Overall, I would give this book three stars and a recommendation. I think it would be a perfect book for a book club selection!

The first third of this book was mostly building backstory. We meet Lucy, an overworked probation officer. She’s recently gotten out of a terrible relationship, and one night she meets a man at a bar. He’s Dr. Paul Webb, a psychiatrist who works with the same prisoners and parolees as Lucy.

Weird stuff starts happening to Lucy. Disturbing calls about a kidnapped girl (possibly from a parolee), a rose on her doorstep, a woman following her. Meanwhile, she falls for Paul and they get married in a whirlwind. Lucy is put on leave from work, as nobody believes her about the phone calls.

Crossing into the second third of the book, this book ramped up like a roller coaster. Now that Lucy is isolated, Paul becomes a totally different person.

Honestly, I was a little confused by the end of the book. I read it and re-read it, and I went back to the beginning, and I could never figure out what happened with Simon. There were some unanswered questions left at the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed the main characters, and the pacing in the latter two thirds of the book. The story was gripping and thrilling. I’m giving 3 stars, only because I was annoyed with having unanswered questions, and the pacing in the first third of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hera Publishers for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was intrigued by this book and kindly given a ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Firstly in this book you have to be able to suspend ALL disbelief.

Lucy is a prison officer dealing with a very harrowing offender being let out, along the way she meets prison psychologist Paul.

As soon as that happens you just have to go with it.

I found this novel hard as there was a great story but too much was impossible to believe, too many red flags to be ignored.

I enjoyed it a little.

And then the ending...

I have no idea, not a clue. Not great.

After 2 coffees 1 Green tea and a power nap am still struggling to find the right words to describe this read .
The Man I married by Elena Wilkes.
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Firstly Thanks to @Netgalley and @Hera_books for the Arc copy in exchange for an honest review. This book releases on the 26th of August.

Synopsis :
***********
Lucy is a probation officer and she meets Paul in a pub and they instantly click . Paul is a pschyologist. Few weeks into the relationship they already decide to get married. She loves Paul and thinks that she knows her husband completely . She has everything she wished to have in life until one day she discovers photographs from his past life followed by alarminga messages on his phone. The fear of the future frightens her . Does she really know this man she married? Does she as a matter of fact know herself ? What can you do if your partner was keeping away secrets from ya , deep dark secrets !!??

My thougts:
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Well this book was a twisty creepy tale on toxic relationships and , domestic abuse both physical and mental.Did I like it ? Not exactly. Why?
🍂 It was such a slow burn that sometimes I was tempted to skip pages and othertimes I wanted to DNF it. But I hate to DNF books. Slow paced

🍂This is the kind of book where no character could be called a favorite . Everybody is messed up . Everybody is flawed.

🍂I also hated that the female protagonist was being way too stupid and could not smell someting jus around the corner , being a probation officer herself.. I had no pity for her watsover. As a matter of fact in the beginning of the book she is potrayed as a brave bold and independent woman who takes no sh*t from anyone. On the contrary in the rest of the book she turns out to be the clingy , self empathising , vulnerable and stupid 🤷‍♀️🙉

🍂The book had a lot of lose ends. You end up confused and assuming stuff. Simon Gould's part for example (without giving any spoilers) needed better handling. The least was to have an epilogue to end things in a better way. The climax was a rush!

Rating and recommendation:
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I have read a lot of pschylogical thrillers and this is not one of worst but it definetly is'nt one of the best also. It din't work for me but you may like it if you likd slow burn and new to this genre.. And the letter from the author was the best part of the book. For a debut novel this certainly ain't bad!

Books without epilogues are like would rate it a 3 on 5 .

How well do we really ever know anyone?

Even the person we exchange vows with and sleep next to each night?

Lucy loves Paul but Paul is a douchebag with some spicy secrets. But is he crazy or is she?

Love, love, loved this dark and cray-zee story!

Thank you to Elena Wilkes, Hera Books and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good page turning thriller that kept me engaged and interested. I liked how the narrative changed throughout the book to view the story from different angles.
I think that this book would appeal to a lot of people and would spark some interesting discussion as a book club read.

