This book was a WILD ride that I did not see coming! I went into this book with an idea of what to expect but there was twist after twist that I did not see coming! While the characters weren't all that likable I was still invested in the outcome.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Wow, a great psychological thriller; just when you think you have this story figured out, take a second look!

Although, I didn't like or care about ANYONE's future or odds of survival by then end of this story, and maybe it is just me, but I LIKE to have an underdog to root for.

Until next time, chose your mates wisely...

I wasn’t sure i was into this in the first half, i thought it was pretty predictable. But once the first twist happened i was super shocked, and the second half of this book was just twist after twist and i really loved it. I never could’ve predicted what actually happened in this and what these characters ended up being. Very entertaining and thrilling!

The title for The Bigamist was enough to intrigue me, but I knew I had to request it from Netgalley after seeing so much high praise for the novel. In some ways, I went into The Bigamist knowing very little about the plot, and I was so glad I did. This is the type of book where less explanation is better to avoid giving away any of the multiple twists involved. In turn, I’m going to tell you very little in order to ensure I don’t give anything away. What is important to know is that:

1. This is the type of book that hooks you pretty quickly.
2. The characters are unreliable and pretty unlikeable in all of the best ways.
3. If you find this book predictable at any moment, you are either in for a big surprise or you may be some sort of soothsayer.

All that to say, this novel was unputdownable for me. Every time one problem wrapped up, it seemed another appeared. The way Halsall crafted the storyline felt unique, and I loved that it kept me guessing. I listened to it on audio and suggest you do the same if you’re an audiobook lover. Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the advanced audio copy.

Thank you NetGalley and DreamScape Media for an advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was brilliant! I have never read anything by Halsall but I will be. Emma meets Sam at a bereavement session. His sister Faith, runs the meeting. Emma has had a miscarriage, her mother in law died, and her husband had an accident. Soon Sam and Emma are falling for each other and she is pregnant. Sam is an award winning architect and he designs a dream house for Emma. She uses the compensation money she received from her husband’s accident for the house. But soon things become odd. Her wallet is in the oven. She almost sets the house on fire because of a scented candle. The duvet catches on fire after her curling tongs are on the bed. Why is Sam lying? Why isn’t the new house getting built? What are all the invoices? I did not see the end of this book coming, and that is a wonderful thing. This would make an awesome beach read. I think it would be good for a book group too. Put this in your TBR pile!

I never should have said "I Do!" to "The Bigamist".

WHY DID I SAY "I DO!"?
I had been seduced by the book's stunning cover and an ultra-compelling publisher's blurb.

Unfortunately, the book cover's teaser was misleading and did not accurately depict the book's storyline.

Overall, I felt that the book's pacing was uneven with many portions of the book being waaay too slow-burn.

I also felt that the book's plotline was contrived and required a HUGE suspension of disbelief.

I listened to the audiobook read by Sarah Durham. The narration was good but not great.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars.

When you love a book as much as I loved this one, you not only read it but you listen to it as well…

The Bigamist…

I have no words and that’s saying a lot being as though I have had the nickname “motor mouth” since I was a kid.

Bookouture, has released some of my favorite thrillers this year and The Bigamist, falls into the number one slot in this category .

Rona Halsall, you speak my love language and I will forever be a huge fan of yours.

I’ve read every thriller imaginable. The cheating husband, the evil children, the woman plagued with amnesia……..but nothing and I tell you nothing has ever been written like The Bigamist, to date .

The Bigamist, is completely original to anything I have ever read and has left me transfixed on what this book just put me through. I might just have to read it again to make sure I did not miss anything .

I’m left with a massive book hangover and can not stop thinking about this book!!!

This is a book of the year and I can not wait to watch this one break the internet . Rona Halsall, is in the big leagues when it comes to skill and execution of the perfect book. After concluding The Bigamist, I instantly went into stalker mode and found every book published by this author to date and purchased them all.

If you are looking for a book to blow your mind and satisfy your every bookish need, look no further, The Bigamist, delivers!

