Jane has a job as a dog-walker in an exclusive gated community. She’s broke and living in a shared house, yearning to better her circumstances. She meets one of the residents, recently widowed Eddie Rochester, and she takes her opportunity, seducing him, and moving in with him. Things don’t go smoothly though, and she has questions about what has happened to Eddie’s wife.
“I was looking for something new because I was running away from something old.”
“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins
Glanceabook: This book is a quick, easy read. Not a retelling of the classic Jane Eyre, it’s more of a “nod” and the writing couldn’t be more different. The character of Jane is entertaining, with her sharp, funny asides, but other characters are somewhat dull.
- Publishers Weekly: “Hawkins shows real wit in outsider Jane’s sharp-eyed take on the entitled ladies of Thornfield Estates, but the mercenarily motivated characters will put off some readers. Nonetheless, this suspenseful domestic thriller will keep readers turning the pages.”
- The Atlanta Journal Constitution: “a modern, rip-roaring thriller best enjoyed on a sandy beach with a tall, salty-rimmed beverage nearby.”
Quotes:
“I hear the car before I see it, but even then, I don’t move, and later, I’d look back at that moment and wonder if I somehow knew what was going to happen. If everything in my life had been leading me to that one spot, to that one house. To him.”
“Gossip is tricky, slippery. Pretend to be too interested, and suddenly you look suspicious…”
BOOK SNAPS - for readers 