I really didn’t like any of the characters in THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING, and the book was a bit predictable, but overall it was a quick easy read. I’d say this book is perfect for an airplane ride or another time when you need something to keep you interested with little brain power required.

The twists were decent and the ending was a bit of a surprise because I thought it would conclude differently.

Thank you to publisher Henry Holt & Co and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy of THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING in exchange for my honest feedback.

I wanted to love this one so much, I really did. I love a thriller, and I typically enjoy multiple timelines and POV's which this book has. But I had such a hard time getting into this one as (I hate saying this) the writing just didn't hold my interest and it took me most of the book to care at all about the storyline. The writing just didn't seem to flow smoothly, but it was disjointed to me. At first I thought, "Wow! This should be good!" because Mark and Annie were at their wedding when she spotted a man that obviously disturbed her.

Soon thereafter we find out that Mark had a wife named Hope but somehow she's missing. She did, however, leave a diary that I hoped was going to pick up the pace for me. As I read, I began to suspect that perhaps Mark had done something to her. Picking up another place in the book when I thought, "Here it is," and I had hopes that I was going to now gain more interest. Sadly, I really didn't even though the "stranger at the wedding" showed up at their home after Mark and Annie got married. We learn that Annie has some secrets.

I had both the audiobook and e-book but I had a difficult time listening to the narrator. Most of the time if I have a hard time reading a book if I have the audiobook too it helps me get into it; however, in this case I had a difficult time understanding the narrator so it didn't give me that extra pickup.

I will say that there was a good twist and I enjoyed that. Plus, I thought the premise was promising and I think it will be a pleaser to others, but not me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher to read and review -- I apologize for the late timing.

3.5⭐️ rounded down. I thought this would be a thriller. It had a solid concept, plenty of psychological drama and some suspense.
Man and woman get married - but there’s a problem: the man was married before and the wife disappeared -- no one knows what happened to her. The man’s dad actually hires a PI to start digging around - but sinister things keep happening and the plot thickens. A little bit cat & mouse.

Not a show-stopper, but entertaining.
I might try another from this author!

4.5 stars It is always so interesting how one person can love and book and others can hate it. Looking at the reviews for this book, it is clear we are having a difference of opinion! I really enjoyed this thriller. I liked how the story moves between different characters’ point of view and also between different time frames. I particularly liked the character of Cameron. He seemed like a thoroughly decent person. Of course, often thrillers aren’t totally realistic. So you have to suspend your skepticism sometimes to read them. Some things in the plot might seem hard to believe. But the story, twists, and the quality of the writing overcame any plot issues for me. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read it as an ARC.

I ended up listening to the audiobook of this, and it was quite the wild ride. I loved the twist in this! I absolutely did not see it coming and I think it complicated the story without making it confusing. That is not easy to do!

I liked this book. It had good twists and turns, and it was a good mix of what the heck and okay I get it. Overall I enjoyed it

Annie's life has been effect by trauma over and over again. Just when she thinks it'll never change or get better she meet the dashing and debonair Mark. She first sees him on the train and just as she begins to get the courage to speak to him, he disappears. Then when she least expects it, he shows up at the community trauma sorry group she attends. As they bind over the trains each had ensured a romance blossoms and it seems that Annie and Mark might both get a second chance at happiness. It isn't until a strange man shows up at their wedding that Annie becomes worried that things aren't exactly as they seem.
This book is full of sub plots and misdirections. I had it pretty well figured at one point, but that didn't stop me from turning pages. I'm the end it seems that things worked out exactly as they were meant to.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

💍THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING💍
𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔯
𝙿𝚞𝚋 🗓️: 𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟷𝟹, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺
🌟𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: 𝟛.𝟝 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤! ★★★✬

🤏𝚃𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚍𝚋𝚒𝚝...Annie & Mark meet & fall in love quite fast & are getting married within a year. At the wedding, a stranger shows up & threatens to reveal their secrets that have hidden from each other…

🌻𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢...These characters were completely unhinged which I pretty much love 😆. Weddings are such a fun backdrop in movies & books as the situation no matter what is always tense. Great twists..some predictable but some def not like that ending! 🙌The writing & the flow of the story was all that fell a bit flat & I wasn’t really “rooting” for anyone like I do in all books. Would still recommend.

i did not care for this author's style of writing. Too many analogies and metaphors. The story jumped around too much.

The past stays in the past...or does it? Follow along as Annie meets the man of her dreams, Mark, and they begin their life together. But the past has a way of showing it's ugly head. Wow, wow, wow...I never saw this ending coming and wish I could go back and read it for the first time again. Be prepared to be shocked at the turn of events.

A stranger shows up at Annie and Mark's wedding. We learn that Mark was previously married to Hope and she has disappeared/presumed dead. The plot revolves around finding out what happened to Hope and what this stranger has to do with Annie and Mark.

This thriller was ok. It was told through different timelines and POV which made the story hard to follow sometimes and made the story feel a bit choppy. I felt that there was information that didn't need to be in the story and dragged the pace. About midway through, I had figured out the big reveal.

