After a whirlwind romance Claire and Angus are engaged and soon to be married .
However, when Claire goes to view a house she meets its present owner Mark, who bears more than a passing resemblance to a past love, Daniel and she finds herself more and more drawn to Mark.

Definitely a story with a difference , started slowly for me but as I got into it I began to enjoy it more.
On the plus side there were plenty of twists and surprises, you never quite knew who to believe and author Sarah deftly moved from past to present and kept you interested.
On the minus side I really didn't gel with the characters , especially Claire who was just too weak and not likable.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC for an honest and independent review.

Sadly I failed to connect with this book. I found the story not only slow but very disjointed. Unfortunately I didn't particularly like the characters either.

DNF @30% mark due to the book's inability to grab my attention. Simply put, it wasn't interesting to me.

Thank you Netgalley for the Opportunity to preview The Couple by Sarah Mitchell.
A woman, Claire, falls hard for a a man, Angus, she just met and then she she meets a man, Mark, who looks awfully like her past lover.
Her new husband is getting suspicious that something is going on and soon Claire feels dangerously off kilter and she doesn't seem to know what is going on. After reading this book, i didn't really know what was going on. Not sure if I would call this a thriller but more of a drama.
I didn't find this book as interesting or thrilling.
2 stars

Well, well, what was this all about? I felt like I got a bucket load of information thrown at me and I had not the slightest idea what was going on. I could not imagine where it would all lead to and I wondered how this was going to come together.

The author played a game of table tennis and I was the little ball going to and fro between past en present. 

Little by little every small bit of information became connected to the next one and I saw the light! At least I thought I did, but I had not taken the curveballs into consideration.

I love it when the chaos turns into orderliness. When you thought, in the beginning,  some of the details did not add anything, afterwards you have to admit they had to be there indeed.

This story had a slow take off but it certainly picks up speed towards the end. 

The male characters were not very likeable, but they were perfect for the role they played, because nice men don't get involved in this kind of dodgy activities, don't they?

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the idea behind it was original. 4 stars.

Thank you, Sarah Mitchell, Bookouture and Netgalley.

Claire and Angus are engaged to be married after a quick, 4-month romance. They are moving forward to build their future together, which includes buying a house. When Claire meets Mark, the man trying to sell her the house, she feels unsettled as he reminds her of Daniel, her old love from 5 years ago. Claire finds herself drawn to Mark while dealing with Angus showing her a side of him she has never seen - a jealous, angry side.
I liked the book just OK - it seemed a bit slow at times and I didn't connect with any of the characters - in fact, I really disliked Claire. She seemed very wishy-washy and gullible and I didn't buy her as a lawyer. i also wasn't sure where the book was heading - sometimes this is a great thing for building a twist - but this story line seemed erratic and disjointed. It wasn't bad, just wasn't a favorite of mine.
Thank you to Sarah Mitchell, Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This was an easy, engaging book to read and kept me pretty absorbed. I enjoyed her writing style.

There were a few of Claire's actions that I felt were not believable. There was a lack of character development for the four main characters, other than a feeling you didn't like them. This is unusual as in most books there are one or two characters you like! I feel the author missed an opportunity to show us why Claire's relationship with Daniel was so great, but instead we were just told it was. Likewise, other than hearing her relationship with Angus was a whirlwind, we did not get the flavour of the relationship development, or the wooing. I felt the description of the 'baddie' just as the albino pretty unimaginative.

Sadly the twists didn't really do it for me as they felt dropped in without an explanation, which would have helped wrap the story up.

I love a good thriller, and had high hopes for this book, but it didn't do it for me. It sounded just like my sort of book and kept reading hoping it would grab me, but in the end it was just too far fetched and needed more wrapping up to finish the story.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Honestly, this book is a bit of a mess. I really didn’t get it at all. It’s underdeveloped and the ending was sort of a let down. I would pass on this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed Ms. Mitchell's thriller. It was a nice departure to have a book set in a government ministry. A very timely background story discussing immigration/migrants.

Lots of twists and turns, excitement and shocks until the very last page.

I was totally seduced by the tag-line for this book: Whatever you think you know, you're wrong. Wow! This book could go anywhere plotline-wise with a premise like that. So, what are we led to believe which we could misunderstand so badly?

Claire and Angus are newly engaged, setting up their together home and making plans for their wedding. Personally I found Angus to be rather overbearing, quite pompous and controlling and couldn't see what Claire saw about him as being attractive - especially as it is hinted that things ended badly with her previous 'significant other' and it took her a while to be ready for a new relationship. The only reason for her falling for him that I could see was that he would offer her financial security. It didn't seem enough for her to marry him in my opinion - or maybe I am getting older and more cynical?

There are regular flashbacks to Claire's previous relationship with Daniel, her ex boyfriend when she was at uni in Cambridge, which dripfeed snippets of history into the mix which kind of explain certain aspects of Claire's current behaviour and this is where that wonderful tag-line comes into play. You make lots of assumptions as to what transpired at this time and make links to her current situation but still I didn't feel entirely comfortable that she would make the decisions she did based on the information I had about her. The writing is very clever in leading you to jump to conclusions and make up your own ideas as to the facts when the reality is brilliantly cloaked in non-disclosure.

