Secrets and lies are the name of the game in Cole Baxter's twist filled book, The Anniversary. This proved to be a fast, dramatic, and dark twisted read.

People celebrate their anniversaries in many ways: some prefer to celebrate them at home and some, like Tom and Catherine, prefer to indulge in a lavish meal at a restaurant. But most make it home safely, but not Tom and Catherine. On the way home, there was a horrible tragic crash. When Catherine wakes up in the hospital, she learns she has been charged with being the driver in an accident which resulted in a fatality. But she wasn't driving and has the bruises to prove it. This is only the beginning as Catherine learns more about her husband, things become more dire, more dangerous, and more twisted.

This book started strongly with a horrible accident, disbelief, blame, lies, secrets, and then with revelations which left Catherine reeling. Cole Baxter knows how to write controlling and despicable characters! I mean seriously, Tom was the worst. Try reading this book and not feeling some strong feelings about his character. Catherine was very young when she first met Tom who is 15 years her senior. She is naive, has little life experience, and is a little too trusting. I felt for her for most of the book, while also wanting to tell her to run for the hills.

This book (and characters) has a lot going on in a short amount of time. There are secrets, gaslighting, lying, manipulation and drama galore in this book. It's entertaining and had me thinking of the show Desperate Housewives while reading due to the involvement of the neighbors in this book.

I had both the audiobook and kindle version of this book. I thought the narrator of the audiobook did a great job bringing the book to life.

3.5 stars

This was my first book by Cole Baxter. I was able to snag the audiobook off @netgalley and I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars on @goodreads .

Something I liked about the book…

- Listening to a good narrator always boosts the experience of a story and its characters. Stephanie Cannon did a great job at bringing out the timidness and meal personality of the Mrs.

Something I didn’t like…

- One thing I didn’t really care for while reading was how the storyline veered off into left field. Initially, you’re following along with the married couple but then suddenly the entire town is involved and they stage a Waco-like stand off. It just seemed far fetched.

Overall, I didn’t hate it but it wasn’t my favorite and that’s ok.

I listened to this book as i am visually impaired so can only access audio books.

Listening to this book will probably be very different from reading it so my review may not be appropriate to veryone.

The book started with a stryline of cohersive control by the main, very unlikeable character Tom, however it evolved into something completely different, unexpected, but unfortunetly not in a good way.
The other main charater, Catherine was portrayed by the narrator as extremely whiney and not very clever - which i am assuming was intentional, however, it was very annoying.

The story started off well, but descended into unrealistic mayhem!

This was my first Cole Baxter book, not sure if i will listen to another.

Was not twisty or turny, i was quite disappointed with this one i am afraid.

3 stars from me

I would say this book has a trigger warning for domestic violence.

I had many questions as I started the book and I was going along to it, but glad I ended up reading the answers. The book it's very twisted and barely managed to believe some of the things were in the book, especially on the corruption from the whole town - madness.

But overall, I really enjoyed this book and kept me on the edge most of the times.

I would totally recommend it to people which enjoy a good thriller.

Not last, I would like to thank to NetGalley, the author and publisher for offering me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

The storyline was okay but how it was written is the real star. Well written, descriptive, detailed passages create clear visualizations for the reader/ listener. I really enjoyed the literary merits.
Narration by Stephanie Cannon is clear and well paced. The voice portrayals are consistent. I didn’t like that Catherine’s voice was so mousy but it did seem to go along with her history of being submissive to Tom, for so many years.
Thank You to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ARC.

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Narrated by Stephanie Cannon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stroy by Cole Baxter ⭐

I have absolutely Nothing positive to say about this story.

So good! TW for domestic violence. This is my first Cole Baxter book and I can't wait to read more. From the beginning, the stage is set for an unbelievable tale of subjugation and a person's will to survive. This is a painful story of betrayal, which also includes detailed descriptions of physical abuse. The entire time you get the sense that the main character has entered a cult and will need to find her way out of it to survive. I gave this story the highest rating because of the main character's unwavering determination to do whatever was necessary to bring down the enemy.

