Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The Golden Couple

This book is kind of boring. It starts down the path of great thriller elements plenty of times and then just kind of… fizzles. I found myself finishing it just to figure out how they were going to end a story that didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere. There was no sense of compulsion to any of the events, and the whole thing felt somewhat disjointed.

And then it just ended with the husband being the bad guy? Boring!

I will say, I didn’t see the twist coming, but as soon as it happened it felt like a cop-out.

AND the pharmaceutical company storyline was TOTALLY unnecessary

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hannalizzy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This one was chilling! Such a great mystery/thriller. It follows a “Maverick therapist” with unusual methods who gets a little too involved in her client’s lives and a couple who seems too good to be true. Everytime I thought I knew what was going on, it completely flipped on me! It was gripping, with just a touch of scary, making it a perfect thriller. I’d definitely recommend!!

Also, a very worthy @bookofthemonth pick for an add on if you’re a member 🥰

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

So this book is about a therapist who's lost her license and now she treats her patients with out-of-the-box methods, because she can, and somehow no one steps in to question her ethics. Literally, not a single person in this entire book stops for one second to say, "this isn't ethical." Right off the bat, it's asking me to suspend a little too much of my disbelief.

So much of this book hinges on you being patient with mediocre writing, hollow characters, twists that make absolutely no sense with very little evidence throughout the book to support it, and for you to keep track of a bunch of side characters that add little to the story as a whole. Not to mention, by the time I was less than halfway through, I was already so tired of reading about these privileged WASPs - literally characters with lineage dating back to the Mayflower. I just stopped caring, but I *did* want to know if my theories were correct, because I am a freak who is obsessed with being right.

I can't say this is a complete dud - the book did have its moments that were genuinely creepy, and where I thought that Avery, the therapist, was sort of interesting. I enjoyed her chapters because at least they didn't feel as hollow as the chapters that followed Marissa, her client and one half of "the golden couple" in question. I also enjoyed her dog, he was adorable. I also thought that one of the scenes toward the end was very chilling, but it quickly became cringey and far-fetched, so it didn't really amount to much. Though I did enjoy Avery at times, it became increasingly hard to believe that she is as smart as these authors want to pretend she is.

All of this said, for once, I didn't call the ending of a thriller, which I enjoy, usually...except...I only didn't guess this ending because it made no sense in any realm.

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is my first Hendricks/Pekkanen book and it was a pretty solid domestic thriller!

The writing was gripping and the short chapters helped moved the story along, even when I found some parts of the plot dragging a little. I did like the dual POVs switching between the two main female characters of the novel, the unorthodox therapist and the unfaithful wife. Overall, the web of lies and deception played out well, bringing in several minor characters to make you second guess things.

Still, the final moments and twists of the book kinda threw me off of the intrigue. It didn’t quite add up, perhaps feeling a little rushed and tired, in terms of the genre. I guess I was disappointed in the end results, but I wouldn’t say that made it a bad book. I just hoped for something else to happen.

This one was definitely all about perfect appearances, and people not being who they seem to be on the surface. Perfection often precedes secrecy.

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