Secrets and lies are the name of the game in Cole Baxter's twist filled book, The Anniversary. This proved to be a fast, dramatic, and dark twisted read.

People celebrate their anniversaries in many ways: some prefer to celebrate them at home and some, like Tom and Catherine, prefer to indulge in a lavish meal at a restaurant. But most make it home safely, but not Tom and Catherine. On the way home, there was a horrible tragic crash. When Catherine wakes up in the hospital, she learns she has been charged with being the driver in an accident which resulted in a fatality. But she wasn't driving and has the bruises to prove it. This is only the beginning as Catherine learns more about her husband, things become more dire, more dangerous, and more twisted.

This book started strongly with a horrible accident, disbelief, blame, lies, secrets, and then with revelations which left Catherine reeling. Cole Baxter knows how to write controlling and despicable characters! I mean seriously, Tom was the worst. Try reading this book and not feeling some strong feelings about his character. Catherine was very young when she first met Tom who is 15 years her senior. She is naive, has little life experience, and is a little too trusting. I felt for her for most of the book, while also wanting to tell her to run for the hills.

This book (and characters) has a lot going on in a short amount of time. There are secrets, gaslighting, lying, manipulation and drama galore in this book. It's entertaining and had me thinking of the show Desperate Housewives while reading due to the involvement of the neighbors in this book.

I had both the audiobook and kindle version of this book. I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a great job bringing the book to life.

The Anniversary is a psychological thriller about a married couple who are involved in a car accident following a celebration of their 5th wedding anniversary. The scene is set to show the husband and deceitful and controlling and the wife weak and submissive.
I found the plot to be a little slow at times and didn’t feel the ending was thrilling enough.

I was really pleasantly surprised by this author. The book was full of twists and turns and I always wanted to keep listening to find out what was next!

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. Baxter puts into words thoughts and emotions to make the reader think and guess throughout the entire book. It was a fast read/listen and kept me intrigued through to the end.

I gave up with this book quite early on because I found the premise unrealistic and ridiculous, and I didn't think it was written very well. The author really seemed to labour the point that the protagonist was controlled by her husband and no longer loved him, telling the reader explicitly and repeatedly, even after scenes which made this blatantly obvious. The husband was a caricature of a villain - there was no subtlety or nuance to his portrayal. The opening scene where he blamed her for the car crash was unrealistic because it was a crash at an intersection with other vehicles, surely someone would have noticed him moving her from the passenger seat to the driver's seat, and if by some chance they didn't, it would immediately be obvious from her pattern of injuries compared to his. Perhaps this all made more sense later in the book, I don't know, but there was nothing that really made me want to continue with the story enough to find out.

To be honest: I knew what I let myself into when I read the plot of this book. So I truely enjoyed this action filled listen.
The story starts off straight away with an accident!
I would describe the story as a bit farfatched but it touches quite some serious issuses. So for me this was a solid rounded up to 4 stars. The narration by Stephanie Cannon is engrossing.
Thank you #Netgallery #Bookouture Audio for this audiobook

Recently, I read a book that left me feeling perplexed and unfulfilled. It was challenging, and I almost gave up on it multiple times. The story's events were often unrealistic and didn't make a lot of sense.

Furthermore, the dialogue between the characters was unnatural and often too lengthy. It seemed like the characters were forced to speak in a certain way, which didn't feel authentic. This made the book more challenging to read, and it was hard to connect with the characters.

Despite these issues, the book did address several essential topics, such as domestic abuse, grooming, money laundering, and law enforcement interference.

The book's lack of suspense made the ending easy to predict from the very beginning. The characters were also divided into clear-cut good guys and bad guys, leaving little room for surprise.

Overall, I found the book difficult to read, but I appreciated the author's attempt to address important issues. Thank you, NetGalley for providing a free and advanced copy of the novel.

This was an awful lot of fun - if your sort of fun is psychological mysteries being slowly unwrapped! Mine is and I loved this

Catherine is married to Tom a controlling, older man who literally controls her whole life.
They go out for their fifth anniversary and on the way home Tom drives recklessly causing a crash ending in a death of the passenger in the other car. Tom moves Catherine into the drivers seat staging the scene to make her look like the driver and goes all out to blame her for the accident. SO MUCH GASLIGHTING. There are not many likeable characters in the book, Catherine herself is pitiful and does make you feel sorry for her but I was put off by the lack of growth and helplessness - I didn't feel like there was anything to ROOT for!

