable character actually likable. There were so many twist and turns in this book. I guessed a few but a couple actually shocked me. The whole time I had a idea of who the villain was BABY I WAS WRONG! My favorite part was seeing Jane find out who the villain was also. You swear ya know people but them BAM! Ya don’t! The book does have 3 different points of view between Jane, Bea, and Eddie. It also flashes from past to present. It sounds like a lot but it was always really easy to follow and I always knew exactly who was narrating.

But...there was just a few things that held me back from truly loving this book. One, the book did drag just a little to me in the middle. Some things felt like fluff when there was so much else to get to. Adding unnecessary details are not necessary when you have a strong mystery. Second, the ending was a bit too open ended for my liking! I wanted a more closed ending and maybe that’s just a personal preference. I needed firm answers and I didn’t get that at all. But I could see where some readers will enjoy that. So not a full con, just a con to me.

Overall, I think this a fun and thrilling read. I loved reading all the different perspectives and being shocked at the ending of each chapter. This is a book you won’t want to put down till you finish it! You will need to know how it ends ASAP! I can’t give it a 5 star rating but I can say it’s easily a 3.5 star read. Pick it up if you want to read something fun and twisty. I could definitely see this being a Netflix show!