The Wife He Replaced: A Billionaire Marriage-in-Crisis, Second Chance Romance

by M.L. Hall

Genres: Second Chance, Contemporary, Audiobook, Contemporary Romance

148 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2026

About the author

M.L. Hall writes angsty contemporary romance packed with emotional twists and hard-won happily ever afters. She loves flawed characters, second chances, and stories where love has to be fought for, because the best endings are never easy.

She enjoys long walks, travel, curling up with a good book, and spending time with her husband, her very own happily ever after.

Follow her to be kept up to date on new releases.

Reviews

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🌟for sticking the landing in this emo cheating marriage-in-trouble story! The betrayal unfolds over time, so the reader feels it happening and understands the FMC’s reactions and motivations.

The repair work is 🤌🤌🤌. The repair isn’t glossed over and it fits well with the story, so the HEA epilogue feels just right.

I find this author’s writing a little choppy, but this book was less so.

[Jetscarbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drew definitely straddled that emotional cheating line. Personally, I’d say he stepped over it and was in the beginning stages of an emotional affair. He acted oblivious, but I think it was an act.

(Possible spoilers ahead)

Why do I think it was an act? Because Drew had already crossed into the “lying” stage with his wife. He was straight up lying or omitting information. Drew KNEW the OW wanted him. He soaked up her attention.

Drew and the heroine have been married for 5 years. Drew has worked with OW for 4 years. It’s only been over the last 4 months that Drew started to “change” and the heroine clocked it immediately.

Let’s list the ways an emotional affair started between Drew and Victoria (OW)
Drew started to call Victoria, Tori.
He started to have meals with her that he didn’t tell his wife about.
He talked about Tori ALL THE DAMN TIME.
They texted each other constantly.
Drew started working later and later.
Drew started to go into work over the weekends.
Drew let OW always touch and rub up on him.
Drew started to talk to OW about things that were NOT work related.
Drew met up with her and when he found out nobody else in the office was coming, he still stayed, so they had their meal alone. He didn’t tell his wife.
He started to tell lies.
He was gaslighting his wife when she started to ask questions.
Drew was neglecting his wife. He quit paying attention to her. The smex was lacking and right before the big event- they had mediocre smex because Drew started to think about work and TORI during smex (yes we know this from his POV)

Look 👀 this man wasn’t oblivious. He was lying to himself and convinced himself that “it’s just work and Tori is just a good friend” 😇 uh huh.

So…the big moment happens.
The heroine arrives at hero’s company. His office door is shut and the blinds are CLOSED!
The heroine opens the door. Drew is holding Tori. He has his hands in her hair and his face is close to her neck/hair and his eyes are closed. Her face is on his chest and she’s crying. He basically doesn’t know what to do, but he doesn’t immediately push her away. He disregards his wife’s feelings and makes sure Tori is okay before he disengaged his body from hers. 🤡

Heroine is like peace out mfer. “I want a divorce”
Hero is all like “what did I do?” 🤡

This walnut hero couldn’t understand why closing the blinds and holding his female employee was so bad. Riiight!

Tori immediately takes advantage of the situation and shows her true skank side. She wants him. It was like somebody threw a hot potato at hero and he’s yelling “NOT IT” as he’s trying to quickly get rid of it. 😂😂😂😂 I was laughing at this point. Now he’s trying to play like he’s some naive man who was oblivious to the super sexy OW. Hahahahahahahahaha

Ohhh Tori wasn’t finished. She decides to go to the heroine’s work and rub it all in her face. The OW is crazy but she definitely has a valid reason to think that the hero wanted her too. 🤷‍♀️ OW tells the heroine that her and Drew kissed. Drew says later it’s a lie.

This was a good quote from the heroine

“I built a life in this apartment and you walked through it every day like it was a hotel and I was room service and Victoria was- Victoria was the restaurant you actually wanted to eat at.”

