I enjoyed getting to listen to this book as an audiobook and I definitely think it helped me fly through this book. I struggled with how I wanted to rate this book. As for the plot, I struggled with it. I love a good thriller and I really enjoyed the idea behind this story but I had some moments that I just couldn’t believe would ever happen even with small town corruption. There were moments I was so frustrated/upset on behalf of Catherine. Overall, good read, happy I finished it but I don’t know if I would reread.

Narration:
The narrator did a wonderful job of differing the voices for the characters, male vs female. I think the narration for Catherine was very true to her naive personality.

**Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

The Anniversary starts out with an interesting premise. I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was fantastic. The relationship between Tom and Catherine was bizarre enough at first, but the story itself downright flabbergasted me once you threw in the townsfolk. It’s unusually written. This is my first Cole Baxter book. I’ll check out his others and see what they’re like.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookature Audio for providing with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I don't think I have every despised a character in a book as much as I have in this one. I absolutely want to strangle Tom as his conniving and condescending attitude just about sent me over the edge. Then I stopped to think that if an author can make this character get to me that much, then the Author must have done an amazing job writing this book. I did need to take breaks from reading at times because of Tom but it was like a train wreck where you just had to keep reading to see how in the world this crazy story would end. I think part of it was the audio version of the book. I loved the narration of the book but when it jumped to the voice of the characters, I was not a fan of that as Tom was just annoying and Kathryn was too wishy washy and meek. Enjoy!!! This once gets a 3.5 star rating for me just because of how the author made me feel about the characters!!

I'm afraid to say that it took me a while to plod through this. Something about the pacing and plot timeline choice destroys the suspense and believability and unfortunately the unlikeable characters were not enough to keep my interest.

I generally rate on the high side, but this book barely got 1 star. I don’t like to give such a low review but it just dragged on and was not suspenseful at all. The main character seemed ditzy and whiny and her husband was like a cartoon evil villain. Too predictable and drawn out. I had to force myself to finish it so that I could give a full review. It also didn’t help that I did not enjoy the narrator. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of this book.

I received an advanced audio copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. The cover and plot description had me interested...it all went downhill after the first 5 minutes. I think if I wasn't doing this as an audiobook I absolutely would have DNF'd this story. It was beyond unrealistic and every time I thought it couldn't get worse or more far fetched...it did. The narrator did a good job with what she had and had it not been for her narration I absolutely wouldn't have stuck it out until the end. Mainly because I was convinced the story could redeem itself somehow.

I received an arc of the audiobook from NetGalley. I was very excited to listen to this book after reading the description of the book. The story came out strong and hard. I was immediately intrigued.

After a few chapters in something changed. I felt like it was too much going on to try to add action that wasn’t realistic for me, and took away from what I thought this book would be like. I’m not sure I would personally call this a thriller. I couldn’t get past some of the none sense to really enjoy this book. It wasn’t for me and I give this book 1.75⭐️.

Every time I thought... it's going to get better.. it, in fact, did not get better

Katherine and Tom are married. They are celebrating their 5-year anniversary. There's champagne, the best money can buy. Katherine doesn't want it, but Tom insists. On the way home, Tom is going way too fast. There's a crash. A woman is killed. Katherine is found in the drivers seat, although Tom was the one driving.
Tom picks out her clothes for her. She doesn't get to choose her attire for the day. He gives her chores to do while at home
No one sees the narcissist that Tom is
His friends praise him. Katherine has no friends who would believe that she wasn't the one driving. Tom has even taken account to have the neighbors side with him. He tells them Katherine is an alcoholic. They believe Tom and rally up against Katherine. They are trying to make her admit that she was the one driving instead of Tom
The more she relentless, the more they try to punish her and force her into saying she was the one driving
😴😴

This audiobook was a roller-coaster!

Tom and Catherine are out to dinner for their anniversary. After champagne and a lovely meal they head home but get into a car accident.

When Catherine wakes in the hospital the police question her as to the events of the crash. Her husband is telling the police that she was the driver not him.

