Carey Baldwin delivered an incredibly enjoyable and gripping novel in The Marriage Secret. We meet Holly, the main character and wife to Zach, just as she delivered a new baby. Little by little, Holly is stripped of her basic necessities by the increasingly controlling Zach. As a reader, you cannot help but root for Holly to free herself from the binds of Zach. There are several unforeseen twists and turns that make for a very surprising and compelling high point, as well as ending, to the story. I very much recommend this title as an audiobook, as I found it a very easy and interesting listen.

I am having a hard time giving feedback on this audiobook without giving away too many spoilers so I'll do a spoiler free review first and then a second part with spoilers for the brave and carefree.

Holly and Zach just had a baby and weird things start happening. Holly wakes up and her baby is gone and a strange note is telling her the baby has been taken. She calls the cops only to find Zach is the on who took the baby, wrote the strange note and dropped the baby off with his mom. He says she took too many pain killers and didn't remember them talking about it. But is that what happened? Then a woman is found murdered and Zach is a suspect. Is Zach who she thinks he is?

So, I am having a love hate relationship with this book. But it's only because the author is SO GOOD with stirring up emotion in the reader. Like I seriously had to walk away from the book at times because I could not deal with the level of hate and emotion that I felt. I also kinda loved that there was no perfect person in the book. No one was a truly "good" person. A+.

Now the spoilers. DO NOT READ if you don't want me to tell you stuff that will probably ruin a lot of the book. DON'T DO IT!!!



My biggest issue with this book is that, at the end, it almost seemed like the writer tried to excuse away the horrendous behavior of the husband. He cheats on, tortures and gaslights his wife the entire book and, at the end, because he wasn't the "worst" bad guy, it seems like the writer tries to redeem him by comparing him to his accomplice and having him save his wife. No. He didn't deserve a happy ending. That really irritated me.

Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy of this book.

5/5 ⭐️ I loved this book! It was interesting from the beginning and kept me guessing. The main character, Holly, was very relatable and I loved her. Such a good story with many twists and turns. I love a good mystery/thriller and this one did not disappoint.

I could not put down this book! I haven't even been able to get into another book since.
I will admit to completely being the target audience for this type of book. I've read a lot in the genre and find them so compelling. I will say that at times I felt like you had to suspend disbelief in the book - for example, how could a person not exhibit these behaviours for years of the relationship and then change so dramatically?
The author definitely attempted to explain the situation and ensure there weren't any obvious plot holes. The narrators were unreliable and flawed which really added to the suspense of the book.
All in all I'm giving 4 stars. I loved the twists and how being a mother made the main character find an inner strength.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for an audio copy of this book.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audiobook.

This was pretty good! While I didn't always like how the characters were written, the twists were somewhat unexpected. The narrator was great as well.

So, I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it, either. Some of the characters were unbelievable. Holly was too naive. The gaslighting was not well-written at all.

But, I still wanted to know what happens next. It was a total page-turner (or its audiobook equivalent). Even though I didn't quite like the ending, it tied all the strings and that is what matters.

3 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the audio ARC.

So many secrets and plot twists! I loved it. I'm use to novels being more gripping near the beginning but I was surprised with all the plot twists later in the book. Zach was an infuriating character but it made the story interesting. I listened to the audiobook and it was very well done. Definitely worth picking up this book.

This review is for the audiobook of "The Marriage Secret"

#1 - I really appreciated that this was a quick, engaging book - I think sometimes authors tend to let books drag a little in the end, and Carey Baldwin did an amazing job of keeping the plot moving and not stuffing the story full of filler.
#2 - I thought the narrator did a really great job, she somehow made it so I was fully immersed in the story and it was great.
#3 - I read a lot of thrillers, all boasting plot twists and building tension, I really thought this one delivered. It's rare for me to be fully blindsided, so while I expected one twist, I didn't expect all of them, and thought this book was really a lot of fun. I'll definitely be seeking more of Carey Baldwin's books in the future!

***ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.co.uk in return for an honest review***

A good domestic thriller, full of twists and turns.

Holly and Zach have the perfect life from the outside. Appearances are not always as they seem.

An easy read, with just enough to keep the reader turning pages. My issue with it was the level of abuse that Holly was willing to endure in order to not "rock the boat", given her character I found this to be a major flaw in the storyline.

I liked the book a lot. The narrator was one of the best I’ve heard. This book kept my interest and had some good twist. Great job 👏🏽

I enjoyed this book so much, I listened to the whole audiobook in less than a day! Sometimes I find that audiobooks take me a little while to get in to, but with this one, I was hooked right from the start.

The Marriage Secret tells the tale of Holly and Zach, on the face of it, a pretty normal married couple. But when you look deeper, both sides have their own secrets.

This book is just FULL of twists and turns and, when I'd just recovered from one dramatic plot twist, another one came along and blew my mind all over again.

