Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for allowing me to listen to and review The Marriage Counselor.
2.5/5 Stars

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.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bookouture Audio for the ALC!

THE MARRIAGE COUNSELOR begins with MC Adele, who works as a marriage counselor, finding out that her husband is missing. He has not shown up for work, and unfortunately this is only the start of heartbreaking news she will hear.

His whereabouts remain unknown as Adele desperately searches for answers, only to find out the increasing number of secrets her husband was keeping from her and others in his life.

But he's not the only one.

When this story began, I was getting a lot of THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME vibes -- missing husband, confused and concerned wife, etc., but it quickly escalated to something far more suspenseful and dramatic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought Stephanie Cannon did an excellent job with the narration, navigating the constant fluctuation of Adele's emotions. She made the heartbreak, anger, betrayal, and confusion come across so genuinely.

If think fans of Shari Lepena and Freida McFadden will really enjoy this book, and I am certainly going to be looking into more of Dea Poirier's backlist now!

3.75 stars, rounded up :)

A fabulous dive in to the inner mind workings of sociopath which ends in a twisted plot and scary scenarios. definitely worth the time invested - enjoy

I Absolutely loved the marriage counselor by Dea Poirier. this book is full of lies twists and turns. I was on the edge of my seat trying to put the pieces together in my head. I have read the Durant Harlow series by this author and I loved it! This stand alone was so juicy. The audiobook narrator was very good. If you love twisted mess with your head thrillers I highly recommend this one. Thank you to the author and netgalley for giving me and chance to read and post an honest review for it!! LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!!!! I couldn’t put this book down! I love books like these where you simply can’t put his book down. I need a sequel to this stand alone.

The Marriage Counselor
By: Dea Poirier
Publish Date: Apr 24, 2023

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture audio and the author, Dea Poirer for the advanced copy of The Marriage Counselor.

Are you looking for some twists, some turns and some all arounds?! If you want a mystery-cheating, lies, money, betrayal- to guess what happened and who dun it pick up this read.

Adele is a marriage counselor portraying the perfect marriage to Peter, her husband. Peter goes missing one day out of the blue. Adele later learns that Peter did not tell his job he was married. He also pretends to go to work everyday but instead informs his workplace he is on vacation.

Adele's parents also died, but what or who caused their death? why?

Cameron, Adele's ex boyfriend,, just so happens to be the investigator in charge. Emotions start to heat up when Cameron comes to Adele's rescue. Through twist and turns and this one did it no this one did, you will be kept guessing to the end. Do we ever truly know our partners? or ex's? or friends? what they are fully capapble of?

"Is the history of everyone we've loved written inside of us somewhere"

This book was a bit boring. I lost interest a few times while reading. The premise was a little confusing, and there wasn’t much of a twist. I don’t really understand or know what was happening with the main characters life? Or what her parents had to do with it.
Overall, just a bit confusing and a little predictable.

The Marriage Counselor started out strong: Adele is a successful counselor whose parents were legendary TV hosts. Then one day Adele's detective ex-boyfriend, Cameron, shows up at her door to tell her that her husband has gone missing. As Adele starts looking into things, she discovers her husband has been lying to her, possibly about everything. What an intriguing hook!

Unfortunately, it doesn't pan out. Cameron's so-called detective work is just plain odd, and complicated by his unresolved obsession with Adele. Then there's a random person trying to expose Adele's celebrity parents and sea Adele's name in the process. Add in some thug to whom Adele's husband owes a lot of money and for some reason the guy is certain Adele is going to pay it back to him as long as he keeps threatening her. And finally Adele's assistant, Emma, orders her boss around, threatens her, and yet Adele never once puts Emma in her place. There's also a "twist" halfway that makes the entire first half of the book make even less sense. Since it's a relatively short book, the ending felt rushed, leaving far too many plot holes and unresolved questions.

Stephanie Cannon is a decent narrator but for some reason every woman other than Adele has a nasal, irritating tone of voice that makes them sound like Lily Tomlin's phone operator from Laugh=In. Thank you to the author, Bookouture, and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Average with more than a hint of boringness.

The biggest problem with this book is that you don’t care about any of the characters. The main character, Adele, who is a marriage counselor, is completely unsympathetic and irritating. The police officer guarding her, Cameron, is part of her past, and is quite disbelieving as an officer. Emma, Adele’s office assistant is full of anger and disrespectful. There is not one redeeming character.

The plot is a mess. Things bounce back and fourth without much structure. Things don’t make sense in the scheme of things. And I mean, are the police really this stupid? And the ending, come on, you could see it coming a mile away.

