Avery Chambers, though she lost her therapy license due to her controversial techniques, promises she can fix you in 10 sessions for anything from self confidence to assault to marital problems. But from the first session, she can't quite figure out Marissa and Matthew Bishop. The immediate issue is Marissa's infidelity, but Avery can sense that's not the only secret she'll have to unravel in this marriage. And just when it seems the case will end in a happily ever after, it all starts to fall apart.
There were so many tangled threads to this story, it had me wondering how any of them would tie together by the end. From the murder of Marissa's high school friend, to Matthew's ex, to strange and intrusive behavior of an employee, and even a homeless man that Marissa befriended. How do these characters all connect to the final explosive conclusion? This book will have you in the edge of your seat to the very end!
Thank you to the publisher for this advance review copy. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

Absolutely fabulous. Top-notch domestic thriller! Loved every minute.

“One percent of the population is composed of psychopaths and most of them aren’t the homicidal criminals we envision.”

They’re baaaack!! The fabulous writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are at their very best with their new domestic thriller.

Listening to this terrific audiobook brought me back to the surprises and thrills of ‘The Wife Between Us’ and ‘An Anonymous Girl’. Avery is an extremely unconventional therapist who promises to help her patients in just ten steps. She lost her license to practice and now employs highly unusual methods but they do seem to work. Oh, and she also does extensive background research (stalking?) to help her piece together a complete picture of her clients.

Marissa and Matthew are THE “golden couple” of Washington D.C. society. He has a high-profile position at a law firm and she owns a trendy boutique. While they seem to have the perfect marriage, it is actually Marissa’s infidelity that brings them to Avery for help in repairing their marriage.

NOTHING in this book is at it seems! Can we trust Marissa’s assistant at the boutique? Maybe she is a loyal employee, but maybe not. Is Marissa devoted to her husband, or does she have secrets to keep from him? And Avery is a compete wild card, with her complicated background and eccentric methods.

“Therapists aren’t supposed to accept gifts from clients. But I’m not one to follow the rules.”

There are lots of red herrings here but all of the plot points come together at the end. I loved how the authors carefully crafted each of the characters, and made them all multi-dimensional. And when the villain of the story was finally revealed, well, all the praise to the authors! That is just one of many factors that lead me to 5 stars. I was taken by surprise at many parts of the story.

I love a domestic thriller where almost everyone is lying. I have to say I enjoyed Avery’s methods of researching her clients, even though they were not exactly standard. I also like the suspenseful secondary plot regarding a whistleblower at a large pharmaceutical company. I love that these authors research their settings, whether it is New York City or Washington D.C., and that really shows in all their books.

‘The Golden Couple’ might be my favorite book that Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have written together. And two of my favorite audiobook narrators, Karissa Vacker and Marin Ireland, did a spectacular job at voicing the main characters of this wonderful thriller. One of my favorite books of the year!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Libro.FM for the fantastic listening experience!

So I’m obviously in the minority but it was such a chore to continue reading this. The ideal couple gone wrong, the counsellor who’s decided to write her own rule book. I felt like she was up there with some sort of cult leader than someone who’s going to help you meet challenges. Also unorthodox. That can be great. But I just wasn’t feeling it. There are very few books I like where the story unfolds from each of the characters perspective. I found myself flipping through pages to get the major points. I never do that!
This was not a winner for me.

A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

This was so great. I loved Avery and her unconventional therapist ways. The author does a great job unraveling the mystery and spreading the clues. I was surprised by the reveal. I almost would love a sequel with Avery and another couple.

In "The Golden Couple" by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen, Marissa and Matthew seek help from former therapist Avery to repair their marriage.

Avery is a former therapist who has lost her license but continues counseling with a 10 session method. But the deeper she dives into the lives of Marissa and Matthew, the less she believes her methods will work for them. Everyone is holding on to secrets, and in this case there may be too many for her to help.

I thought Hendricks and Pekkanen did a great job of layering the characters. There are several players in this book but they were introduced well and in a way that doesn't overwhelm the reader. Even though I felt like I had a bunch of puzzle pieces that I couldn't quite fit together, I never felt confused. At about the 70 percent mark I was ready for things to wrap up.

The ending was a little bit disappointing for me. I'm not the kind of reader who tries to guess the ending and for a while I really wondered how all of the pieces would fit together. In the end I thought the authors went with what I thought to be the most obvious "twist" for anyone who has frequently read thrillers.

Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all, until she has an affair. She wants to repair the relationship, SO they go to an unconventional therapist, Avery. She demands that they adhere to her unconventional methods. So they go to see her, unknowingly, they have entered a danger zone, who will survive?

This book had a very interesting plot with a totally unexpected twist at the end and a few other twists throughout. There were several characters that I thought very untrustworthy and one of them, the therapist, took me by surprise. Actually, come to think of it, they all ended up surprising me. I'm not going to say why as I don't want to give anything away. I will say that I didn't really like the therapist at first or her 10-step therapy method. I personally don't think I would have continued on with her but that's just me. Overall, though, I thought this was well done and enjoyable.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audiobook ARC of the latest thriller by the writing team of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. 4.5 stars rounded up for an intriguing thriller!

Avery Chambers lost her therapist license which now gives her the license to practice therapy without any restrictions. She has developed a 10-session plan to "fix" people's issues. But her techniques are completely encompassing and intrusive. After reading about her successes with clients, Marissa Bishop schedules an appointment to meet with Avery to try and fix her marriage to her husband, Mathew. Marissa made the biggest mistake of her life and cheated on Mathew; she is desperate to make things right.

