The Golden Couple
The Golden Couple
By: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
[Fulfilling “A book with fewer than 1000 reviews on Goodreads” as part of the 2021 Fall Reading Challenge.]
“Twelve minutes ago, they breezed into my office— glamorous, affluent, enviable. The golden couple. Now the underlying tarnishes they’ve never allowed the public to see are already beginning to show.”
Avery, a therapist who recently lost her license, has publicized her breakthrough ten session plan sure to fix whatever issues you have. The golden couple, Marissa and Matthew Bishop, have come to repair their marriage after Marissa admits to infidelity.
But things are not what they seem and everyone has a secret. Or two.
And the secrets are eerily entangled more than they realize.
Oh also— the Bishops are definitely not seeing Avery by mere coincidence.
The formatting of this book follows Hendricks & Pekkanen’s book, An Anonymous Girl— the main female character has chapters told in third person, the therapist has chapters in first person.
It takes awhile to figure out where they’re going with it. From the beginning I was questioning: Is the therapist shady? Which one of the golden couple is shady? Or are they for real and are innocently caught up in something sinister?
And can we trust the narration? I’ll be honest, ever since I read Gone Girl, I’m assuming I can’t fully believe anything from a first person narrative— talk about trust issues! Thanks a lot Gillian Flynn.
Also similar to An Anonymous Girl, this book is a slow burn. It does drag a bit in the middle and some of it feels repetitive. I didn’t like The Golden Couple as much as the other one. There was so much of it centered around the act of infidelity and the marital therapy whereas the other one had more of a mysterious psychological element to it.
So some of this was a bit boring— 10 sessions is a lot to go through!
As for the mystery— you might figure this one out, but there are enough red herrings that will make you second-guess yourself.
I agree with some other reviewers that Avery’s character seems more like a Nancy Drew type sleuth than a therapist. You wonder how much of her life is invested in this particular client. The authors do include bits of her other clients so you know she is working on multiple projects but it does seem odd with how investigative she seems to be about the Bishops.
I also agree with other reviewers that the characters aren’t super likable.
It’s not an amazing book, but it’s not terrible either.
I’m not sure if this and An Anonymous Girl are enough to keep me reading these authors. It seems like most of their books are domestic suspense that revolve around some sort of marriage dysfunction.
Too much of the same thing for me. But if that storyline intrigues you, I would guess you would enjoy their other books.
Sidenote: A language content disclaimer— there are quite a few f-words in this book.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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