Yep! Exactly

The grovel was there, I guess. He fired OW and said a bunch of crappy things to her. Threatened to bring sexual harassment charges against her. Ummmmmmmmmm

The hero started to get involved with the heroine’s soup kitchen. He slowly started to realize his wife was actually smart. He started to learn how to cook. Every night he would make dinner for her. He changed how he worked at his company and started to make more time for the heroine.

OW tries one final hoo-rah to win the hero back. It doesn’t work. So ridiculous. For example, the heroine said she could see the calculation in the OW’s eyes. She could see her schemes. Soooooooo ridiculous. I wish authors would quit doing this.

I thought their get back together smex was awkward because they kept bringing up the last time (when he was thinking about the OW) and they kept reminding the reader that he wasn’t thinking of OW this time. 🫣🫣🤪

6 months later and the heroine is pregnant. Drew is now a helpful husband. He washes dishes now. He helps her cook.
THE BARE MINIMUM.


This is just my opinion, but I think if OW didn’t show her crazy so soon, it would’ve eventually turned into a physical affair. I think what ruined this book for me was knowing the hero was thinking about the OW when he was having mediocre sex with his wife. It was hard for me to be a fan of his after that. No matter what good deeds he did.

YMMV but blah to me.

[Tmstprc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been down a betrayal/emotional cheating rabbit whole for a while, most are not that good, or seem to be AI generated.

This one surprised me, he basically has a work wife who wants to be his real wife. He doesn’t see it, but his real wife does. She repeatedly communicates the issues, and he shuts her down until he can’t. And his life implodes. And like the good CEO, he restructures his priorities to get his wife back.

4 148 pages of concise storytelling stars.

[I’m a Paula too… Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely amazing…

I love to cook and experiment. And using the FMC as a chef juxtaposed to the MMC as a tech guy was a wonderful combination.

Maddie is our FMC and chef, and she’s been watching her husband, Drew, start to drift away from her and their marriage. He’s been spending his time at work, and the wannabe Victoria has been spending time with him. She’s clearly trying to insert herself between the two, and he is clueless. Maddie has seen it and even talked to him about it, but he doesn’t believe her.

Maddie stops by his office and sees something she’s not really surprised by, and she leaves. Drew figures she’ll get over it by the time he gets home but he’s wrong.

Maybe it’s because of the culinary background but this is my favorite of the series. All of these have been relatively short and the grovel part has been handled well. This has been a really good series overall, and I’ve enjoyed all of them.

KU read…

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 3 out of 5]

He Was oblivious

I can't believe how stupid men can be. At least this guy had a chance to redeem him. He never cheated. He didn't kiss her he was totally clueless. But he did know whay he did. How it looked. But he did dishonor her in many ways. The sex thing where he basically a robot broke my heart! and he was thinking of Victoria but in a business sense but still. Just gross.

[Kiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Wife He Replaced, part of the Billionaire Grovel and Redemption series, was about Madeleine "Maddie" Adler, a chef at Larks, a farm-to-table bistro, and Drew Adler, (the co-founder of an unnamed business). No ages were given except for one of Drew's inner musings that Maddie had learned her culinary skills before the age of 30.

Maddie and Drew had known each other for nine years, and had been married for seven of those years, but he had begun putting his work and Victoria "Tori" Stewart, his business partner, before her. It was during a dinner she held for his clients and friends, when he told her "Tori" was a last-minute invite...and she noticed the intimacy between Victoria and Drew had started being absent between husband and wife. She continued noticing the little things during the rest of the dinner. She also noticed that Drew didn't spend any time at her side at all during the night. When she called him about the things she had seen, Drew got irritated and said she was "overthinking this" and that she was being unreasonable. This became the normal pattern, and Maddie started becoming more and more invisible with each passing week.

When she went to his office to take him his phone charger, it was to find him in his office, with Victoria in his arms. She confronted him, told him not to follow her home, and went to their penthouse, packed a bag, and left. Drew thought she'd cool down before he got home, but having left work early (because Tori told him to, not because he chose to), he found the apartment empty of his wife. He followed her the next day, only for her to tell him to go back home and give her space.