My thoughts about this cleverly written, outstanding debut thriller,was fantastic.What you do if you begin, to discover your partners darkest secrets.what I loved about this brilliantly written twisted thriller, was the first half of the story, starts to builds up for the 2nd half with full of suspense,was just fast moving with full of suspense, which I thought was just brilliant.The 2nd half of the story defiently tooks my breath away. Debut author Elena Wilkes's has written a powerful story,that truly deserves appreciation, and applause,love how she manages, and balances the story and its fantastic characters together, which is just incredible. The characters are brilliant, be it Lucy, who I thought was just fantastic,and  Paul's character who has a dark past, that will shock you. I so much loved this book  that is something different, I've read over the past one year. This is one of the debuts, to watch out for that is just brilliant, this will take you on a journey, to find your partner who you married, has a dark secret past. Highly recommended.I would like to say thank you to Author Elena Wilkes, Hera Books,Netgalley and Sarah Hardy of The Bright Side Publicity for giving me a chance and review this outstanding thriller.💥💥💥💥💥⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

When Lucy and Paul met they fell deeply in love. They got married and Lucy thought she had everything she wanted. But then she finds a photo from Paul's past life and reads the text messages Paul's desperately trying to hide. Now Lucy realises she doesn't really know her husband.

It's true, we don't really know someone until we marry them and this story only proves this. Lucy has had bad relationships with men in the past. So when she meets Paul in a bar one night, she is swept off her feet and the pair are quickly married. But Paul started acting strange. He made her think she was loosing the plot. He was controlling and angry most of the time. The story is told from Lucy's perspective. The tension builds with every turn of the page. This is a gripping, dark and twisted insight into emotional abuse. The ending leaves a few unanswered questions and we are left to assume what had happened. The pace is decent in this really good debut novel.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Hera Books and the author Elena Wilkes for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a ride!
When Lucy first meets Paul she is swept up with him and is able to become someone she has always wanted to be. She falls deeply into love, and everything seems perfect, until it isn’t. Lucy finds a picture of Paul’s and things start to unravel as she realizes that she may not know as much about her new husband as she should.
I loved this book and rushed to finish it.
Highly recommended!
* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to the author, Hera Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise, but found the book itself slow, torturous and very predictable. Books where a normally sensible woman turns into a doormat upon meeting "the right man" don't do it for me. Plus the focus on the constant gaslighting being done by the heroine's husband was quite oppressive. There were elements of the story that seemed to have been dropped in for effect (e.g. Simon Gould), but were never followed up on and resolved. A bit of ambiguity on minor details is fine, but there were too many loose ends for my liking. The ending struck me as very rushed and confused. All in all a passable read, if you enjoy this genre, but not a great one.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3

I loved the first three quarters of this book. The characters were really well developed and Paul's controlling nature was written perfectly. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to see how things were going to turn out.

Unfortunately I didn't like the last couple of chapters. Things started to get very confusing and I'm still not entirely sure what happened in the end, but I do know there are loose ends aplenty.

I still really enjoyed this and would recommend it but I wish there had been some closure.

This was a very intense psychological thriller. It had many twists and turns and kept me guessing. I wish the ending had been a little less mysterious and had more closure. My reason for not giving it a higher rating was the beginning. This book took me so long to get into, very slow paced at first. It did pick up mid way through and then it was hard to put down.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Hmmmm

I loved the premise and the writing is quite good but this was slow. This has been my problem of late and I know I’m more impatient due to 2020, but give me something!

There were twists, some of them predictable. The characters, especially Lucy, made some questionable choices (aka-dumb). I don’t love a story where a seemingly sensible woman becomes a nonsensical dishrag when she finds that “special man”.

So blah, blah, blah... all this stuff happens and then that ending. What was that?!? I know sometimes an author will leave things ambiguous to end a story (maybe to create a series) but this was too fuzzy. I want some closure, some minor details left out is fine, but still.

