Review: The Young Widows by S.J. Short

                                              

Print Length: 384 pages

Publisher: Avon Books UK (February 1, 2024)

From Goodreads.com: Meet the young widows. Together, they’ve shared their grief and emotional healing in the wake of losing their husbands. But whilst these meetings are the only places, they feel they can open up, all is not as it seems . . . 

The hot mess Kylie is done with commitment. Her trust in men died with her husband. Now she trawls bars looking for fun – no strings, no promises, no second night. That is until she meets a man who seems to want more, but is it a mistake to trust again? 

The new member Hannah’s grief is fresh and reminds the other widows how raw their pain once was, do they want to let that back into their lives? 

The wallflower Isabel is used to hiding in the shadows, her past still haunts her. Only her late husband knew what happened the night that ruined her life. Will she be able to keep her secrets buried? 

The fiancée Adriana is moving on. But as her wedding draws closer, she’s starting to question how well she truly knows her fiancé. Then she receives an anonymous note that Get out while you still can. 

Each woman is hiding something, but one is not who she says she is. In fact, she’s never even been married . . .

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Right off the bat I'm going to say that this one was hard to follow at times. Not because there were four women at the center of things. No, it was because each chapter was told from a DIFFERENT point of view of either one of the four, or the character called "the watcher". Added to that, the characters, in my opinion, so closely resembled each other that I sometimes had trouble remembering who was who and what their story was. 

However, even with that, I found the book to be paced well enough that I was never bored while reading it. In fact, I spent much of the book trying to figure out which woman was the one who had never been married before as the secrets they carried were all (mostly) spelled out for the reader (if never spoken aloud to the others). 

The depths of those secrets though? Came together in a way that I had never thought possible. And even when I thought I had one part of the story figured out, there was still another twist waiting in the wings that I had not seen coming. 

That being said, I would definitely read more from this author in the future as I am curious to see where they take their stories after everything they achieved with this one. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.