Hendricks and Pekkanen deliver another twisty thriller that kept you guessing until the last few chapters.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Golden Couple for my honest review.

From the first page to the last page it kept my attention.

This was a fantastic domestic thriller, I highly recommend.

✨ Review ✨ The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Avery Chambers, a therapist who no longer has her license, starts her exclusive ten-session approach to helping Matthew and Marissa. They might seem like a perfect couple, but many secrets lie beneath the surface. Avery investigates the people and stories surrounding this golden couple as the lies begin to unravel.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Genre: psychological thriller
Location: Washington D.C.
Pub Date: Out now!

This was a pleasant thriller - I enjoyed it but also didn't find it to be mind-blowing in its twists and surprises. I'll admit that I felt the "psychologist" part didn't really grab me because it felt familiar but I did love that Avery's role extended far beyond a normal psychologist. The book definitely made me curious and I read through this pretty quickly.

I alternated between the ebook and audiobook and the transition felt pretty seamless. I liked the audiobook narrator, and the story felt easy-to-read and interesting. I enjoyed reading this for sure!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ psychological thrillers and unethical psychologists
⭕️ rich-people family dramas
⭕️ stories with secrets hidden below the surface

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and #netgalley for an e-copy of this book!

This one had me reading a mile a minute and not wanting to put it down. Marissa and Matthew Bishop are viewed as "the golden couple' they are wealthy and have the world at their fingertips. Marissa takes Matthew with her to see Avery a unlicensed but highly sought after counselor where she drops the bomb that she has been unfaithful. This leads to a long line of secrets that unravel at a fast pace and will have you ripping through the pages to find out what is going to happen.

This is a break neck speed read that will have you sitting there saying "Holy Wow" at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would highly recommend it as a great suspense summer read!

The premise of the book hooked me immediately. An unlicensed therapist (Avery) sees a “golden” couple named Marissa and Mathew. They are struggling with Marissa’s infidelity, From the outside their marriage looks perfect, but they’re in trouble and Marissa desperately wants to fix it.
Of course, it’s Hendricks and Pekkanen who wrote this book, which means lots of twists, turns, and surprises.
The writing is great and I was immediately drawn in. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

THE GOLDEN COUPLE - Greer Hendricks

RIVETING - 4 stars

Plot - 4 stars - When their marriage starts to show cracks, Marissa and Matthew agree to follow the instructions of a local therapist, despite how intrusive and unorthodox she is.

Writing - 4.5 stars - This is where the story shone for me. Hendricks caught my attention right from the first page, and I couldn't put the book down after that. I'm not sure how she does it, but she's able to build the suspense so gradually that you don't even realize how intense it feels until you take a break.

Characters - 4 stars - Avery seems underhanded, in some way, but it's not obvious why or if she has, in fact, done anything unscrupulous. It's clear that she's not interested in following the accepted rules of therapy, but she has her own code of ethics in the whistleblowing that she did. Marissa and Matthew are struggling through their marital problems, but they seem like good parents and both secretly want to repair their family.

Title - 4 stars - The title refers, of course, to Matthew and Marissa. They appear to be the perfect family, but we discover right away that there is unhappiness between them, shaking the foundation of their marriage.

Cover - 4.5 stars - A beautiful cover with strong block black letters that catch the eye. A lovely golden flower softens it a bit but doesn't take away from its strength.

Overall - 4 stars - There were multiple major secrets in play at all times throughout this book. First, we know that Marissa and Matthew have hidden things from each other, and some of these are ruining the solidity of their marriage. Secondly, we sense that Avery has depths that she is keeping hidden from us. She comes across as in-your-face up front, but we get the feeling that she is fooling us. And Polly, Chris, and Natalie are all question marks through much of the book and each adds another dimension of distraction. I guessed the twist before the reveal, but it didn't detract from the exciting finish at all. This was a fascinating look at various personalities and the stories that can be hidden in people's lives.

Marissa and Matthew are a married couple. Avery is an unconventional therapist. Secrets galore. This is the setup for The Golden Couple.

This thriller is told in two points of view--Marissa and Avery. The book had a slower start for me but I read it in one day. It took me a bit to warm up to the characters with so much lying going on. In the last third of the story, the pace definitely picked up though I felt a few things were left unclear by the end. Give this one a try if you're looking for a bingeable thriller.

Thank you to the publisher for my e copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I was very intrigued by these characters, Avery was a very eccentric therapist and I found her to be quite an interesting character. This was definitely a story where I was questioning every character, I didn’t trust anyone and yet I was still wrong. The ending still caught me off guard. It was a really good read, I did feel like the ending was rushed a bit so that’s the only reason it got 4 stars from me.

Well well well, I liked this one.

