I was hooked by the first chapter and it held my attention throughout. I loved the storyline and especially the author’s writing style. Highly recommend!

Within a few lines of Sandra Miller's WEDNESDAYS AT ONE, I was all in. This story about a guilt-haunted psychologist Gregory Weber feeling his entire life slipping away from him, marriage, children, the all of who he has been and built and lived since a long-buried time in his youth. An intriguing, entrancing new patient arrives in his office one Wednesday at one and unscheduled and unexpected, she turns the entire patient/healer relationship inside out, transforming Gregory, his life, and relationships. As in the best of stories, the storytelling was taut, beautifully done, so skillful that I didn't think ahead nor anticipate what I wanted to happen. instead, I yielded to the magic and the power of Miller's storytelling. I am not a person who typically reads psychological thrillers, but this one was as much mid-life meditation, family dynamics in flus, and poetic evocation of a unique, memorable man coming to terms with his life and who he is. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

A book about reckoning with the past. Gregory has it all, but one incident from his past is gnawing away at his core.
I questioned why he would be getting help from one of his clients until the answer became less opaque.
Gregory’s desperation leaps off the pages. He reminds me of every other soul who once they confess, want quick forgiveness and repair.
However, time to heal has to occur.
We all have secrets, some come surface while others remain deeply buried.
It’s a good book about the quandary within.

Sandra A. Miller returns following her memoir, Trove: A Woman's Search for Truth and Buried Treasure, with her latest gripping psychological suspense, WEDNESDAYS AT ONE —atmospheric and intriguing, a mystery woman shows up at 1 pm on Wednesdays to a psychologist's office with surprising revelations that will bring long-buried secrets to the surface and ultimately change lives.

Dr. Gregory Weber appears to have it all from the outside —professionally and personally. He has a beautiful home in one of Boston's most desirable suburban neighborhoods, a loving wife, a daughter and son, and a thriving practice as a therapist.

However, Gregory has a dark secret from his past that occurred when he was seventeen. He never revealed this secret to his wife and family, fearing they would reject him. His best friend committed suicide due to this event. If this event came out and the part he played, it could shatter his perfect life.

Then this beautiful woman named Mira appears at his office without an appointment and seems to know about this past. She is the one asking the questions, wearing her beautiful scarf. She shows up for four Wednesdays at 1:00 pm, and he looks forward to her visits. He is entranced.

He has suffered great pain and regret for many years with guilt about his friend and past secrets. Can he unburden himself? Mira knows things. How can she know? Who is this woman? Is he losing his mind?

In the meantime, Gregory has been withdrawn at home and very distant from his wife and kids. He has not been a good husband, father, or brother to his sister, nor has he been there for her to help care for their sick, elderly dad, blaming his strict environment for his past.

His other friend, Phil, also hides secrets, and neither has confided in the other. The what ifs? What if we could have a do-over for the tragedies that happen in the blink of an eye?

At the funeral, the past and present collide when all the pieces come together about the events of the past and that tragic night that changed their lives.

Mira has her own secrets as well.

CAPTIVATING! WEDNESDAYS AT ONE is a character-driven, beautifully written, mysterious, and intriguing tale of self-forgiveness and healing. Guilt, lies, regrets, shame, and secrets—the truth will often set you free.

Gregory wrestles with his humanity and conflicted heart, struggling with his past secrets until he can come forward to those he loves. It makes you appreciate what you have in front of you. A mix of psychological and domestic suspense, family, mystery, paranormal/magical realism, and literary fiction.

I enjoyed WEDNESDAYS AT ONE immensely and look forward to reading more from this talented author. For fans of authors Joyce Maynard, Rea Frey's (8/15) The Other Year, and William Landay's All That Is Mine I Carry with Me.

Thanks to Zibby Books for a gifted ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

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Pub Date: July 11, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
July 2023 Must-Read Books

I was hooked from the first chapter and the second and the third. If I had a day to read, I would have read this cover to cover, it was THAT good. I loved everything about this book--the characters, the setting, the pacing, the plot twists. Oh my goodness, the final plot twist? Perfect.

So grateful I got a chance to read an advanced copy of this book. Now I get to rave about it to my friends.

I've seen Wednesdays at One be classified as a thriller or a mystery, and I don't think it is either of those things. It is a story about guilty, shame and the paranormal. Dr. Gregory Weber is a clinical psychologist who appears to have it all; a thriving practice, a loving wife and two kids. A secret Gregory has kept since he was seventeen years old has begun to erode his life quicker when new patient, Mira arrives. Refusing to fill out new patient paperwork and acting more like a therapist than Gregory is, the real world and the ghost world collide.