Unfortunately I just couldn’t finish this. I’ve tried several times to return to it but it has really been a struggle.

I didn’t find any of the characters likeable and the main character was draining. I found the story dull and quite long. The story was unbelievable and very repetitive with respective to the accident scene.

I will however say that the narrator of the audiobook was fantastic.

Let me begin by saying that the audio is fantastic. The story had many holes and seemed farfetched at times. The characters were shallow and lacking substance. But I did finish it.

So the premise of the story was great but the dialogue was so repetitive and the protagonist was unbelievably naive.

On the night of their anniversary, Catherine and her husband Tom are involved in a car accident that results in the death of a young woman. Tom was driving but he insists ñCatherine was driving under the influence and caused the accident. A police investigation is conducted but no one believes in Catherine’s innocence. Tom is a hot shot lawyer and has the police in his pockets. Catherine must find evidence before Tom takes her life.

One of the things I dislike most in life is giving an unfavorable review. With that being said, it is with a heavy heart that I say this book wasn't for me, and I can not recommend it. I can’t remember when I disliked a character more than one of the characters in this book. The other main character frustrated me beyond belief. The feeling I felt when I finished it was a relief that it was finally over. This would have been a DNF if it wouldn't have been for the audiobook. The narrator did a great job, bringing the characters to life and made the experience bearable. I have read other books by this author that I enjoyed, but this wasn’t one of them, unfortunately. Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for my audiobook.

Thank you NetGalley for this read.

The GASLIGHTING in this story. Oh My Goodness! I wanted to scream at my phone so many times.

A story filled with gaslighting, lies, denial and thrill.

I was hooked from the start. A great audiobook with great narration making you want to read more.

Now available.

Catherine is married to Tom a controlling, manipulative older man who literally controls every aspect of her life.
They go out for their fifth anniversary and on the way home Tom drives recklessly causing a crash ending in a death of the passenger in the other car. Tom moves Catherine into the drivers seat staging the scene to make her look like the driver and goes all out to blame her for the accident. There are not many likeable characters in the book, Catherine herself is pitiful and does make you feel sorry for her but I also was extremely annoyed at her helplessness and reliance on everyone else.
The narrator did a good job of telling the story and used differing voices which was helpful to differentiate the characters.

I would give this book 3.5 - 3.75 stars, but rounding up to 4 stars due to scale.

Full review online: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205653298

I was not expecting this book to go the way it went! The book kept me engaged and wanting to know more as I got further into the book. It was well written, and the character development and plot were thought through with so much detail added in.

We start with Catherine and her husband Tom’s 5th wedding anniversary. They are going out to celebrate by going out to dinner at an expensive restaurant. Tom is controlling and made sure he planned everything to a tee for this night.
Throughout this book, you go through many emotions learning about the spell Catherine’s husband had her under this whole time. As she starts to understand what a monster he is she just wants out!

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to listen and review this book! Thank you, Cole Baxter, for writing a well-developed and engaging book! Thank you, Bookouture Audio and Narrator Stephanie, for creating an engaging audio. The tone of voice and delivery made listening to this book that much better!

I felt like I was watching a movie throughout this book that’s much more than a wife betrayed by her husband. The more it unraveled, there was so much more than poor Catherine could’ve imagined. The events that transpire are unreal. This is a gripping domestic suspense with jaw-dropping twists.

Stephanie Cannon is the perfect narrator for this one! I love her light portrayal of Catherine that portrayed her as the character she is.

Thank you, Cole Baxter, Bookouture, Bookouture audio & netgalley for my ecopy & #audiobook! All opinions are my own.

This book was ridiculous....the main character looks like marries someone who does nothing but control her and abuse her. She continues to take more and more and at the end finally gains some courage....NO just no....

So far this book is pretty slow going. I find myself annoyed with Kathryn although when I think about it, women who are groomed for a long time will act the way that Kathryn has. The book starts off with the thought of celebrating an anniversary and going out to dinner. Half
Way through dinner the readers finds out just what kind of a husband Kathryn has. Tom is everything that you think you would want, successful, handsome and attentive to his lovely wife. However there is more to Tom than meets the eye. Following a horrible car accident, Kathryn wakes up to a nightmare of finding out they were involved in a car accident and she is told that she was the driver. The story goes on to some unbelievable twists and turns.