The premise of this book was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed the ending, however the pacing was a little off for me.

Lucy is a teacher and when she looks at a coworkers honeymoon photos she sees a familiar face posing with a beautiful woman. Scott is the husband of her best friend Cora and her husband, Adam’s best friend. The only problem? The woman in the photo is not Cora. When Lucy sees a news report about a woman missing in the Maldives she immediately recognizes the woman as the woman in the photo with Scott.

The concept was great and the first couple of chapters were really gripping, but then it began to drag out and it felt like not much was happening for a while. It picked up the pace again with the ending, but it really could have been trimmed down to keep the book moving from those first few engrossing chapters.

Overall I enjoyed the story, but the pacing was a bit to inconsistent.

Can “idyllic” life of multiple families be ruined by one photo? Well you will have to read this book to find out.

I thought this was a fast paced story with just a few slow moments in the middle but don’t get discouraged because final twists will make your jaw drop.
Overall this was a decent mystery full of lies and ghosts from the past.

Thank you NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and the author for an ARC in exchange form my honest review.

I read this forever ago and never made the review and I feel terrible about it. 😭 I thought it was a really good book, and it is 100% a book you should go into completely blind when reading it 4/5 stars

Whew! This kept me up reading waaaay past my bedtime. I will say, when I started I had no idea where the book was going to go. It seemed pretty straight forward, but as it progressed there were so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

Lucy and her husband Adam have been best friends with Cora and Scott for years. They do everything together, their kids to do everything together, and they are even fixing up a house together. Scott, Lucy is in awe of how much Cora and Scott love each other, so when she sees Scott cozied up in a picture with another woman, she is immediately concerned. Lucy actually becomes obsessed with figuring out what is going on. She can't stop thinking, digging and investigating.

Initially, I was irritated by Lucy's obsession with the photo, but the more I thought about it, the more I could see how that could take over all aspects of her life and worm its way in to her brain. This was a very enjoyable read and I am looking forward to more by the author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the book as a whole, but I didn’t LOVE it. I think part of the reason was because I figured out the twist in the first chapter which is a bummer. But the story itself was interesting. The pacing was a little off for me as well. The first half of the book was pretty slow, but once it hit about 50%, the pace picked up. I flew through the last half.

This is the first book I have read of Helen Cooper. I will read more of her work because I did enjoy it and found her writing style entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Lucy has a seemingly idyllic life. Her sweet caring husband Adam and their married best friends Scott and Cora are an impenetrable unit and are practically family. But when Lucy sees a picture of Scott with another woman on vacation, she starts to realize that not everything is as it seems and when the woman in the picture goes missing, Lucy must take a closer look at the people she loves most and consider that they may not be who she thought they were.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and GP Putnam's Sons for this e=arc.*

I liked the uniqueness of the story, but couldnt really get into it. So sorry but this wasnt for me.

Thank you to NetGalley fora n advanced digital copy of this book.

Lucy and Adam are best friends with Cora and Scott. In fact, Adam, Cora, and Scott were best friends at Uni and added Lucy to the group when she married Adam. Each couple has two children, who are also all best friends, and the families together own a damaged beach cottage that they work to renovate. Their lives are perfect.

And then one day Lucy is idly glancing at a co-worker's phone pictures from her honeymoon in the Maldives and she spots what is undeniably Scott with his arms around a woman who is definitely not Cora. Is she mistaken? Scott was supposedly in Tokyo, so how can this be him? When she tries to look at the pictures again, she can't find her friend has taken a few days off. And then she sees a news report that the woman in the picture has gone missing, and is soon found dead in the Maldives. And then the co-worker is attacked in her home!!

It seems the college friends have more to their story than they have shared with Lucy and as she slowly finds out the whole truth, her life, along with all those perfect lives, are changed forever.

A good story, with lots of twists and turns, but it could have been told sooner. There is a lot of detail that wasn't really needed. I was tempted to stop reading a couple of times, but I am glad that I stuck it out.

This drew me in from the very beginning. It starts when a woman sees a picture of her best friends husband in a picture on some trip with another woman. Does she tell her best friend or keep it to herself? Does she confront the husband or wait until he slips up or comes clean? She starts questioning Does she really know her own husband as much as she thought she did? When the woman in the picture goes missing its time to work to put the puzzle pieces together of what happened and which one of the ones who she is so close to involved? This one will have you thinking you know pretty early on but the ending will shock you.

I really tried to like this book, but after working my way through it over a long period I just couldn't connect with the characters or the storyline. I kept reading a bit, stopping and coming back, finally getting through it.

The premise was good and should have been a great mystery, but I overall I felt an underlying current that Lucy was being gaslit by her husband Adam and their friends Cora and Scott. She always did feel a bit on the outside anyway, since the 3 of them met in school and she was late to the party.

I know there are many people who will thoroughly enjoy this story, but it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

This was an okay read for me. It started off pretty fast-paced, and who doesn’t love a domestic thriller? But I felt like it kind of just hit a lull and never picked back up. The characters started to get on my nerves and the constant gaslighting of Lucy sucked. It was always the other 3, who are supposed to be her people, telling her she was crazy so they could keep each other’s secrets. There was definitely potential for this to be better- I think dual POVs might have been cool? But there just weren’t enough twists in the plot so the ending was just meh.

The Couple in the Photo is a satisfying and fast-paced novel by Helen Cooper. Lucy and Adam Taylor and their daughters Tilly and Fran are best friends with Scott and Cora Waugh and their children Ivy and Joe. Cora and Scott were university friends of Adam, however they whole- heartedly embraced Lucy into their lives and saw each as extended family of the other.
Lucy has always been fascinated by photos so it was no surprise that she was eagerly looking at the wedding photos of her teaching colleague, Ruth's, wedding and honeymoon photos. What was surprising was that Lucy was sure she saw a photo of Scott with another woman talking with Ruth in the Maldives while on her honeymoon. What was Scott doing in the Maldives when he was to be in Tokyo setting up an air show? That is the backdrop for a suspense filled story of betrayal, murders, deceit, devastation and ultimately resolution.
I am grateful to NetGalley and Penquin Random House Publishing for the opportunity to read an ARC of The Couple in the Photo, that in no way influenced my review. 3.5 stars

Lucy and her husband Adam are best friends (practically family!) with another couple, Cora and Scott. When looking at a coworker’s honeymoon photos, Lucy swears there’s a photo of Scott in the bunch with a woman who isn’t Cora. In her search for answers, Lucy bites off more than she can chew and the foursome’s secrets start to reveal themselves.

THE COUPLE IN THE PHOTO by Helen Cooper is a domestic thriller full of intrigue and a codependence I haven’t seen in a while!

This book started off pretty strong for me - the setup of the mystery and the gaslighting made me want to keep reading.

However, the characters soon became grating and the twists just weren’t twisty enough for me in terms of making the plot more interesting.

A fine read that makes me just a bit hesitant to dive into Cooper’s backlist.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: December 5

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Lucy has a lovely life. A great marriage until she looks through a friend's phot album and she's her husband with another woman. This book had me questioning everything.

This book had me questioning everything from the very beginning. It kept me on my toes and I wasn't able to guess that plot twist.

BOOK: The Couple in the Photo
AUTHOR: Helen Cooper
PUB DATE: 12/5/23 by @penguinrandomhouse
PAGES: 368
RATING: 4.5 stars
GENRE: Psychological Thriller

A BIG thank you to @netgalley & @penguinrandomhouse for gifting me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

SYNOPSIS: Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora & Scott for years. The four are practically family at this point--they vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their young children are inseparable. So, Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague's photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on a luxurious holiday with another woman. Lucy is determined to protect her best friend from her husband's seeming infidelity, but when she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing, she can't help but fear that Scott was involved. As she searches for answers, she uncovers secrets about her friends and her own husband that could destroy the wonderful lives they have built...and she suspects that everybody around her knows much more about the missing woman than they are letting on. Is Lucy actually the one most in the dark? If so, what are the consequences of discovering the truth?

