I've been a fan of Sue Watson for a few years now and so I was thrilled to receive an ARC via Netgalley and the publisher to read and review.

This book started off slower than Sue's previous novels but I don't mind a slow burn thriller. I found the character of Alice very frustrating. I wanted to shake some sense into her for most of the book. She comes across as very naive and gullible. She makes some decisions that seem so unbelievably stupid that I found myself shouting at my kindle.

However there are some big twists and reveals in the last few chapters that totally save this book. So while this isn't my favourite Sue Watson thriller it still makes for a good read.

★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)

The blushing bride...The handsome groom...A secret one of them will kill for...

First of all, forget the description premise - that doesn't even take place till about halfway through the book and there is so much more to come before the illustrious wedding. Secondly, this is one messed up train wreck of a story! Our narrator is so unreliable readers can't even trust her let alone anyone else. And then there's all the other pieces of the puzzle that are literally littered all over the place with no rhyme or reason. I say again, train wreck!

I'm a big fan of Sue Watson and am always eager to read what she has next in store for us. THE WEDDING DAY, again, is something a little different. OK, so it's a lot different and I'm still getting my head around how someone can be so naive to make such stupid ill-conceived decisions. But one thing that didn't slip by was the big reveals. I knew exactly what was going on (or thereabouts) and was neither wowed or shocked when the reveals came. Maybe I am just too seasoned to be shocked and know exactly where to look...but hey, it was still an entertaining read watching Alice make some stupid decisions.

We meet Alice on her way home from work one evening stopping by the Tesco Express for another bottle or two to drown her sorrows on this Valentines Day where her Decree Absolute has become final. She spends as much of the time choosing the wines as she does ruminating over past failures as a wife/ mother/person when she spots a familiar figure in the aisle. Her ex-husband Dan...and he's not alone. And she's pregnant. Very pregnant. Devastated, Alice flees covered with the spattered drops of wine, only stopping when she stumbles onto the train home. In her ragged state, commuters believe her to be homeless as does the ticket inspector who demands to see her ticket or payment for one but without her bag - which she left back in Tesco - she is bundled off the train at the next stop.

Poor Alice. She hasn't had much luck in recent years. After failed attempts at IVF, to now discover her ex has soon impregnated a fast replacement only adds salt to the wound. But now Dan is in hospital with a fractured skull after taking a smack to the head with a wine bottle and the police are looking to her for answers. Instead of using common sense, Alice packs her bags and boards a plane to the beautiful Greek island of Corfu. I don't blame her, I'd probably prefer the sun drenched shores of the island myself.

There she meets Sylvie who quickly becomes her new best friend. The two women share so much in common and neither have been lucky in love so what better way than to drown the past in Cosmopolitans?! No thank you, but each to their own. Alice has taken a long term rental there with no return date for the UK booked and the more she hears from her sister Heather back home, the less likely she is to return. Can things get any worse?

And then she meets Nik. Beautiful Greek god adonis Nik. Owner and manager of Kouris Wineries in the rural Greek mountainside. He's handsome, he's rich and he's interested in Alice. Can her luck finally be changing? After a whirlwind romance, the couple marry at his vineyard destined to spend their lives happily ever after. Until Nik is arrested on their wedding day.

When I started reading THE WEDDING DAY, like most readers, I was thinking "where's the wedding?" Ok, so that comes later. Much later, as it happens. But before that is a whole lot of other stuff that I found quite confusing. Alice's blackouts...even her reasoning behind them were somewhat vague that I doubt anyone would have believed her had she told them. It seemed a little wishy-washy just out of reach that it was hard to connect anything that she was saying to what was happening. Even her references to the disappearances in Corfu were vague. She claimed her and her sister were true crime fans and followed the case online but that didn't wash with me. Both Alice and Heather seemed a little too personally involved. They knew something but they weren't sharing. I just didn't get why these women were so important to Alice when she didn't know any of them...or did she? She didn't seem to and she certainly never admitted to doing so. It was just so confusing that I didn't know what her role in it that mystery was...because she was sooooo stuck on it. She's like a dog with a bone and wasn't giving up.

BUT...everything starts to make sense towards the end, trust me. But it is a long time getting there. The pace is a little slow to begin with, slower than Watson's previous thrillers, but it does pick up at the wedding and following that. Alice still, however, continues to make stupid decisions throughout. I was shouting at her at every major decision to STOP! NO! DON'T DO IT! Because I knew it was only going to end in tears. No good was going to come of it, I felt sure. My skin was crawling, my nerves were tingling...something most definitely was not right. But like all stupid lovesick idiots, she failed to heed my warnings...or that of her sister, with whom she was in direct contact (as opposed to me, a humble reader to her happenings). Really, Alice ignored just about every red flag waved in her direction. Either that or she was just blind to them completely, I'm not quite sure.

