The Ex-Wives Murder Club

by Mette Ivie Harrison

Ever want to kill your partner? Join the club! Three ex-wives band together to murder their evil husband and wind up in the business of killing the worst of humanity. A darkly humorous suspense, with a heartwarming LGBTQ+ romance, perfect for fans of Elle Cosimano, Joanna Wallace, and Katy Brent.

What do you do when you realize you married a horrible man?
Kill him of course!

For Meg (wife #1), Jenny (#2), and Amelia (#3), the term ‘a woman scorned’ isn’t strong enough. They want more than revenge for the years of their life they wasted with their pitiful excuse for a husband. They want him dead.

As they carry out their lethal plan, they soon realize they’re thinking too small. What about all the other men (and women) who cause immeasurable suffering and get away with it?

Thus ‘the business’ is born. A dazzling new female-owned venture that will change the course of their lives—and shorten many others! And, for Meg and Jenny, it could allow them to experience a love they never thought possible . . .

A laugh out loud, feminist revenge story with horror elements. Readers will be clamoring for more from Mette Ivie Harrison.

Genres: Suspense

224 pages, Hardcover

Published March 3, 2026

About the author

My name is pronounced "Metty" like my mother's "Betty." It is Danish, and we were all named after ancestors. I guess by the time they got to number nine (out of eleven), it was getting tricky. So I got the funny Danish name no one knew how to prounounce. In Denmark, it should be "meta" like "metaphysical." It's from the Greek for "pearl." And no, it's not short for anything. Not even Mediterannean.

My first book, THE MONSTER IN ME was accepted for publication in 1999 and was published in 2002. My second book, MIRA, MIRROR was published in 2004. The latest book, THE PRINCESS AND THE HOUND , was published in 2007. A sequel, THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR, came out in April of 2009.

I now live in Utah with my husband and 5 children, ages 5 to 14. I write during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning. Whenever I get a chance. I love to write the kind of books that I love to read. And I love to discover what is going to happen next, just like a reader would. I also do some racing in triathlon.

from http://www.metteivieharrison.com/myli...

Reviews

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really did love the sound of this book but it didn’t live up to my expectations.

It was funny at times and a quick read. The constant jumping around back and forth in time was hard to follow. There was no cohesion and I got confused as to where each part fit into the story. The romance didn’t feel very real to me, I couldn’t see that they even liked each other let alone love.

Now I like a dark and messed up crime book but this overly gruesome and graphic scenes in this were just too much. It wasn’t necessary for the story at all. And the animal abuse turned me right off.

Just not for me at all. I will remember it for all the wrong reasons.

Thanks to Severn House for the early copy to read.

[evie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Two ex-wives that fall in love and recruit the third ex-wife to get revenger and kill their ex-husband? I’ve never requested so fast before. I was excited for the plot but I did have some issues with this book.

The non-chronological order of the book did throw me off as I would have to double check when an event happened in the timeline, and despite the vignettes through the years of the ex-wives’ relationships, I could not care less for any of them.

At various points in the novel, a woman’s physical features would be described in such a way I would have to reread the sentence just to make sure I read it right. It was off-putting to read about women who are dedicating their lives to ridding the world of bad men, only for Meg to call a woman “horse-like” and say another women was too thin but beautiful in spite of her figure.

You’re telling me that the trio painstakingly planned for weeks to create the perfect murder and *that* is what they go with? You must be joking. The random animal abuse was unpleasant and unnecessary.

Maybe I read Meg and Jenny’s relationship wrong but it seems toxic to me. They never really seemed “in love” with each other. The couple were only together due to their mutual hatred and disgust of their ex husband and due to how they both had similar murderiois tendencies. Everything Meg does is to either please Jenny or to stay with her even though Meg doesn’t want to or it goes against her beliefs and morals.

[Claire Veldman · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know your girl loves herself a novel about serial killing women. So I had to read this! 👀 This has been a wild ride. Let me give you a review! 🩷

The Ex-wives Murder Club by Mette Ivie Harrison is about three women who all have the same ex-husband and they hate him. They hate him so much that they might want to kill him... Nobody would miss him, so why not? Meg, Jenny and Amelia are starting a murder club together, which turnes into a businessmodel. The three of them are killing that awfull men but they won't stop there. Their business has been born and people can come with requests to murder people.

