Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Spare Wife

By: Alex Witchel
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.00

Buy for $20.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Ponce Morris is a beautiful, rich widow who's been dubbed "the spare wife" because she's the perfect companion to the wealthy, powerful couples she socializes with. She'll go to sports events with the husbands, throw elegant dinner parties, and shop with the wives. She's cool and nonthreatening because the two things everyone knows for sure are that Ponce doesn't like sex and doesn't have a romantic bone in her body.

Over the years, she has managed other people's lives - and her own - perfectly. Ponce has everything under control, exactly the way she likes it. Until....

Babette Steele, an ambitious aspiring journalist, finds out that Ponce is having an affair with a socially prominent and very married man and decides to break the scandal in a juicy magazine piece. For Ponce's circle, day-to-day existence quickly becomes a complicated game of social and professional chicken - whoever outsmarts and outmanipulates the other will win.

There is a lot at stake, not only for Ponce but for her friends, all of whom are in the midst of crises of their own: a philandering novelist who hasn't been able to write since his breakout Wall Street best seller; an aging billionaire who can't seem to resist young women (the younger the better); a legendary news-show producer on the decline; an old-time politico looking to rebound from his wife's death; and an editor at a glitzy magazine that covers the worlds of politics, fashion, and Hollywood.

As Ponce's life threatens to come apart at the seams, the author takes us into a world she knows intimately: a dynamic Manhattan filled with opinion makers and social fakers.

©2008 Alex Witchel (P)2008 Brilliance Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"A wonderful escape into a world of beautiful, glamorous women and their troublesome men. The dialogue is witty and true. You will have a great time." (Barbara Walters)
"Witchel's Manolo-sharp send-up of Manhattan high society. The fact that many characters bear more than a fleeting resemblance to real New Yorkers (is that Tom Wolfe?) makes it all the more delicious." (Entertainment Weekly)

What listeners say about The Spare Wife

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable book, TERRIFIC reader!

I enjoyed this book mightily, and the reader is one of the best I have experienced. Definitely a good audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Puke

Boring, unimaginative. Don't waste your time or money. It's books like this that makes me appreciate television. Sorry can in no way, recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful