I'll start off by saying that this book was a little distracting and it took me longer than normal to finish. I didn't really care for any of the characters and I found Claire to be quite obnoxious. If you like suspense though, this is definitely a good read, especially towards the end!

Thank you to Netgalley providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

We all know at least one of them. That perfect couple. The couple that seems to have it all going for them. The envy of all their friends. Claire and Angus are that golden couple. They both have successful careers, newly engaged and just purchased an amazing home in a much sought after neighborhood. They really do have it all, or do they?

I had no idea where this book was leading me. It grasped me right from the start and did not let go until the end. The characters were so well developed that I found myself completely drawn into Claire's life. I was excited that she had moved on from her ex Daniel after five long years. We got a look into their past life together and let's just say they were not the perfect couple.

So I was glad that she got her dream guy Angus, but then Mark entered her life. Is she going to risk everything? Her career, her home, her relationship and even her life? OMG I screamed about a million times, what are you doing Claire? How can you think that is okay to do?! For a smart girl with a law degree from Cambridge you are one bad decision maker!

I must admit my first impression was that Claire was a bit of a bore. I was very, very wrong! She likes to walk on the wild side. She did things that would make most people very uncomfortable. It made for a heck of a read though as. I was completely shocked at the decisions she was making. The ending caught me completely off guard. I never saw it going in that direction. Whew, that ending had a very clever twist! This was quite a unique story that ended up touching on a serious issue.

I must say I enjoyed my first Sarah Mitchell book and I will be looking forward to more.

Out 5th Deb 2019

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Sarah Mitchell for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I won't summarise the plot, as I usually just take this from Goodreads anyway, so I will just dive straight in.

Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I found it so so frustrating! The characters are not particularly likeable, a part of me really wanted to strangle Claire and shout at Angus. Everything going on with Agatha was just a bit strange as well.

The story is different to your typical thriller, which is a bonus, and it was a pretty good idea for a book, but I didn't find myself actually shocked by anything. As usual, I didn't DNF, as much as I always feel this way I cannot help but need to know if I am right or not.

Sarah does write well, however, 2 stars.

The book started off with a nice pace and then slowed down... Getting through the middle until about 80% of the way through the book was immensely difficult. Claire whined so so much—about the situations she kept putting herself in and she lacked any morsel of self control. The best part was the last few chapters because that was basically the only part with any action.

Oh this book is full of twists and turns and I really enjoyed it.
Claire has just got engaged to Angus and whilst she is happy, the love of her life Daniel, is still casting his shadow over her.
We learn what happened between Claire and Daniel later in the book but until then, it’s surrounded by mystery.
Claire and Angus buy a new house together and when Claire meets the person selling the property, she is immediately drawn to him - because he reminds her of Daniel.
I have to admit I had no idea where the story was going and was just enjoying learning more about Claire’s life - past and present - Then all of a sudden things come to a head, and your feet won’t touch the ground.
This book has a great ending and everything does comes together for those who like to find out why...
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

No likeable characters and an unrealistic story line means I didn’t really enjoy this book. The pace of the story selling was good & one or two twists kept me reading but not a favourite I’m afraid.

“The Couple” by Sarah Mitchell is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Claire, an immigration lawyer, and her engagement to Angus. The story flips between the present and five years ago to her college relationship with Daniel, and her obsession with him.

After a whirlwind relationship, Claire and Angus purchase a house from a man named Mark, who Claire believes looks a lot like an older version of Daniel. Claire begins to become quite obsessed with him which leads to her becoming involved in something she shouldn’t.

There were a few twists along the way, but I felt that the story was disjointed at times with too much going on. I found it quite difficult to follow. Going back and forth from present day to five years ago was also confusing. I found that none of the characters were very likeable so I feel that may have put me off a bit too as usually there is at least one character that I connect with.

I really love thrillers, but this wasn’t really for me. I wanted to like it and kept reading in the hopes that I would, but the author’s writing style was hard to follow. It took me much longer to read this book than it usually would. The "big" twist didn't make sense because it changed the author's story in an unnecessary way, and to be honest I ended up reading part of it again as I thought I had missed something. I also feel that the ending felt a little rushed.
Overall, this may not have been for me but I'm sure there are others that would enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Couple is Sarah Mitchell's debut psychological thriller, but unfortunately, the cons outweighed the pros in terms of how enjoyable it was. Dual timelines where you experience two different time periods, past and present, usually work well for me, but I felt as though the changes were clunky and made the narrative very disjointed. It also starts off real slow and takes a long, long time to get moving; by this time I felt like giving up and reading something better, however, I did continue on with it.