I think the audio was the way to go. The voices doing Avery and Marissa were fantastic! Kudos to Karissa Vacker, Marin Ireland for a great performance.

The Golden Couple has two main characters or maybe three?

When Marissa and Matthew Bishop's marriage is in danger, Marissa seeks the help of a therapist to try to save her marriage.

Avery Chambers is a therapist. She lost her license due to the way she practices. She is now considered a consultant. When she accepts a patient, she researches them well and makes them spill all their little secrets. She promises that she can help you with only ten sessions. After that, your problems won't be a problem anymore.

Marissa decides to use Avery after a friend recommends her. In the first session, Marissa reveals the reason for the therapy: she has cheated with a guy at the gym. Obviously, Matthew loses it since he was blind-sided by the information. After the session, Avery decides to take them on as patients but they must adhere to her program or she is out.

Personally, Avery is dealing with some other stuff. She is a widow, she has a company harassing her, and she has a new dog. Yet, work is something she enjoys. She likes to find out what really makes her patients tick in order to help them in the best way. Yet, Matthew and Marissa's issues seem to be a little too much since it feels like outside forces are trying to break them apart.

As a thriller goes, I like the way this one developed. I knew where the story was going although a couple of times I doubted myself about the identity of the one pulling the strings. I liked both Marissa and Avery. Although, I was always more interested in Avery's chapters and any scene where her dog was present.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing. I always love reading these authors..very binge worthy and always a twist. They always get me out of a reading slump and I tear through the book!! They always have interesting premises.

This book was great. I love all the books by these authors, but this may be my new favorite. The twists you never saw coming. I love how it keeps me on my toes and anticipating what is coming next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

The Golden Couple was a throw back to their earliest novel, An Anonymous Girl. It had the same type of vibe and twisty, unraveling story. It's told in alternating perspectives from Avery, a therapist to and her client,Marissa, who's there to fix her marriage. From the first session, Avery finds out everything is not what it seems, and more people are tangled up the web as everything unfolds. I definitely enjoyed this one more than their last book, it feels more like their previous books which were much better, in my opinion.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Very good book, hard to put down.

I hate giving too much setup for thrillers because it's always more fun to go in knowing as little as possible. So here are a few keywords: unorthodox therapist, multiple points of view, toxic couples.

Greer and Sarah sure know how to suck me into a story. There's always an eerie sense of foreboding that keeps me moving forward. I sometimes found myself confused to which POV I was reading but that might also be due to reading in the middle of the night with a 4 week old.

As always, expect lots of twists and turns. Every time I thought I had something figured out, I was proved wrong.

When the perfect couple hires a couples therapist with a ten-step solution to their marital problems, deep hidden secrets are revealed. Who can be trusted? Who is telling the truth? One thing's for sure: Someone is telling a lie.

This quick paced thriller has lots of twists and turns, with an ending I didn't see coming!

While I didn't enjoy this book as much as Hendricks and Pekkanen's past books, it was still very well written and captured my attention. It was suspenseful throughout and of course I love a twist I didn't really see coming! Perfect for mystery lovers.

Super underwhelming! Avery was the best character, some of the twists were extremely predictable and the ones that weren't felt unexciting. It is hard to talk about this book without spoiling but there was a whole plot point that felt extremely unneeded and added heaviness to the plotline which made is so slow moving. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I will say the tension is built pretty well and I had to keep reading: but less so because it was a good book and more because I needed to know the ending.

Writing team Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks must have really enjoyed delving into the therapy world when they wrote An Anonymous Girl (reviewed here) about a psychologist and her research subject, in 2018: Their latest book, The Golden Couple, is also about psychology. But thankfully, this book’s protagonist, Avery Chambers, isn’t the master manipulator that Dr. Shields of Anonymous Girl was. Manipulative? Yes. But it’s all in a day’s work for this therapist, whose methods have gotten her news coverage and cost her her license. Avery promises your problems will be fixed in ten sessions or fewer… or your money back.

For the rest of the review, click on the link below:

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Ever since I read The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have been an author duo that I have looked forward to a book from each year. Their other books, An Anonymous Girl and You Are Not Alone, are also good.

What I Liked:

I thought the cover was really good!

I loved Avery. I never really could get a fix on her- friend or foe, but I loved her as a character.

How sucked into this book I was able to get. Time just flew by when I was reading this twisty story.



Bottom line: Greer and Sarah know how to do unreliable narrators and I am here for THAT.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a twisty thriller about Marissa and Matthew Bishop. Marissa has been unfaithful to her husband and decides to tell him in front of their new therapist Avery Chambers. Avery uses a very different approach in her therapy sessions and will do anything to get to know her clients better. This book had lots of secrets, twists, and turns; and I found it to be a fast-paced, enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.