Review: The Rich Guy's Wife by Bonnie Traymore

    

Print Length: 292 pages

Publisher: Pathways Publishing (September 19, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: Be careful what you wish for.

Mother’s voice rings in my ears as I stand perfectly still in the darkness, fearing that each breath I take will be my last. I’m crouched down in the closet with blood on my hands, my legs and back aching to move, even an inch.

But I can’t. One twitch, one cramp, and I’ll bang into a shelf and give myself away.

When Stefan Zeigler swept me off my feet four months ago, I had to fight the voice in my head telling me that my new boyfriend was too good to be true: handsome, wealthy enough to own a home in the Hamptons...and totally into me.

Or was that Lucy’s voice, my gal pal attorney friend who doesn’t need a man to live large? Or my mom’s voice, warning me of controlling prenups and the dangerous secrets of the superrich?

I’d always dreamed of a better life, and working my way there wasn’t going so well for me, with my pile of student loan debt, a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan I could barely afford, and a stable but low-paying PR job.

Is it so bad that I dared to believe in a fairy tale ending, even after I found out about his felon brother? Or his nefarious business associate? Or the fact that his last girlfriend looked a lot like me—and seems to have vanished into thin air?

But now I see that fairy tales have a dark underbelly beneath the glitter, just like my life right now. I’m Erin. I got what I wished for. I’m a rich guy’s wife now.

And it just might be the death of me.

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I really feel like the problem with this book is that it is being pulled in too many directions at once, and since none of the characters OR story-lines are particularly well thought out, it makes becoming invested in the any of them even harder. 

First up we have Erin, a girl who holds down a steady job and has her own apartment. And despite what the blurb would lead you to believe; she seems comfortable enough if not particularly well off. But she wants more. Specifically she wants to be the wife of a rich man. Despite her mother's warnings. Despite her best friend telling her she doesn't need a man (but of course Erin finds it hard to take said friend seriously since her friend comes from money and has a friends with benefits relationship with a man). I'm not even sure I ever really understood why she wanted that sort of lifestyle other than her mother used to work at a place that catered exclusively to rich people and Erin envied them. 

Erin ends up getting swept off her feet by Stefan. Tall, dark, handsome. You know the type. He's also incredibly rich, so bonus points for him. Except even Erin complains about his hot and cold behavior towards her. He goes off on a business trip right after they sleep together and barely contacts her while he's gone. They see each other maybe once a week or so. But again, he's rich, so she overlooks everything she feels is wrong about him. In fact, she even decides at one point to play his game and make herself "less available" to him. Whatever. 

Stefan convinces Erin to come away with him for what was supposed to be a weekend getaway to his home in the Hamptons (but ends up only being one night as Erin magically events plans for the next day to I don't know put him in his place or something). While there we are then introduced to Tanner (Stefan's half-brother who has a huge chip on his shoulder about something that makes no sense, but that I will get to in a minute), and Madison (the neighbor who is also the wife of a rich man, but who is also having an affair with Tanner). 

Throw in a few more minor characters who are only there to move the plot forward (and who could have been much more integral to the plot than they were), and there you have your cast of characters. 

Now for the plot and it's many, many flaws. Let's start off with one of the biggest ones in my opinion. Tanner's hatred for Stefan. Yes, there are many reasons two half-brothers may hate each other, but Tanner seems to especially dislike Stefan over their inheritance. Which given the fact that their father is still very much alive makes no sense. It doesn't matter what the will does or doesn't specify, nor does it matter what the law specifies. No one is getting a thing until the old man dies. 

Then there was the way the author had Tanner speak about his six month home-imprisonment sentence. He specifically tells Madison "If I went to trial, I'd have been acquitted, or maybe they would have figured out he was in on it. Six months is better than nothing." What do you mean six months is better than nothing when you might have been acquitted of the charges? 

Later on, Erin and Stefan are out to dinner when they are approached by an acquaintance of Stefan's (a suspected criminal although his part is so minor I was never really sure what exactly he was supposed to have done), and after finding out that Erin deals with art (mainly marketing), he asks her for a business card and she gives him one. Then suddenly, everyone is worried that the man gave her a business card. Can we please keep these minimal facts straight?

And then we get to the ending. Where everything is revealed at a break-neck speed, and all of it was so predictable that I found myself rolling my eyes and wishing that certain subplots (that I can't talk about without giving away major spoilers) would have been better utilized as I feel like had even one of those been fleshed out more, I would have enjoyed this book a lot more than I did. 

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.