This took too long for me to get going and when it did, it was all over the place. I guess you could call it a thriller but it was a bit convoluted. The characters were annoying and the initial premise with the coworker's photo and Lucy recognizing someone in it was a bit of a stretch to explain and it was such a reach that I couldn't grab on to it. The end seemed like a hurry to the finish.

Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for sharing this e-arc and trade for an honest review. This is the first book I have read by this author but I was instantly intrigued from the beginning.

Lucy is at a party when a colleague shows her a photo that was taken along with a couple that her colleague had met during her own honeymoon. As Lucy looks closer at the photo she notices the man in the couple her colleague is referring to is Scott, who is married to her best friend Cora. Lucy soon starts raising questions and goes into a rabbit hole that leads her to find answers that makes her wish she never saw the photo in the first place.

This book has strong characters, a good plot and there was not a lot of fluff, which I appreciate. This is a thriller that will keep you on your toes and make you realize that we don’t know everything about those closest to us.

Highly recommend, this was a great read and I will look out for other books by this author!
#TheCoupleInThePhoto #NetGalley @TakeAThrillPill

While it was a little slow to start, it did have some really good twists! The storyline was a bit predictable and easy to figure out. This is a quick and easy book to read. It for sure kept me interested throughout.

This book is a wonderful addition to the many mysteries and thrillers that are arriving on our shelves! Middle-aged marriages are tough, it's great to read about how you're not alone.

The Couple in the Photo by Helen Cooper
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Lucy loves looking at photos, so it's no surprise when she takes an interest in a colleagues recent honeymoon photos. But while swiping through, she sees a familiar face, with a woman that is NOT his wife. Wondering if she saw what she thought she did, or if her mind was playing tricks on her, she can't help but start questioning everything.
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This book has layers! Everytime I thought I knew what was going on, another piece of information surfaced. I felt like I was collecting puzzle pieces the entire time! It was a very quick, engaging read.
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Told mostly from Lucy's point of view, with only occasional inner musings from another anonymous character (or characters?), you get a real sense of her desperation as she tries to sort out what her husband and best friends have been keeping from her. She's determined to get to the bottom of this, even if it changes everything in the process.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this book! I would definitely recommend checking it out in December 2023, when it hits shelves.

NO spoilers here. The following is my opinion/thoughts and not a synopsis of the book. I dove into The Couple in the Photo without knowing much about this story. I usually enjoy most suspenseful thrillers but the way an author ends a book is really big for me. I’m not sure I was wow-ed by this ending. It seemed a bit far fetched and just too much. The journey getting there, however, was great. I could not put this book down. There was always another “thing” that popped up making you question the characters and their motives. I don’t think this was one of the best suspense books I have read but I think it’s worth the read if you’re looking for a quick page turner. I would read another book by this author.

A twisty tale of a woman being gaslighted by her own friends and husband ... maybe. Or is Lucy grasping at straws? Her perfect life crumbles when Lucy sees a photo of what appears to be one of her best friends on a romantic vacation--with someone who isn't his wife. When she goes to her husband, he tells her to leave it alone, that she must have been mistaken. And it snowballs from there. Soon, the woman Lucy saw (maybe) in the photo is declared missing, then dead, and now Lucy begins to wonder if it's all in her head ... or are her husband and their friends keeping something from her? And if they are, how many things, and for how long?

Well-written and fast-paced, with a core set of characters that quickly become very memorable individuals. Told from Lucy's point of view, the reader can't help but be sucked in with her as she wonders at her own sanity, and drives her life right over the edge anyway.

This book was addictive, awesome and just what I needed during this little reading slump I'm in.
I'm currently in the middle of 6 books, yes - I know it's crazy but this slump is not fun.
Thrillers and mysteries are my go to when I'm slumping!

But back to The Couple In the Photo
How far would you go to keep a friend's secret?
I binged this one and almost finished it in one night, but my eyes got so tired I literally left the last 10% for the next morning which was so hard for me to do. No spoilers for thrillers! But let's say there's a missing person, lots of gaslighting, plenty of twists and turns and lots of who dun it moments. I loved it!

4 stars from me!

The author's other books are: The Downstairs Neighbor and The Other Guest, both of which I haven't yet read, however I'll definitely be adding them to my TBR.

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this one! There some parts that were slow but it became a page turner as I continued reading on!

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author, for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. The story was entertaining and the premise was fantastic but, in the end I was not wowed by how everything turned out.

While looking at a colleague’s honeymoon pictures, Lucy thinks she sees her best friend’s husband in one of the photos, but he’s with another woman. Soon after, Lucy discovers that the other woman has gone missing, and the deeper she searches, she learns her best friends and her own husband are keeping secrets from her. I wasn’t expecting much going in from this book, but wow, was I wrong! The Couple In The Photo hooks you right from the start, and the surprises just keep coming as Lucy dives headlong into the mystery woman and is blindsided when she realizes everyone has been lying to her. This one will keep you on your toes, and just when you think you have it figured out, everything flips upside down. Definitely a page-turner, loved it! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Adam and Lucy, and Cora and Scott. Two couples and their kids who are like one big happy family, hanging out at each other's houses, even renovating a beach house together.

