Let's go ahead and put this out there, The Bride is like Gone Girl, but without the husband focus. Don't get me wrong, he's in the story, but we don't get his point of view, so it's Gone Girl but with only the wife and her childhood best friend.

Here's what went wrong for me.

The story was slow. Really Really slow in developing. When action parts would happen, they would be anti-climatic and not have a huge impact on the story in the end. Which was really disappointing, because it felt like this friendship relationship could have been explored even more deeply, but with some different events compelling the story.

This was just a slow build to the culmination, which is the last 25% of the book. At this point, things really get going and it's actually really well written. The plot moves, the action is jam packed, and the psychological thriller aspect seemed to really take charge. The characters behave in certain ways based on their inherent psychology that is bizarre but weirdly understandable, forcing the reader to question who is really the messed up person in each scenario.

Obviously, in the end, there is clearly a winner for the truly damaged person in the story, but again, the ending wasn't for me. I know some people will love it. I loved the ending of Gone Girl because I though it was poetic justice. These two horrible people deserve each other and I didn't want anyone to end up happy. I just didn't get that same satisfaction from the end of The Bride; however, I know that a . lot of people will like the twisted, cliffhanger ending. It is fun to sit and imagine what could have been and what will happen with these characters now.

All in all, I enjoyed the book, but really loved the writing. With more events and maybe a slightly different story and different characters, I can easily see Wendy Clarke knocking one out of the park for me. In fact, I plan to read her next book just to see what she does.

Thanks Netgalley for my review copy.

My thanks to NetGalley for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Alice is old school friends with Joanna but hasn’t seen her for 10 years. Alice receives a text from a Joanna saying she’s getting married to someone she’s only known for a month. This happens just as Alice’s life is falling apart so they arrange for Alice to visit Joanna to meet her fiancé Mark.

I have mixed feelings about this book.
I loved the front cover and the synopsis, both drew me in and I really wanted to get in to it and enjoy the story but I struggled.
It took me ages to get in to it properly and when I did I found myself wanting to give Alice, the main character a slap for being so stupid. I understand Alice is vulnerable but some of the decisions she makes made me want to scream as they made no sense.
For me this book wasn’t a psychological thriller with twists and turns until the epilogue which is the reason for my 3 star review.

Man. I have thought more about this review than any positive review ever.
If it weren’t for receiving an ARC on Netgalley I wouldn’t be reviewing the book, I’d just leave it with no rating and no review.

Let’s get into it.

The strength of the book is its subject matter (it has nothing to do with being a wife) - a long term friendship with unhealthy power dynamics.

The writing is painfully simple - the narrator tells us her feelings more than showing. And the “showing” doesn’t make logical sense (basic stuff, that I had to reread to be sure - characters do things they’re not close to or the amount of time that passed doesn’t make sense).

The characterization is...odd. It’s not that the main character is unlikeable, it’s that she doesn’t have any personality except obsessing over others or being compliant with what people want.

A lot of the sense of foreboding is created through a character’s continued bad decisions - she is both afraid and continually puts herself at risk (for no logical reason).

One of the big twists of the book is badly executed. Instead of misdirection or a lying character, the book itself lies. It gives you a look into someone’s thoughts (1st person inner monologue) and in the next chapter- “nope, that actually wasn’t true. They’re thinking this.” To be sure, I went back and checked - every big reveal is this same switch “my thoughts were clear that X, but ACTUALLY Y!”
That’s not a twist, that’s just bad suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wendy Clarke, and Bookouture for an advanced copy of “The Bride”. I found this book to be a little slow at the start but became quick paced at about 15% in. While it was a quick read for me, I found parts to be a little too far fetched. It seemed like every character in the story was unhealthily obsessed with Joanna. I also thought the chapters told through the other perspective were misleading at first but not in the “oh I should have seen it coming” way. When I went back to reread it, I only became more confused.

I found most of the book intriguing, but the twist and the ending were not my favorite.
If you were a fan of Gone Girl, this would be a good pick for you.