The following day, Tori was in his office...and he finally realized what Maddie had been saying because Tori told him she wanted him...after putting Maddie down. Then, finally, his eyes were opened to her systematic destruction of his marriage. But then Victoria did the thing he never expected. She confronted Maddie, telling her that she loved Maddie's husband, and went so far as to imply they had been intimate, and then plainly stated it had gone further. After Victoria left, Maddie confronted Drew with what she had just been told. No matter what he said, he couldn't convince Maddie of the truth, and she demanded a divorce.

This wasn't an easy read because of all the heartache, angst, and drama. The conflict with the other woman, although dealt with as soon as the MMC's eyes were open, didn't stop until almost the very end. While the author was adamant that there hadn't been any cheating, she was wrong to discount the emotional cheating done by the MMC, even if it was unintentional; it was still done.

Unlike most of this author's other stories, this book actually had some character growth from both of the main characters, but especially the MMC. It was nice to see him pull his head out of his A$$ and wake up to reality, and to actually pay attention to everything his wife had been doing for the entirety of their relationship and before.

I gave this a solid 3-star rating since it earned it. I would have given it higher, but most of the rebuilding of the relationship took place with them still apart, so it was difficult to accept that the "fix" would hold.

[K R · Rating 3 out of 5]

drew is a d bag

The writing was fabulous, the story arc was interesting but I could never like Drew. He was such a jerk for so long and I could not deal with him. I really liked Maddie and the side people. Victoria was gross, which was the point. Over all my dislike of Drew was probably because of how well written he was. He did turn it around and they got back together; which worked for them.

[Izzie d · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious other woman drama in this one.
Husband basically has a 'work wife' he doesn't see it.
The other woman has developed feelings and makes an attempt to kiss him which he turns down.
Other than that no physical intimate scenes other than the Hero and heroine.
Separation for a time.

[Mona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Office/co-worker ow drama is my jam and
Mix it with an emotional affair - like I’m automatically doing the Carlton dance if I find a book like this - lol Ok, so, the beginning of this book had this and I was reading this thing with wide eyes and my heart beating hard bc the angst was building up, the drama, the jealousy, the warning signs, and and I was ready for it — but at the 40ish % mark the ow drama kind of just blew up, the mmc finally realized what he had been doing and then pretty much the rest of the book is grovel and him learning how to cook(fmc is a chef). I will say, I really liked how smart the fmc was. I wished the drama was drawn out more and there was more gut punches. I did like the writing style. I wanted more dialogue but 2.5 stars .

[Katherine O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book out of this series

The focus was the MFC and MMC with the perfect amount of OW drama woven throughout the story. A realistic telling of a marriage in crisis, with no dramatic fluff. Both the MFC and MMC were likable and Drew (MMC) had a great redemption path.

[Ensorcelled · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book was written with generative AI. A few key tells:

1) Constant restating of what was already described. A character will do something in one paragraph and then the next will repeat exactly what was done, for emphasis. Over and over and over again.

2) A need to restate the exact same facts ad nauseum, throughout the whole text. In this case it was the heroine standing at the island, using the last of the saffron, her food being eaten but not tasted, etc.

3) A need to state timelines. "Four days. 138 hours. Fourteen seconds." "A marriage that lasted seven years and six months." Etc. Once you recognize it you can't stop seeing it.

There's more but I won't belabor the point. To me, this is obvious AI, and you know what? At least put your writing through an AI checker to edit out the obvious stuff. Or just edit, generally. I am not sure how someone can read this and not want to take a red pen to at least half of it. It's bad. The four and five star ratings are truly baffling. The prose was purple, overwrought, impossibly repetitive and just plain bad.

Let me conclude by reiterating that THIS IS MY OPINION based on MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. I could be completely wrong and I acknowledge that. Also, maybe the author declared this as AI from the beginning (which you need to do when publishing on KU), but I didn't check so I wouldn't know.