Meg is the main character and I like her. She hates people and genuinely likes killing them but she does have a consience. The other two don't really have that I'm afraid. 😂 I also love the idea of the women starting a business together but I must say it got a little repetitive eventually. They went to kill over and over again and even for me it was a bit of an overkill (pun intended 🤭). What I didn't really appreciate is how sexual and graphic the killings became. It made me a bit uncomfortable. A trigger warning would be nice...

Then there is an certain romance I didn't really feel. I didn't feel the chemistry and that's sad because I do like the idea of them being together. 🥲❤️ The ending had me intrigued but this book just didn't blow me away.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, I want to thank the author, NetGalley, and Severn House for the opportunity to read this advance copy. It’s much appreciated.

Unfortunately, this book just didn’t land for me. The premise was interesting and I’m all about some feminine rage/revenge as a trope but the execution was lacking.

I enjoy a good sapphic romance but the way it was set up and developed just wasn’t at all engaging for me and honestly didn’t make a ton of sense from the get go. Calling it heartwarming in the synopsis was certainly a choice!

The characters never seemed fully developed or fleshed out and very little background was given in them so it’s hard to understand who they are and feel invested in what’s happening to them.

Additionally, the way the book shifted timelines was so haphazard that it was distracting.

I think there is so much premise in this story. It’s a quick read and will definitely fulfill some revenge fantasies that’s for sure!

Be aware of triggers for animal abuse, sexual assault, and abuse of minors.

[Beth]

DNF at 26%

I try really hard not to DNF ARCs, but I couldn't find anything redeemable about this book 😬

The time jumps were painful to sit through; the chapters jumped around way too much and I didn't feel like I could properly connect with the storyline or any of the characters as a result.

The romance between two of the ex-wives was introduced from the very beginning, so there was no opportunity to build up to it and I didn't care that much about them because of it. I also felt like the author was trying too hard to cultivate this quirky, 'crazy' image for their relationship, and their first date being a fake art heist was so ridiculous that I was rolling my eyes hard throughout the whole scene 😭

This definitely feels like a book that should have had a few more edits before being released as an ARC.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meg was not expecting at all to get a call from Jenny, the woman her ex-husband married just a few days after their divorce, and she clearly expected even less from her proposal: killing him together.

This book was super promising, but I found myself not fully connecting from the beginning. We don't get enough information about Meg or Jenny to care about them; their love story appears from nowhere, and it is full of red flags. There are jumps from the future to the past, and I found myself lost in a storyline with, apparently, no purpose. Is there an objective? Are they just unconnected stories about their murders? In my opinion, it would have been better for my understanding to have more chapters about how Meg and Jenny fell in love, or some chapters about how Meg and Mark met, and some background on their relationship, to get the stakes and the reasoning behind wanting to proceed with the killing and get more hooked with the storyline.

Also, Amelia, as a character, felt non-sense. She appeared in some chapters but only when needed for Meg and Jenny. It felt like a disposable character being there only to be used by them for the sake of the plot. She should have appeared more throughout the book to get to know her full personality from experience rather than hearsay. The same thing happened with the murders; they are supposed to be super planned and really thought out, but there is just a chapter for murder (except the Mark one), so there is no time to get a complete vision of how the organization works (and how they get the ideas).

On the other hand, we have Mark's murder. I don't know how it is possible, but I think we got too much information about this exact "Business" (I didn't need that much explicitness), and at the same time, none. It was too explicit on the murder, per se, but we got to see nothing about the planning, or Mark's past with any of his ex-wives (which is important given that they are killing him for something don’t they?)

To sum up, fast book to read, but I missed some cohesion between the chapters and getting to know the characters more in-depth. It felt kind of superficial, but again it’s my experience, and maybe yours is other, so don’t hesitate to give it a chance if you want to.

Finally, I want to thank Severn House, Netgalley, and Mete Ivie Harrison for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

✨2 stars✨

I went into this book somewhat blind (and it’s the first book that I have read by this author) as the title sounded intriguing and I saw that it had been compared to Katy Brent’s books which I have really enjoyed.