I have to admit that I tied myself in knots at one point in the book and even when I had read the final pages I was still a little confused about some parts of the story which left me feeling unsettled, and thinking about the characters long after I had put the book down. I didn't find any of the characters at all likeable, and despite her initial squeaky clean image Claire certainly has a hidden side to her which will have you rethinking the whole tale by the time you've finished. Nothing and nobody is what they seem in this one.

This is one of those books which I say to people that they need to read for themselves to form their own opinion, because even now I'm still not sure what I think - other than what a great bit of writing!

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
Slightly mixed feelings about this book. On a positive note I was intrigued by the story and was happy to keep reading to see how it turned out. I also liked the way it which it was written - fairly to the point and not lots of unnecessary narrative.
On the negative side I did not warm to the character of Claire at all. She was a bit wishy washy and gullible and it was hard to tie this up with her being an immigration lawyer. But perhaps this was the author’s intention.
The second half of the book for me was significantly better. So overall not a bad book.
3.5 stars

Surprising until the very last page. The Couple has a gripping plot that will captivate mystery and romance lovers. You just don't know what's going on. There were pages I had to read twice because I couldn't believe my eyes.
The main character Claire is an immigration lawyer with a dark past whose job makes the story even more interesting. In spite of being engaged, she isn't besotted by her fiance Angus, a serious hotel owner, so they are a bit far from being the perfect couple. They buy a house from an attractive man and Claire's life changes in unexpected ways.
The book is full of twists an turns and even if it is fast-paced you should read it slowly or you may not be able to understand how complex the story is.
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2668464646

„The kind of knowledge to which you close your eyes and exist, quite happily, in willful ignorance…“
A supspenseful story told in the present and five years earlier. IMHO this works out perfectly in this book. The subplots are tied well as well as the characters are original and there are quite a few twists and changes going on that kept me reading! Just as I thought I had it all worked out another turn came up; so the tension never left! Some of the characters are likeable while others wanted me to wring their necks!
Some highly current issues are brought up as well which worked perfect for me.
Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC

Thank you so much for this ARC!

This book started out strong and I was enjoying seeing how the plot played out. However, I was very disappointed in the ending. Too rushed and far fetched.

The Couple by Sarah Mitchell was not the book that I was expecting at all. The story was slow to begin with and then rushed at the end. I found it to be a bit far fetched and full of really horrible characters. There was not one that I liked in the entire book. It was at times confusing and it took me longer that usual to read as I just could not get into it as much as I would have liked.

Claire and Angus are engaged to be married and are buying their first home together. They buy a house from Mark, who reminds Claire of her ex boyfriend Daniel. Mark becomes a big part of Sarahs life and she starts to make some really stupid decisions. Her relationship with Angus is strained at the best of times and after they move in it gets worse. She starts to discover things about his life that don't marry up to what she has been told. The ending was good but it felt rushed after the start of the book dragged out.

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read The Couple by Sarah Mitchell and provide my review.

This book took me a little while to get in to, however it was not due to the writing style of the author, more that I was distracted by family life. I got to about half way before I really delved into reading it in chunks and boy did I not look back after that. I really enjoyed the author's writing style, it was easy to read and so descriptive. However, the secret stayed until the very end for me. I kept wondering why Claire was the way she was and could not work out what had occurred previously with Daniel, I just felt sorry for her as there was not enough information to make a different judgement. Angus just did not seem like the right person for her and I was not sure about their relationship and planning marriage, one minute it was a loving one, to the next time he was suspicious of her. Then along comes Mark! After the initial attraction that relationship was a little strange and I could not see why Claire was so hooked by him when he himself was a very shady character. Then along comes Agatha, the stalker who takes photos of people she likes without their knowledge. She was a strange character too, but with all the characters they just fit with each other. I am sounding very cryptic however I don't want to give away the ending as it was not what I expected. A sign of a great book when the author keeps you guessing until the very end. It was certainly not what I was thinking!

I would definitely read more of Sarah Mitchells books and I hope that there is a sequel to The Couple to further explore the new relationship hinted with Jamie, Agatha and of course Claire.

While the book was good I got distracted in the story instead of immersed.

The characters were well designed and see a lot of potential.

Claire is getting married to Angus, but when they buy their new home together from a man called Mark, Claire is transported back to the past remembering an old boyfriend Daniel. The Couple sees Claire get tangled up in lust, lies and love as we go back and forwards in time learning about her life.
There is more to Mark than meets the eye but will Claire work it out, or will Angus reveal his true self first? I enjoyed the book but felt it a little slow and complex during the first half of the book.

Thank you to Sarah Mitchell and Bookouture for this ARC.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. The story was long and at times boring, and the twist ending was just meh. Yes, the twists were unexpected, but it felt like a whole lot of build up for a small whimper.

This will not deter me from reading any future books by Sarah Mitchell. Some readers might love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced read in exchange for this review.

The blurb and the title were what intrigued me - sadly, the read did not live up to what they promised.

The characters are all unlikeable - which doesn't necessarily make the book bad. However, their personas are flat and thus their actions puzzling and not at all believable, the plot is confusing and has so many gaping holes several armies could cheerfully march through them, and the story follows many unnecessary and meandering paths along the way to an unsubtle twist at the end. Sorry, but I would not recommend.