"My wife is my favorite puzzle to put together, and sometimes I like to rearrange the pieces of her mind just to keep it fresh."

What starts with a perfectly painted marriage unfolds into a web of secrets and lies.

I’m obsessed with how the author delivers such a wild, addictive story — this is the perfect mix of twists and juiciness and this book could definitely be my top pick after The Last Party! 🤌

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC for this crazy thriller !

Release date: June 24th, 2025

I really liked this book. From the start I was hooked, it had all my favorites short chapters and fast paced and hooked you with the chapters ending with you wanting to go forward.
We got different POVS from a few different characters

This book was twisted and I never knew what was going to happen next with the story line.

I thought I had it figured out and then I was wrong, there was one point where I guessed what was going to happen, but that’s minor it was laid out right there.


Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC copy of this book.

Baby. When it comes to Torre you gone be in for a ride. This book was no different. Twisted. I was on the edge of my seat from the beginning to the very last page. Very messy and ridiculous just like I like my books.

I am usually a fan of Torre's books. There hasn't been one I have not liked yet. So I guess there is a first for everything. I did not like this book one bit. The character development was non-existent. It felt to me like it was a "suface story", not really getting to the deepest core. By the time I hit 60%, I was just done. I will still read her books in the future, and I am sad that I did not enjoy this one. Based on other reviews I am seeing, I am not alone. 2 stars.

I have been in a reading slump and this was just the book to bring me out of it. Lots of great twists and turns that made you go back and reread the paragraph. A Happy Marriage is a quick read that surprises you so many times.

𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.

It kills me to say that this was 2.5 rounded up. After absolutely loving THE LAST PARTY, I was eager to dive into the newest thriller from this author. Unfortunately, this one fell a little flat for me. Married couple Dinah and Joe Marino have an interesting dynamic--she's a homicide detective with a complicated relationship with her family; he's a psychiatrist who is obsessed with control.

While the plot had the potential to be unhinged in the best of ways, I just couldn't get fully on board. Neither MC felt fully fleshed out, and their motivations needed more depth and explanation. The plot didn't move smoothly but felt pieced together, and I was completely underwhelmed by the ending. I have enjoyed all of her other books, so this definitely feels like an anomaly. Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the early read. This title is expected to publish June 24, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy of this book. All thoughts are honest and my own.

I loved parts of this book but also found it a bit predictable and all over the place. There seemed to be bits and pieces of information that were irrelevant to the narrative. However, overall a good read and I absolutely didn’t want to put it down!

As one of the biggest fans of Alessandra Torre’s darker works (though I’ve also enjoyed her romance novels in the past and hope she writes more in the future), I was eager to dive into this twisty thriller. Torre is known for crafting stories filled with deception, secrets, and couples with sinister agendas, so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, this time, I couldn't fully enjoy the wild, batshit-crazy ride, even though the book started off promising—especially the early pages detailing Joe and his future plans for his beloved wife.

The plot follows Dinah, a hardworking Los Angeles cop from a dysfunctional family, who carries deep-seated resentments toward her mother and sister, Marci. She dedicates herself to solving missing persons cases, which have been piling up lately, and finds solace in her marriage to Joe—a respected professor and psychiatrist specializing in treating troubled women. Years ago, Joe even helped Dinah during her darkest moments, pulling her back from the edge. She loves and trusts him completely, believing he is her safe place.

But behind Joe’s polished, hardworking psychiatrist façade, he harbors dangerous secrets—and he’s not the only one. Dinah, too, has a life-altering secret from her past. As she investigates a chilling case involving a terminally ill mother who was murdered just months before her expected death—and her now-missing daughter, Jessica—she’s faced with troubling questions. Did Jessica kill her mother? Was she abducted? Could she be a victim of sex trafficking? Meanwhile, a rookie detective is poking around Dinah’s cases, questioning her every move and putting her career at risk. To complicate matters further, Dinah realizes that the missing girl might have been one of her husband’s patients.

Now, Dinah must choose: does she cross ethical lines to do her job, potentially jeopardizing her marriage, or does she protect herself at all costs? With her deepest secret threatening to surface, she stands to lose everything she’s built.

Overall: I predicted Dinah’s secret early on, as well as the novel’s biggest twist before even reaching the halfway mark—it all felt too obvious. While the story started strong, things took a nosedive midway, with abrupt, underdeveloped twists that ultimately derailed the execution. I struggled to connect with any of the characters, including the victim, which made it difficult to stay invested. That being said, the ending, with its dark sense of humor, made some sense. Still, I expected more.

