A well written psychological thriller that has some unsettling moments and tense encounters. Lucy is a probation officer who finds herself in a stressful situation when dealing with Gould, a child sex offender. After this encounter she finds herself on a night out unsettled, alone and slightly intoxicated when she meets Paul a psychologist who grabs her interest. What follows this initial evening is a relationship that rapidly moves to living together and finally marriage. Circumstances at work, with her family, her previous relationship and her best friend all combine to overwhelm Lucy until she finds that Paul is her only safe space. But … is he really?

Elena Wilkes delivers a debut novel filled with sinister plot twists, suspenseful moments, creepy characters and an unreliable narrator who appears to be descending into a breakdown. At times it can seem predictable and some of the situations take a stretch of the the imagination but it still delivers enough to land as a good solid psychological thriller.

Great story!
Gripping and intense - I didn't have a clue what was going on until the end!!

Hopefully, I'll find more audiobooks by this author. The narrator was pretty good too.

Thanks very much Saga Egmont Audio, via Netgalley, for the audio copy.

This debut domestic thriller was well written and had good potential; with Lucy's psychologist Husband gaslighting her until the end - An ending which was somewhat rushed and left ambiguously. I was hoping that Lucy would rise up, figure things out, then outsmart Paul with a clever twist at the end; but I was pretty frustrated in her continuously justifying the creepy things Paul did to her and blindly ignoring some of the obvious signs of warning that something is wrong.

I noticed quite a few colloquialisms which are very Yorkshire/British and I'm not sure a wider audience will completely understand them. The story and pace are both decent throughout, but with the ending leaving important unanswered questions and where we are left to assume what had happened, this did somewhat spoil the story for me.

Thanks to Saga Egmont Audio and NetGallery for giving me a copy of this book.

I found this book so boring and ridiculous, I didn't enjoy it at all.

So, Lucy is a parole officer. She meets this guy in a bar and immediately falls in love with him. 2 months forward, and they are married. Paul is a jerk and a liar and treats Lucy horribly. She, however, loves him SO much after 2 months that she is willing to let him abuse her. Meanwhile, a pedophile on whose case she was working is stocking her. But then he disappears.

So, I felt that this was pretty sloppy and there were a lot of questions that weren't answered at all. Like, why was she targeted by Simon the convict? Why was she targeted by Paul? What actually happened to Paul's family? What the hell was that ending? Why was she so stupid that she didn't leave Paul? Where did Simon disappear all of a sudden? What was his role in this story?

Okay, I know what was his role in the story, but the way he was so lazy and unoriginal.

All of the characters were complete idiots and I hated them all. I mean, your supposed best friend doesn't listen to you when you say that you are being abused??? You are hiding things from your BEST FRIEND to protect a person you've known for 2 months and who's treating you the way he did. I mean... I just wanted to shake and slap all of them!

And let me say this one again - WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is a great twisty audiobook!! A quick romance leads to a secret wedding between Lucy and Paul but then Lucy starts to discover odd things about Paul and it all starts to go downhill from there.
There are so many twists and turns in this book especially how Paul manipulates Lucy but I don’t want to give any spoilers away! What i also loved about this book was the fact that Colleen Prendergast narrated it. She does such a great job and you can actually hear the fear in her voice at times during her performance! A great debut and looking forward for more from this author. Thank you to Saga Egmont Publishing and to Netgalley.

This book started off very promising. I felt anxious the entire time, really feeling like it was all happening to me! There wasn’t really a “twist” because the truth came out little by little through the story. Some characters/storylines made no sense, like the prisoner? What was that for? It was also hard to believe that a smart woman like Lucy would make such stupid choices in her life, but that’s common in books I guess. Smart woman meets “amazing” man, woman becomes dumb. The story was okay, the ending was terrible and rushed and provided zero closure.

A dark thriller.
Lucy and Paul meet fall in love and marry quickly , too quickly ! Once Lucy learns what Paul is really like it’s too late .
The story started at at a slow pace, but it picked up around half way through. The themes running through the book include gas lighting and emotional and mental abuse , which I found at times hard to read , but these are integral to the story and not gratuitous.

