I found this book a slow burn and the back and forth style was confusing and difficult to read.
The way the writing is going back and forth was so confusing and sometimes I wasnt sure whose POV it was. There was a lot going on and I felt that sometimes it didnt keep my attention and wasn't the best i have read. I was looking forward to reading this but i still don't understand what i read.

At times felt rushed and i was so looking forward to this book. It was just ok for me but i would give the author another try with another novel.

Hannah, Rachel, Allison, and Matt - college roommates, best friends. That is until jealousy starts unraveling their friendships. Then a traumatic experience truly derails things. Years later, the foursome lives apart but are still bound by that trauma. When their lives intersect a second time, things will be forever changed for all. A wild ride!

Mercifully short, this book consists of the thoughts of Hannah, a woman who turns up at the door of university flatmates from 17 years ago. As the book progresses, we come to understand that Hannah is obsessed by Rachel. Hannah had left after a year and after being raped there had been no contact since. It all stretches the bounds of credibility a little too far, especially the scenes set in the prison.
Hannah is at best, introspective and obsessed, at worst just strange. The other characters are seen from her point of view, so also coloured by her thoughts. I did finish, but cannot say I enjoyed this book and the plot was not interesting or believable enough for me. The friendships are immature and circumstances far fetched.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

This book was really good. It could be slow at times. The ending was simply amazing. Unexpected and very well executed. I would read more from this author.

I am sorry to say but this book bored me!!! I lost interest not even mid way through!!! I don’t know if it was because they were trapped in one place or how fake everyone seemed to be!!!

This book was a good psychological thriller. The plot moved quickly and kept my attention. Sometimes, it seemed a bit scattered, but it eventually fell into place. However, I genuinely enjoyed the unexpected turns in the plot. It was a solid read!

not the best psychological thriller I have read mainly because I didnt like any of the characters! I found them quite unpleasant, manipulative with no redeeming features but the author's story was good and I liked the pace x

This book had all the fixings for a great psychological thriller — complicated marriage, manipulative relationships, strange friendships, and secrets from the past — but it did not deliver. Unfortunately, this storyline was not captivating enough. It was a bit of a struggle trying to finish it.

Thank you to net galley for the eARC!

Thank you Storm Publishing and Netgalley for this arc. This is my honest review and opinion.

This one just didn't do it for me. I couldn't get into it, the characters are all not likeable and the title is completely miss leading.

I personally found the writing style quite chaotic (mostly at the beginning) so it hindered my ability to really get stuck into this book. Once I was about 20% in then it was a much quicker read

I would definitely recommend this for newer readers to thrillers as it’s a great starting point but if you’re a big thriller reader you may find it predictable


Thank you for the opportunity to read this book

Maybe it is just me but I would be a lot more suspicious of someone I hadn't seen for 17 years rocking up on my doorstep, regardless of what our friendship was like when we were last together!

All three of the main characters are fairly unlikeable, Rachel comes across as manipulative from the start and Matt as untrustworthy...Hannah is a little harder to get a handle on as she demands empathy from page one but become more and more unpleasant as the story progresses!
Told from multiple viewpoints and both time lines of now and then, there are some jumps that were initially confusing until you worked out both the voice and the period.

However as the book progresses so does the pace, the intrigue, the secrets and the lies- all in all making this a great read!

When Hannah shows up at Rachel’s house after 17 whole years, Rachel is pleasantly surprised but her partner Matt not so much – there’s history between him and Hannah & he does not want Rachel finding out what he has planned for their future.
Matt opens up to Hannah and says that Rachel has been unfaithful and he thinks that she will leave him soon. But Hannah is dealing with a trauma from her younger days and only Rachel knows what happened and what they did that day!
Hannah starts to see someone lurking around Rachel and Matt’s house, there’s someone who seems to be keeping an eye on her.
The book started slow, and for some reason I found it hard to keep track of the characters – but once it picked pace, there was just tension filled chapters and I could not put it down!
Thanks to NetGalley, Storm Publishing & Elena Wilkes for approving the ARC e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hannah decides to visit her college roommates after many years. She is looking to resolve the past. She had some trauma that few people knew about back then.

Told in multiple points of view and time lines. Normally I like this set up, but with this one I was often confused. Sideline characters were introduced that had no bearing on the story. I feel that some of the characters should have played a bigger part in the sections about the past. It would have made the overall story less confusing.

The main characters are all unlikable. I don't mind this but I do need someone to root for.

The ending may be surprising to some, but I guessed parts of it right from the beginning. That doesn't stop me from enjoying a good book.

Overall not a bad book, but not a great one.

Thanks to netgalley and Storm Publishing for the arc.

Wow, wow, wow! This was perfection itself! Sheer brilliance. Loved, loved loved this one and very highly recommend it to all.