What I do know? Is I won't be reading this author's books again.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes for me

Drew

Madeleine

Tori - his business partner

Married 7 years.

Madeleine notices Drew acts toward Tori how he used to act towards her. The smile, tilting his head towards her when she talks.

He treats her concerns like a parent would a child scared of the dark. He says she is no threat.

Drew is very analytical in his thinking. Every situation needs any variable calculated. He loves Madeleine. His mind is always turning over work issues.

Drew messages Madeleine asking her to bring his charger. Three minutes later he says Tori has one. It really drove home to her how he depends on another woman. Gut instinct she goes to his office. His door is closed and blinds down. She opens the door. Victoria is crying into his chest. His arms are around her with his hand on the back of her hair.

He doesn’t push her away or act guilty. He asks what she’s doing here. His analytical thinking there truly is nothing sketchy going on. Madeleine asks to talk to him. The idiot looks at Victoria first.

Madeleine is done. She stays with a friend. He gives her the night then tries to talk to her.

Back at his office Victoria asks how he’s doing. He tells her Madeleine is at a friend’s because she thinks something is going on between them. The true Tori comes out. She sits on his desk close to him, hand behind his neck, lips close. She says it’s time to act on what they have together.

Drew tells her to leave and nothing is between them. He also says she needs to move to a different floor and group. He realizes Madeleine was right about everything except him having feelings for V.

He feels like an idiot for not listening to Madeleine earlier. He has to work hard to have her consider coming back.

[Lindseyrenee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not even going to bother cross posting this to Amazon bc they’re obviously deleting reviews over there.

This book makes some very weird choices. The sort of choices that I have a hard time believing a human living in our society would make as an author, but life is a rich tapestry.

Eg: we’re hit over the head with the MMC getting up first, making coffee, and leaving some in the pot for the FMC. Suddenly, she leaves *him* coffee every day, made just how he likes it.

The FMC is a chef. She works as a chef at a nice restaurant 2 nights a week and also does something for a food kitchen a lot of other days but is ALSO always home waiting on the MMC and cooking stock from scratch. Inexplicably, she finds biscuits a very tricky recipe. We hear several times how she’d never short change the food kitchen patrons with CANNED BISCUITS. Girl, bulk cooking would only ever use frozen. Also, she spent so much time perfecting her biscuit recipe (??) down to only 5 ingredients. Like… the majority of biscuit recipes. (Tbh as a Deep South cook, mine is 2: bisquick and milk.) and how she’d worked so hard to make it so easy a first time volunteer could mix it in a single bowl. That is LITERALLY every biscuit recipe. My great grandmother, in fact, just kept a giant bowl of the dry ingredients stirred up and covered with a tea towel under her kitchen sink. Every day she’d pull it out, dig a hole, add milk, and mix enough dry until it was the right consistency. She’d pull out the dough, leave the dry mix, and then stick the bowl back under the sink. Whyyyyyy are we making this such a complicated thing???? Literal CHILDREN make biscuits from scratch. Idiot frat boys can do it!

Also, apparently this rich (32nd floor penthouse CEO MMC) couple don’t have a coat closet and only EVER hang coats on chairs. No idea why.

Alsooooo also I don’t forgive the MMC and she’s an idiot.

(And why did we never circle back to finding out why the FMC had to run with only her knife roll from her first apartment??)

Anyways this is bad.

[MMT · Rating 3 out of 5]

The male brain is such a confusing thing especially when it revolves around their egos.

**spoilers**
I liked how the MMC Drew eventually came to his senses, but as always it needs to be pointed out and ultimately the FMC in this case Madeleine left as she had enough.

Although there wasn't the physical barrier crossed, but some may beg to differ given Maddie caught Drew with his arms around OW Victoria in a not so professional way it may already have been a toe crossing over. We hate the line 'it's not what it looks like' when hubby is caught, but is the line 'what are you doing here' while still holding your potential mistress in your arms any better? I think any words when you're caught in an embrace and don't have the brain capacity to let go of said potential mistress has already put you well into the dog house. There was definitely an emotional affair happening there.

