Bestselling author Kaira Rouda is known for her tightly plotted, emotionally astute takes on domestic suspense, most notably BEST DAY EVER and THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER. In THE NEXT WIFE, once again she tackles the ins and outs, highs and lows of marriage --- and what happens when a new wife comes along to replace the old.

John and Kate Nelson were once the ultimate power couple. Gorgeous, brilliant and hopelessly in love, they rose from meager beginnings by starting EventCo, which offers online invitations, party supplies and concert tickets all in one. As one of Ohio’s most loved and respected companies, EventCo is an all-American success story based in an all-American city situated right in America’s heartland. To top it all off, John and Kate had the ultimate love story and perfect family: a brilliant woman, a handsome, well-connected man, and their only daughter, Ashlyn. Or at least they were the perfect family...until Tish came along.

"THE NEXT WIFE is trademark Kaira Rouda with its deliciously devilish women and inherently ignorant men, but this might be one of her most villainous novels yet."

When we meet John, Kate and Tish, EventCo is going public for the first time, and the IPO is expected to make the owners and employees wealthy beyond belief. But all is not well among EventCo’s higher-ups. Three years ago, John left his wife and daughter to marry his assistant, Tish, and though the three have managed to make things work, it is hard to ignore the divide between the two families, especially with so much to celebrate. Tish is the young, sexy, glamorous wife of one of the hottest --- literally and figuratively --- CEOs in Ohio, but Kate is the woman who took John from regular guy to corporate leader, and she holds a special place in his heart and company. The IPO milestone is the result of many late nights and difficult decisions, and Tish can’t help but notice how the preparation has pushed John and Kate together far more frequently than she’d like. But don’t worry, she has a plan.

Only a few hours after the company goes public, Tish whisks John away on a romantic weekend to Telluride, where he proposed. She’s certain that their little walk down memory lane will remind him who his real wife is, but she makes a few missteps. First, she pulls John away from EventCo during a major weekend. Second, she forces him to cancel a special dinner with Ashlyn, now a college student who has been interning at the family company. Tensions are high as the two revisit some of their most romantic memories, but Tish can tell she’s losing John to his first wife, and she’s anything but a quitter.

After a few too many special margaritas, John suffers a cardiac attack and never wakes up, leaving Tish co-president of EventCo and Kate and Ashlyn scrambling for answers. If the term “gold digger” is running through your mind, you’re certainly not alone, but Rouda has far more surprises up her sleeve than a simple femme fatale. As Tish and Kate butt heads during one of the most precarious times in EventCo’s history, each wife, along with Ashlyn, must fight to figure out what John really wanted for his company’s future --- and how far the other woman in his life would go to twist the truth.

Rouda thrives on domestic suspense. She is a keen analyst of the nuances of marriage, motherhood and blended families, and she is able to deftly twist each of these layered, complicated issues into something utterly shocking. THE NEXT WIFE is trademark Kaira Rouda with its deliciously devilish women and inherently ignorant men, but this might be one of her most villainous novels yet. Tish and Kate have so much to lose and to gain from John’s death, and they more can hold their own when it comes to vocal sparring, twisted legal moves and a few devious pranks. Just as she did in THE PERFECT DAUGHTER, Rouda shows us what it looks like when a power-hungry woman starts to crack, and the result is utterly riveting. (One of my favorite devices of hers is when a character is backed into a corner and delivers what she believes is a perfectly snide comeback, only to find out that she is yelling, frantic and hysterical.)

Ashlyn is such a central figure in John, Kate and Tish’s lives --- and carries the weight of the plot more than once --- yet she never felt fully formed. Rouda is more than capable of fleshing out her supporting characters, so this was a bit of a disappointment. I also would have liked to have seen more of Kate’s life as a mother through Ashlyn’s eyes. But worry not, there’s plenty to explore in the characters of Tish and Kate.

Full of midlife crises, conniving wives and corporate warfare, THE NEXT WIFE is yet another unputdownable thriller from Kaira Rouda.