I’m giving this book a solid 3 stars (rounded up from 2.5) for its promising start and my love for the author’s work. However, I’ll be skipping this one in favor of looking forward to her future books, hopefully with stronger twists and better character development.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I finish this book so fast it was so good could not put it down but it’s no surprise this is one of my top 5 authors!!!! Period you have done it again this will be a great release I’m sure

Dinah is a homicide detective, Joe is a psychiatrist, they’re married and both absolutely insane. Not really a spoiler cause that’s something you get from the get go (the first line is quite something). They love each other but Dinah feels guilty about some secret she’s been keeping, and her current case is threatening to ruin everything she worked so hard to build over the years. The big twist wasn’t that interesting to be honest, even if I loved Jessica as a character. What I loved about this book was getting inside their heads, cause that’s one crazy place to be. There’s something thrilling about getting the vilains POV when they don’t actually see themselves as vilains at all.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm always very happy about an ARC and being able to give it a review! <3

Unfortunately the book starts with a lot of characters that really confused me – I personally don't like it when so many characters are involved or names just appear in the story.

I love the writing style and also the short chapters. I could hardly put the book down.


The story itself was interesting, but it didn't catch me as much as her other books.
A solid thriller that I would still recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for an ARC and this is my honest review - I love Torre and I LOVED this campy thriller. The prose is perfect although I have to confess that at about the 60% my eyes flew over the text as I excitedly raced to the end.

(Psychiatrist) Dr. Joe and (Police Detective) Dinah have a happy marriage, if a little strange. They are perfectly attuned to each other, and share everything, yet Dinah has some secrets that she doesn’t want Joe to uncover and Joe is fascinated by the mystery of his wife, determined to learn her secrets. They are truly besotted with each other, even after 20 years, and Joe confides to the reader in the opening chapter that if he ever murders his wife, he will do so with the utmost respect due her.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave….The reader is already in for the ride!

Torre continually amazes me. She has a seemingly unlimited pool of creative themes upon which she draws, some erotic, some chaotic, and one in particular tragic (The Ghostwriter – definitely one of my favorite books). She has at least two pen names and when I wanted to learn how to use html on GR, she even popped up in my google search with an instructive tutorial. I’m still not really sure what html is but I sure do have fun with it, thanks to Torre.

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/The_Mad_Doctor_%281933%29_Poster.jpg/588px-The_Mad_Doctor_%281933%29_Poster.jpg"/>

This book was dark, addictive and psychotic. I didn't particularly like any of the characters but that didn't make the story any less enjoyable.

A Happy Marriage by A.R. Torre is an over the top domestic thriller. The story is intense, unhinged and a page turner. Joe and Dinah were very unlikable So many unanswered questions as to the motives for the couple's behavior, their backgrounds, etc. After finishing the book one question keeps running through my mind.....WHY?

Thank you to the author, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

A Happy Marriage is a rollercoaster with some great twists and turns! What starts as a detective story and portrait of her marriage morphs in to much more beneath the surface. Unreliable narrators. Unhinged. Unreal. This story kept me pulled in unable to wait and see how it would end.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

“You are the gift that keeps on giving, one I am beginning to regret purchasing”

This is my favorite book by A.R. Torre, I’ve read so far.
What is “A Happy Marriage”? Is it real or is it a balance between good and bad?
I enjoy reading psychological thrillers and this book explores the complexities of marriage, loyalty, trust and what holds a marriage together. Can a happy marriage between Dinah and Joe be undone once the secrets come to the surface?

The alternating multiple POVs made it interesting to explore the characters, their storyline and the mystery that surrounds them.
The story is addictive, fast paced, suspenseful, and i could not put this book down until i finished it.

A big thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Happy Marriage by A. R. Torre. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another great book by the demented mind of A.R. Torre. Dinah is a homicide detective and her husband Joe is a murderous psychiatrist. Together they have the perfect life, all but 1 secret. When A local women goes missing their secrets begin to unravel

A.R. Torre consistently publishes books that hook you early on, make you think you know what’s happening, and then come full circle with a plausible-esque ending. A Happy Marriage was no different! I enjoyed this book as a dual storyline, dual PO perspective that follows a married couple who devote themselves to each other. A psychologist and a homicide detective with LAPD, they seem to have a perfect marriage- on the outside. But secrets don’t stay buried and it isn’t long until their weakness starts to show. Suspend belief for a few hundred pages and enjoy this novel for what it is!

I really enjoyed this twisted story of what constitutes a happy marriage. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I got to chapter 38 because I needed to go to sleep! Quick read, warped, all the things to keep you interested.