The question is, do you know what is happening or will you be as shocked as Alice when all is revealed? Or are you a seasoned reader of this genre like me and can pick a predictable path to the end? Either way, there is one twist that had my jaw dropping because it was most certainly something I wasn't expecting. And what a twist it was.

Overall, THE WEDDING DAY was an entertaining thriller that did drag a little but picked up as the threads were woven into place to a satisfying end.

I would like to thank #SueWatson, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheWeddingDay in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

When Alice leaves for corfu after a situation with her ex husband, Dan, can life improve for her?
She makes a new friend and a new live interest and soon the island of Corfu will be a nightmare.
Sue weaves a beautiful location with deplorable characters and intrigue that keeps you guessing to the end.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

When we first meet Alice her life is rapidly crumbling around her, and as the setting changes and the story unfolds, things really don't get any better. Alice is someone who is always chasing what she thinks will make her content and safe, but her obsessive nature-and frequent indulgence in one too many glasses of wine-aid her only in sinking deeper into the nefarious machinations of those around her.

This story had me in its grip most of the time. Chapters would end with allusions towards the doom that was coming Alice's way, keeping me enthralled in how this was all going to play out. And, wow, were there some big twists! I saw one of them coming, but the rest were out of left field and made for a very enjoyable ending.

My only gripe would be that somewhere in the middle there was a bit of a lag that I had to push through. I think there was just enough build and I was metaphorically standing there tapping my foot, waiting for the dynamite to ignite and the story to take that downhill turn towards the climax and conclusion.

Overall, this was a fun reading experience with not so likeable characters (other than Alice's sister, Heather), psychological suspense, and a thrilling conclusion. I look forward to trying more of this author's books in the future!

3.75✨'s

I read and reviewed an advanced eARC of this book thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

What a trip! Such a good read! There are so many twists and turns that you think you missed something because you can almost figure it out, but not quite! Not knowing what to believe, who to trust or what really happened has you glued to the pages waiting for more.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you NetGalley, Sue Watson and Bookouture for hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

Wow what a book!! I devoured this and o did not expect that ending at all, this will not be the last book I read by this author ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book has a great opening - with fast-paced action and dilemmas. Alice has decisions to make, running to Corfu for some breathing space. Here Corfu comes across as idyllic, warm and beautiful, a perfect setting for mysterious happenings. Alice, as the main character, has her heart in the right place but there were several moments I wanted to grab her by the shoulders, to make her stop and think!

Sue Watson has written a clever, multi-layered plot, which needed time to develop, however I felt the book lost pace in the middle. I wasn’t sufficiently invested, that I rushed to pick up the book to read.

In the final third of the book, the pace picks up again and the plot twists tighter, before it starts to unravel. Some well-scripted plot reveals fired my motivation to read on. Other parts I saw coming, but were satisfyingly placed.

I love Sue Watson’s psychological thrillers. Whilst this one is a bit far-fetched and doesn’t seem as strong as previous books, it is an enjoyable read nevertheless.

A book about Alice and her struggles after a divorce, infertility and a tragic accident to her ex husband. Or was it an accident? Full of surprises and plot twists all the way through this is impossible to put down. Great book. Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for sharing this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It took me forever to finish reading it - and I almost DNF so many times throughout the story. I felt like the storyline drug on way longer than it needed to, and there were things that just didn't make sense. For example, Alice goes to Corfu to "get answers" - but then seemingly forgets why she's there until the end of the story. Another - she says she has $500k...spends seemingly a lot on renting a house for multiple months, buying clothes and food, planning a WEDDING, paying an attorney, and then still has $480k left? Not buying it.

I was able to figure out who the "bad" players were in the book relatively quickly, although there were a couple of people who surprised me, and I didn't quite have the entire plot figured out. If I'm being honest...that was the only thing that saved this from being a one star review. I thought that Alice was obsessive, had addictive personality, was irresponsible and apparently oblivious to red flags because they were being thrown up all over this book. Not a single character was likeable, and that made it even hard to get invested in the story.

