I don't feel the title totally fits the book.

I had the audio and I thought the narrator did a good job, but I still got confused in timelines because they weren't always clear.

Annie is our main and she didn't believe in love at first sight. Then she met Mark. This book takes place around their wedding. But there's so much more to the story.

This one was predictable and okay, but nothing stellar.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC.

DNF -- Didn't like the narrator and couldn't get past it. Disappointed because the premise sounded great!

I found it very difficult to get through the narration of this book. I was excited because I know the narrator from her tv work, but there was something about the tone and cadence that did not resonate with me, but may with others.

Over all, it was fine. I believe that the story and the motivations of the main characters was very jumbled. That, along with the narration made it hard for me to be interested in the story.

I look forward to reading more from the author because I thought there was promise there.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to express my thoughts.

As always, massive thanks to both NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC copy!

This one was just okay for me. There were some pieces that I got slightly confused by and others that I wasn't sure we really needed, but overall it was a decent listen. I also feel like at times it was hard to keep up with what POV I was getting, so some clarity would have likely helped this!

This was a fairly boilerplate thriller/mystery novel. The characters were not very in depth, but I was interested enough in the story to finish fairly quickly.

The twists and turns were not very surprising, I had a few inklings beforehand. I did enjoy reading it as it did fill all of the checkmarks I generally look for in a thriller. I can often be very hard on them in reviews, but this one was a fun ride even if it wasn't anything breaking the mold.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review.

I love a good domestic suspense, especially ones with twisty endings like these! The audio for this was also great, I thought the narrator did a wonderful job. However with the audio it was hard to track which timeline I was on unfortunately and it confused things throughout the book. The twist at the end was excellent which made up for it, and I enjoyed this one. I do think though the physical book is the way to read this and I probably should have switched from audio.

Reading challenge category - 2024 Flourish and Blotts: Transfiguration - Animagus: Includes a shapeshifter

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC audio of this work.

Annie and Mark are getting married after a very quick courtship. They met after continuously crossing paths on the train during their morning commutes. At their wedding, Annie spots a stranger in the crowd who changes everything in her life. Very quickly after their wedding, secrets begin unfolding and the facades that were built begin to unravel.

For me, this was very predictable and boring. I was able to quickly deduce that <spoiler> Annie had manipulated the meetings wtih Mark and basically stalked him until they were together. There are many clues pointing to the fact that she isn't who she says she is in her personality </spoiler>. I feel like this is a type of story that has been told many times before and that there wasn't anything new in this variant to make it stand out from the masses. I also feel like the author has to be a man writing a main female character, because there are some 'icks' that a woman wouldn't do. 2/5 stars.

The title of the book and the editor blurb drew me in. It was a twisted creepy story about mostly creepy twisted people. I liked that it was told from multiple perspectives, but it took a bit to determine who was “speaking/narrating” each chapter as all the characters sounded the same. Additionally, I found it a bit long winded. Interesting listen, but I think it may be a better read than listen.

Told in dual timelines and multiple POVs I found this one a bit difficult to follow. For me, the narration voice was subtle when the POV changed between the characters. I had to pay close attention. I wasn't able to connect with the characters, I didn't feel like they were very complex characters. While, I did find two of the characters to be deranged. The pacing was very slow for me but eventually it picked up pace. The plot twist was good, but I found the ending left me wanting a bit more.

This audio was big disappointment for me. I have been in my thriller era recently reading several amazing five star thrillers. So it was a no brainer to request this for one of my Macmillan Audio August picks. The premise did sound great. However, I tried my best but I was so bored. I felt like nothing happened to classify it as a thriller. I didn’t care for the characters. Unfortunately, I was glad when it was over. I usually do review posts for every alc, but won’t for this one as I hate to trounce books and can’t think of many positive things to say about this one. Sorry.

I tried multiple times to get into this, and I couldn't. It comes down to one word: boring. Nothing grasped me and made me want to listen to the story. The final time I listened, I zoned out so many times that I felt like I hadn't missed anything. I liked the narrator, but they were wasted on this book because the actual story was B-O-R-I-N-G.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I approached this audiobook with some reservations, but overall, I genuinely enjoyed the experience. While the plot didn’t hold many surprises, the story was engaging, and I found myself immersed in the listen. Sophie Rundle’s smooth voice made the narration pleasant, though I did find it occasionally challenging to distinguish between characters and timelines, as the story shifts frequently. Despite this, I was able to follow the changing timelines fairly well. Overall, this psychological thriller was an enjoyable listen with a few storyline gaps. I look forward to more works from this author and narrator in the future!

A wedding day is supposed to be one of the happiest days of a person's life, but what happens when a stranger shows up and he has been assigned to find out what happened to the groom's first bride?

