The Next Mrs. Parrish

January 1, 2024

In the sequel to the best-selling The Last Mrs. Parrish, which sold over a million copies, was a Reese's Book Club pick, and is being adapted by Netflix, the Parrishes--Jackson, newly released from prison; Amber, his wife; and Daphne, his ex--become unlikely allies as a threat from the past emerges. Prepub Alert.

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April 29, 2024
In this wicked sequel to The Last Mrs. Parrish, bestseller Constantine (the pseudonym of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine) resumes the scandalous story of Jackson Parrish, his scheming second wife, Amber, and his ex-wife, Daphne. At the outset, Jackson is completing a prison term for tax evasion, but he’s yet to answer for his darker deeds, including fraudulently committing Daphne to a mental asylum. Daphne has found peace after divorcing Jackson and fleeing across the country, but when her children insist on seeing their father, she’s forced to return to ritzy Bishops Harbor, Long Island. There, she readies herself to confront Amber, her ruthless replacement as Jackson’s wife. Meanwhile, Daisy Ann Briscoe, the daughter of one of Amber’s prior conquests, launches a revenge campaign after running into Amber at a New York City trunk show. Daisy Ann’s rampage poses trouble for Jackson and Daphne as well, locking them and Amber in an uneasy alliance that’s inevitably threatened by a slew of double-crossings. Constantine lays the glamour and nastiness on thick, resulting in an acidic thriller that delights with every twist of the knife. Fans of the first book will eat this up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency.

April 19, 2024

The Real Housewives have nothing on the women in this sequel to 2017's The Last Mrs. Parrish. The story opens with Amber, who has successfully maneuvered to replace Daphne as Jackson Parrish's wife. Now Amber's dreading her husband's return from prison where he is serving time for tax evasion--the result of her informing on him. Her discovery of a cache of high-quality diamonds on Jackson's boat provides her with the funds she needs to escape and start a new life. Jackson's unexpected early release forces her to pivot and agree to help him lure his ex-wife Daphne back into his life. Daphne, who had thought she'd escaped from the man's physical and psychological abuse, is pulled back into Jackson's web by their eldest daughter's repeated attempts to run back to her father. Amber has no qualms about sacrificing Daphne, since she's always felt inferior to Jackson's first wife. When someone from Amber's past comes back to haunt her, she adds destroying another person to the to-do list. VERDICT With scheming worthy of the soapiest television drama, readers will enjoy watching the match of wits and wills in this entertaining beach read.--Julie Ciccarelli

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2024
This installment, following The Last Mrs. Parrish (2017), in the Parrish domestic psychodrama series from sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine sees Amber Patterson plotting her exit from her marriage to the diabolically manipulative Jackson Parrish. Jackson is soon to be released from prison for his financial crimes, and Amber is packing her bags, thanks to her discovery of a trove of diamonds hidden aboard Jackson's yacht. But when Jackson shows up earlier than expected, Amber's plans tumble. Rude and repulsive, with a jackal's canny, calculating ruthlessness, Jackson wants out of the marriage as much as Amber so as to woo back his ex-wife Daphne. The doomed duo strikes a Faustian bargain, one that involves sabotaging Amber's other nemesis, Daisy Ann, the entrepreneurial daughter of her previous husband, Jake. Both Amber and Jackson are sociopaths of the first degree, and their scorching dance of mutual destruction is dastardly. All the hallmarks of a pulse-pounding psychological thriller are here. Despicable antagonists and gaslighting emotional warfare are augmented by a frisson of The Hamptons-Dallas glitz thrown in as juicy counterpoint.

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May 1, 2024
The bitch is back! After four intervening novels of varying success, the sisters who write as Constantine have returned to the well, bringing back the craven sociopathic hussy we loved to hate in their breakout debut, The Last Mrs. Parrish (2017). The good news is, Amber Patterson Parrish, a.k.a. Lana Crump, is worse than ever. As the novel opens, she's visiting her handsome, deeply horrible husband, Jackson, at Camp Fed, where he's soon to wrap up his sentence and return to Amber's loathing arms. "Amber had worried at first that the scandal would make her per-sona non grata in Bishops Harbor, but apparently tax evasion was a crime that didn't garner much antipathy among the one-percenters." Each of them has plans to dump the other just as soon as they can get through the welcome home party, and each has their own evil scheme for what happens after that. His: to get back the first Mrs. Parrish--sweet, confused, abused Daphne, who took the girls and moved to California after the divorce, where she divides her time between much-needed therapy and her cystic fibrosis nonprofit. Hers: to rob him blind and fly the coop, dumping little Jackson Junior with the nanny. I mean, he's cute, but...you gotta do what you gotta do. What Amber doesn't know is that Daisy Ann Briscoe, whose father was so briefly married to Amber that Daisy Ann didn't even know Amber existed before he died "in a hunting accident," has alternate plans for her former stepmother. She just has to find a way to prove what actually happened out in those Colorado woods. There's no manipulative unreliable narrator, no contrived backstory shoehorned in at the eleventh hour, and the over-the-topness--like Amber meeting a shady diamond dealer named Mr. Stones--reads as funny and intentional. You go, ladies. The timeless battle between good and evil has never been trashier. Hooray.

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