All in all, just not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookoture for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wedding Day is a whiz bang read. Read flags immediately jumped out from the first page.
Alice was a bit muddled for me. I thought she was emotionally damaged, paranoid, and also too naive and obtuse.
I Constantly yelled at her while reading the book. But when she did a drastic thing I about lost it, especially with her settlement.
When the truth emerged, I congratulated Watson in my head for creating such a convoluted, never- saw -it coming for a plot twist extraordinaire!
There’s a lot packed into this book so If you like being constantly surprised, it’s a must read.

The Wedding Day by Sue Watson is a different kind of psych thriller. Instead of events making the plot come together, I felt more confused the further I read.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing – because it certainly kept me guessing. But it was a little odd.
Alice is a mess. There is no other way to put it. She’s lost her husband to an affair, spiraled into drinking, lost her job because of that…a perfect storm of misery.
So, when she runs into said ex-husband and new chick – and realizes something disturbing – she can hardly be blamed for being upset, right?
Well…..she’s more than that. This meeting is the catalyst for all that follows in the book.
In short order, Alice finds herself on the island of Corfu – and that’s when the plot really takes off. I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but you can read the blurb for what occurs next.
There are some parts of the book that feel very repetitive. Yes, we get it – Alice and her sister really like crime shows. Does that help them, or does it make them paranoid? And why is Alice obsessed with posters of missing women that are scattered around the island?
I will say that I thought the author was going in a different direction with that plotline, especially in light of recent news about a certain island in the Caribbean. So, kudos for leading me down that path.
The author also did a good job of laying in just enough clues and red herrings that the reader remained as off-kilter as Alice. The end requires a bit of suspended disbelief, but I’m not mad at it. It is just soapy enough to be entertaining.
In fact, that describes the whole book, really.
The Wedding Day is a “take your brain out and go for the ride” type of psych thriller. It is good enough that I’ll continue to look for books from Sue Watson.

**For more reviews like this, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks.**

Let me pick my jaw up off of the floor. Sue Watson is the queen of books that will play with your mind, so I do not know why I was surprised, but the twists just kept coming literally up until the final page of the book.

Alice is a very unhappy lady. She is recently divorced, infertile and suffers from blackouts. When an incident occurs in her local store, she realizes she needs to get out of town. Even though her sister, Heather, insists that it is not safe for her to travel alone, she goes to the beautiful island of Corfu. Although the landscape and beaches of Corfu are beautiful, this place holds an ugly secret - women traveling alone mysteriously disappear never to be seen again. Alice and her sister, Heather, are true crime gurus, and they are a little obsessed with this story. Alice decides she can do some amateur sleuthing while getting away from it all. She does not count on finding the man of her dreams. Nik is a dreamy vineyard owner who can offer Alice so much. He makes her feel loved which is how we arrive at the wedding day. Alice feels that Nik's family has secrets. His cousin, Dimitris, gives her the creeps and is a suspect in the disappearance of the women in Corfu, but Alice has her own secrets as well. Things are definitely not always as they appear. They are practically strangers.

The characters in this book are so mysterious. I did not know who I could trust. They all seemed a little sketchy, but at times they seemed so nice and friendly. I could feel the relentless tension as each chapter progressed, and the mystery deepened even further through each turn of the page. I was completely entranced with how this story would end. I could not get enough. If you like to read a mystery that will keep you guessing and catch you off guard, this book will fit the bill. Wow! I am still scratching my head. This was a great read worthy of more than five stars. This is another winner for Sue Watson.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Alice is struggling to accept her divorce and, after an altercation which she has no recollection of, she decides to escape to Corfu for a while, but that's not the only reason she has chosen this beautiful Greek island, and this becomes clearer later. She soon meets and falls in love with Nik, a local business owner and before long they're getting married, but when the truth comes out someone is going to get hurt...

The Wedding Day is the latest domestic thriller by Watson and this one hits the ground running right from the prologue. It's a fast paced read with a great plot and some intriguing characters, but considering everything Alice had been through I felt she was far too trusting of others, then just when I thought I'd figured out what was going on, the author threw in a curveball that sent this story off on another tangent and I was strapping myself in for a bumpy ride! This is another cracker from Watson, with some great twists, an unexpected ending and a beautiful setting, making this well worth a read.