Told in different storylines between Avery and Melissa, you will soon discover that everyone is keeping secrets. This is an intriguing, tense thriller that will keep you glued to the pages and wonderfully written by Hendricks/Pekkanen. There are lots of twists and turns that will have you second guessing everyone. This is a great read and another winner by these authors. I alternated between reading the digital book and listening to the audiobook - which was wonderfully narrated by Karissa Vacker and Marin Ireland.

So many secrets so slowly revealed.

I chose this book because I have read two others by these authors and enjoyed them. Like the prior books, there is treachery, deception, twists, red herrings all put together in an engrossing read told from different POVs. It did take a while for the story to unfold. A number of questions arise, but they are all answered by the ending.

I did have a bit of a problem with the unorthodox, unethical practices of Avery, but without them, we wouldn’t have a story!

Looking forward to the next book from this pair.

i absolutely LOVED this book!
never have a met by these authors that i did not enjoy though. their writing capabilities are endless!

WOW! What a ride. This book had me all over the place. Avery is a therapist that has her own way of helping her clients. When Marissa and Matthew show up for their first session because Marissa was unfaithful in her marriage, the stage is set for one heck of a roller coaster ride. Not only do we get to unravel the ins and outs of the marriage and the lives that Marissa and Matthew, Avery has her own set of issues that weave in and out of the story line. I can't say much more for fear of any spoilers, but this book is amazing. It will be one of my top recommendations. Such a fun ride. 5 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC. It was amazing.

Authors Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are the masters of the psychological thriller! Like their previous novels, "The Golden Couple" is fast paced, multilayered, and has twists and turns that will shock and delight the reader. Indeed, there are so many layers and subplots to this inventive story that I found myself completely turned around in places. It's definitely a page turner from the first page to the last!

I love Hendricks and Pekkanen so much because their thrillers are as much character driven as plot driven. They take the reader inside the minds of the characters; we don't just get to watch their actions from afar. As in reality, the thoughts and feelings of the characters aren't always reliable; while they mislead themselves they also mislead the reader. This book has firmly cemented their place with my favorite authors.

"The Golden Couple" is a completely satisfying read. It has everything I want a thriller to have, including an ending that came out of nowhere for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the authors, and the publisher for the privilege of reading an advanced digital edition of this wonderful book, in exchange for my honest review.

The Golden Couple is another great story by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It was fast paced, with plenty of twists, turns and red herrings which kept me on the edge of my seat right up to the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC.

To say this book is a domestic thriller about a couple having marital problems ignores what I thought was the most interesting thing about the book: the therapist. Well, she isn't actually a therapist because she lost her license and now calls herself a "consultant." Could the story be told without the couple seeking therapy and their own issues? No. But if there were any other therapist involved, this story would never have gone off the rails the way it did. And it is definitely a wild ride, one the reader might not see coming if they were like me and busy thinking "what the heck is up with this crazy therapist?" Because really. This is not a book you can casually read and not pay attention to. Of course, it won't let you do that anyway because it is going to pull you in quickly. Enjoy!

Wow! I read this book pretty quickly. I couldn't seem to stay away from it. I hadn't read a thriller quite like it so I was hooked from the start.

The characters were not what I call likable. They had idiosyncrasies that put me off a little. That may just be me, so I won't say more. Avery was everything I didn't think a therapist was, but it was a little endearing. She was an intellectually strong woman. The other characters seem to feed off each other.

While I could not stop reading, I felt a bit bogged down occasionally. The book felt longer than it needed to be and that, for me, did not add to the "thriller" that I thought it would be. However, I will definitely be searching for other books by these authors!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

3.5 stars

Avery is a therapist with unconventional methods used to help her clients. She begins treating couple Marissa and Matthew after Marissa has an affair that threatens their marriage. Although the healing process begins, strange things keep happening to the couple and Avery is pulled into Marissa and Matthew's lives in ways she never imagined.

It took awhile for me to get into this book, and it felt as though not much happened until Part 3. As the plot unraveled, I began to have a hunch for who was behind the threats to Marissa and Matthew's family, and turned out to be right. The plot was suspenseful enough, but not as satisfying as I hoped. Overall, the book was good and kept my interest. Still, I wish it had picked up speed a little more quickly.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of The Golden Couple in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, another great one from Hendricks/ Pekkanen!! I have been a fan of this duo and I was so excited to read this one and I wasn’t disappointed. Perfect amount of mystery and characters. And twists galore. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

Fast paced, twisty thriller that kept me invested until the very end. I enjoy this writing duo, and I enjoyed this book.

After enjoying The Wife Between Us so much, I had to pick this one up. It turned out to be just as good! The story revolves around Marissa and Matthew Bishop and Avery Chambers - and no it's not a love triangle. Marissa and Matthew, by all outward appearances, are the perfect couple. They have it all - a beautiful home, an eight-year-old son, and they exude happiness. Matthew is successful at his job. But Marissa feels lonely. She tricks Matthew into a therapy session and then drops a bombshell - she slept with a guy at the gym. Matthew responds angrily.

The therapist is Avery Chambers, who has lost her license . She has promised clients she can fix marriages in ten sessions through her controversial approach. Her methods are very intrusive - she delves into her patients lives and finds all their secrets.

There are some great twists and turns in this story which is narrated back and forth between Marissa and Avery. The ending was foreseeable, but was still great reading. The characters were well developed and the story was engrossing.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on March 8, 2022.

Thank you to author, publisher, and NetGalley for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review. Great pathological thriller and definitely fast paced! I could not put it down