Wow, I didn't know how I would feel about The Anniversary. I was surprised, and very glad the book started out at a great pace. As the reader, I was taken on a journey where the pace speed up, slowed down, or held a great pace. Tom was hard to like, and and made me angry. Poor Katherine was a gullible woman that made me feel sorry for her. The narrator's voice, tone, and speed made it a pleasure to listen. I do wish that there was a bit more background on Tom, as well as the town they were from. I look forward to reading more Cole Baxter books.

I read this book on Netgalley as an ARC because I've read other Cole Baxter books and enjoyed them decently well, but this one just wasn't for me. This book is about a couple who are celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary and on the way home, the husband is driving recklessly after too much to drink and will not slow down, despite his wife's protestations. He hits someone and kills them but frames her for it. She passes out from her injuries and he puts her in the drivers seat and says she was the one drinking and she was the one who did it. If this was written a hundred years ago, MAYBE it would pass, but the plot is dead right there. They would've taken her blood alcohol level and seen that she wasn't drunk. Furthermore, she has serious bruising that indicates that she was in the passenger seat. However, her husband is a wealthy and prominent man and the entire police staff is corrupt, so his story wins out for awhile. The whole nature of the relationship was gross. She was basically sold to him by her father when she was 14. They married when she was 17 and he was 32 or so and now shes 22 and still being controlled by her tyrant husband. This is very stereotypical bad guy doing bad things, good girl trying to get help, bad guy spilling a whole monologue, the end. There were action scenes that felt like comical movie scenes thrown in to a made for TV movie and SO many plot holes that the cover model should've been a nice piece of swiss instead of rings. Im okay with suspending my disbelief a little, but this was too dang much. I found myself rolling my eyes so much. Do not recommend.

Yikes. This book is about a lot of things and nothing at all.

A husband and wife go out to dinner and on the way home, they get into an accident. The husband tries to pin it on the wife. Essentially, this is the book. However, there were so many crazy subplots thrown in.

The amount of times that i rolled my eyes during this book has to be a record. NONE of this was plausible. None of it made sense. It is supposed to be a thriller. I was not thrilled.

The events that take place are comical. In no real world are things happening like this. And the dialogue... what?!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the advanced audio version in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book was WILD!! I was hooked from the beginning and could not wait to see how things played out. I am shocked at the events in this book. It was so crazy and wild. I could not believe the corruption in this book. This was a great read and loved every second of it.

The Anniversary by Cole Baxter was a fantastic book for my daily commute. It grabbed my attention and twisted and turned until reaching a satisfying end. The topic was handled well and showed the power of women uniting to defeat a common enemy.

Cole Baxter writes great twist and turn novels that keep you guessing until the end and this is no exception… a surprising ending. He develops the characters in a way that helps us develop a ‘relationship’ with them. Baxter leaves you wondering… who can you really trust..?

Thank you Netgally, Cole Baxter and Bookoture for this read.

Mixed feelings about this one because like? Yes? The mystery was interesting but I hate when the antagonist is so mustache-twirlingly, cape flippingly evil that there is no way the protagonist would have married him. We never really get a motivation for his behavior other “you were easy to manipulate” but frankly why did he wait five years to try and kill her then?

Maybe it’s just because I like my heroines a little less likeable and my villains a little more accessible, but I’m begging for a little more nuance to our characters before we have to start color coding with black/white hats like an old western movie. 💀

Read if you liked: it did have cult undertones so I would say any of the books from my religious trauma list.

The characters in this one were awful. The husband in this one is so controlling and the fact that everyone just goes along with whatever he says is too much. I like a good domestic thriller but this one was way over the top. Some events happened to other people in this one and it would have been more interesting to get the story of how it all happened vs the main character just telling us.

It felt too long in parts, too! We talk about this accident that happened for the entire book with a few things thrown in but it just dragged on. There were some suspenseful moments but they just happened and then we were talking about the accident again.

This was a miss for me.