Confusing at times, but I had to know how it ended.

I couldn't quite form an opinion about anything. I was certain Annie's mom was going to figure more in the story after her drunken behavior at the wedding. I also was quite certain Nate had something more to do with his wife's disappearance. Annie seemed like someone who lucked into a cute relationship at the right time.

I was definitely shocked at how devious Annie was and her decision to meet and marry Mark. The Cameron storyline was interesting but I felt like it ended very abruptly. I think the multiple POVs were also a little confusing, but perhaps that was a plot device?

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book officially publishes on 8/13/24!

This book is what I would consider a domestic thriller. I do believe that it would help good for anyone looking to get into the thriller genre or who is new to the same. This is a quick read with short chapters to keep it fast-paced and the pacing was pretty consistent throughout. In my own personal reading experience of this book, however, I did find it difficult to relate to (or in some cases even like) the characters. I also guessed one of the major twists that was revealed in the end pretty early on in my reading which is unique to my own reading of this book. If you do decide to pick this one up, please check any relevant trigger warnings before doing so.

For a psychological thriller I wasn't overly intrigued by this one. It had a slower build and I got lost on some occasions with the multiple timelines. It fell a little flat for me. I still think its' a solid story that many will like, it just wasn't a favorite for me. Thank you to NETGALLEY and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Decent. The timeline is somewhat confusing . Did think the premise of the story was interesting, but could have mad at least 1 of the characters interesting . 3.5 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley for advance copy.

This was a quick, fairly twisty read. The story begins with Annie and Mark's wedding day after a whirlwind meeting/engagement. A stranger shows up at the wedding and know something. Mark changes after the wedding and becomes broody. Oh yeah, and his first wife disappears. The story is a bunch of cliches, but it does all come together for the most part for a fun read. The mythology pieces were a bit odd, but Annie is a Professor of Mythology so I guess they did fit.

Thank you to #NetGalley, A. E. Gauntlett and Henry Holt & Company for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Stranger at the Wedding was unfortunately not very well fleshed out. For the most part, the characters were flat and unlikable. The plots predictable. I think there was supposed to be a "twist" (because all books seem to need them instead of working harder on the story) but it wasn't very twisty.

I unfortunately had to DNF this story at about 22% in, as nothing with the characters or the mystery had grabbed me by this point. The entire premise of this book is this stranger who shows up at the wedding and causes distress to the bride, but until she kicks him out she doesn’t even have any confirmation that he wasn’t supposed to be there. I felt it would have felt more believable if she had questioned his presence to a few people, asking around about who he was, until it begins to become clear that no one at the wedding knows who he is. As it stands, she just happens to see him during her vows and mentally freaks out because of how he looks - and I’ll be honest, when I first read that passage, I thought she had looked up to her soon-to-be-husband and didn’t recognize him and that he was this stranger at the wedding. (And, to be completely honest, I think that might have been a more compelling story - one where the bride doesn’t know who she’s marrying, but that no one else at the wedding seems to feel the same or believe her).

When the second part started, that happened a full six months earlier and we discovered that the husband in this story had been married before, and that his wife had gone missing - I knew I couldn’t continue reading when even this part didn’t interest me in the least.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason, I thought I had already read this book, so I’m glad I caught it before it left NetGalley! I was thinking of a book I read earlier this year that also had a “stranger at the wedding”, but having someone you weren’t expecting at your wedding is where the similarity ended between that book and this one. This is about Annie and Mark’s wedding, where yes, they see a stranger who claims to know a member of the family, yet nobody knows who they are, so they are asked to leave.

The wedding comes first in the book, and then we go back into the past to see how the couple met, and how their childhoods made them the people they are today. Annie is a mythology professor and Mark, a surgeon. They meet while commuting, and after a few weeks they finally get the courage to go on a date.

Mark is hesitant because of Hope, his first wife. A couple years prior, she left one day, leaving everything behind, including a note basically saying she was done. What did she mean? Done with the marriage, or life in general? The police gave up the case, as people who knew her don’t think she would have harmed herself - she obviously ran off in search of a new life. A part of Mark is still wondering where she is, or if she’s even alive, but when he and Annie meet, the relationship felt very natural and they quickly got married.

Now that the wedding is over, Mark has changed, seemingly overnight. No longer silly and impulsive, he is now brooding and isolating himself from his new bride. Annie is trying to be understanding, but he isn’t making it easy, and she begins to worry. Is it possible that their wedding crasher caused some kind of a change in Mark? Is he missing Hope more than he is excited to be with Annie? Has she made a huge mistake?

There was a lot of the past in this book, and I’m not sure that most of it was necessary to tell the story. Their childhoods were unique, but everyone’s childhoods are, in some way or another, and some of it felt like it was just filler. The present is definitely where the mystery and thrill is, and it was good; I didn’t see the ending coming at all. I don’t think I’d call this a page turner, but it was a very quick, entertaining read. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to Henry Holt & Co., A.E. Gauntlett and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)