I found the ending didn’t really wrap things up and left questions to be answered, but altogether a solid and a little disturbing thriller. I found it disturbing because even though this it is a work of fiction it can so easily happen in real life.
Looking forward to the next book by Elena Wilkes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit when I first saw the cover and read the blurb I was intrigued. I love a good thriller that has me sat on the edge of my seat, and this promised to deliver just that. However, I was unsure how to write this review, as I am torn between loving the clever writing and plot twists but hating all the characters, I couldn't even feel sorry for Lucy as I just couldn't make a connection with her.

Lucy is a probation officer who after an ordeal meeting with a horrible offender, retreats to the pub only to meet Paul who is a pshycologist. The couple are quickly head over heels in love, living together and getting married. Personally from the outset I knew, Paul was a miserable excuse of a man who cleverly manipulates Lucy through the relationship making her question her own judgement. Alongside this Lucy is also receiving message from the offender she met in the beginning of the book who is out on probation, and is a convicted sex offender. It is sometimes hard to keep up with what is going on even through the pace of the book for the first half is quite slow, I found it little to jumbled. But that is just my own opinion, I am not keen on books that jump around.

I just found it very predictable and very hard to believe that a clever woman in a careers like this would not see the warming signs that were clearly there from the beginning of their relationship, he didn't even try to hide his anger or bad moods. It is not they got married and he changed he was like that from the outset, trying to out smart her with his profession. I thought the narrator did an amazing job, she definitely made the book more enjoyable. I did enjoy the book, I just didn't love it.

This book just fell so short. Did it pull you in? Yes. Was it faced paced? Yes. Did the ending blow my mind away? No. At times I felt like I was just reading the words on a page and not really grasping anything from it. There were a lot of different plots also in the book that I didn't feel were 100% necessary. It was an eh book for me, nothing great to brag about.

When Lucy met Paul, it was as if it ws meant to be. Lucy is a parole officer working on the case of a pedophile who is being released from prison. Paul is a psychologist. They are married after dating for a very brief time and settle into wedded bliss....

.... but then she discovered the photograph in his drawer .... and then there were the text messages. Now Lucy is wondering if she ever really knew Paul ....

A good book even though it is pretty predictable. The narration is quite good.

Thank you to NetGalley, Saga Egmond Audio and Elena Wilkes for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is the first book by Elena I have read. What a book! This is perfect for any psychological thriller fans. It is dark, gritty and a little scary. The tension continues to build with this novel. I was well and truly hooked by the first chapter. I can’t wait to read more by Elena and hope there will be a sequel to this book.

3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
🧨🧨 this review may contains spoiler 🧨🧨
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Thankyou so much #netgalley for the chance to get an arc for honest review ..
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I must admit, I couldn't put it down the audiobook for the few chapters. It's captivating. The stalker kind, the giggles and friendships. But the ending is kind of a blur and rush. It's like a madness of here and there , it doesn't add up on the first few chapters.
Im puzzled on what happen , is Lucy delusions things at the first time?
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This book is not great for someone has a past of domestic abuse or emotional marriage stress.
The man is very sadistic and I keep rolling my eyes when Lucy ( the main character ) still forgives him and just get on with their lives .
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All in all , for me is a good 3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
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The best hung captivated me with book is the wording of the author. Very precise . And she knows what she's doing, but the few chapters on the end was a bit of a flop.
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( shaye.reads )

I enjoyed listening to this book, but I was confused by the end.

I liked the main character and I love a good story where you're unsure if the main character is being gaslighted or if she's an unreliable narrator. It's fantastic when done well and I think for the most part this one was. There were a couple of parts where I lost a bit of respect for :Lucy because Paul's behavior was so wildly unacceptable that it was really, really stupid to stay with him *and* it was just straight forward obnoxious so it's not like you can dismiss it as gaslighting/miscommunication/unreliable narrator, a normal person would have left. Period.

I also enjoyed the whole story line with the sister, I thought it was awesome and made it hard to sort out what the real truth was, but again the ending was a little confusing and I was left more confused than satisfied or surprised.

On the whole I would recommend it and I would definitely try another book by this author.

Narrator 5 stars
This narrator did a wonderful job playing the different roles with her voice. Especially as Paul

Story 1 stars
So I hated it because I could not relate to Lucy. I don't understand why she married Paul. I never got a sense of 'so incredibly inlove, I need to be with him for the rest of my life!' and once they were married it wasn't believable to me that she would have put up with such crap.

The author is clearly a talented writer but this wasn't for me.