I did not expect this book to veer off into the mid-life crisis, paranormal realm based on the excerpt. While the intrigue about who Mira was did a good job at reeling me in at the beginning, it didn't take long before Gregory's internal dialogue became overworked and tiresome. I never felt Gregory's wife, Liv or their two children were in the story enough to care much about them and I thought the twist at the end, with Gregory's business partner Philip, a little further fetched then I could take. The one redeeming character for me was Mira. Her mystic was refreshing.

Wednesdays at One isn't a bad book. Technically the writing is strong, the character development is strong but it just wasn't a book I could connect with.

Thank you to Zibby Books for access to this ARC.

“We both have to go back and release ourselves from those moments while also taking full responsibility for their outcomes. Because endlessly wishing we could go back and undo them, or hiding with busy activity and performative atonement, won’t resolve anything.”

As someone solidly in mid-life who has been married for over 20 years, there was so much I could relate with here, while also being a life experience nothing close to my own. I appreciated the look at mental health both from the perspective of a therapist to his patients and as Gregory dealt with his own past trauma.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read if you like:
Characters in mid-life/middle marriage
Family drama
Redemption/forgiveness stories

A fictional book that shows how one man’s guilt affected his entire life and his family, eventually tearing them apart. The main character is a psychologist who desperately needs to be in therapy himself. His own guilt and shame have caused him to keep secrets from his wife and harm his relationships with his sister and his children.

This was a slow read for me. I didn’t love it. I was frustrated with the main character’s choices on multiple occasions. I felt as if there were many opportunities to make things right. I did enjoy the way things tied up at the end, but it was too much of a process to get there.

*I was provided a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was NOT what I expected. It’s starts pretty quickly with a surprise visitor to a troubled man who happens to be a psychiatrist and then we learn about his life, his family and his very strained relationships. It does tend to go on a bit in the middle, but after a major life event the story takes off and takes you on a ride that you will not forget. Four stars! Thank you Zibby Publishing and Netgalley for the e ARC!

Thank you to Zibby books for another thoughtful and engaging read, I am impressed by how the first few books from this publisher offer some nuanced writing and a range of writers and stories that still for me capture a lot of themes about the complexity of adulthood and how we reconcile ourselves, our relationships, and our mistakes/imperfections.
Wednesdays at One from Sandra Miller is a slow burn story, not a thriller per se but more mysterious and character driven, less about the plot and more about being in the mindset and space of the main character, a therapist who is trying to understand being enthralled by and even shaken by a new unexpected patient who challenges him to examine his past and his present.

I liked how the author took us into the experience of the character, Gregory is actually really hard to like and yet that was some of the appeal somehow (rare for me, I need a likable character); I suppose what I saw in the writing was someone on the cusp of either a breakthrough or a breakdown and that it was up to Gregory to really examine his life, his behaviors, and his relationships. There are moments of secondary characters nicely moving the story forward and offering a lens to Greg's story and I appreciated that as well.

The story is not as straight forward as it may sound and is not a standard domestic thriller, I stay away from most of those, and could be a win for readers open to a more literary slow burn character study. Recommended!

This book was very unique! Gregory is a therapist and really needs therapy himself to deal with guilt, trauma and grief from an event that occurred when he was a teen. No one knows about his secret and his wife starts to suspect that something is up. He’s visited randomly by this mystery woman, Mira every Wednesday at 1pm. Through self discovery and recognizing trauma he attempts to “fix” himself. I really enjoyed the turn of events this book took me on. It wasn’t just about his and Mira’s sessions but also about family, marriage and grief. The way Sandra Miller captured his feelings was really well done. I look forward to reading more from her!

Thanks to Net Galley and Zibby Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Dr Gregory Weber, who is a clinical psychologist, has been struggling with guilt and remorse for many years, he has never spoken to anyone about the secret her carries. It has been affecting his daily life, his relationship with his wife and his children, he feels drained and exhausted by the burden.
On a Wednesday at one, an unscheduled client arrives, Mira, he feels an instant connection with her, as the Wednesdays go on, he feels Mira knows the huge, shameful secret he has been carrying, she seems to know he is suffering with the guilt. He still knows very little about her, he becomes obsessed with her and the need to be close to her.
Who is Mira? What does she want from him? He is risking loosing his family and his career to keep his Wednesday at one appointments.
I didn’t like Gregory, I felt he was selfish, he does however redeem himself a little.
The story is paranormal and about family and forgiveness .
3.5 stars

This one is marketed as a thriller, but I wouldn't go in expecting that. I would say that it is more thriller adjacent, but I still really enjoyed it.

