I was surprised since the first page on how captivating the story was.

It was fast paced and I couldn’t put it down.

I wanted to keep reading to find out more, it was surprising and kept me guessing.
It was a great book.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Publication day December 5, 2023.

Thank you Netgalley! I absolutely loved this book! I could not put it down & I never expected that ending. Sometimes, I thought I had it figured out but, nope. I really enjoyed this book & will be watching for more from this author!

A fairly predictable story line that is anything but predictable. Well done, Cooper! I love when I guess twists, but I also love when an author pulls one over on me. And Cooper pulled one over on me!

An interesting premise which seems to be about a simple affair turns into much more in this addicting read by Cooper. Not figuring out the twists was a nice bonus in this well written novel.

Thank you Penguin Group, Putnam, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC!

I found the premise of this thriller to be interesting, I don’t think I’ve read one that involved a plot or plot twists of this type. Overall I found it to be a fast read that kept me reading in order to find out the truth. The characters and their questionable motives definitely kept me reading and I found the ultimate ending to be satisfying. I will say I really enjoyed reading the story and solving the mystery through Lucy’s eyes. I didn’t find the short sections from the killers perspective to be quite as chilling or misleading as they perhaps could’ve been. A solid thriller.

I really liked the cover of this book but I found it really hard to get into the story. I actually really couldn't finish it. I struggled through about 30% but I got confused by the characters between the two couples. The storyline also was not very believable for me so it lost my interest pretty quickly. I am not one to not finish a book so I really tried to struggle through however. I have so many books on my tbr list I am excited to get to so I did dnf this one sadly.

This was hard for me to get into and follow. Not necessarily the writing style- I just kept losing interest I guess. Two couples who are very close, their children play, they have family game nights together and so on. Until one of the wives is looking at a photo from her coworkers honeymoon and immediately spots her friend's husband. However, the woman his arms are lovingly wrapped around are not his wife's.

Thank you for NetGalley and the publishers for my free advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

5 ⭐
I was not expecting this book to be as good as it was. I was expecting to like it but I really liked it. From page one I was really interested in the author's writing style and kept wanting to read it.
I actually enjoyed the main character (I'm mentioning this because often with thrillers the main character is not always likable). This was a thriller that I've been needing since getting back into the genre.
Since I liked this character I actually cared if something bad happened to her, to the point where I was a little scared (which doesn't often happen to me when I'm reading, I don't know why it just doesn't).
I definitely recommend this book if you are trying to get back into thrillers or trying to get into thrillers. I feel like it is great mystery and I'm so excited for everyone else to read it.
Thank you so much to the publisher and to netgalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I made the mistake of starting this before bed last night and ended up reading it all in one sitting. I haven’t stayed up all night because of a book in quite some time. This was an absolutely fantastic read and I’m almost sorry that it’s over. I loved how well written the main character was- usually, when nothing is as it seems, the main character is easily fooled and doesn't catch on to what's happening until the last minute. Instead, Lucy quickly realized that something wasn't quite right and managed to piece things together despite the constant gas lighting done by her friends and her husband. I liked the character complexities and I especially loved the ending. This book has me ready to look for the author's other works.

The couple in the photo - Helen Cooper

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this eARC.

This story begins with a couple who are close friends with another couple, they've all been best friends for over a decade, and all their kids are as close as siblings.

One day, the main character (one of the wives) is looking at a friend's vacation photos at work when she sees a picture of her best friend's husband in an intimate photo with another woman. It turns out her coworker and her new husband befriended the couple while vacationing in Manilla I believe it was...

The odds of this really happening have got to be about a million to one, so that alone requires a huge suspension of disbelief.

Confused, but not wanting to destroy her best friend's marriage over a potential mistake, the wife of the non-cheating spouse becomes her own private investigator, picking at the extremely numerous "loose threads" in her best friend's marriage as well as her own, as they are both strongly entwined.