Then it just gets wild! That the only word I can think of to describe it. Tom is such an awful person, I wanted to scream. I could not stand him.

Overall a great book but I was really hoping for another twist in the plot at the end.

Thanks Netgalley, Cole Baxter and Bookouture Audio for this ARC audio book.

Soooo.....
The plot on this one was TERRIFIC!
The opening on this was TERRIFIC!
The suspense and craziness was also terrific!

BUT...really????

I feel like this book could have been done in literally HALF the time. (See notes below...for my rant)

My review: Catherine and Tom have been married for 5 years! They are celebrating at a VERY nice restaurant. Catherine is a bit worried, as this is NOT their norm... Tom is spending a LOT of money tonite. And she's not sure why. He also coerces her to drink some champagne, although she absolutely does NOT want to, because it messes with her meds...(Then why are you listening to him????)
They leave the restaurant and Tom is driving like an idiot. Catherine implores him to SLOW DOWN...he does not. Then tragedy strikes...

This is all in chapter 1 (I think...it's the first few minutes of the book). Unbelievable start! But, then things take a huge turn...more like an about face...and all the crazy starts!
And that is what kept me glued to the book....

#TheAnniversary by #ColeBaxter and narrated beautifully by #StephanieCannon.

2 1/2 ⭐️⭐️💫 for me, rounded up to 3. (Please see below for why I am giving a book I liked such a low rating...)

⭐️. Loving husband?? Gaslighting. Abuse. Much older… Powerful…
⭐️. Naive, much younger wife. Trusts his every word…
💫. Can anyone help her out???

Thanks to #NetGalley and #BookoutureAudio for an ARC of the audiobook which releases on 4/19/24...so a little over a week from now!

Feel free to like, follow and friend me on: Goodreads,
IG @ #BookReviews_with_emsr or
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Thanks so much for reading! And if you 'liked' my review, please share with your friends!! 📚⭐️

Also, has anyone else read this? Thoughts??

My rant: The author goes all out on description...which is fine...maybe once or twice...but not 5,000 times. (EG: The sky is blue. Chapter 1. The sky is a light, beautiful blue. Chapter 1.25. The sky was glazed blue. Chapter 1.4. The sky was blue with some clouds. Chapter 1.5.....OK...we get it already! THE SKY WAS BLUE!!! You do NOT need to repeat the same thing a thousand times.... I cannot tell you how many times I picked up my phone thinking it somehow skipped back a chapter, or two...because I was hearing the EXACT SAME THING!!! But no, it was just repeated...ad nauseum.....

Now that I got that out of my system...I did love the book, as I said. It definitely had good bones!

But. also a lot of plot holes, as I've seen mentioned in multiple reviews.
One example is when Catherine is in the hospital. I am a nurse. Have been for years. When a patient comes in you take stock of what EXACTLY is going on. You note all the things you observe..in the CHART...for all time. THEY ARE DOCUMENTED! So the fact that her bruises were NEVER noticed is ridiculous...I don't care what the plot is!!

Some crazy stuff going on in this one....

3ish stars

This one was all over the place. The pacing felt kind of off to me; the first part was action-packed and dramatic, and while the second half was tense, it largely felt slow in comparison. Much of the story also felt unrealistic, but in drastically different ways- it fluctuated from things going unbelievably badly to unimaginably well at a dizzying speed. It might just be me, but some of the descriptions of the violence felt rather gratuitous, the depictions of the gaslighting were a bit heavy-handed, and I felt my attention wandering by the time I got to the conclusion. Although I usually feel like I know what to expect from this writer (and will still request their books when I’m in the mood for a quick, fun, so-called popcorn thriller), this one just wasn’t my favourite.

Thank you Netgalley, Cole Baxter, and Bookouture Audio for the aidiobook!! What a wild listen narrated by Stephanie Cannon! Honestly, I still have whiplash and just can't get over how crazy things got! You have to listen or read!!

Truly enjoyed this audio! A new author for me, and will definitely be following.