Gregory has a wife, two children, and a thriving career as a therapist. He also has a dark secret from his past that he has never shared with anyone and still haunts him 30 years later. One day an eerily familiar person named Mira walks in and claims his 1pm appointment slot on Wednesdays. Gregory is intrigued. Mira seems to already know him and seems to take over as the therapist.

Before long, Gregory has put his marriage, his career, his relationship with his family and everything at risk just to make his 1pm appointments with Mira. He has it in his head that she is the only one who can free him from the guilt of his past.

First off, Gregory is entirely unlikeable in every sense of the word. His choices and reasons are suspect, and I had ZERO sympathy for him. He made terrible decision after terrible decision throughout the book and hurt those closest to him. I was routing for his wife to leave him fairly early on. He does have a few redeeming moments, but it wasn't enough for me.

I will say that I figured out the plot twist very early on, and I think we are supposed to because it is pretty strongly hinted at. I was still intrigued because I wanted to see how it was going to unfold. Even though I figured out who Mira was, I wasn't entirely sure how it was going to play out.

Overall, the book is more about family, healing and forgiveness than anything else.

I found the blurb intriguing, mysterious. Psychology fascinates me, and that was the main reason I requested this book. However it didn't seem to work for me. It starts really well but then it gets monotonous and I begin to lose interest.

I am not a psychologist but the way Gregory ―an experienced psychologist who has been practising for 20 years ― loses control (immediately) over a woman whom he has met for the first time seems a bit odd and implausible to me. The attempt to make Mira mysterious and interesting actually makes the main protagonist (Gregory) weak and uninteresting.

And then those dull, slow conversations about family and all…sorry but this story didn't work for me.

Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you to Zibby Books and NetGalley for an early read.

This book was a suspenseful page-turner that started out as a psychological thriller but turned into what I would describe as supernatural The characters are well-developed and you feel as if you know them since the author gives a great deal of welcome background. The book is well-written and handles the important subjects of grief and forgiveness quite deftly. Very unique premise which will keep you thinking about it for many weeks to come.

Wednesdays At One
Sandra Miller

The secrets we hide. The sins we can’t forget or forgive. The challenges of negotiating complicated relationships between broken people. Gregory, a psychologist determined to erase his blue collar roots and his role in a catastrophic event from the past, finds everything in his life crashing down after a mysterious woman shows up in his office. Eventually, he begins to realize her true identity and her interest in him.

In addition to the perfectly paced, page turning story, the language was absolutely gorgeous.

Gregory’s first date with his wife:
“They’d arrived at the top of the hill, from which they could see Boston twinkling in the distance, a jewel box that had been opened to him by this golden girl who seemed to have a skeleton key to the world. “

On Gregory’s relationship with his father:
“In his childhood years, Gregory had struggled to find some version of the father that he longed for in the disappointing one that he had. He salvaged those rare moments of connection, however insignificant they seemed at the time, and stored them away for safekeeping.”

Loved this one so much !
Thanks to Zibby Books for the ARC and Sandra Miller for sharing this great book.

I was putty in [author:Sandra A. Miller|19214286]'s hands as she took the reader deep into a psychologist's mind as the past he's chosen to ignore returns in a haunting way. I loved the rich opportunities to examine multi-generational family dynamics, the consequences of misguided choices and opportunities to reclaim the past and self-forgiveness in this richly written novel set against the backdrop of Cambridge and boston.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns and questions Wednesdays At One had me considering. It was definitely a suspenseful book that kept me on my toes! Being a therapist is a tough job but it becomes even tougher when a stalker of some sort is involved. Mira enters every Wednesday at 1pm and I can't help but think of this book every time it's Wednesday and 1pm! Sandra writes beautifully and I felt like I was in every scene of this book, from the gorgeous old home to the garden to the therapist's office...to the graveyard.

This psychological mystery debut novel had my attention from the first page. I raced through this one trying to figure out Gregory’s life changing secret. I was completely surprised with the shocking twist at the very end. I appreciated the way the author focused on writing a story about forgiveness and second chances, my favorite themes in a book.
I received an electronic advanced copy (eARC) from publisher Zibby Books and Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book.

Wednesdays at One is a psychological thriller that pulled me in during the first chapter and kept me reading until it was finished, practically in one sitting!. Clinical psychologist Gregory Weber has a successful career and a beautiful family, but lives each day within the shadow of his past. As his story unfolds I felt myself pulled into his life and invested on his future, while also eager to understand what was happening with his mysterious Wednesday at One appointment. In my opinion, Sandra A Miller does a fantastic job of balancing a family drama with a psychological thriller and I look forward to reading more from her. Thank you to Zibby Books and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.