The Wife App

Because every wife deserves a happy ending.

Three best friends decide they're finally done with their ex-husbands taking their work as wives and moms for granted. They're ready to monetize the mental load, stick it to their exes, and have a wild ride in the process in this novel that is "fresh, funny, empowering, and totally satisfying" (Judy Blume).

Lauren, mother of twins, wakes up one morning to her Wife Alarm Bells sounding. She sleuths on her husband's phone and stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage.

Madeline has it all—a penthouse apartment, a perfect daughter, and no-strings-attached romps with handsome men. But when she learns she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy.

Sophie, with too much FOMO and never enough money, obsesses over her ex-husband's Family 2.0—all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself.

It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let's build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe revenge on our exes in the process. Soon, the Wife App is born, and before long, it's the fastest growing start-up in New York City.

But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline, or Sophie could have expected.

Carolyn Mackler marks her debut into adult fiction with a rollercoaster ride of revenge and redemption that is at once a send-up of modern marriage and a celebration of female friendship and love in all forms.

About the Author

Carolyn Mackler is the acclaimed author of the YA novels The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (A Michael L. Printz Honor Book); The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I; Infinite in Between; and Love and Other Four-Letter Words; and the middle grade novel, Best Friend Next Door. Carolyn's award-winning books have appeared on bestseller lists and been translated into more than 25 languages. Carolyn lives in New York City with her husband and two sons. The Wife App is her first adult novel.

Reviews

"Three divorced mothers in Manhattan join forces to create an app 'to right marital inequalities' in this breezy look at gender imbalance.... Although Mackler's protagonists are around 40 and would have been barely 20 at the turn of the 21st century, they could easily populate an updated Sex and the City." —Kirkus 

"The Wife App is one of the most entertaining novels I've read in a while. I couldn't put this book down, and you won't be able to, either." —Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and Little Bridge Island series 

"The Wife App is quick-paced and gripping, and Mackler's writing is addictive. She makes us really like these three women, and we want them to succeed and get their justice. And while the novel is an enjoyable read, it's also a thoughtful one." —BookReporter 

"Carolyn Mackler's The Wife App is a provocative, funny novel that poses serious questions: why does so much work in a marriage still fall to wives, and why aren't these labors paid? Much to discuss!" —Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 

Dimensions: 13.97 x 2.54 x 21.27 cm