Drew's grovel and changes he made to ensure Maddie is seen was ok. I did like the part where he finally snapped out of his delusional ego stroking given Victoria had to lay it all out for him that she was in love with him. He finally realised what she had been doing all along, and it took Victoria almost kissing him to realise 'oh wait, my wife was right in all her warnings but pretty much alluded she was crazy'.

There were parts in the book I got a little irritated with as there was a lot of repeats of what he did and didn't do and felt like a filler. We get it, we got what he did, but it was repeated from the all POVs.

Maddie had a backbone (respect!) and I was worried at first that she would just lay down taking it all until Drew crossed the line of no return with Victoria.

Victoria was a nasty piece - she hid her intensions well in the guise of a supporting founding partner, and had slowly crept in like an unsuspecting growing black mould. I think she would have succeeded had Maddie not walked in on them in that embrace.

There was a HEA between the OG couple and a bonus little bundle on the side.

[Dewey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since they are all the same cookie-cutter stories, there is no order in reading them. This is unfortunate for the last one I am reading. There is nothing wrong with it but, since it's the same plot, characters, themes, setting, phrasing, same covers, repetition, I am bored with it. Four of these cut/paste type stories in a series is enough.

The dialogue is mostly good although repetitive phrasing across the stories. I for one am tired of the women heaving sobs from deep in their ribs. There's a lot of 'rib physiology' in these stories.

This one has another dunce for a husband; a deceitful OW - his work wife - who loves him; a smart strong wife who is tired of being managed and gaslit when she tries to talk to her husband about the OW. Like the other stories, the husband has a lot of learning to do to redeem himself. In this one, he learns to cook and he learns to see her.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read ..

This is the first book I read from this author.

I guess you could say he's been having an emotional affair for years and hasn't truly seen his wife in all those years . his wife was at home waiting and making a home and he was busy building his business and allowing way to many things go with his business partner Victoria.
But Drew allowed the munpulation and the inside jokes and emotional bond between him and Victoria go on . he lied to his wife, took Victoria side , and told his wife Madeleine that she was over reacting and over thinking thongs ever time she mentioned to Drew that she was uncomfortable with their relationship.

Till Madeleine had enough and left him .. Fantastic for her ..

I like she had a backbone and made him wait and earn back her trust ..

[Shanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

Drew is the TSTL husband who doesn't take his wife's concerns regarding his business partner and friend seriously. He labels it jealousy and ignores it. He also sidelines her, takes her for granted, neglects her...and even though he knows there's distance that he is causing, he takes the it'll work itself out approach. Shocker it doesn't. Madeline is a super sweet, understanding, sunshine, puts everything and everyone before herself and she makes herself smaller, slowly disappears in her marriage to make him happy. She smiles and pretends until she just can't anymore. She finally has enough and chooses herself. Her walking away makes Drew see all the ways he wronged her. Betrayal, Angst, Redemption, such a good Redemption story.

[Colleen Spear · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmmmm

This story was a heartbreaker for sure. Honestly I don’t think
She should have taken him back. I really don’t think he was redeemable at all. His betrayal was brutal. There is no way that he could justify what happened.
I kind of wish we didn’t have his POV in the bed scene it doesn’t help him at all. Should have been hers it was so awkward

No matter what he said I believe that he was in love with or at least preferred OW over his wife. And the complete 180 was a little unbelievable to be honest.

Everything about the whole office scene was absolutely unforgivable. And everything before that if I’m honest. He admitted to looking at another woman like he used to look at her. Had a non work dinner with OW and lied about it when she asked. Seriously brutal.