I thought the first two chapters really encapsulated this as I highlighted parts that actually made me laugh out loud. However, personally it went downhill from there. I think my main issue was the time jumps from chapter to chapter made for an incredibly disjointed reading experience. At one point we jumped from year 12 to year 2 and back again. I didn’t feel like these jumps added much to the narrative and I ended up feeling more frustrated than anything else!

Furthermore, I also thought more time and emphasis on Mark’s murder as this is what connected the three women. I expected it to be like “The Other Woman” movie but with murder but sadly it just didn’t live up to my own hype and expectations.

Finally, I didn’t really care about any of the characters and I think the execution of the relationship between Meg and Jenny would have worked better if we actually saw the connection and development between them. Instead, it was introduced early on and then we are just supposed to believe that it’s this great love story which just didn’t work for me.

Maybe if this book was longer there would have been more room for the author to develop more of the plot points. However, my main issue was with the narrative structure so perhaps it’s a blessing that it was only around 220 pages.

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

[Aga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved the premise of this one.

Three ex-wives.
One shared husband.
A murder-for-hire business idea.

Tell me that doesn’t sound deliciously chaotic in the best way.

I went in expecting something sharp, witty, maybe even a little campy — a darkly funny revenge story with big energy and clever twists.

Instead, what we got was much darker and heavier than I anticipated.

Rather than feeling light or satirical, the story leans into betrayal, sadness, and emotional weight. It’s not badly written — but the tone surprised me. I kept waiting for that spark of fun to balance the darkness, and it never quite arrived.

The timeline jumps between different years in almost every chapter, which made it difficult to piece everything together chronologically. Because of that structure, some side characters felt underdeveloped, and I found myself wishing for more clarity and depth in certain relationships.

And the ending… it’s definitely on the somber side.

That said, I didn’t want to DNF it. The concept alone kept me turning pages because the potential was so strong.

[Savannah Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars rounded up. Thank you to Net Galley and Severn House publishing for access to read this ARC. The description of this book immediately sold it for me. "Ever want to kill your partner? Join the club! Three ex-wives band together to murder their evil husband and wind up in the business of killing the worst of humanity." I was disappointed though and had a difficult time staying engaged. The banding together to kill the horrible husband was what felt like maybe 5% of the book and was sporadic. The rest just felt like a composition of other cases they took on with bad people who the world would be better off without but also these cases did not add a lot to the big picture of the book. There was a lot of holes in the characters that made it difficult to enjoy them and understand the path each of them took. The romance was also underdeveloped, so it felt very ingenuine. Overall, I think with better development of the characters, plot, etc. it does have the potential but just didn't hit the mark for me.

[Megan Magee · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I do adore and appreciation the intention behind the plot, the execution didn't quite do it for me. We meet three ex-wives who target the one man they have in common, but then we follow that timelines 15 years into the future and back and forth. I loved the inclusion of other cases and murders as the girls bonded together, but again- the inclusion of where they were placed inside the timeline made the details quite disjointed by the end. The romance was quite a byproduct of the story, to me, and dare I say might have gone off better without that even existing. If you require a likeable character, this is certainly not the book for you. On the plus side, the chapters were easy to read and be engaged in- there is definitely a few insane subplots inside there. There are also quite a few heavy triggers that hit me out of nowhere, so be expected for some weird animal stuff in there. Thank you so much to the author and to Severn House for the advance digital edition. All opinions are entirely my own.

[Lis · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars rounded up. When I read the premise I thought this sounded like so much fun, who doesn't love a book about women taking their power back from their asshole husband?

Unfortunately the execution was lacking. The story meanders while it jumps back and forth through time to talk about how the three women start a business to murder people who deserve it to build up to murdering their husband. So most of the story just seems to be side stories of different people they killed. It was just very disorganized the character development was lacking and I wasn't entirely sure what the author was trying to tell us. This just didn't work for me, but there is potential.

Thank you Netgalley and Severn House for an advance copy.