The characters are all difficult to warm to, especially the main protagonist Claire, who becomes annoying after a while; she certainly isn't likeable. On a positive note, there were a few surprises, but some of the twists could be spotted a mile off making the read much less satisfying. As you can see this book was not for me, but I'm sure many others will enjoy it. I would try another book from Mitchell, and I hope I would find it more gripping than this was.

Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.

I have found this book hard to review and woke in the night trying to work out what to say and how to review it!!!
I’m going to do it in 2 parts, first the writing......I loved the writing style, prob one of my favourite styles for a long time, descriptive and at times immersed in dark humour I found myself easily imagining each character and scene and really enjoying the extra effort the author went to to make the mundane sound fascinating ( after all its not easy to describe carpet in a manner which grabs the reader) I loved the atmosphere her writing created for the whole book and there wasn’t anytime I wasn’t captivated by her style
Marking on writing style would be a 10/10
Next up...the story...Claire is about to be married to Angus and they move into a new house, this house was owned by ‘Mark’ ( yayyyy ) but he is not all he seems and pursues Claire.....Claire is STILL battling over the loss of her first ever love and some of the story goes back to that time and events....Claire’s work as an immigration lawyer for the Home Office ( dealing with deportations ) is well described and the ‘clients’ stories well told ( and not in a bias way, just straight down the line )the courtroom proceedings are insightful and I actually have come away having learnt about the procedure and viewing things differently, the whole of the story is then based around her job and as the pieces fit together its horrifying the lengths people go to to blackmail and threaten other humans
I liked Claire although she fell into Mark’s arms way way too quickly imo ( she was due to be married, call me old fashioned...) she also failed to question things most of us would have been like ‘errr hang on this cant be right’ none the less I developed a soft spot for her and I also really liked Agatha her colleauge but didn’t like Angus or Mark and some of the other characters who were pure nasty and devious
My problem was at one point in the book Mark gives Claire a gun to look after and she does!!, almost without question and after knowing him a mere few days....from then on I had to give quite a bit of ‘ok, this wouldn’t happen but go with it’ and although it didn’t spoil the story that much it was there in the back of my mind throughout ( there were other instances like this through the book )
The ‘coming together’ of all the threads and the ending of the book happens quickly and the last paragraph actually left me with more questions than usual at the end of a book, but then thats not always a bad thing, this ending though had me wondering if I had misunderstood parts of the story!!
As I said I have found this book hard to review, it has got me thinking and pondering more than most and for that it has to be good,

I feel I would have enjoyed this book more had I been able to read it more in just a sitting or two. For those that love psychological thrillers, you will not be disappointed. Personally I craved some lightness or happiness to balance out the story. Her job was depressing, her family, her relationship , her past.... I needed something to balance. Everything and everyone was dark and depressing. I found I had to be in the right mood to pick up the book and I was anxious and curious to see where this story would take me. Some coincidences were just not plausible and I really wanted Clare to be stronger and make better decisions. The author did a nice job of tying in the story lines but for me... I just feel dirty.. #netgalley #bookouture

I was looking forward to read The Couple by Sarah Mitchell. However, sadly I found this book very slow and I could not get into it which is very unusual for me. I didn't like the characters and several times I ended shouting out aloud to my Kindle.................

Claire and Angus are engaged after four months being together and hoping to get married. They're both successful within their jobs and seems to be happy. However, while looking at houses to purchase, Claire sees a man called Mark and reminds her of her past love.
OMG..........She finds herself drawn to him. He looks exactly like the man she loved five years ago, the man she couldn’t bear to lose.

What does she do?

Does she cross the line with him?

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book.

In The Couple by Sarah Mitchell, Claire and Angus are happy and in love (or are they?), engaged to be married and excited about their life. When Claire meets a man who looks like her old boyfriend, she becomes very intrigued with him and loses her common sense. And when he calls her over to look at some of the antiques he wants to sell, things take a turn…

Following a whirlwind four-month romance, lawyer Claire and hotel entrepreneur Angus are engaged to be married. Happy and successful, and ready to start their new life together, Claire and Angus find what they believe to be the perfect home.

But when Claire meets Mark, the man selling them the house, he looks eerily familiar. He looks exactly like the man she loved five years ago, the man she couldn’t bear to lose.

As Claire finds herself irresistibly drawn to Mark and crosses lines she never thought she’d cross, Angus’ behaviour becomes increasingly suspicious. Soon Claire doesn’t know whether she can trust Mark, Angus… or even herself.

This book is a solid suspense that keeps you interested though at times I wanted to pull Claire aside and give her some advice!

Due out February 5th 2019

This one starts our very innocently and it moves at a very slow pace for my taste but the good news is that the wait pays off! What a great thriller this is. It was very difficult to put down.