REVIEW: This was one of my top suspense arcs this year! The story was engaging from the very beginning, and I had a difficult time putting it down. It was also my first time reading from this author and I’m excited to read more by her! Look for this one! It comes out on December 5th! I highly suggest it!

Happy Reading!

When Lucy sees her best friend's husband in a co-worker's honeymoon picture with another woman, she is confused. When she sees the other woman reported missing on the news that night, she starts to panic. She goes to her husband, Adam, about it all, but he tries to shut it down saying Scott would never cheat on Cora. But as more secrets start to unravel, and the missing woman is found dead, Lucy starts to wonder how much she really knows about Scott and Lucy and if she can trust any of them, including her husband, at all.

I really liked Lucy's character. It is rare to find a book where the MC is unraveling secrets and lies in a realistic way and actually confronting people as secrets are discovered. Nothing drives me crazier than a naive protagonist that ignores all basic logic or that refuses to confront people in hopes of getting to the truth in a different way. I appreciated how realistic her character seemed. That said, I found the overall story pretty far fetched. Had Ruth not been involved, I could have accepted it, but her involvement in the story just seemed way too coincidental to be believable.

Overall I enjoyed reading the story, but at some points it felt like it was dragging a bit, Cora's parts felt like they were trying to lead us to think it was Scott thinking it, but I never doubted it was Cora and read it in her voice the entire time. I also thought the killer was very predictable.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.25⭐
Genre ~ mystery
Setting ~ England
Publication date ~ December 5, 2023
Est page Count ~ 367 (35 chapters +e)
Audio length ~ 10 hours 45 minutes
Narrator ~ Naomi Frederick
POV ~ single 3rd
Featuring ~ secrets, lies, murder, infidelity

4 best friends, Lucy & Adam & Cora & Scott, do everything together. 3 went to uni together and 1 married into this tight knit group, which is who our main narrator is, Lucy.

Once Lucy sees an incriminating photo she becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what's going on. And then the person in the photo turns up missing and she really amps up her obsession. I could totally see my nosy self trying to figure out what was going on my own, too, but I'm not sure I would make all the same decisions as Lucy. I was quite curious how it would play out, but it turned out to be a bit predictable to me. It did move along at a quick pace, so that was a good thing. The extra POV from an unknown adds some intrigue, but unfortunately that's easy to guess who it is. There were some heart pounding moments, especially in the car at the end, but Lucy's actions is the final scenes were just too implausible in my opinion.

Overall, I think it was well written and would appeal to unseasoned mystery reads.

Narration notes:
I did not listen to this one, but am just giving the info above for reference.

This was a very twisty, who done it thriller. The author did a great job consistently confusing you as to who could have done what, which made it a lot of fun. I liked that this wasn’t a straight forward X person was guilty kind of case, and There were so many twists over the course of the story,

This smart and suspenseful story unfolds as a woman discovers her best friend's husband with another woman in a photo, coincidentally revealed by her coworker while sharing honeymoon pictures.

Lucy has always been a big fan of pictures, always shoving a camera in everyone’s faces to document every experience (much to their dismay). One day her coworker Ruth is showing honeymoon photos and she sees a picture of another couple who they spent time with named Jason and Anna, but that’s her best friend Cora’s husband Scott, and Anna is not Cora.

Lucy’s husband Adam has been best friends with Scott and Cora ever since university, so the three of them have a deep rooted past, and that past seems to be full of secrets.

With only Lucy’s POV, we follow her as she tries to put the pieces together and figure out if Scott is cheating, or if she’s just being paranoid. If this mystery isn’t already distressing enough, Lucy ends up seeing the woman in the photo on the news because she is missing.

This book will have you questioning Lucy’s reliability, and not trusting anyone. Is her husband in on this? Is Scott guilty of more than just cheating? Does Cora know what’s going on?

I found this story to be unpredictable and it kept me intrigued from the first page. I love the way the author played with something most of us do, take photos to capture memories, but she made it sinister.

This was twisty, cloaked in mystery, and the ending absolutely surprised me. Some aspects were predictable, but as a whole I really enjoyed this suspenseful story and I definitely recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC! Pub day is 12/5/23!