In the book The Anniversary by Cole Baxter we meet Tom and Catherine after celebrating their anniversary while leaving Cincinnati they got in a car wreck killing a young woman. Tom was driving but told the police it was Catherine and it will be her contradicting him that will change everything. Tom gaslight Catherine at every turn telling her she drinks too much something she barely does and when she finds out he does have siblings and parents again tells her he told her this already something she knows isn’t true. Tom is a big fish in the town of Eldon and he has many secrets he needs to stay hidden along with his corrupt family and Catherine denying responsibility for the wreck will put him on the hot seat unfortunately it seems everything Tom does Catherine gets blamed for it. All their friends agree even trying to beat her into submission to say she did it but Catherine is slowly gaining allies and people willing to stand by her. Unfortunately it seems Tom has friends in high places can Catherine get out of this unscathed and show the world who Tom really is or will it end in disaster? Let me just say Cole Baxter is talented enough that it keeps you wanting to turn the pages but no book ever ends without some eye rolling in a lot of suspending of belief involved. I listen to this one on audio and thought the narrator did a pretty good job although Catherine almost came off babyish but having said that this is still a book I definitely recommend it was a fun way to pass the afternoon and it’s just good enough to keep your attention I want to thank Bookoucher audio for my free arc copy via NetGalley. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I will say one thing about this book, the action and anxiety started from the very first chapter. My heart was in my throat a lot, not knowing what was going to happen to Catherine next. The amount of gaslighting in this book was insane. I wonder if that's what it's really like being with a narcissist. It just seemed... too much.

That is where my problem lies with this book and why I couldn't give it 4 stars, as much as I wanted to. Everything in this book is too much, too far-fetched. How Tom had such a hold on everyone was crazy. I understand small towns, influence, and secrets, but this went beyond that. The way everyone was acting, you would think the town was a secret cult, and Tom was the leader. However, it never gave you enough back story to determine what was going on. The town and the power Tom had over it were made to be such an important and central part of the storyline, but we never figured out why. The only explanation we got was "they're all related" and "everyone is his cousin." That in itself was a little too much to believe. Then it goes on to imply that his reach goes farther into the much larger town of Cincinnati and even the entire state because, guess what, the governor is his cousin too. Give me a break. Give me something just a bit more plausible or at least more of a back story as to why almost everyone is willing to do literally anything for this man. If the author wanted me to believe that they were all cousins close enough to do this much shady stuff for each other, it should have at least been set in backwoods West Virginia. Then it MIGHT have been a little more plausible.

Also, what kind of person basically gives their 14 year old daughter to a 30 year old man to be groomed. This just screams "cult," not "cousins," and I think I would have enjoyed it more if that had been the case.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed certain things in this book. Jessica was a badass. Catherine was a badass. The detective was a badass (even if I was expected to believe that he wouldn't check seatbelt bruising patterns as soon as the question arose of who was in the driver's seat).

I know this is "ficton". Maybe it's just me, but I do like my thrillers to have a little more realism in them. At the very least, give a little back story where it's warranted.

The Anniversary starts with Tom and Katherine celebrating their 5th anniversary, they are out at a nice restaurant and are having fun. On the way home Tom drives like a maniac, crashes and kills someone. But, not is all that is seems.

I enjoyed listening to this book, a bit far fetched, but a twisty domestic thriller. There’s a lot of lies and no-one to trust. The narrator read very well and kept me listening, finished it in one sitting.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

The book starts with Catherine and her much older husband at their anniversary dinner /drive home. And then there is an accident. And Catherine wakes up and is blamed for DUI and a fatality. Enter Catherine being railroaded to think she is crazy and a murderer. Who is out to get her? She knows she wasn’t driving and seeks out to prove it while being treated and isolate due to her injuries. She has a few allies along the way in the form of a best friend , detective, and someone who was in the other car. But her hubby has connections. Will Catherine be able to identify what happened and how to prove it?

I had a hard time getting through this one. It did not hold my attention. The way the characters behave and treat eachother is not realistic. I couldn't get past that. The narrator was lovely. Generously rating it with 3 stars.