"The Anniversary" begins with a bang:
A husband and wife celebrating their 5th anniversary are in a fatal car accident.

The wife wakes up in a hospital, accused of driving the car that resulted in a fatality.

The wife is confused because she knows her husband was the car's driver.

Although the book's "charming husband of five years has a secret life " premise was strong, the book's dialogue was stilted and unrealistic.

WHY?
Nobody communicates with each other like the characters in this book.

I listened to the audiobook read by Stephanie Cannon, who did an outstanding job with the narration.

Narrator Stephanie Cannon kept me engaged while wincing; elevating my rating of this book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

The evening when Katherina and Tom went out to celebrate their anniversary. Little did she know that the night would become a tragic ordeal with lasting consequences. "The Anniversary" by Cole Baxter was a gripping novel filled with suspense, gaslighting, and physical abuse. I experienced the story through the audiobook narrated by Stephanie Canon. While she skillfully portrayed the women's roles, I found her depiction of the men's characters less engaging.

Katherine and Tom are the main characters, but they are hard to like. Katherine seems to never learn her lesson. She is fragile and gullible. Her husband accuses her of driving the car and killing another driver, yet she still goes back home with him. No one questions the bruises at the wreck or the hospital until much later, which would prove she didn't drive the car. This book repeats situations over and over without explaining them. The story needs to be shorter and answer big questions. Why doesn't it explain what kind of group the men are forming in the town? Is it a cult? Why doesn't she use her cell phone when she is kidnapped? She could call 911, but she doesn't. I tried to like this book, but I was glad when I finished it.

I just reviewed The Anniversary by Cole Baxter. #TheAnniversary #NetGalley

First off, thank you so much, Netgalley, for sending me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Honestly, I just couldn't even with this book. It just felt like too much and not enough at the same time. I didn't like any of the characters, and there was a ton of repeating moments and dialog in the book.

It didn't really seem like a thriller to me because everyone was so naive and gullible as adults that I was flabbergasted, and the closer it got to the end, the more ridiculous it all became. I couldn't wait for this book to end.

The Anniversary by Cole Baxter and narrated by Stephanie Cannon is an absolute belter of a psychological thriller. I usually poddle about doing bits and bobs when listening to an audiobook but OOF! Not this one, I had to grab a cuppa and sit and listen, utterly committed for the second half

Stephanie Cannon is a fantastic narrator. Swapping between genders and personalities with ease and authenticity, portraying each scene accurately and vibrantly. A brilliant performance

Jeepers bejilikers if this one did not knock my socks off and then some!

Kathryn is our MMC and seriously, in the beginning I really did not like her despite her timidness being a central tenet of the narrative and eventual storyline, Kathryn is married to Tom, an overbearing lawyer who has cheated on her often. We begin at their 5th anniversary dinner, a conversation about new beginnings and a great introduction to the influence that Tom has in the way he interacts with the waiter

Tom likes to drive his very flash, very fast car. Kathryn is never allowed to drive it, in fact, she is not allowed to do much outside of the home. Tom is driving faster and faster, Kathryn is terrified, asking him, pleading with him to slow down, but he ignores her, racing through a stop sign and it's too late, he slams into another vehicle, causing a fatal injury to the passenger in the other car. Kathryn's airbag has not deployed, she is injured seriously, Tom grabs her and places her into the drivers seat, his career must be protected at all costs...

When Kathryn regains consciousness in the hospital, she finds she is handcuffe to the bed. Tom has reported that she was driving, she was drunk, she is an alcoholic. But she only had a small glass of champagne and is certainly not an alcoholic

Tom forces Kathryn to return home against the doctors advice and their, she is a prisoner of her injuries, doubting her sanity. However, a visitor in the night notices the injuries Kathryn has are not synonymous with being the driver of the vehicle

(Note, Jessica is hands down my favourite character, the driver of the other car whose sister was the passenger. Thing is, she is off grid, a non-person who disappeared on active duty. She is also a grade one badass who decides to help Kathryn to clear her name)

OOooof, this is a book that is gripping, compelling and so very well written! The plot weaves and dodges and sucks you into a twisting, spiralling cyclone of plot twist after plot twist and into destruction and chaos

An outstanding novel and I cannot recommend it enough and defo an author that is going into my favourite thriller writers list

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture Audio, the brilliant Cole Baxter and immensely talented Stephanie Cannon for this excellent ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

The Anniversary had great premise. Catherine and Tom go out to celebrate their 5th anniversary and end up being in a tragic car accident. From there we begin to see the lies and secrets that he has been keeping.

