The Wife Upstairs

The Wife Upstairs follows Jane, the slightly boring dog walker who moves to Birmingham Alabama, where she works in the ritzy Thornfield Estate's. Jane's poor upbringing and traumatic childhood contrast greatly with the lives of Thornfield Estates' residents, yet she nonetheless catches the eye of mysterious, sexy, and kinda spooky Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is the most eligible bachelor. The two begin a whirlwind of romance which is hindered only by the haunting memory of Eddie's former wife Bea.

So to be honest, this one was a mixed bag for me. The writing was good, the characters were memorable, and the plot definitely kept me interested (who doesn't love a rags to riches suspense?!)... but, honestly this one fell a bit flat in many regards. For example, it's supposed to be a modern retelling of Jane Eyre, but honestly I didn't really see that many connections (although maybe this is because I don't remember Jane Eyre very well). Jane herself was pretty boring and frankly borderline annoying. I felt like most of the characters, in fact, were one-dimensional (yes, I just said they were memorable, but they were still relatively simple) — like, I could pretty much describe each character and their motivation in one sentence.

BUT all that to say, I read the book in a day and definitely found myself surprised by some of the twists (and not at all surprised by some others).