Teaser :

‘I’m sorry, Sam’s not available,’ says the woman who answers my husband’s phone. I can’t place her voice, so I politely ask who she is. Her answer sends my world spinning out of control: ‘I’m his wife.’

I know I want to marry Sam the moment I meet him. After I lost my beloved mother so suddenly, this charming, softly spoken architect with his deep-brown eyes is just the fresh start I’ve been searching for.

I’m delighted to be expecting our first child before we’ve even had a chance to plan a honeymoon. I want our family to work so I try to ignore his long work trips. I turn a blind eye to the private calls he takes and I listen to his excuses about why the money keeps disappearing from my bank account. After all, he has no idea what I’ve been doing in our house whilst he’s away or how I really made that money.

Then I find out Sam’s got more to hide than I ever imagined was possible. Because my husband is leading a double life. He’s already married to someone else.

But what Sam doesn’t know is that he’s not the only person keeping secrets.

And he has no idea how far I’ll go to protect myself…

The Bigamist by Rona Halsall 🎧4.25⭐️

My first book by this author. I had the audiobook read by Sarah Durham. She does a good job with the narration giving atmosphere, the male voices are distinct, although I struggled to clearly identify the voices between the females POV.

Bullet points for The Bigamist
📕it’s all in the title
📕dark psychological thriller
📕lots of secrets and lies
📕plenty of twists and turns

Emma meets widower Sam at a self help group, falling for his charms. He persuades her to let him build her dream house. However soon there are red flags over his behaviour.

The main narrator is Emma, although we get various POV which adds clarity.

It starts quite pedestrian in pace and interest with me thinking that I knew exactly where it was going, then it takes a dark turn and everything ramps up. There’s lots of revelations giving interest and increasing the pace. The themes may be on the dark side, but there’s nothing graphic, and there’s no bad language.

With the implied unreliability element of the characters it was hard to know who to trust and root for. I was backing Emma, I really liked Zack, and a minor character from the refuge whose name I’ve forgotten.

I really enjoyed listening to this book, it’s one I’d recommend.

Brilliant.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the superb Sarah Durham.
I was gripped from the start- the narrator had a lovely engaging voice and perfectly added to the drama and tension when she needed to.
There are lots of twists (one made me gasp, very clever!) and the drama never lets up until the book is finished.
Highly recommended and would love to listen to more books narrated by Durham.
This is probably my new favourite Halsall book!

A thrilling story with countless twists and turns!

Emma had recently married Sam, an architect. Everything was going well. Sam is working on a new job. While Emma is at home pregnant. Since they're expecting, she wanted to keep a closer eye on their spending. When the numbers didn't add up, Emma started to become suspicious of her new husband. She noticed how he is away on work trips more often and he would hide phone calls from her.
One day she decided to give him a call. Instead of Sam answering the phone, it was a woman's voice. She even said she was Sam's wife! That's when Emma's world turned upside down. Can she believe anything Sam says anymore? What else is he lying about? Was he just using her?

This novel took me on a wild ride. Nothing went the way I had expected! Highly recommend!

***Thank you to NetGalley, Rona Halsall, and Dreamscape Media for graciously sending me the ARC to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

Oh dear, this is just too much too stupid to tolerate for me. Apparently, female main character is TSTL. The blurb indicates there is more to the story but I can’t tolerate it for long enough to get there. I did not even get to 25% but have to DNF right now.
Narrator is perfectly fine, I have enjoyed her work before.

What the heck did I just read?? (But in a good way!) The whole time I was reading this I was super entertained and wondering who the bad guy was. There were so many twists and the ending was crazy and left room for a sequel?? I'd love to see how this all plays out!

If you're looking for a crazy work filled with a group of characters with questionable morals - this book hits that spot everyday of the week and twice on Sunday!

Wow, that was quite an unexpected ending!! Definitely left me reeling at the end!