I was not a fan of the author’s writing style. It was disjointed and without enough information to truly have a good suspense or thriller novel. I listened to the audio book, and the reader, Stephanie Cannon, didn’t make the story any better. She was ok, but I didn’t care for her character voices which she was quite inconsistent with.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions are my own.

The Marriage Counselor had me at the first line. I knew I’d love this author’s writing, and I did. This author can certainly write!

I did find that I struggled with knowing whether the character was being unreliable, or if there were errors in editing. This was because there were simple errors in the text, such as repetition in words within close proximity of one another, and other smaller things like this. So when things came up in the story that contradicted other elements, I simply wasn’t sure if it was the unreliable narrator, or if the book needed another round of edits - and because of this I couldn’t suspend disbelief as much as I like.

However, this was still a good story, and had twists that would make the thriller reading community happy.

The narrator did an excellent job with this book. I felt she fit the main character well. I listened at 1.75x speed, which is my normal speed.

Thank you NetGalley, and Bookouture Audio for this advanced audio copy!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I LOVE Dea Poirier's Detective Harlow Durant series, and was so surprised to her new book, so I immediately had to request it! I went between the eARC and the audiobook, and enjoyed both!

I thought Stephanie Cannon was an excellent narrator! There was a variety of characters she covered, and her variations really helped add to the suspense and flow of this book! Very fun to listen to!

Adele was such a captivating main character. There were a couple of flashbacks of her past and life growing up with parents who were famous psychotherapists. I wish there had been a little bit more added to this book regarding this because it would have given the reader more perspective, and I also wish there had been more about her marriage with her husband before he went missing. I would have liked to have known him better since he was such an important part of the plot.
I really enjoyed this fast-paced psychological thriller! There were many twists and dark secrets that I enjoyed! The ending was satisfying and had a twist I didn't see coming!

The Marriage Counselor
by Dea Poirier
Narrated by Stephanie Cannon

Rating: 3.4/5.0

The Marriage Counselor by Dea Poirier was a fun listen, though there were quite a few holes throughout the story. Adele is a marriage counselor. As a side note, her parents were famous counselors that passed away quite some time ago. Adele's husband has gone missing. Things start to unravel and she wonders if she ever really knew her husband at all. Baby clothes, his job, apparently not knowing that he was married and having no idea who she is, the surprises just keep on coming. Her ex-boyfriend, the leas investigator on her husband's missing person case is ready to help her in any way possible. Her assistant, a vile woman who turns on Adele when she realizes that she can't ride Adele's coattails anymore as things unfold and secrets threaten to be exposed...

I enjoyed this book, though there was a LOT going on, and, as I mentioned, there were a few holes in the plot, as well as many questions that went unanswered. If you can ignore this and not nitpick all of the details, it was still a fun listen.

Ms. Cannon did a decent job with her performance, though as others have mentioned, it was a bit over the top, sickly sweet.

The Marriage Counsellor by Dea Poirier Narrated by Stephanie Cannon was a good book, However, it did start off slow but once you got into it, it was really good with lots of great twists and turns throughout.

“Adele, we believe your husband is missing.”
Everything around her starts to blur, Adele goes over the words once more: “Your husband is missing.” Just four simple words with the power to shatter her whole world in a split second.

Adele works as a marriage counsellor and she is used to the tragedies that come out of nowhere from her clients. People trust her to help them through life’s big moments of their lives. The things that leave them questioning everything they thought you knew about the person you love the most.

But she never thought trouble would land on her own doorstep especially with her marriage!

Adele starts to piece together their last conversation, so desperate for any clues she could find, the Policeman standing in front of her reveals that her husband never told his co-workers that he was married. Why!
He was seemingly living a double life right in front of her and she never knew!.......WoW!!!!

Days later, Adele search through her home, discover's a hidden box of baby clothes which suggests her husband is starting to build another life without her.

What would you do if that happened to you????

And where is he? Is he alive?

This book was so good I could not put it down until I had finished listening to it.........I highly recommend this book I loved it.

The narrator Stephanie Cannon was excellent and just drew you in

Big Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio, for providing me with this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin with this novel? It was certainly entertaining and dramatic, filled with unlikable characters, juicy twists, and it had lots of action. It was a fun plot for audio and is a pretty quick read.

Adele is a successful family therapist, carrying on the legacy of her parents who died in a car accident when she was a teenager. When Adele's husband goes missing, secrets about his life become exposed and Adele realizes that he's been living a lie their entire marriage. Soon, bodies start piling up around her and it's clear that Patrick has done more than just abandon and defraud his wife.