Really, I think many readers will enjoy this. I read a lot of mystery/thrillers so I saw where this was headed (ending still up in the air). Entertaining and definitely wanted to see how it ended.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Hera Books for a copy in exchange for a review.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into romance stories and literary fiction however I wanted to take the opportunity to read something from outside my norm. And I am glad I did!! Thank you for  opening up my mind to something totally different.

This was quite an intense read. Very psychological with a ton of mind-games. In fact, I remember shouting at a few of the characters, I couldn't believe the manipulation I was reading. Then calmed myself down thinking, it's only a book, it's not real. But to have that impact on me because I was so engrossed is a real positive thing.

I would describe this book as twisty and intense. I had a love/hate vibegoing on with some of the characters and it's quite thought-provoking. The story starts off slowly and I was unsure at first what direction it was heading in, but then about half way through I was totally hooked. I found the chapters to be very long, so I was often stopping and starting halfway through them.

Overall a great book and a recommended read.

I found this book really intriguing. I wasn’t sure if I would like it but I literally couldn’t put it down. I don’t want to give anything away as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. I was not sure who was good or bad throughout the book. I kept flipping back and forth. It’s a great book. A couple things I didn’t like... Simon Gould’s character just didn’t fit right for whatever reason. Like why did he pick Lucy to taunt. Lucy’s back story was kind of vague. And I thought that her friend Emma would have been more supportive of Lucy not of Paul. And the ending was confusing. I had to reread it a couple of times. So because of these few things I am going to rate the book 3.8 out of 5. Definitely worth reading!

This was an interesting psychological thriller which focused heavily on manipulation and gaslighting. I found it to be an easy read, and I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

#TheManIMarried #NetGalley #ElenaWilkes
Lucy has a great (but difficult) job and meets a great (but not overly handsome) man and falls in love. Things soon start to go wrong but does the blame lie with Lucy, who carries around demons from her career and a failed relationship in the past or Paul, her psychologist boyfriend who is perfectly placed to manipulate her and carries around demons of his own. I was sucked straight into the story and genuinely couldn’t put it down. A fascinating thriller, well written, fast paced and truly terrifying - does this stuff really happen ?. Can people manipulate or be manipulated like this ?. I was heading for a 5 star review ... until that ending - what an anti - climax !! . I literally reread the last few pages a couple of times to see if I had missed something but I still don’t get it. Such a shame; I feel like I’ve only read three quarters of a story - I’ll have to hope a sequel is on the horizon !!

I had to read this really quickly as wanted to get to the resolution of the story. It was a genuine thriller in that it offered a plot with twists, turns and suspense. I felt the building of the characters was a little bit light as did not find myself as invested in their fate as I perhaps should have been. I think I need to read it twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything in my first rush through...

The Man I Married is a solid psychological thriller by Elena Wilkes that will have readers on the edge of their seats.

Lucy and Paul seem like a normal couple. Their meeting was unique and they fall in love under unusual circumstances. Lucy feels lucky - she meets a man in a bar and they have a real, instant connection. Paul is a doctor in a line of work that aligns with hers. She shouldn't be bothered that she sometimes mishears what he says or that she misremembers things from her past and his. He's perfect for her.

From the outside looking in, readers will quickly realize that Paul and Lucy and their marriage aren't perfect. Not even close. But while not perfect, is it dangerous? Is there danger surrounding these two? Why is a strange woman watching them?

While this book was riveting there were some answers that remained after the last page. Some ideas and plot lines that weren't connected. Nonetheless, the book is a really good read that will keep you up at night!

Review: 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️✨
Unfortunately from the start of this book I could not connect to it.
It had a very slow start and I felt a lot was not explained. It did pick up halfway through the book but then things started to get very strange.
The ending just did not do it for me. That part of the book was rushed and could have been told a lot better.
I feel like the story had a lot of potential and I was waiting for the big surprise but it didn’t come.
The author does write very well and she did have me reading till the end.
I hope I enjoy her next book more ❤️