The Hunting Wives

I actually had a fun time reading this book, but there are some major flaws that cause me to knock off a couple stars.

For starters, you have to get past the ick factor. I won't give away any spoilers, but you might want to look into them if you don't have a high tolerance for inappropriate relationships.

Secondly, the main character is dumb as a box of rocks and could have figured out the entire situation if she would have just used her brain for 3 minutes. I was almost literally yelling at her through parts of the book.

Lastly, I'm getting very tired of the housewife who drinks too much trope. It's seriously exhausting and not interesting. An unreliable narrator due to alcohol does not automatically make a thriller.

Oh, and some of the writing is absolutely abysmal.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the e-ARC and the opportunity to read and review early.

This book... phew. It's an experience. If you're looking for a juicy thriller that's like Desperate Housewives gone shooting in the woods with layers of obsession, wealth, and destruction, this is one to add to your list. It's completely unbelievable but it's a page turner. Also great for fans of The Flight Attendant show on HBO!

this book is a fast-paced summery drama with thriller elements it follows a woman as she gets wrapped up in a group of suburban housewives that drink copious amounts of alcohol and partake in socially unacceptable behaviors together in her new small town in texas. she begins to become obsessed with the perceived leader of the group and it goes down from there and boy does shit hit the fan.

i love a good suburban mom drama and the whole last 30-40% was very thriller and the twist and turns i loved. the last section was probably a 5 star for me because it really kept me guessing and reeling. while the beginning 50-60%ish wasn't bad by any means, it was mostly set up and the main character, sophie, getting indoctrinated into this group. while i do think that exposition was necessary it honestly dragged on a bit and felt slow at times. i see what the author was trying to do with building suspense slowly over time but it definitely could have had better pacing.

i enjoyed the small town aspects and how everybody knows everybody's business because i love knowing other people's business lol i haven't lived in a town like that since i was a kid and honestly i want to live in a small town one day just to know everybody else's tea and maybe something like this would happen to keep me entertained. the characters in this are all extremely unlikable but personally, i don't mind that, and especially in this type of story it really works for me. it may not work for everybody but i love morally grey characters.

this book definitely was giving vibes similar to big little lies but also this newer movie called deep water that just came out this year. the woman the main character becomes obsessed with was very similar to the character in that movie. i really did enjoy that aspect of it but it had the murder mystery and suburban drama of big little lies.

while this book was not perfect it is a really fun ride and i would recommend it for anybody who is starting to crave that domestic thriller vibes again with a twist.

thank you to berkley publishing group, may cobb, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

This was a meh book. I hated all the Hunting Wives but particularly the main character Sophie. I thought all the decisions she made were irrational and self destructive so she deserved the position she was in. 

There were a few twists but nothing mind blowing. I predicted who the killer was about halfway through. 

This is rich people drama at its finest. If you are into that kind of thing pick this up cause it was still an entertaining read overall, just didn't like the characters but I guess that was the point of the book. 

Personally, this book just wasn't for me, but please keep in mind that this book was not intended for my age group. This book was an adult book, but not because it's too mature, but because that's the intended age group. I wouldn't recomend this book for teens.

The main character was about twenty years my senior and was going through, what I'd characterize as a midlife crisis. Therefore, I could not connect with her at all, or really any of the other characters. I cannot say, because of this difference of age, what I would do in her situation, but when I found her making bad decision, after bad decision, all in a downward spiral, I couldn't help but cringe. This is one thing that I really cannot stand.

Also, minor spoiler warning, this book involves adults in their late thirties messing around and screwing minors. As a minor myself, this, I found, was disgusting. There was no explicit scenes involving this, but still a major thing.

This book also felt very slow for a murder mystery novel. I felt there was a lot of unnecessary information and thought proccess going into the MC's life, and towards the end, found myself scimming most of it. I still got all the necessary information, and understood what was going on perfectly.

On the plus side, the ending was very unexpected and something I did not see coming at all, a thing i always greatly appreciate in books, as some mystery's tend to have very predictable endings.