Did not realize this was also a book of grooming, gaslighting, and narcissistic behavior. The dialogue was plain and simple yet unbelievable. I realize Catherine was young but she truly just rolls over and lets Tom walk all over her and she continues to play housewife? And then she got BACK in the car with him later? That was the point I had to walk away. It was a DNF for me.

I found this to be flat. We know within the first few chapters who was driving. And I just couldn’t get past the 40% mark to see if there was anything else that could shock and awe me.

Narration was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this advanced audio in return for my honest review.

Pub date: 19 April 2024

This was my first introduction to Cole Baxter and now I MUST read his other books. I was consumed by this book. This isn’t a book of who did it, we know who did it from the start. We are taken on a wild ride figuring out WHYY?! I was hooked from start to finish at some points I put it on 3x the speed because I HAD to find out as fast as I could or I was going to have an anxiety attack 😂😂.

The Anniversary begins with a couple celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. This anniversary sets off a chain of events that up ends many lives in a small town. Tom, the husband, is a very unlikeable character and his gaslighting and manipulation of everyone around him is deplorable. Some of the story details really made me question the plausibility of some events and made the story not as enjoyable. The pace of the story worked with a decent amount of suspense and it left me wanting to know how it would end.
The narration was well done and I found Stephanie Cannon easy to listen to and will seek out more of her audiobooks to listen to.

Thank you Net Galley. Cole Baxter, Stephanie Cannon and Bookouture Audio for the opportunity to preview this audiobook and the opinions expressed are my own.

#NetGalley #ColeBaxter #TheAnniversary #StephanieCannon #Bookouture #Suspense #DomesticThriller

Note: This review would not post directly to Goodreads so I manually posted here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6386368755

A gaslighting thriller with small town corruption thrown in. An accident after a celebratory dinner leaves Catherine in the hospital accused of causing an accident where a woman is killed. Her husband (Tom) tells the authorities she was driving and everyone believes him.

A fun premise that I was excited to dive into until…

My first issue was the over the top dialogue. It seemed almost campy and I had to check if this was satire.

The mystery of who was driving is too easy to prove which made the story fall apart. A BAC would definitely be taken at the hospital. Injuries would be noted and many professionals would have to go against their oaths for this story to play out. It was all too much

I listened to this book.
Stephanie Cannon did a good job with the narration. She made it easy to the listener to distinguish characters and kept it verbally interesting

I enjoyed the writing here, but the logic was fully missing. As much as I enjoyed the soap opera-ness of it all, I can't give this more than 3 stars given the glaring plot holes.

Premise - a man attempts to murder his wife on their anniversary (vehicular homicide) and then pin it on her (pretends she was the driver, even when the police have video evidence proving he was the driver). Despite this, she continues living with him through her recovery.

Um.... what? Holy plot hole:

<spoiler>

- Not one person at the hospital calls out the fact that her bruises support her sitting in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. Wouldn't there be forensic someone on the case?

- Even after the police discover dash cam footage proving her husband was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash, and even after the detective straight up tells her that her life is in danger, no one thinks to remove her from her husband's care??? She doesn't ask the detective and he doesn't suggest 'oh, hey, maybe you shouldn't live with the guy who just tried to murder you and pin the crash on you?'

- Katherine states she knows Tom (husband) is gaslighting her and wants her dead for some reason, but then a few paragraphs later she seems to have forgotten all that and couches everything in terms of having a 'bad feeling' about staying in the house? Make it make sense.

- The characters are 2D archetypes (the innocent, wide-eyed ingenue plucked out of adolescence by the wicked old man, etc. etc.). Katherine doesn't get to grow up between her selection at age 14 and her participation in the story's events as an adult - if anything, she regresses. I know 7 year olds less naive.

This was chaotic. Still, it had that fun telenovela energy and I enjoyed the voice! It's just underbaked, it needs way more time in development. I would read more from the author nonetheless, as I overall enjoyed it (hence the 3 stars).

Thanks, NetGalley and Bookouture, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine was groomed, then married Tom, a man twice her age. On their 5th anniversary, they go out to dinner and on the way home Tom crashes into another car and kills a woman. While Catherine is unconscious, Tom moved her into the driver’s seat.

Will Catherine be held responsible for everything she accused of? Will she survive?

Gaslighting, lied, abuse, attempted murder. Tom seems to have power over the entire town.

Fast paced, twists and turns.

Character development, realism, convoluted nature, contributed to the rating.

Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced copy. This is an honest voluntary review.