If you're looking for a thriller with believable characters and plot, lots of twists and turns along the way, this is the book for you!

This story is really captivating and has several twists to it. The characters are believable and pulled me in. Great writing, that kept me wanting to continue listening even when I didn't have time to! This doesn't happen to me often, but with this story, it certainly did! I found myself listening every chance I got, so I could find out what happened next!

Thanks so much for allowing me to listen and review, I'll be watching for more!

AJ

I read this book as an audio book-I can see why the ratings are all over the place!

So even though this book was "enjoyable" it just felt very unbelievable. It was very hard to get through because there is no way this would ever happen. Nobody has this much power! I hated how he treated her but I did enjoy how she finally put him in his place!

The narrator for the audio book was amazing!

Catherine is married to Tom who is 15 years her senior. From the information in the book it seems he's been grooming her for many years and married her as a teenager (yuck). After their anniversary dinner a car crash leaves one woman dead and the question of who was driving? Was it Catherine, as her husband and everyone else claims.....or was it Tom, as Catherine claims???

The premise of this book was great. The prologue sucked me right in. The first few chapters started off strong but then it really got off track for me. The writing style seemed a bit immature and everything was overly described - with it appearing as though a thesaurus was used to choose descriptive words. I found it rather distracting.

The story itself takes on so many wild twists and turns that none of it seems believable. At all. I understand twists and turns are expected in a thriller, but these ones were to far fetched that they legitimately didn't make any sense.

There were a lot of characters - a lot. It was a bit difficult to keep track and many of them had minor roles and seemed perhaps entirely unnecessary.

As I said - the premise of this story is really good - I think it could just be streamlined a bit - cut out some of the twists - remove any repetition and then this book would be better aligned with my typical thriller reads.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator did a great job switching between character voices. I found the main character was made to sound like a child which was a bit unnerving with the grooming theme in the book. At 23 she could have sounded more "grown up" but perhaps that wouldn't have suited her character.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC and opportunity to review the audiobook for The Anniversary.

The narration was really good on this one, and the story was easy to follow along with. I found Catherine’s story to be sad, as she was clearly victimized from a young age. This was a slower read, with some repetition and extra details that did cause some mind-wandering, but this was a lighter mystery, so to be expected. I would have liked more depth for the characters and a more tightly woven plot, so I am giving this one 3 stars.

This book started off strong and exciting but quickly took a discouraging turn. It had great promise, and the narration was well done, but because of poor writing, over-the-top dialogue, and completely unrealistic situations (no blood alcohol taken? no camera footage used?), this book missed the mark for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture Audio, and Cole Baxter for this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book started out a bit slow but picked up pace around the 20% mark ! it was my first audiobook , it kept me engaged, there were so many twists and they were absolutely shocking I couldn’t put it down it was my first book by this author and I will definitely be reading more by them!

Marriages based on lies, traps, and false pretenses will likely never end well. This action-packed thriller hooked me right from the start, and that momentum continued until the second half of the book, where the story line seemed to change and the characters seemed to become flatter and less intriguing. The narrator, Stephanie Cannon, did a beautiful job giving voice to each of the characters, though I felt like the characters could have been developed a bit more. This was evidenced by the main character, Catherine, who, though she was young and impressionable, seemed to come as dull and less developed during the second half of the book. I am unsure if this was intentional on the author’s part, perhaps intending to portray Catherine in a different light, based on her life experiences and current circumstances.

There were times in which the characters’ words did not match their actions and that left me conflicted and less invested in them. I typically favor psychological thrillers and LOVE a good twist at the end but felt as if I could see this one coming and the ending was not as momentous or shocking as I would have liked. The narrator did a great job creating a good flow within the story, but at times there were just too many extraneous events occurring in addition to events that were not necessarily believable, at least to me.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Cole Baxter, and Bookouture Audio for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was great! The book itself I struggled with. I kept waiting for something unexpected to happen and it never did. I’m sure this will be a favorite for some but this was a miss for me.