***Review was posted to Goodreads account.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchage for an honest review.

I am giving this book 3/5 stars for the epilogue only. Without it I would only give it 2/5.

I feel like this book was split. The first half of the book was very dull about an extremely whiny woman. She had zero backbone to her, I understand she is upset because her fiancee just revealed that he impregnated another woman. So, when she got a text message from her childhood best friend whom she hasn't seen in ten years, she was happy to have someone take her mind off of her troubles. Only her troubles are about to get much worse when she goes to visit her friend and it turns out she has been missing for days.

I love psychological thrillers, this one fell short for me. It was very bleh until the end where it was twists were coming out of everywhere! The epilogue though....loved that!

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC which I received in exchange for my honest review. The Bride is the first novel I've read by Wendy Clarke. The book captured my interest from the beginning as it starts with Alice waking up in a hospital with her best friend Joanna by her side. Knowing this is how the story will ultimately end, the reader is immediately given a sense of foreboding.

Readers quickly learn that Alice and Joanna were best friends in school but that the two women have not seen each other in 10 years. Despite this fact, when Alice receives a text message from Joanna asking her to come to London to meet her soon to be husband, Alice sets off on the trip basically no questions asked. Of all the dubious decisions that Alice goes on to make, this one is perhaps the most understandable as Alice has suddenly found herself unemployed and single after her longtime partner has cheated on her.

Once Alice arrives at Joanna's luxury apartment in a converted tobacco warehouse on the docks of the Thames, she is met by Mark, Joanna's fiance'. Despite being told that Joanna will be away for a few days, Alice accepts Mark's invitation to stay in the apartment with him until Joanna's return. Alice slips into Joanna's life like a second skin, enjoying her home and all of the luxuries it entails. Eventually, Mark confesses that Joanna is missing and Alice becomes complicit as he lies to the police about Joanna's disappearance.

There are some definite twists and surprises throughout the book and eventually readers are able to see events from Joanna, the bride's point of view. This is where the book really picks up and the claustrophobic sense of dread increases. I read thrillers on a regular basis and I am usually able to suss out many of the big reveals in books early on. This book did have a few surprises and while some were outlandish I did appreciate the author's willingness to think outside the box.

I found the ending of this book to be chilling and I would have preferred that there be more of a glimmer of hope for Alice. All in all, this is a twisty thriller that is worth a read.

I'm actually torn about rating this book.

I'm a fan of Wendy Clarke, and the book had its moments, but my overall reaction was flat and confused.

Joanna and Alice were best friends, but lost touch for a decade when suddenly Joanna texts Alice inviting her to meet her future husband Mike. Having been through a rough patch in her life, Alice grabbed the opportunity as a good distraction, however, when she arrives Joanna is missing and she is alone with the fiance.

The narrative is mainly told from Alice's perspective, with some additions from Joanna.

However, this is a really slow burner where the action doesn't pick up any momentum until about 70% of the book.
Also, although the ending seems shocking, yet the build up left many unanswered questions, and some of the characters' decisions defied logic.

Thanks #Netgalley, #Bookouture, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is the first Clarke book I've read. I was interested from the very beginning. I loved the cover. It was simple and intriguing. The book had great flow and I felt invested in the characters. I felt for Alice right away. You knew there was a reason from her past that was causing problem in her current life. Alice was doomed in her relationship with Drew. She hadn't fixed her issues with Joanna and therefore that relationship or any other relationship would not work. When Alice made it to Mark and Joanna's apartment right away you can something is very wrong with the situation. At first Mark just tells Alice that Joanna is gone on course, but soon he confesses that she is MISSING. Alice is such mess that she follows along with Mark's ridiculous plan, she doesn't get her cell phone charged, and she keeps searching for answers in the New Tobacco Wharf. So many times I found myself annoyed that Alice wouldn't do the things I wanted her to do. It was a quick read and I was interested the whole time. I will definitely look for more of Clarke's books in the future.