The situation rapidly becomes a Peyton Place of misdirection that finally cumulates in the discovery of numerous lies, crimes, and oddly symbiotic involvement in each other's lives. When the truth came to light (or as much of the truth that was ever going to be revealed) I felt I needed a Cliff Notes to keep up with all the characters to comprehend who did what to whom and why.

The novel was compelling, but when it came to the end of the novel, there were too many storylines and people with extreme and oddly misguided loyalties.

Attempting to follow every deceit or omission to a somewhat convoluted conclusion began to have more in common with solving a complex issue at work, rather than the passive enjoyment of reading a clever novel for its entertainment value.

Until next time...

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
What a book- Cora and Scott - Lucy and Adam have been friends forever. There children play together, They are always together - but when Lucy sees a picture a coworker has of Scott with another woman- she begins digging for answers. What’s startling is the more she uncovers the stranger the relationship between her husband and Scott and Cora, There are secrets they have tried to bury —- now what happens when they are uncovered and each one is more shocking than the other!

Thank you to NetGalley for the early review copy! This book kept me hooked and I flew through it quickly, although I did guess the twist from the beginning. It didn’t stand out for me but it overall was entertaining and I enjoyed following the journey of this one. 3/5 stars for me!

This book! This 👏🏻 book!!
Just when you think you have it figured out, another plot twist comes into focus. (Focus… like a photo…).
I absolutely loved this book. When I finished the last sentence, I literally sighed and said “So good!” out loud to myself.
Helen Cooper has a way of writing that pulls you in and keeps you guessing.
Scott and Cora. Adam and Lucy. Two couples who are like family. Yet secrets come out that makes everything they know about each other feel like they don’t know each other at all.
Read this book if you like thrillers or mysteries. It will keep you on your toes.

THANK YOU PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM AND NETGALLEY FOR THIS ARC!

Looking through a colleagues honeymoon photos, Lucy spots a familiar face. Scott, who is married to her best friend Cora, is with another woman. Who is this woman and is Cora aware of what's going on? Lucy immediately goes into detective mode. After a series of events Lucy begins questioning weather or not she is imagining things. Some things are a little predictable and easy to figure out, but overall it was a good read.

Thank you to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP- Putnam, and Helen Cooper for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publish date for The Couple In the Photo December 5, 2023

Two couples who are inseparable. A friendship that goes to great length to protect each other.
A seeming perfect marriage begins to fall apart when the wife's friend finds a picture that portrays a cheating husband. Keeping quiet to spare her friend until the woman in the picture turns up missing.

How to find out if the husband is a killer and just how much danger is there for the woman he is married to?

This is a twisty page turner that will keep you reading late into the night.

This started off promising and full of mystery! I hate having to write reviews on books that fall flat. It started losing steam and my attention around 1/3 of the way through. It was just too easy to figure out and piece together. I was left feeling like I just wanted to be finished with the book, because there were no more surprises or suspenseful moments.

How far would you go to uncover secrets but also keep their friends secrets?

This was a pretty fast read of a book however I felt like something was missing as I was reading it. All the suspense felt very surface level and it was like the characters didn't connect for me. Lucy is POV main character in this book and I felt like her character was written to be annoying and full of self doubt.

That being said this story was very layered with a lot of moving pieces. There is enough foreshadowing that you know the ending at about 70% through the story so armchair detectives would like it from that aspect.

This was a fast paced easy read. I guessed a lot of the twists early on which was disappointing but overall I still enjoyed the book.

Firstly thank you to Helen Cooper, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of The couple in the photo. I’ve never read this author before and let me tell you, I’ll be reading more. So many twists and turns. You know the saying, you think you know but you have no idea? Yep, that fits in well with this book. It just shows that secrets will tear families apart.

I really enjoyed this thriller! I liked how the action started right in the first chapter, though I did feel at times through the middle the pace slowed down a bit as Lucy obsessed over certain things. The character development was great in this book, but I did find myself wanting Lucy's point of view to be first person instead of third. I was very interested in how the dynamics between Scott, Cora, and Adam unraveled throughout the book. I thought I had the twist figured out, but I definitely did not see the ending coming!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!