That's why Lucy is devastated when she sees a photo of Scott and another woman on a colleague's phone. Should she tell Cora? Can her husband have a discrete conversation with Scott to find out if he's cheating on Cora?

When she fails to get answers, Lucy takes it on herself to investigate with devastating consequences.

While you might be able to figure out what happens, there are so many twists and turns on the path to getting there, that I marveled at the author's ability to keep it all straight!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for another great tile form Helen Cooper!

I loved this book beginning to end. It’s mostly narrated through the main character of Lucy. There are 2 main couples in the book with 3 of them sharing massive secrets since their time at university. Lucy is out of the loop but figures it out in the end.
There were some scenes that were expected but I was genuinely surprised towards the end. Very quick read and great visuals given.

This book was just OK for me. The suspense was just meh. I was able to figure the plot out fairly quickly which made the book boring for me. It had potential but missed the mark.

With all the high ratings I saw on Goodreads, I went into this book with high expectations. Needless to say, I may be in the minority but it just was t my cup of tea. It moved too slowly & I lost interest in it along the way. I finished it to see how it would end, but probably could have put it down at any time without the compelling need to look back. I’ll give it two stars. Thank you to NetGalley and G.P Putnam sons for the chance to preview this arc copy in exchange for my honest review. I really wanted to like this one more than I actually did.

Rating three stars!

The one thing I really enjoyed about this book was that they jumped right into the act. There wasn't a ton of fluff that made you sit around wondering when something good was finally going to happen. The writing style was good and easy to follow. The fact that there were only four main characters was a blessing and a curse. It kept the story concise but also made some things easier to figure out because there weren't a ton of options for the who done it. Overall, a good book- even with knowing from early on who was the murderer there was still a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

Oh my goodness, I really enjoyed this. I was a giant bundle of nerves and completely stressed as more things were discovered and more secrets were revealed. Imagine you're part of a foursome of friends, but the other three existed long before you, had a more complex history, and were hiding a ton of secrets - and you simply had no idea. Our main character knows something is off, and probably has known it for a very long time. This story follows the unraveling of the history and the things they were all hiding.

From the moment I delved into The Couple in the Photo, I was immediately swept up in a tangled web of secrets and deception that kept me on the edge of my seat. Lucy and Adam, along with their close friends Scott and Cora, had a seemingly idyllic friendship that spanned years. But when Lucy stumbles upon a photograph of Scott on a luxurious getaway with another woman, everything spirals out of control.

Determined to shield her best friend from potential infidelity, Lucy embarks on a quest for answers. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a trove of hidden truths about her friends and even her own husband. The suspense and tension mounted with each revelation, leaving me questioning who could be trusted and what the consequences of unearthing the truth might be.

Despite the confined scope of the narrative, revolving primarily around these four characters, the book never lost its grip on me. Lucy's relentless pursuit of the truth, even in the face of opposition, resonated deeply. The author expertly weaved in the significance of photographs, adding an intriguing layer to the plot. The climactic confrontation among the group was nothing short of wild and satisfying. Overall, The Couple in the Photo is a gripping that kept me guessing until the very end.

My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a claustrophobic thriller filled with decades worth of secrets and lies.

Lucy is happily married to Adam, and the couple is still best friends with Scott and Cora, Adam’s two friends from university. The foursome and their four children do everything together and seem to know everything about one another. Which is why Lucy is stunned when she sees Scott in her colleague’s honeymoon photos — with another woman.

Adam has always preached an honesty above all else policy in their marriage, but the more Lucy insists it was Scott in the photo, the tenser Adam becomes. Lucy has always struggled with feeling like an outsider in their foursome, being the latest addition without as much shared history. But this separation gives her a critical ability to ask the hard questions and unravel the mystery behind the photo — and the other woman who has since turned up dead.

Because this book was so focused on just these four characters, there wasn’t a lot of room for the plot to move in surprising directions — but I still found myself very immersed in the unraveling of the truth. Some of the necessary elements for plot advancement felt a little clunky (such as the introduction of a college classmate who is also tied to the story), but overall I really enjoyed Lucy as a character and the way she kept pushing for answers despite the three people closest to her telling her to stop. The importance of photographs plays a very interesting role throughout the entire plot, leading up to a wild and satisfying final confrontation amongst the group.

The premise of this book is pretty interesting. The book is perfectly titled. I've read a lot of thrillers and this was an average read with all the obvious plot points. I actually figured out the major who dun it fairly early on but there were a lot of other twists and turns along the way. I couldn't get past that the whole story rests on believing that the main character's coworker shows her a pic that has her best friend's husband in it with another woman in the Maldives. That's almost impossible to have happened and I just couldn't let it go. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.