The characterisation was excellent and I often found myself putting myself in Holly's position and thinking about what I would do if I were her.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am off to look for other books by this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

Secrets, lies, betrayal - who could ask for more?! You never know what goes on behind closed doors, but wouldn't you like to find out? This story had many twists and turns and they all work beautifully!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishers for an ARC in return for my honest review

On the surface, Zach seems like a perfect husband, who provides the perfect life, house, and everything a woman could want. In The Marriage Secret, he is quickly shown to be obsessive, controlling, cold, and calculating. When Zach becomes a suspect in the murder of a young woman, the surface fairy tale unravels further. The narration of this story was pleasant and skilled, and although I was able to guess some of the twists, there were still some surprises waiting in the wings. A worthwhile, solid listen, that would also be a good read. #TheMarriageSecret #NetGalley

A decent attempt at a murder mystery. There was too much going on. We had adultery, murder, gas-lighting, horrible friends, liars, and more. It's like the author tried to fit every possible scenario into the story. The title and description leads you to believe that the book is about secrets in the marriage. So much time is spent around Holly's secret, but that ends up being very minor compared to everything else going on. Zach, Holly's husband, is very emotionally and mentally abusive. He essentially gives a lesson on how to gaslight your spouse. Holly has memories of certain things happening, but Zach convinces her and those around her that they didn't happen and that Holly is "crazy". The story does get very twisty at the end, a little too much. It got a little hard to follow in the epilogue.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. Overall, not a bad story, just too much going on and hard to keep the twists and stories straight. By the end, it's twisted so much, I was having a hard time keeping the names of the characters straight with how they were relevant to the overall plot line.

This book certainly kept my interest throughout and I loved most of it, but I found the last 10% or so to be very disappointing. I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was first rate. When I had to stop listening with about 30 minutes left because of the lateness of the hour, I couldn't wait to get back to it the next morning. But while I found the majority of the book to be well written and well plotted, the ending was so implausible and almost clumsily written (would the villain really have written down nefarious plans and the reasons for them in such detail?) that I was disappointed. I do love a good twist--and this was, although I did see it coming pretty early on--but it all just seemed way over the top. I'd give the first large chunk 4 stars, but the last bit gets 2 stars at best. I'd still recommend it because most people seem to love it and it did have many good points, but it wasn't one of my favorites. Many thanks to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for an advance audio copy of this book.

Enjoyment (stars): 5
Total rating (stars): 4.43


We follow Zach and Holly in The Marriage Secret, who seems to have it all. He is a wealthy, successful OBGYN and professor. She is a beautiful stay-at-home mom. Their house is perfect, and so is their newborn. However, behind closed doors, things are not what they seem.

I do feel that the synopsis gave too much away, but it didn't affect my enjoyment. For sure, Zach is a gaslighting, scum of the earth, misogynistic narcissist, and we are shown his true colours in the first chapter.

I listened to Bookouture Audio production narrated by Stephanie Cannon. It was such a fast-paced book that I could literally not put it down. Cannon's style was easy to follow, and at times I even forgot this wasn't a full ensemble cast. I followed the book from beginning to end without feeling lost.

This is my first Baldwin book and will NOT be my last. She played fair for such a twisty book with unreliable characters, and all clues can be found in the text - which is always a plus for me.

I absolutely HATED Zach. As weird as it sounds, this is actually a plus. Whenever an author makes me feel this strongly about a character, they become an auto-buy. He is so well fleshed out without being stereotypical, and all the characters read authentic, and their actions made sense psychologically.

I hope more people talk about this book; it deserves all the love it can get.

Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for providing a copy of The Marriage Secret.

First of all, thank you for the opportunity to receive a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. This was my first book by this author, and I will certainly look at her other titles now as well.

This was a page turning domestic thriller that kept my interest throughout and I finished it quickly. Both Holly and Zach have their secrets and as the book progresses the twists come out to end in an even more twisty finale!

I rate this audiobook 4 stars and would recommend to those who enjoy their thrillers.

#TheMarriageSecret #NetGalley

The narration really added to this story which was addictive in the first place. Some of the characters were so over the top but it suited the story and worked well.

I really had to keep listening to get to the end of the story - it was that much fun.

I was given an advance copy by the publishers and netgalley but the review is entirely my own.

Thank you to Bookoutre Audio and NetGalley for this advanced audiobook listen.

I enjoyed the narration of The Marriage Secret but am sorry to report that I did not really ever connect to this story.

In the opening chapter we are given a peek into the marriage of pampered Holly and Zach, a wealthy head of the local OB/GYN hospital. We soon realize that their marriage is anything but enviable.

I found the initial gaslighting from such a deplorable character as Zach hard to stomach and found Molly to be somewhat weak, even with her new baby Jolene.

That said, I found her personality flip later in the book to be implausible. It was at least refreshing to see a character become wise to the emotional abuse from their spouse.

The ending did not shock me; it seemed a bit over the top.

I did enjoy the narration, the short chapters, and the overall pace of the story which kept me listening, wanting to learn how it would all end up.

Three stars.

The Marriage Secret by Carey Baldwin is AWESOME! I loved the twists the author wrote and was immediately pulled in. I did not see the end coming! This is an incredible listen. I definitely will listen to more books by this talented author. Stephanie Cannon was great bringing the characters to life with her voice. She really hit the right emotions for this book. Thank you #NetGalley and #Bookouture for letting me listen to this book. I loved it!!!