[Margerm, Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. This is a snack sized story that follows a typical arc in a betrayal story - wife is suspicious of H's work partner, H/husband dismisses h's concerns e.g., over thinking, h catches partner/OW in comforting embrace in his office, wife leaves, OW admits feelings for H, horrified H ends work partnership and sets out to woo the h by paying attention. Much of the story centres around cooking and food as the h is a chef who has also developed and implemented a highly successful food kitchen model. The H volunteers at the food kitchen and begins learning to cook. OW tries to meddle. H and h have changed.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madeline and Drew

Madeline could feel and see her husband drifting away from her. From their marriage. How his attention was on his business partner, Victoria. She tried to talk to him. She tried to make him see what was happening but Drew was blind to it all. Thought she was over reacting. When Madeline caught him in a compromising position she had enough and walked away. Drew thought she would fool off and come back. She didn’t. And Drew finally realised he may have lost his wife forever. Highly recommended

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterfully Written

I don't usually pick up the angst novels but I do love a good grovel and there was no cheating. I was truly pleasantly surprised as I read the story. I loved the way the author conveyed both the leads' emotions so eloquently. This really hit home for me, permanence is a choice. I also found it refreshing with the pacing of the story, build up and wrap up with the antagonist, all without the excess dramatic flair. Chef's kiss 💋 10/10 recommend, but prepare for heart palpitations because I truly felt the emotions out of this one.

[Gii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gave GRATE Grovel! 🤭

I really enjoyed this book! The characters and their growth. The ease conveyed in which an emotional affair can start. The rationalisation. The minimisation. Gaslighting….. The manipulation.

Drew took Madeline for granted. When she brought up valid concerns about their marriage, especially with his relationship with his business partner Victoria, he dismissed her every single time until she’d had enough.

What happens next is a painful awakening for Drew.

It was a fantastic read. I loved the growth Drew went through. The changes for the better.

[Linda Oldham · Rating 1 out of 5]

okay read

The wife he replaced was an okay book. Would have been better if it wasn’t so rushed and the author made the characters more “real”.
I’m a huge fan of novellas but this one just didn’t make sense at times.
The story seemed like it was written in an hour, some topics were explained and some you just had to basically make up in your head what the author was saying because it was so rushed without any explanation.
I myself would not pay to read another book from her. If you like stories that read like it was written by ai then you might enjoy this one.

[Diedre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story about emotional betrayal with the husband's assistant that he was blind to. The assistant wasn't. She had an agenda which the wife could see. This was one of those somewhat gray areas of emotional infidelity that the husband initially was oblivious to but then realized how much time and replacement he put into the assistant. Loved the heroine's attitude when she left. It took that to wake him up.

[Carole Copeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok read

This was ok. Kind of dragged after she left. I think the author could have done more confrontation instead of thought life. The thought life slowed the story down. Seeing a pattern in the writing. AI...maybe. The author needs to change up her stories. Again, once a reader reads one, then they read another by the same author, and they realize it's basically the same. They're not going to waste their time with another book.

[Deborah Scharnhorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best read kept me reading late at night

It was beautifully written. The characters were real and interesting. It kept me reading late into the night couldn't put it down. I loved this story It had me crying and laughing along with the characters in this book. Best read in a long time!

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Enjoyed this Story

I really enjoyed this story.
Madeleine and Drew have been married for seven or eight years and for the past several months Madeleine has come to realize that he's never there for her.
He doesn't look at her anymore the way he looks at his business partner, Victoria.
Will it be too late for Drew when she leaves him?

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story about losing your way and finding a way back to better

This story is wonderful about a man who put the priorities in the wrong place. Dismissed the warning signs and forgot to be aware of what his partner was bringing to their life together. Until she walked away. And he had to listen or lose it all.

[nat _lovestoread · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! 💕

I really like this story, read it in one sitting.
Love that Madi took the hard decision to leave a marriage where she felt unseen; that was the turning point of their relationship, because he woke up, reflected on his behavior, accepted his mistakes and really worked to get her back 🥰
I love a good grovel story with a happy ending! ❤️

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

solid storyline

This book was good in that it was realistic. Enjoyed the storyline and it dealt with compassion n forgiveness. The husband realized what his wife was trying to tell him was the truth