Review: His Last Wife

Book information

Title: His Last Wife

Author: Ruhi Choudhary

Where to buy: Amazon.

'Maybe both of us could use a friend.'

- Dr. Danvers

'Stop shaking like a leaf in the wind.'

- Narrator

'And I'm here rambling like a drunk college girl, and I said the words boobs! Who says boobs?'

- Anna

'She had one of those personalities. The kind that takes over everything and everyone.'

- Dr. Danvers

The world continued to spin, birds chirped, winds blew, rain fell, days bled into nights, but the loneliness was so enormous that all of a sudden nothing mattered. The beauty of the world faded. People's laughter and joy stopped touching my soul. And soon sadness and anger paved the way for a more permanent emotion: apathy.

- Anna

'The bad things take time to come out, my dear.'

- Mrs. Scott

'Luck is a funny thing. It's bipolar. It only knows extremes.'

- Mrs. Scott

'I wanted this world to remember me. I didn't want to take a piece of this world, rather, I wanted it to take a piece of me and keep it forever.' 

- Anna

'Sometimes the only way to get respect is to demand it.'

- Seth

'Well, people always have nice things to say about you once you're dead.'

- Alice

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*

Likes:

Trigger warning/content warning at the beginning before one starts reading the book. Important as it might trigger someone and decided to not read it (which wasn't my case as the blurb was good in already telling the triggers, but still thanks for the trigger warning!)

First sentence lures the reader to continue reading.

Good introduction of characters. Getting to know fast their behaviour and interests. No flat characters.

I like that the 'the ex might be better' mindset is discussed in this book as many experience this and seeing Anna going through this makes a reader understand her more and sympthatise with her.

Lots of chapters, so that readers who read chapter-wise can take more than enough breaks.

Chapters made specifically for the "watcher', giving the reader a bit of excitement, that lacked in previous chapters.

I don't know why, but I like when one watches a conversation and describes it to the reader, but they just see it and don't hear their dialogue, so the reader is left with a mystery.

The way Cary acts, his temper and his way of acting, is so intruding. So good written out.

Good writing style (got a lot of quotes out of the book, they are very inspirational).

Some chapters have a sentence beginning like a book begins — a way of making the reader want to read more and buy this book, in this case, start/finish the chapter. A strategy used for page-turner books.

Different POV's towards the end of the story, gives a different kind of enjoyment and excitement of what is coming next.

Most plot twists were predictable and plain or often used. But the last one, that was really unexpected and smart.

Dislikes:

Don't quiet understand why he kissed her if he was theoretically seen still married. And why he wanted to move on so fast. Already gives the reader the feeling that something is wrong.

The 'first steps' scene was a bit flat. He comes in and just says she made her first steps and both showed no reaction. Nothing like 'he celebrated' or 'she was shocked', just like it's completely normal. As far as I know, parents always celebrate it in some way and it was rather down-played here.

The fact that a small child is already using technology (tablet) isn't right and I dislike that it gets mentioned in this book.

I agree with Sadie that Anna overreact over Harper, being sick is good for the immune system and being sick is also normal, as long as it isn't life threatening.

The first plot twist at the end of chapter eighteen was predictable 'cause of previous scenes with both characters.

The 'watcher' and Anna both use the word 'little angel' for Harper and it seems to me that the author struggles to let a character have their own words, their own vocabulary when narrating their POV.

Anna is holding on for a child she never gave birth to herself way too much and says even if she divorces herself, SHE is keeping the child, as if it's her's.

At page 173, line 11 is a indicator of a speech end, but I don't seem to find the start. After the '‘‘Yes’’, she shrugs', there starts another text and at some point it has an ’’ at the end, but no start.

How it works: Only everything that is lower than 9 gets reduced from the final rating. Depending on how strong it inflicted the overall enjoyment of reading it affects differently. 

[ Story 7 / 10 ] -

[ Characters 8 / 10 ] -

[ Triggering 0 / 10 ] +

[ Topic/Genre 10 / 10 ] +

[ Writing style 10 / 10 ] +

[ Grammatic and spelling 8 / 10 ] -

[ Ending 10 / 10 ] +

Final Rating

3/5

I enjoyed the book, even with it's errors and even though I knew almost all plot twists before they were told, I found an interest in the originality of the story and the way it got told. Also, please don't remove the scene where they rest their heads against eachother and rub their noses together (page 81). That's so cute and unique from other stories! 

Thank you for the advanced reader copy of His Last Wife by Ruhi Choudhary.

Started the book: 13. March 2024

Finished the book: 14. March 2024

Wrote the review: 14. March 2024