*My thanks to NetGalley for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for a fair review.*

⭐⭐ Stars

The Bride is a twisty adult thriller about a woman named Alice who, when her life is turned to shambles, jumps at the chance to escape it by way of an invitation to visit from her best friend Joanna. She claims she is getting married and that Alice must meet him beforehand. When Alice arrives she finds that Joanna is missing, and feels compelled to stay and comfort Mark, Joanna's fiance. But nothing about the situation is quite what it seems and Alice finds herself wondering who she can trust and if she's in danger herself.

To the good: It is certainly a page-turner in its own right. I finished in just about six hours between two days simply because I wanted to know if my assumptions about the plot were correct and to see if and how Alice was going to grow from the meek creature we see at the beginning.

Unfortunately, this was just not for me. Alice was a hard character to follow, as she did not have a sense of agency and everything in the book happened TO her. She made no real decisions that mattered and that makes for a difficult character-reader bond to form. I was wrong about the twist, to a point, and while that usually thrills me the sheer amount of "twists" thrown in came across as terribly contrived and did not serve to satisfy in the end.

There were plot threads left hanging or others that were tied up in ways that made no logical sense to the narrative. Characters existed and died without having added anything to the plot but a convenient device that could have been replaced by anything else. It was rather frustrating, to be honest. The dialogue was unrealistic and carried not a shred of urgency, which was very odd considering the circumstances and my particular pet peeve of using names like punctuation was very prevalent here. It made it hard to focus on what was happening.

In the thriller genre the surprises and twists must matter, and a good amount of these ones did not. I think culling some of the less relevant plot threads and focusing on cultivating true suspense would do wonders for this novel. It had an interesting premise, it really just needed to be narrowed down.

I like a good suspenseful thriller but this one fell flat. The two main characters Alice & Joanna haven’t seen other for 10 years when Joanna asks Alice to come & stay with her & meet her fiancé Mark. When Alice shows up to visit, Joanna has disappeared & Alice is now stuck staying with Mark until Joanna returns. There are a few twists & turns towards the end that kept me going. Otherwise I might have not finished the book entirely. It was a bit hard to follow. Thanks to NetGalley & Bookouture for the ARC.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat. From the moment Alice arrives at the new luxury flats to meet old friend Joanna who isn't there, something feels very wrong. Nobody at home to miss her, no job to get back to, no family or boyfriend to worry if she doesn't come home, a phone that no longer works, almost every flat in the block empty and just a deserted area outside. A feeling of unease crept over me as Joanna's new husband persuades her to stay, and that feeling never left. Lots of twists, lots of unanswered questions, and a shocking and scary ending that I did not see coming.

Joanna was Alice's best friend, but they haven't seen each other for 10 years.
So when Joanna texts Alice, asking her to meet Mark, her husband to be, Alice, having lost her job and her fiance, jumps at the opportunity of a distraction and rekindling their friendship.
But when she arrives at Joanna's address, only Mark is there while Joanna is away on a course, seemingly having forgotten she invited Alice over.
It soon turns out though, that Joanna is in fact, missing.

The story follows Alice's first-person point of view and is later joined by Joanna's account of events.
I've not read anything by Wendy Clarke before, but found the blurb of this book interesting and was excited when my ARC was approved.
However, I'm really torn about the rating.
The story was good and really intriguing, but it was a slow-burner.
The action picked up at about 70% in, and it did have me racing through the rest of the book, but for the majority of it, despite being thrilling and creepy, I found it lacked suspense.
It's hard to explain without revealing spoilers, but Joanna's narration felt somewhat unreliable.
Even as I write this, I'm unsure about the rating. I feel like 3 stars is not enough, but equally the slow-burning plot doesn't warrant 4 stars which I reserve for books that have me on the edge of my seat throughout. For this reason, I decided to settle on 3 stars with a promise of reaching for other novels from this author.
It's definitely a book worth checking out.
Thank you @netgalley , the publishers and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! I hope I can give this 10 out of 5! This book was amazing.I did not want to put this down, high praise to Wendy Clarke for The Bride. This book has so many twists and turns it is great. Fantastic read. Recommended. Thank you net galley for allowing me to review it.

