Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for allowing me to listen to and review The Marriage Counselor by Dea Poirier. Before I get to my thoughts, here is a look at the cover and description!
Description
“Adele, we believe your husband is missing.” As everything around me starts to blur, I go over the words once more: “your husband is missing.” Four simple words with the power to shatter my whole world in an instant.
Working as a marriage counselor I’m used to the tragedies that come out of nowhere. People trust me to help them through life’s big moments. The things that leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the person you love the most.
But I never thought trouble would land on my own doorstep.
As I start to piece together our last conversation desperate for any clues I can find, the cop standing in front of me reveals that my husband never told his co-workers he was married. He was seemingly living a double life right in front of me.
Days later, as I search through our home, I discover a hidden box of baby clothes that suggest my husband was starting to build the perfect life without me.
My entire career has been built on separating the truth from the lies. My husband may think he has pulled off the greatest lie of all but he is not the only one keeping a secret in this marriage.
All I know for certain is that when the truth comes out, only one of us will make it out alive.
Overview
So, Adele is a marriage counselor with troubles in her own marriage. One morning there’s a cop (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) shows up on her doorstep to tell her that her husband is missing. This begins a whirlwind of trouble that leads to the discovery of all of her husband’s secrets, and a pile of dead bodies.
Add to that some reporters digging into her family’s past, uncovering some seedy information surrounding her parent’s former TV show, as well as their possibly non-accidental death and we have a story with so many twists and turns and story lines it’s hard to keep up.
The Marriage Counselor: My Review
2.5/5
**I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest and voluntary review. All thoughts and opinions are my own**
I am not going to lie, I am completely unsure of how I feel about The Marriage Counselor. I hate leaving bad reviews, but I also value being honest. So here it goes.
I thought this story had so much promise and potential. The premise of a marriage counselor discovering all of the secrets and problems in her own marriage sounded so intriguing. It let me down really hard. It was like the idea was there, and it’s a fantastic idea! But then there is no follow-through.
I don’t want to spoil much for anyone that plans on reading, but suffice it to say that this book had me so confused at times that I didn’t know what was going on or where it was heading. There is just too much going on.
You have the ex showing up, the missing husband, a scandal involving Adele’s parents, a crazy assistant, a man after her who was potentially hurt by her parents (did the book ever even confirm this?), and her husband’s ex-business partner after her for money. That’s already a lot as is but I actually still feel like I’m missing something. There are just so many things happening!
I actually think this would be much better if a lot of the side stories were eliminated and the focus stayed on the main point. It felt like there could have been so much more detail instead of that being pulled in 10 directions feeling. I don’t feel like the side plots had any bearing on Adele’s story and her missing husband and were just filler and dead bodies.
Also, there was not one character I really liked in this book.
Adele starts out okay, but then abruptly changes direction and I actually really dislike her. And her assistant!? I hated her! Other than a couple of vague comments, I have no idea why she didn’t just fire her. She’s a terrible and selfish human being. And the ex-boyfriend? He was just weird and his being a cop wasn’t even believable. Worst cop ever. I was actually at one point expecting there to be a twist where he isn’t really a cop at all, because the policing is THAT bad. (cop’s daughter here so maybe I’m a little too judgy about that particular detail?)
Long story short, none of the characters were great and it was very hard to empathize with any of them.
Now, the brighter side, the narrator was actually pretty good. Other than her voice for the assistant, but as I hated the assistant, it seemed to work. Would definitely listen to more narrated by her.
The crazy thing is, after all of this complaining, I still didn’t hate this one. I most definitely didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I was so stuck on the great premise that I was able to at least like the idea of it. But while the premise is great, this book will probably not be very memorable for me.
Now, I hate leaving not great reviews. So please, take this as just my opinion, and don’t let me stop you from reading it! I always worry that the problem is me and that I am just not interested and that someone else might really love it. This one just wasn’t it for me.
I hope you have a wonderful day! Check out more of my reviews below!