**please note due to low rating I will no be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it. **

Dark and thrilling, worth a listen!! Loved the twists and turns throughout the book, glad it’s fiction as this could very easily happen in real life!

This was a dark psihological thriller. Very intense, maybe a little slow at the begginig but after it get really greeping. I wanted to help this women but I had to remember me it was a book. But I really loved the narrator and I hope to listen more.

This is the story of Lucy and Paul. They fell deeply in love soon after they meet. And they get married.

Lucy is in heaven until she found the photograph from Paul's past life. She stars to read the text messages and follow the leads that comes after. She is so afraid I could felt that with her. And she get confused couse she is in love end belive in love. Everything is upside down. She has to come to end of this.

I have to thank Saga Egmont Audio and Netgalley.com for this possibility.

I was hooked on this book straight away and saw the red flags, don’t do it, don’t trust, run away! The mind games within all the character was a bit confusing but maybe that was the plot? The ending left me trying to work out what had happened, had anyone died and who was actually dead, again maybe that was the part of the plot to not only play mind games with the characters and also the reader? Maybe this is what mental illness looks like? Left me with questions so I guess might make a good book club book followed by a discussion. A fast paced book covering a few story lines, not sure how the sister and mother fit in to the storyline only to pad it out a bit. Will look out for this author again. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

Fairly fast paced and kept me listening to the end. I feel like there was a lot going on in this book and the conclusion to some of the different plot lines wasn’t really clear. I didn’t find it particularly ‘twisty’ and guessed most of what happened. I liked the narrator and would read more by this author as, as I said, it did keep me listening to the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the audioARC of this book.

4.33 stars

Lucy and Paul had a whirlwind romance and a quick wedding. Lucy was so enamored with Paul that she failed to see some significant red flags; Lucy honestly thought she had everything she wanted. And then she found photographs and text messages that started making her doubt her reality.

I first read The Man I Married as an audiobook produced by Saga Egmont Audio and narrated by Colleen Prendergast. She did a great job with her pacing and making the story easy to follow. I did not feel lost at any point, and I enjoyed the different accents, true to the character’s background. Her narration did Lucy justice; it conveyed her state of mind so well, I felt that I knew her and found it easy to read the story through her perspective! My following opinion has nothing to do with Colleen’s narration or the quality of the production. It’s simply preference - I wish there had been a male narrator for Paul. I enjoy when the character who might be the villain if the narrator isn’t unreliable has their own voice. I feel it add to the atmosphere.

The Man I Married is an insidiously claustrophobic book. I was unable to decide if Lucy was an unreliable character until the very last chapter. Even though I was unsure as a reader about the veracity of her POV, I bought everything she sold and was siding with her because Lucy was that well developed! I also enjoyed Paul’s depiction. I feel that some characters didn’t quite reach their potential, but Lucy made up for them in spades.

Some loose ends and plot conveniences were either forgotten or left without closure, but I can look past them because the atmosphere was fantastic. Being in Lucy’s head wasn’t the easiest - 🎶When gaslighting entered the building/ my stomach dropp-ed/ and it stayed there, and it stayed there, and they stayed there…🎶 Wilkes took the reader to a place of dread and gloom, and I yelled at Lucy so often, my throat hurt! What a fantastic debut novel and I cannot wait to see what Elena writes next!

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Saga Egmont Audio, Elena Wilkes, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Man I Married.

Lucy is a probation officer, forced to deal with some of the most heinous criminals in the UK. The latest is a nasty piece of work who was sent away because of his unnatural affection for children. Now that he’s being released, he’s made it clear to Lucy he will reoffend, and soon. When she meets a man at a local pub after a few too many drinks, the two end up in bed together and it turns out that her new flame, Paul, is a psychologist assigned to many of the same criminals that Lucy is. Lucy finds herself falling for Paul even though he exhibits some odd and downright disturbing behavior. Before she knows it, she and Paul are married and he’s carefully cutting her friends out of her life, isolating her. When a little girl is kidnapped, Lucy is sure that her violent offender is too blame, but no one believes her. No one believes her about anything and as Paul’s behavior spirals out of control, Lucy can only wonder if she will escape with her life and her mind intact. Wilkes is a master at throwing curveballs and planting red herrings to the point readers won’t know who to believe. Prendergast is a superb narrator, capturing Lucy’s fear and confusion masterfully