Book Review - The Lottery Winner Widows Club by Elly Vine

 The Amazon Purchase link below is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Amazon UK

Title: The Lottery Winner Widows Club

Author: Elly Vine

Format reviewed: Epub 

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Wildfire

Publication Date: 26th March 2026

Rating: 5 Stars

Meet The Lottery Winner Widows Club - a fabulous, filthy-rich sisterhood whose husbands all hit the jackpot . . . and then mysteriously dropped dead.

Paula is having a surreal week. Having just lost her husband, John, in a freak car accident, she's utterly gobsmacked when, two days later, she wins the lottery - with the ticket he bought.

Just as she thinks things can't get crazier, Paula is approached by a tight-knit trio of glamorous women - also jackpot winners - with dead husbands, suspiciously large bank accounts . . . and a very specific interest in Paula.

They tell her that they've been where she is now. That grief looks good on her. That freedom does, too. There's just one problem: Paula didn't kill her husband. She loved him, of course.

But something about their world - lavish, secretive, thrilling - is hard to resist. And when word of Paula's jackpot win spreads and others come sniffing around for a share, she's faced with the ultimate choice: hold onto her old life, or accept help from her new friends, whose methods are a little more . . . unconventional.

Twisty, mischievous, and deliciously dark, The Lottery Winner Widows Club is a story of luck, lies, and the dangerous appeal of starting over, from a fresh new voice in the crime world.

I had a great time reading this book. In fact reading may not be accurate, I devoured it.  I was enjoying it so much I wasn't aware of time passing, I just needed to keep knowing what would happen next. 

It also raises the question of if you were to win big on the lottery and were in a less than ideal marriage, would you get rid of your husband in a permanent manner?

As that is the premise of the group of new friends Paula finds herself making, only she is adamant that she didn't kill John, she is grieving him, she is helpless without him  But yet the others have offed their husbands, and are all rather rich too. 

And with that you have a fledgling friendship, where Paula starts to discover who she is without John.  Her adult children seem to have pre-conceived ideas as to what she should do, and there are relatives and all manner of people asking her for money, after word of the Lottery win gets out. 

Some of them far more sinister than others! 

And this new group of women, they are a breath of fresh air, various ages, but they don't just want to stop with their own husbands, they would ideally like to rid the world of other horrific men.  But well things aren't always as they seem, and it turns out cold heartedly plotting something is easier said than done! 

There are multiple twists and turns, and plenty of reveals that I certainly didn't see coming at all.  There is a total and utter mastermind to the group, who is utterly brilliant too. 

I absolutely loved my time spent with Audrey, Teddy, Ivy and both Paulas (one is in dog form).  I loved the various extravagant purchases mentioned, as well as Paula now trying to adjust to the fact that she can afford to spend money. 

I'm also incredibly impressed that an author I know more as a rom-com author, under another name, is now writing fabulous comic crime.  I think she may have found a new niche and long may it continue. 

This is a lot of fun, and I was incredibly satisfied with the ending. I just really hope this isn't the last we see of these wonderful women. 

Thank you to Wildfire and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.