I'd like to thank Bookouture and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

This is a great psychological thriller with a few surprises in store.
Alice goes to Corfu following an incident with her ex husband and quickly falls for Nik, a handsome vineyard owner.
They marry quickly but due to something happening on their wedding day, Alice’s gut feeling is soon telling her not to trust Nik.
With events back in the UK catching up to her fast she confides in Nik about what happened and he offers to help. But is his offer genuine?
This is a gripping psychological thriller that will definitely have you hooked.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

It's the day you always dream of, your wedding day. You walk down the aisle to your fiancé Nik, looking around and not recognizing anyone there except him and his family. None of your family is there but you're just so happy to marry Nik. He won't answer questions about his past and his family seems odd, but that doesn't matter as long as you're happy right? And as long as your soon to be husband doesn't find out what happened to your ex-husband or why you really moved to the island. If he ever does find out though, it will already be too late...
The story starts out strong and ends with a shocking twist. My only complaint is that it got a bit slow in the middle but the ending more than made up for it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

This novel is to die for! Alice is having a hard time with her divorce and her ex husband Dan has moved on quickly. She’s drinking and has bad dreams. One day she runs into Dan and his pregnant wife! Alice and Dan struggled with infertility so this is devastating to Alice. After an altercation Alice who suffers from PTSD and blackouts finds out she is accused of the unthinkable.
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She flees to Corfur, Greece to try to get her life back. She has been here before. Upon her arrival she meets Nik, a charming owner of a vineyard. He is widowed and she meets some new friends. After a quick courtship they get married.
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He also lives with his cousin Dimitris who has a hard time communicating and is under suspicion for women missing on the island. There are posters of missing women. Alice is intrigued and wants to find out more.
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This story has so many plot twists that kept me turning the pages. An incredibly fun, entertaining and twisted one!
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Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and author Sue Watson for this advanced copy. Available May 17, 2023.

This was a twisty thriller with lots of unlikeable characters and an unreliable narrator. It had a quick pace which made it the perfect vacation read.

3.5/5
I enjoyed reading The Wedding Day. It was a good mystery with a good twist at the end. All of the things you want in a psychological thriller. I gave this book a 3.5 because all of the lead up to the big reveal didn't exactly keep my attention. I found myself skimming through a lot of the paragraphs just to get to the juicy stuff. I prefer my thrillers to have drama on every page. I didn't find that there were all that many clues left in the earlier part of the book. My favorite thrillers are the ones that have me wanting to re-read to see what I may have missed. I honestly don't think there's any point to re-reading this one, there wasn't a trail of breadcrumbs. I also didn't care for the main character. It may be due to alcohol abuse trauma in my past, but I didn't like reading about how much the main character needed alcohol. Even though they're in different categories I would compare it to Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine. It has the same vibe of repressed memories where you find out at the very end the dirty secret they were keeping under wraps. What saved the book for me was the dramatic reveal. I'll tell you I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. The bad guy was truly unhinged and I applaud the author for the amount of twisted grossness of the character.

Sue Watson is one of my all-time favourite authors and I always eagerly await a new book from her! This was another belter!

The story begins in the UK on Valentine's Day with Alice in a supermarket buying wine, mourning her failed marriage to Dan. An unexpected incident causes her to flee to Corfu to escape the police's accusations and there she meets Nik, an attractive, wealthy owner of a vineyard, who appears to be everything she needs to forget her past. But Corfu proves not to be the safe haven she was expecting and Alice realises she could be in danger...

Alice is your classic troubled character with a past and it is this which makes her a perfect unreliable narrator. The author cleverly explores the depths of Alice's traumatised mind, and this, along with a host of other richly drawn characters, means you, as the reader, never quite know who you can trust. I loved the setting and could almost picture the beautiful scenery and vineyards and the warmth of the Greek sun.

The twists and turns kept on coming, and while I did guess one, this in no way detracted from the story.

This was another great offering from Sue Watson and one I highly recommend to all. Roll on her next one!

Thanks to author Sue Watson, publishers Bookouture and Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Wedding Day’ by Sue Watson in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Leaving behind a failed marriage and fertility problems, Alice escapes to Corfu after being arrested for assaulting her ex-husband and his new pregnant partner with a bottle of red wine. As she sits on a bench in the sunshine she’s intrigued by the pictures of the women who’ve disappeared and wants to find out what’s happened to them. While in a café Alice meets Nik, a wealthy vineyard owner, but it isn’t long before warning bells start to ring and she wonders whether she’s made the right decision.

‘The Wedding Day’ is an entertaining thriller situated in the warm sunshine of Corfu and has a nicely thought-out plot. Although slow at times it’s had sufficient twists and turns to keep me reading and the deeper I’ve got into the story the more involved I’ve become. I’ll admit it’s not my favourite novel by this author but that’s probably due to me rather than the book and it’s definitely worth spending time reading.