After her husband is in horrible car crash, Emma feels lost. She attends a bereavement group, where she is befriended by a leader, Faith, and her brother. They understand her in a way her previous friends didn’t, and soon her whole life revolves around them. In a web of relationship highs and lows, lies start to appear, leaving Emma confused and doubting everything. As the story progresses, we find that Emma also has her own web of lies.

This is a book that feels semi-predictable in the beginning, and then the thriller kicks in and you wonder what the heck is going on and how the author will manage to tie up this story with a pretty little bow. Don’t try to figure it out, you’ll be wrong! Definitely a surprising ending that I was not expecting.

The Bigamist by Rona Halsall is a very good, twisty book. I was blown away from some of the twists that change the trajectory of the book. I love it! There were times when I wanted to shake some sense into Emma, but I also remember having pregnancy brain, so I let her be :)

Sarah Durham is a great narrator.

Overall, I rate The Bigamist 4 stars. I did deduct a star because there were times when the book dragged on. It also would have been nice to have heard Sam's perspective.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for providing me with an ALC.

Rona Halsall's latest domestic suspense thriller, THE BIGAMIST, is a wicked twisty game of cat and mouse. Unreliable narrators, no likable characters, and EVERYONE is keeping dark SECRETS! 3.5 Stars

Who is the bigamist? Emma or Sam? Who is keeping the bigger secret?

The Prologue: Emma is eight months pregnant and looking through home magazines in the doctor's waiting room. She and her architect husband, Sam, are building a large home. She notices a painting in a photograph that is hers. Her artwork belonged to her and was in a storage unit in Manchester, where she left them before they moved to Appleby in Cumbria. How did it wind up on a stranger's wall? Then a strange phone call. Someone claims to be Sam's wife.

Part One: We jump to where Emma and Sam met at a bereavement group fourteen months earlier.

Emma's mum died of breast cancer three years earlier. Then she had a miscarriage. Her husband had a terrible accident, and two months earlier, her mother-in-law had a heart attack when she heard about Zach's accident.

Then she meets Faith and her brother, Sam. She and Faith become friends, and Sam and Emma begin dating. Alice, his wife, died.

Soon she is pregnant. They move into a temporary cottage, and Sam talks her into allowing him to build them a house. They get married. He seems to be spending a lot of her money. Everything is moving too quickly for Emma. Can she trust him?

Part Two Now: Then it appears she is misplacing things. Is someone gaslighting her? Then Emma reads about Sam's past, which is disturbing. Sam is spending much time away from home, traveling with his business. Then there is a fire.

The picture on the stranger's wall is still bugging Emma and the mystery. Who sold her paintings? This relationship is moving too fast, and the couple barely knows one another or knows anything about their past.

Part Three is when we learn about Zach, Emma's previous husband.

Part Four: When you think you know where the author is headed, there is a 180 turn, and then we find out Emma is also keeping BIG secrets, as well as Faith and Sam.

Part Five: Who's zooming who? Who is the cat, and who is the mouse? Prey or predator? All the players come together in this web of deceit, lies, and manipulation, and then five months later.

Greed, money, jealousy, ulterior motives, manipulation, MURDER! Life was dangerous. Accident happens. Everyone has their agenda. How far will one go to protect their family? Why does someone become a bigamist?

MY THOUGHTS: I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sarah Durham for an entertaining performance. However, I thought it was drawn out and repetitive in the middle, and I became bored and ready for it to end. No likable characters, so I was not invested in any of the characters. Too much packed in one book, too much drama for me, and the ending felt rushed. This is more of a popcorn thriller and not a complex psychological thriller, in my opinion. I was not blown away. My first book by the author, and I look forward to possibly reading more.

Thanks to Bookouture and Hachette UK for a gifted ALC and an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Pub Date: July 5, 2023
July 2023 Must-Read Books

A marriage that's overflowing with secrets from both sides of the bed...

This was a wild ride, but not so wild as to be unpredictable or off the rails as far as the feasibility. It has a mix of tropes from the thriller genre, which I’ve never seen employed this way, so it definitely gets some points for creativity.