I am sorry I could not get into this book at all. I could not warm to the characters or the story. Sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book was sadly underwhelming. It started off with the potential to be a stunning psychological thriller but quickly went downhill. It only took a few chapters for me to start intensely disliking Claire. I was shocked when I read that she was a lawyer; she seemed just as naive and gullible in the present-day storyline as she did in the flashbacks. She annoyed me as well with her constant obsession over Daniel and how she kept thinking she saw him in Mark. I understand the allure of first love, especially if it ended too quickly in tragedy, but reading about it over and over was tiresome.

The story and characters were messy, inconsistent, and underdeveloped. I felt that the story could have used a lot more work and was very convoluted. I disliked all of the characters, especially Claire and Angus. They had a terrible relationship even before the cheating began, and I was very surprised they'd gotten engaged. Claire is definitely the type to cling to men she's not necessarily into just for the security blanket a relationship can provide, but it didn't seem as though Angus was very into her most of the time either.

I could see the twist coming a mile away, and was surprised Claire hadn't put it together when I did. I guess that just shows how poor her relationship was, but her ignorance was honestly more shocking than the twist itself. The ending was messy and rushed, and also could have used much more work. Overall, I was not a fan and almost put the book down a few times, but I wanted to see how the story ended and felt that finishing the book would make my review completely honest rather than a partial review.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Bookoture for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clare is engaged to Angus but she's never let go of her relationship with Dan and now she's met a man who looks like him. Told in dual time lines of Clare's life, this one coulda shoulda been better. Sorry but that's the case. There's potential but I never really connected with anyone, especially Clare. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Couple is a thrilling book with a twist at the end. Claire and Angus have a whirlwind romance and have just got engaged and bought a gorgeous new house. Straight away we are suspicious around the seemingly lack of “that special something”, you know what you would expect with a newly engaged couple buying a house. But there was an obvious (to me) lack of passion about this couple. It’s not too long until we hear about Claire’s ex, ( the One that got away), Daniel. Enter the next character, Mark who was the previous owner of the house. Mark reminds Claire so much of Daniel, now we can know trouble is brewing.

The characters within this book were not really likeable. In my opinion if an author can give you any feelings about their characters then they are well written. Sometimes, it even makes it a better read if you dislike them. But it’s unusual to find a book with no likeable characters though. There was nobody that I was rooting for. Each character had their own flaws, issues and suspicions.

The author gives us a good insight into Claire’s job as an immigration officer. I do like a book where there is something different in the characters life to learn about. Legal immigration is something I knew little about, so it was good to learn.

I found it difficult to understand a lot of the decisions that Claire made. Perhaps some readers would see this as a negative, but I chose to see it as Claire’s flaws and many of the reasons why I disliked her.
The chapters range from present to 5 years previous where we learn about the ex Daniel. This way of writing made me more intrigued to know what happened in the past.

I would describe The Couple as a domestic thriller where you suspect the 2 men in Claire’s life of something…. and you will be surprised and satisfied with the twist at the end.

Claire, an immigration lawyer, is engaged to be married to Angus, an entrepreneur who has his own chain of boutique hotels. They had a brief, whirlwind courtship and decide to tie the knot. While house-searching, they find what looks like a perfect one. Even more “perfect” seems to be the man, Mark, who is looking for a distress sale. Doesn’t help, that Mark looks like Dan, Claire’s ex-boyfriend and the only person she truly loved.

Told alternatively between the now and then, Claire’s character slowly unfolds in front of you. You start questioning Claire’s decisions, choices and start wondering what’s exactly going on.
An important issue underlies the story – the case of illegal immigrants in the UK, a racket which could have been portrayed with more importance.

No one seems to be what they are. Mark is shady, Angus also seems to have some secrets of his own, and Claire perhaps takes the cake.
You have no idea who is really lying or who is the real "bad guy". The twists were unexpected and kept coming throughout, however, the ending felt a bit tad and abrupt.

A one time read.

I enjoyed this book. The writing was good, but I didn't like any of the the characters. At times I found the past to present story telling to be a bit confusing. That being said though, I was hooked to the very end.
Thank you to NetGalley and the the publisher for this ARC.

This book was brilliant! The story unfolds steadily, revealing the main character, Claire's, life, both past and present, piece by piece. As it twists and turns, you become more and more intrigued about the things you don't yet know. As the secrets of her past are revealed and the intrigue of her current relationships play out, you just have to keep reading. At 2am, I was telling myself "just one more chapter". The author's clever use of alliteration only serves to make this stand out as more than just a simple thriller. Very sophisticated writing and an excellent and intriguing story.