"The After Wife" by Cass Hunter was a fabulous and moving read that really tugged at my heartstrings. What an emotional but highly intelligent and well written story! I didn't know what to expect from the blurb, as it sounded quite fantastical but once I started reading it, I was astounded by how much I was addicted to it and couldn't put it down.
Blurb - When Rachel and Aidan fell in love, they thought it was forever. She was a brilliant, high-flying scientist. He was her loving and supportive husband. Now she's gone, and Aidan must carry on and raise their daughter alone.But Rachel has left behind her life's work, a gift of love to see them through the dark days after her death. A gift called iRachel.
This was such an unusual storyline incorporating a human like artificial intelligence robot to replace a dead wife of which she herself helped to design and build for her family, knowing she was going to die young. The whole story was very emotional and really did break my heart at times. When Aidan was introduced to iRachel (Rachel's robot) I could truly feel his pain and understand his frustration. I loved iRachel immensely and felt like she really became a member of the family - caring, empathic and friendly, really not something you would expect from a machine. I actually liked all the characters, as a reader it always a pleasure to be able to feel all the emotions first hand and since each character had a different reaction to Rachel's death and iRachel including Luke, Rachel's scientist partner it made compelling reading discovering each of their thoughts.
The ending did have me brimming with tears, there was never going to be a perfect conclusion to this scenario and although I may have wanted a slightly different ending myself, the final chapter was just perfect to fit the story in a realistic and unique way.
If you want to read something different and I mean COMPLETELY different then this is the book for you, it was like something I've never read before EVER and will stay with me a very long time. I can easily see this being made into a movie, I believe one like it has already been made similar with Robin Williams which too had me teary eyed.
I'd very happily recommend this beautiful book and talented author - so much research and heart felt passion has gone into writing it.
An exceptional read that I'm so pleased to have encountered!

5 stars