The twists were a mix of predictable and unexpected, even though they’re ones we’ve all seen before, which was nice.

I hesitate to say more, because this one is great to let unfold in front of you versus going in knowing too much. Overall, I’d recommend it. 3.5 rounded up.

Get ready for multilayered betrayals in The Bigamist, a thriller that turns domestic and family structures upside down and twists them. Protagonist Emma meets her (very) soon-to-be husband Sam at a grief group and soon befriends his sister Faith. Emma has few relatives and seems to be without any other strong friendships, community ties, or other social connections; although she is a visual artist, she appears to lack a professional/collegial network as well. Her bill-paying job as a virtual personal assistant deprives her of daily social interaction. The loss of her immediate family, and a catastrophic car accident involving her husband Zach, combine to lead her to seek emotional support, but the only member of the grief group with whom she forms a bond is the handsome Sam. A busy architect, Sam still finds time to cook tasty meals for Emma. She ignores what seem to be obvious warnings: Sam spends most nights art her home, but pays no bills; isn’t always honest about where he’s “working” and why; and early in their marriage, betrays Emma in such a shocking way that I wished she would call a divorce attorney -- after throwing his clothes out on the front lawn. But their situation isn’t simple, and Emma’s convinced herself that they are in love. She’s also pregnant and Sam is committed to building a dream house for their fragile new family. Soon, Sam’s sister Faith just happens to have a reason for moving near their rented country home. No longer employed, and living in a rural area without friends or even acquaintances from an expectant mothers group, Emma slowly realizes that she does not trust Sam.

Pacing drags in the first third of the book, and the protagonist Emma is too naive to be fully convincing as an unreliable narrator; in addition, her background and personality feel somewhat undeveloped in the first third of the book. Her inability to recognize manipulative, suspicious, and eventually threatening behavior from the people who isolate her from friendships and the possibility of help may frustrate some readers. It’s too bad, because there are powerful story elements. When Emma finally does act in her own self-interest she is shown kindness by a female rideshare driver and the director of a battered women’s refuge. Unfortunately, Emma is almost as profoundly self-interested as the villains in this novel, and there isn’t any reciprocity or much empathy in her interactions.

Mild spoiler here: there is an occurrence of almost-retribution near the end that would have been more satisfying as an actual scene in the novel, instead of quick summary sentences. As a reader, I felt somewhat cheated.

There are some really engrossing elements within the novel, but the slow pacing of the first part of the book and the lack of depth of some characters weakened the overall story. That said, the author tells a story with some really interesting concepts & it would be interesting to explore her other work.

The cards have been dealt within the first few chapters. Emma and Sam meet at a grief meeting. They hit it off. She gets pregnant and they get married. Little by little, the reader is let in on the details of Sam's and Emma's backgrounds and present lives. Slowly hints and clues are dropped for the reader to put the puzzle pieces together. The book was expertly written with many clever twists. The narrator's performance was outstanding.

Loved the prologue! This book grabs you in the beginning but then just becomes too slow for my liking. It doesn't really get going until around 50% mark of the book. Then the twists start, and they just seem so unbelievable to me, and I am not a fan of unreliable narrators so that didn't help. Having said that, I think if you like domestic drama/thriller, then this book is for you. I myself am so over them. I can totally get why people are liking this book and that is why I am giving it 3 stars.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an ARC of this book.

Reading Between the Wines book review #75/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: The Bigamist
Author: Rona Halsall
RELEASES on July 5, 2023!!!

Sipping thoughts: If what you think is happening or going to happen was a book! I was so shocked and surprised at the characters and this book and the relentless greed and deception. Being married is already hard enough so I can’t imagine why someone would want another spouse, lol. If you love a domestic psychological thriller that will leave you reeling at the end of each chapter then this is the one for you-from chapter one to the very last sentence.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @DreamscapeMedia for an advanced copy of @TheBigamist.
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