The Ex Wives

Elana knows she should have heeded the red flags. When she met her husband, Jackson, it was a whirlwind romance…a little too whirlwind, as they got engaged within weeks. Right before the wedding, he admits that he was married before, twice, and is twice divorced. He also seems to have rigid ideas about what she and her young daughter, Phoebe, can eat, that she should stay home rather than work, and that every penny she spends should come from him and be accounted for. But he also seems head over heels, as is she. Maybe she’s overreacting? Then on their wedding day, one of his ex wives shows up to warn Elana not to go ahead with the ceremony, claiming that Jackson is a controlling, violent monster who took her daughter, who’s still missing, and will take Phoebe, too. That’s the past portion of the story; flash forward to the present and Elana is in a way-too-real version of the life she was warned about, afraid to stay but even more afraid to go, even if she weren’t penniless and surveilled at every moment. While readers drop deeper into the emotional hole dug by Jackson and feel the walls closing ever tighter, they’ll empathize with every uptick in Elana’s fury and despair. And as they begin to wonder whether it’s possible to kill a fictional character themselves, and how slow a death they could make it, the pages fly by, as do the twists, for better and much worse. Don’t start this on a work night, there’s no hope you’ll put it down.