The Broken Marriage by Elena Wilkes

Rachel and Matt have it all. They are the beautiful couple – from their tastefully renovated house to their highly successful careers. But beneath the happy façade lies a relationship strained by secrets and lies. While Rachel grows increasingly restless, Matt can’t stop thinking about Hannah, Rachel’s former best friend, who they haven’t seen for seventeen years…

When Hannah suddenly arrives on their doorstep in the middle of a snowstorm, Rachel and Matt’s perfect marriage begins to crack dangerously. As tensions mount to a breaking point, Hannah reveals her own dark secret – one she's been afraid to face. But has Hannah brought that darkness with her? Has it followed her to this place of safety? Trapped together while the snow falls heavily outside, it becomes clear that everyone has something to hide…

Really enjoyed this one. A great build up of a couple with something to Hide and a spanner in the works with the arrival of Hannah.
Maybe not believable in real life , but a page turner netherless. Enjoyed it.

Genre : Thriller
Rating : 3.8/5

Thank you NetGalley, Storm Publishing and author, Elena Wilkes for the gifted e-ARC.
The reveal at the end had me in! The book is insane, it took me a while to get into but about halfway, I was thoroughly invested. The characters gave me a whiplash of emotions - at one moment, I was mad at the protagonist and sympathizing with other, and at others, it was the opposite. But this was clear - none of the characters were meant to be the least likeable. Manipulative, complex and unreliable.

It kept me on my toes as I tried to figure out what was going on in the book. Initially, it seemed like it was meant to be primarily focused on Matt & Rachel, and their weird, strange love triangle with Hannah. But, that was only a small part of it. It was more focused on Hannah, her trauma, and the relationships she had at different points in her life - with one constant, Rachel.

There were several jumps in the timeline which occasionally made me confused, and I did have to re-read to better grasp it. The twists were fantastic and left me shocked at multiple points!

Read if you like :
~ Atmospheric vibes
~ Shocking twists
~ Gripping

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Racheal and Matt have the perfect marriage from the outside. One day, Hannah, Racheal’s friend who she hasn’t seen in 17 years shows up. From there lies, manipulation and secrets keeps the story moving. In the middle, there’s a low point but afterwards it speeds up with an ending that made me gasp.

"This is what we enjoy, this is what we get off on...your squirming discomfort. We all have the power to make you feel afraid. Every man knows instinctively how to do it."

"Squirming discomfort," what a perfect phrase for the scene the above quote is taken from in the addictive The Broken Marriage by psychological thriller author Elena Wilkes.

Throughout this story the writer creates an unsettling tension among the characters that has a visceral effect when you read it. It starts in the prologue with Hannah frantically calling her college best friend Rachel to help her hide something. Rachel arrives seeing her bruised holding a bloody bundle that Hannah begs her to help her bury. They swear to tell no one and will be there for each other but it's 17 years before the secret is out...and it's Hannah who blows up everything.

I feel the title should be "Broken People" because Rachel and Matt's marriage was broken way before Hannah returned to their lives. In fact, the story is more about female friendships and how we drift apart or meet new people who replace us as best friends. It's about the hurt from that, the increased insecurity, the sense of loss...and in this book Hannah never loses.

There are ending twists that are not only shocking but enhanced the fact that there are no decent people in this group. They may all deserve each other and the end proves you can't escape unscathed from what you have broken in the first place.

I received a free copy of this book from #stormpublishing via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

MINI REVIEW❄️❤️‍🔥💔🚨🔪

The Broken Marriage - Elena Wilkes
Pub date: 4/18/2024
⭐️⭐️💫 (2.5 stars)

This was a quick, easy read but unfortunately fell short for me. I personally would not describe this as a psychological thriller. More like a domestic drama about obsession and toxic friendships/relationships. All of the characters were extremely unlikeable and very juvenile/immature even though they were all supposed to be in their late 30s/early 40s. The title of the book is also misleading because although there was a “broken marriage”, the plot really had nothing to do with this marriage at all. Another pet peeve was the British(?) writing which usually doesn’t bother me at all but I had a very hard time with the phrases/language.
Rating: 2.5 stars because it had some domestic thriller elements that I enjoyed, and kept me intrigued enough to want to find out what happened and “whodunit”.
‼️TW: SA/r*pe, pregnancy loss, mental health issues

Read this if you like:
Obsession🔪
Toxic friendships🔪
Betrayal🔪

Thank you @netgalley and @stormbooks_co for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

#minibookreview #thrillerbooks #thrillerbookreview #netgalleyreviewer #netgalleyreview #thrillerreads #thrillerbookstagram #domesticthrillerbooks

Whoa!! I definitely wasn't expecting the twist in this book!

Rachel and Matt have been together since college. It takes one unexpected visit from an old college roommate to throw their perfectly maintained life to pieces.

Hannah lived with Matt, Rachel, and Alison, another roommate off campus. Alison and Hannah vied for Rachel's attention. Rachel was perfect in Hannah's eyes, but when her attention went to others, her self-esteem dropped. When Hannah attends a party, she gets drugged and raped, the effects on her were lifelong. Her therapist advised her to confront her past. So showing up on Rachel and Matt's front door unexpectedly throws everyone off.

Rachel came to her rescue the night the attack occurred, but Hannah has a hard time remembering certain details from that night. With a lot of research done on Hannah's end, the rapist is now in jail. But she didn't know that he was to be released soon.

So Hannah wants to confront her attacker in prison to get some much needed answers. But she has something on the rapist that could lead to him never being released; his DNA.

There are others at play trying to use her mental health as a weapon against her. And when the shocking truth finally comes out, you'll be biting your lip in shock!

A definite must read!!