[Ana Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well what can I say about this book that won’t be too abrasive? First the trigger warnings need to always be adhered to, seriously I mean animal abuse, sexual abuse and yuck it almost got DNF’d but I never do that. I continued on this bizarre ride and was confused throughout. The storyline was confusing and time jumps consistently that I was dizzy. One narcissistic man, three ex wives, two of which are married to each other now, bizarre story line, as the author had to throw something in their book to show they are inclusive, utterly crazy character development. All three women want to kill said ex husband. Story never comes together and really it just didn’t make sense. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

[Zoe Lipman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, you and your friends want to kill your husbands...ya know, just girlie things.

This was fun, funny, and unique. It has an almost Only Murders in the Building sort of vibe and tone. So if you like that show, I think you should give this book a read.

This was kooky and ridiculous, but in a fun way. I can see some people finding it weird and outlandish, but I found it fun. I don't think this is supposed to be an uber serious book.

I did want a bit more from the development, both character and plot though.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

[Jolene · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting a funny, lighthearted story of three women planning to kill their ex husband (think The Other Woman meets Katy Brent), but it was neither lighthearted nor funny. Honestly, it was barely even about them killing their ex-husband.

This is advertised as “laugh out loud” but includes mentions of animal abuse and torturing a 6 month old baby. I would have DNFd at that point but I was 80% through. It seemed to get more gruesome for little other reason than shock value.

I didn’t connect to any of the characters, there wasn’t a strong plot, and the time jumps just didn’t make sense to me.

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for an advance copy.

[Tiffany (areyoutellingstories) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We were angry, strong, and ruthless women who were willing to ignore the rules of civilization if it meant that we had some power for once in our lives and could make the world more what we thought it should be."

I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis, three ex-wives out to get their terrible husband? Let's dig in! However it read more like a dark romance that I'm not I really was rooting for. I liked the idea of the women in business together and their mission statement was a solid one. 3.5 rounded up.

[Shauna Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one just didn’t work for me, unfortunately. I made it about 26% in before DNFing. The constant time jumping was hard to follow, and there wasn’t enough buildup to explain why these women felt driven to kill their ex-husband, aside from him just being their ex. it all felt very abrupt. The romance between two of the ex-wives and the whole murder-business plot also kicked off way too fast for me, without enough depth or motivation behind it.

The premise sounded great, but I never connected with the characters, and the story just didn’t pull me in.

[Jine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Normally I don’t go into books reading reviews because it makes me not want to read and this one had some questionable reviews so I said screw it and just see and I really enjoyed it! While it doesn’t focus on the ex part of the murder business much instead it’s a tale of 3 ex wives and their complicated business and relationship! While betrayal did happen it ended really good!
#NetGalley

[ly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was more like just drunk all the time vibe. I like the idea of how they got together and formed a business because of shared ex-husband. And truly the ex was such a horrible shitty human being that I was definitely cheering them up to finish him. But it felt bit more psychopath and truly no lesson here to learn rather than a good sport. I felt like reading the diary of someone who fantasized about meeting their love in the most unhinged and unpredictable way

[Jenn Ebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Triggers in this book include animal abuse, sexual assault, and abuse of minors.

This book just didn’t land for me, unfortunately. The characters felt underdeveloped, lacking backgrounds to fully understand who they were. This simply wasn’t an engaging read for me like I had hoped it would be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review 🖤

[Natalia Egan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would round this up to 3.5. It was an enjoyable and WILD ride. It was absolutely ridiculous but not something I object to from a story this title. Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

[Vanda Boyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ex Wives Murder Club has such a great hook: three ex-wives teaming up to kill their awful ex-husband is exactly the kind of premise that made me want to see how everything would unfold. I was really on board with the idea and curious about how dark, messy, or clever it would get.

Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite live up to that promise. The romantic connection between two of the women never felt believable, and the third ex-wife often fades into the background until she’s dragged back in to serve a random plot point. The story also jumps around in time, but without a strong throughline to anchor you, it starts to feel like being lost at sea and wondering if you’re ever going to be pulled back to shore.

Because the narrative is told out of order, I kept expecting a big twist or a really impactful conclusion that would make all the jumping around feel worth it, but that moment never really comes. Instead, the fragmented timeline ends up feeling unnecessary and, honestly, a bit annoying when there’s no real payoff. By the time I reached the end, it felt unsatisfying and like a missed opportunity for such a compelling premise.

This review is based on a NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.