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It's got a missing wife who's been quickly replaced by another woman, a private investigator who is always around the corner, and trauma on all sides. The book is laid out in three perspectives, but the author fails to specify who is who at the beginning of each chapter. Needless to say, this created a lot of confusion for me as I listened to the audiobook. Very poorly executed...too bad. It was also a bit too predictable for me, and there was a lot of background information on the PI that I found unnecessary.

The narration was well done.

Content warnings for suicide, pregnancy loss, and infertility.

It was just ok for me.

The story was just ok.
The title is a bit misleading.
It's kinda predictable.
Characters are all unlikeable.
Plot gets a tad muddled.

Real shame 3 stars

The Stranger at the Wedding is a recent audiobook by A. E. Gauntlett and narrated by Sophie Rundle.

"Annie first sees Mark on her commuter train. Before she can speak to him, he disappears. They later reconnect in a trauma recovery meeting. They begin dating and eventually marry. At the wedding there is a stranger in the crowd, staring eerily at her. He looks like he knows something. What really happened to Mark's wife? Does this stranger know her secrets?"

Excellent audiobook performance from Sophis Rundle. She makes you dislike so many characters.

Nothing groundbreaking in this story. The timeline feels jumbled sometimes and that may be because of audio speed. Everybody has secrets and there are plenty of unlikable characters. Gauntlett adds some deception in the story so at a certain point you wonder just whose storyline you're listening. Some crazy parts at the end.

Just okay story from Gauntlett.

The Stranger at the Wedding was a fun thriller that kept me guessing. I found the multiple POVs enjoyable, and they added to the suspense and my interest. I felt like the end dragged on a little bit, and I was confused by one thing that happened that didn’t seem to get addressed. I think a little more editing with the pacing could have fixed that. However, this was definitely a fun read, and I thought the overall reveal was satisfying.

The narrator was great, and I recommend the audiobook version!

ARC received from Macmillan Audio via Netgalley.

Rating: 3/5 Stars
Pub Date: 8/13
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The Stranger at the Wedding is essentially not about a stranger at the wedding at all. Well, I mean there is a stranger, which sets the ball rolling, but said stranger isn’t the main focus. Makes the title a bit misleading.
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This story is told in multiple POV and multiple timelines which is usually fine, but for whatever reason I really struggled with the changing of timelines and characters. The entire format just felt disjointed and difficult to follow. I also really didn’t find any of the characters too likable, which again usually isn’t a problem, but for some reason I wasn’t invested.
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This is a slow burn for most of the story. Again, not usually a problem for me, but the ending wasn’t as thrilling or as shocking as I was hoping for. It’s interesting enough but not a favorite of mine.
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I listened to this one via audiobook. I wonder if reading it with my eyeballs instead of my earholes would make it flow better… Anyway, it was narrated by Sophie Rundle, I think that she did great narrating what I would consider to be a tough book to narrate. I think that this would be better produced with a full cast in order to differentiate all of the different POVs.
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Overall, this wasnt terrible, it was a quick bingeable read, but this was not my favorite. I think psychological thriller fans may enjoy this one. Check it out! Huge thank you to NetGalley, A. E. Gauntlett and MacMillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

The Stranger At The Wedding is a twisty psychological thriller !
It opens at Annie and Mark's wedding. The reader is quickly made aware that there's a mystery regarding what happened to Mark's first wife and Cameron, a detective investigating her disappearance arrives at the wedding reception - he's an uninvited guest and possibly the stranger in the book title, as an other option the title may be a lot more philosophical even bride and groom may still be strangers to each other at the wedding, keeping some secrets tightly wrapped... only to have them unravel in the ordinariness of married life.
I found the beginning slow, but once Annie's and Mark's pasts begin to be revealed, and Hope, the first wife gets her perspective in, I became hooked.
The book is heavy on the character background and the potential toll of childhood trauma, so be careful if that's not for you.
I listened to the audio for this one, narrated by Sophie Rundle and loved how the narration added to the suspenseful atmosphere and the accent placed me firmly in England.

Thanks Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ALC! I unfortunately wasn’t a huge fan of the narrator. There were times when I was bored and had trouble not DNFing the audio. I think I would have enjoyed it more if someone else did the narration or if I read it physically. The twist for me was quite predictable. I also found some of the characters to be extremely unlikable.

This book was a deliciously twisty thriller and I didn't see the reveal coming! I love it when that happens. The characters are not at all what they appear to be, there is more than one timeline, and there are no reliable narrators. The stranger himself wasn't the focus of the book, I agree with others who have said the book title didn't seem fitting. Something about a missing wife or a new wife would have been better, but hey... no one asked me. But I did enjoy listening to it as an easy and fun domestic thriller!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC audiobook in exchange for this review.