I never understood before what people meant when they would say that a book is a “fun time” but now I actually do. This book was a freaking funtastic time and I had a lot of enjoyment reading it because it was over the top and yet it also didn't see too out there. I am glad I got this in my Book of the Month pick because it was something light and I haven't read a fun domestic thriller in a very long time. It was kind of like a palette cleaner and I flew through it, glad I decided to pick it up when I did because that's just what I needed.

First of all, The Hunting Wives is a novel about a married woman named Sophie, who moves with her little family to a small town, where she used to go to school a very long time ago. Initially she wanted to get away from the craziness of a big city setting but as she finds herself growing restless in her new surroundings, she is enveloped into an exclusive group of women who call themselves “The Hunting Wives”. Having nothing better to do, these women spend their days- drinking, shooting and doing downright awful things to spice up their lives. I really liked the plot of this book, I haven't read many novels with such a plot yet. Even though I enjoy domestic thrillers, I haven't read that many with a big group of flawed friends yet. The pacing was great and even though the climax wasn't quite as climactic as I was hoping for, I had no problem keeping an interest in this book and read the book in a few days.

Secondly, the characterization was above average. I wouldn't say that I got to see into the souls of these characters but I definitely got an idea of who they are as people and what kinds of lives they lead. Because the book was so atmospheric and you got a glimpse into the lives of the rich and privileged, it really made the book all the more realistic and helped the characters pop a bit off the page. I wish we would have gotten a deeper look into their backgrounds, even the main character's (Sophie's), but nonetheless I could kind of see why they did what they did and their thought processes behind those actions. In all, I really enjoyed following their stories and the relationships they formed with each other inside of the exclusive group.

Thirdly, the writing style is one I have absolutely no problems with. It was precise and to the point and really helped deliver the thriller to me. It got the scenes across effectively and kept me reading, unable to put the book down in many instances. I will be reading May Cobb's future works because this one was a much needed breath of fresh air.

In conclusion, I am glad I picked up this book finally because it was exactly what I needed at this point in my life. I was in a reading slump last month and needed a quick pick-me-up, that wasn't too heavy and this book did just that. I would recommend it to all of my thriller lovers who are looking for a quick read that will also give them a hell of a fun and crazy time!

i read this book in less than 24 hours I couldn't put it down I didn't predict any of the twist or the killer and i definitely thought I had it all figured out. This book was so entertaining and some of the characters had me laughing so hard. I enjoyed this book so much and I am definitely gonna read more from May Cobb because this book was amazing

I actually had a fun time reading this book, but there are some major flaws that cause me to knock off a couple stars.

For starters, you have to get past the ick factor. I won't give away any spoilers, but you might want to look into them if you don't have a high tolerance for inappropriate relationships.

Secondly, the main character is dumb as a box of rocks and could have figured out the entire situation if she would have just used her brain for 3 minutes. I was almost literally yelling at her through parts of the book.

Lastly, I'm getting very tired of the housewife who drinks too much trope. It's seriously exhausting and not interesting. An unreliable narrator due to alcohol does not automatically make a thriller.

Oh, and some of the writing is absolutely abysmal.

i have a lot to say about this book. firstly, i went into this blind. from the title alone i thought this would be about wives who hunted for sport, not wives who hunted for attention from men. this wasn't a complete turnoff for me. i'm thankful that cheating in books/movies/tv shows doesn't bother me like it does other people. what bothered me, however, was how the main character was preaching how she loved her husband and son and partook in some of the activities the women did. in fact, the main character in this book just killed this book for me. she was utterly stupid. i'm not going to spoil anything, but if you need a lawyer, why would you call the lawyer's office and hang up on them? why would you go to anyone else after you told the cops some important information that would benefit you not going to jail? why are you an adult falling into peer pressure?. i just have no words left to say.

I read this because it was set in East Texas, in a town somewhat like my hometown – well, my hometown had 50,000 (when I lived there), was in the piney woods and had a Loop, and was about 90 minutes southeast of Dallas, but there the similarities end. The writing was fine, and I was surprised by the ending ... but I did not understand the protagonist at all. Only one of the women was the least bit likable, and she had the smallest part to play. Someone likened it to Desperate Housewives and I can see that comparison, so if you like that type of book and don't mind unlikable characters, then go for it!