Caffeinated Reviewer | The English Wife by Lauren Willig
10th Sep
Sophia Rose is here with a historical fiction suspense. The English Wife by Lauren Willig, narrated by Barrie Krienik delivers an atmospheric and gothic Gilded Age standalone. Come check out her thoughts…
The English Wife
by Lauren Willig
Narrator: Barrie Krienik
Length: 14 hours and 53 minutes
Genres: Historical Fiction
Source: Purchase
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible | Libro.fm *affiliate
Rating: 
Narration: 4 Speed: 1.3x
From New York Times best-selling author Lauren Willig comes a scandalous audiobook set in the Gilded Age, full of family secrets, affairs, and murder. The English Wife is high drama and sure to impress listeners everywhere.
Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York: He’s the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairy-tale romance in London, they have three-year-old twins on whom they dote, and he’s recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson and named it Illyria. Yes, there are rumors that she’s having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors, and people will gossip. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball; Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned; and the papers go mad.
Bay’s sister, Janie, forms an unlikely alliance with a reporter to try to uncover the truth, convinced that Bay would never have killed his wife, that it must be a third party, but the more she learns about her brother and his wife, the more everything she thought she knew about them starts to unravel. Who were her brother and his wife, really? And why did her brother die with the name George on his lips?
Sophia Rose’s Review
After being entertained by the Pink Carnation series, I leaped at the chance when The English Wife came on sale in audio. The cover and all its atmospheric, gothic deliciousness and the blurb speaking at Gilded Age New York settings, and the author’s talented writing all had me jazzed to jump into a standalone tale told by new-to-me narrator, Barrie Krienik
The English Wife was a split timeline story told in the historical present from Janie’s POV and historical past told from the deceased’s wife, Annabelle’s POV.Â
Janie is attending her family’s 12th Night Ball and steps outside only to spot her sister-in-law Annabelle’s body floating down the river through the ice and to find her brother dying after being stabbed by the knife left in him. Annabelle’s body has disappeared so the police and press are not buying Janie’s evidence. Speaking of the press, they are relentless for a sensationalized story for their readers including an intrepid reporter who eventually becomes Janie’s partner in solving the mystery of what happened.Â
Meanwhile, mousy Janie is battered at by her strong-willed mother’s dominance and attempt to control the situation and her lovely, vivacious cousin’s equally overwhelming presence.Â
The book swings back to the past and tells Annabelle’s story of meeting Bay, the lies and secrets of her life which eventually led to her marriage and leaving England to be a society wife to a Knickerbocker wealthy family’s scion. Things appear the fairytale romance on the outside, but slowly and surely the darker depths beneath the veneer come out. Janie and James do get there in the end, but that end…gasp! What a surprise twist that turns everything on its ear.
The slow going through much of the first half as details were built up and Janie’s beaten-down start were a hard slog at first, but I stuck with it and was glad. Those details made sense in the end and Janie found a way to get it done in spite of the handicap to her independence in being not just a woman, but a sheltered one at that.
Barrie Krienik’s narration was good at capturing the essence of the story and women’s voices in particular. I did take a bit to settle into the narration, but that might have also been due to the slow build of the story, too.
So, it was a struggle at first, but worth hanging in there for by the end. The confining world of high society women and women’s historical struggles were strong elements and equally strong as the gothic-style mystery, Annabelle’s tragic tale, Janie’s romance and that reveal in the end with quite the flourish for The English Wife.
About Lauren Willig
Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Pink Carnation series and several stand alone works of historical fiction, including “The Ashford Affair”, “That Summer”, “The Other Daughter”, and “The Forgotten Room” (co-written with Karen White and Beatriz Williams). Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. After graduating from Yale University, she embarked on a PhD in English History at Harvard before leaving academia to acquire a JD at Harvard Law while authoring her “Pink Carnation” series of Napoleonic-set novels. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.
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About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat.