Interesting plot with plenty of twists to keep you guessing.
Keeps you flipping pages, and looking forward too reading more.
I'll definitely look for more from this Author.
Thanks too the Publisher for the ARC.
This review will appear on Goodreads, NetGalley, and when possible Amazon

The plot starts very slowly and picks up once in the second half. You wonder where this is all heading as you read along. The plot twists at the end are actually very good but there are a lot of inconsistencies. There characters added just to have some people to be suspicious of. Alice’s character is well sketched as is Joanna’s. There were many “what, why???” kind of moments with Alice and that did not go down well with me. Examples:
- Why would Alice agree to lie to Joanna’s parents for a man she barely knows?
- why would she agree to lie to the police for a man she barely knows?
- Why would she allow a security guy in an apartment that isn’t hers? Why did she let him touch her?
- She finds a man living in a supposedly empty apartment, he calls out her missing friends name and she leaves it alone? The explanation provided does not make sense. And then when he shows up she invites a complete stranger in to a home that’s not even hers?
- based on Joanna’s description of Alice’s interaction with her parents the scene of Alice meeting Joanna’s parents does not add up.
The plot has potential but it needs some firming up. The reveal was good, the ending leaves me wondering where this will go, maybe a sequel?
All in all an average read.

For fans of Gone Girl!

Sometimes when you have a best friend, you know them so, so well. Almost as well as you know themselves. You also know when there is something amiss.. .

Clarke executes first-person technique in this book and I have to say that it made the pacing more intense. Not many books are written in the first-person. I think that only added to the overall suspenseful and gripping nature of this book.

I did have some problems with the writing in this novel.. but overall I enjoyed this story.

This was just a so/so thriller for me. I really wanted to like the characters, but there was something about both Joanna and Alice that just didn't sit right with me and maybe that was the point. I definitely enjoyed most of the twists and false narratives that Clarke built the story on, but at time I was also sitting there thinking, 'What the heck is going on here?' as it started to move the plot all over the place.

All in all a decent and quick read. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for my review. #netgalley #bookouture

Y’all... big fan of this book!! The main character was amazing and had such a story to tell. Definitely a great thriller. Start reading this one today!

This was a clever and suspenseful thriller. It had lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing throughout.

The story begins with our main character, Alice, on a flight back from Corfu where she has just had an unsuccessful intervention with her father. Not only is she reeling from that but she's also coming back to face no job and a fractured engagement. Alice suffers from a panic attack on the flight as she's claustrophobic and afraid of the dark, when the stewardess asks her who she would like her to call, the person she wants to speak to most in the world is her best friend, Joanna...

However, as well will discover, all is not as it seems with their relationship.

I enjoyed this book and I thought it was a decent, pacy psychological thriller. I have to hand it to Clarke, it was hard to guess what the outcome would be, even when I was up to 70% of the book I was scratching my head thinking "whodunnit?". She could write a script for Eastenders at this point! Usually I'd have a good guess at the perpetrator but this had me flummoxed for over two-thirds of the book.

There is a definite Single White Female vibe off the book which was interesting. I liked the juxtaposition between Alice and Joanna. It was a real parasitic relationship. Actually most of the characters were very well written, Clarke sure knows how to write them.

Although I did find a few inconsistencies, like the timeframe of Mark and Joanna's relationship was so short but yet, so much had happened in such a short space of time. It wasn't believable.

I also feel like I need to make a Justice for a Certain Character (I don't want to say who!) placard but you'll see what I mean by that if you read the novel. Clarke did him dirty with the way she wrote his character and I am still annoyed about that. He was a selfishly character to justify some of the plot. A lot of this characters actions did not add up to how it eventually unfolded...

However, saying that, I did really enjoy the book and I will definitely read another of Clarke's books. I enjoy a good psychological thriller and this is the perfect escapism. I would totally recommend.

A solid 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing date - May 20th 2020.