For a short novel, this has A LOT going on. There are mysteries involved with Adele's parents' deaths, how they ran their business, Patrick missing and his sordid affairs and lies, an ex-boyfriend who also happens to be the lead detective on Patrick's case, endless drama with friends and colleagues, and lots and lots of dead bodies. Oddly enough, with all of this going on, the book also felt quite repetitive. We heard over and over again Adele's inner monologue about how much she gave up to be a wonderful wife and how she was so surprised by everything she was uncovering. Much of the emotion felt told, not shown, and it was hard to connect with Adele or feel empathy for her.

There were also some inconsistencies in the storytelling. First and foremost, this novel should not have been in first person. The twists felt inauthentic and haphazardly thrown in because there were things we should have known but been explicitly told otherwise through Adele's thoughts and inner dialogues. Second, there were several instances of disjointed / inaccurate information being shared, all minor, but still slightly irritating (i.e. talking about how immaculate her house always is but then wishing she had time to "tidy up" before the detective came by; claiming to never drink more than a glass of wine but getting blackout drunk with her friend one evening; etc.). Regarding inaccurate information, there were several instances throughout the therapy sessions, investigation, and with the news crews that were just wildly incorrect and unlikely to ever happy.

Finally, as a big advocate of therapy, I didn't love some of the offhand comments made about counseling. For example, Adele starts the novel by saying most couples who entered her door were already past a point of help and in need of a divorce. These flippant comments were made repeatedly and didn't add any value to the story. Though they certainly helped keep Adele unlikable in my book!

I listened to this novel on audio and the narrator was decent but some of her voices were a bit overdone and overly dramatic. She did keep the story exciting and helped with the pacing.

Overall this was a decent read but not one that will likely stick with me.

2.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for the copy.

This review is based on the audiobook format.

This is a captivating read/listen. The suspenseful plot was especially entertaining and full of surprises.

Unfortunately, Adele’s character is lacking relatable substance, resulting in me being unable to empathise with her. I failed to understand her actions and the motives behind them.

I still appreciated this listen and was eager to uncover what the storyline had in store. The story is full of unexpected twists that keep the reader intrigued.

Overall, the potential is there with this read/listen. The audio narrators work well, however, I felt something was missing from this, apart from the husband, of course!

‘The Marriage Counselor’ is an overall average read and is still worth picking up, in any format.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.5⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Mystery/Thriller 📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
This book was okay, I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Lots of twists
Books that mess with your head

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
The audiobook narrator did such a good job

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
The story was all over the place
It was predictable
I was still left with questions
So many people died
I was confused at times

First off thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for providing an ARC in audiobook form.

I'm struggling to articulate this book and my thoughts to be honest. The premise of a marriage counselor having marital problems and secrets of her own is very intriguing. I enjoyed the story itself, the narration was fabulous, but I don't feel that all of the deaths that happened in this book were needed. It felt kind of all over the place. And the resolution wasn't really that... the end definitely threw me but I PERSONALLY didn't care for the abrupt ending. Kind of felt rushed and unfinished.

Without giving too much away, there was SO much going on. Between Adele's missing husband, his mistresses, the police, her husbands "enemies", Adele's assistant and so so many deaths.. I'm not sure it was all needed? I believe the story could be simplified and more streamlined with a bit more to the ending and it would improve the book. Overall, I was truly entertained, but it definitely could be revisited and done with more closure or less plot lines/holes all over.

A marriage counselor that has problems in her own marriage sounded like a a great storyline. This book fell flat for so many different reasons. It was very repetitive and there were so many plot holes/things left unexplained that it made my head spin. As a thriller fan, I figured things out pretty early on which I don’t always mind, but when I’m left confused with no answers about why certain events are even included in the book with no explanation it’s a big let down.

For the most part, I liked the narration except when she did certain female voices.

I enjoyed this psychological thriller, which is about a woman called Adele, who is a marriage counsellor. Her husband goes missing, and after a police investigation, she finds out that he has been living a secret life. But does Adele also have her own secrets? What is she hiding?

The audiobook narrator for this book was amazing, and I really loved her voice.

If you love psychological thrillers with a lot of twists and secrets, and where you don't know who you can trust, then you will love this book. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Thanks netgalley for the audio arc! Rating 2.5 stars rounded up. This book has a lot of potential, and was intriguing enough for me to finish. The narrator did a great job! However, there were a lot of loose ends that never came together. It seems like certain character deaths were just added in to throw the reader off, but then there was no resolution to them or mention of them again. There were so many characters getting killed off it was hard to keep track of. I finished the book confused, and by reading the reviews it seems like I’m not the only one. This book had great potential, but left a lot of questions.

This review was also posted to goodreads.

This book kept my interest and was decently entertaining. The twist was unexpected and caught me by surprise. Overall, a solid 3 or 3.5 🌟 read.