The Man I Married
*𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗼𝗻 𝟴/𝟬𝟰/𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬.
While I am continuing to post my regular content, the BLM movement is still going on. Please keep referring to my story and linktree to find ways to help out.✊🏻‼️
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Hello and welcome to my first ever Netgalley review! I am really trying to utilize this service as much as I can, as I have learned that making the tone on my phone warmer helps
prevent the migraines that usually come from reading online. Let’s jump right into this, shall we?😊
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Our main character Lucy is a parole officer, just trying to stay afloat in her job, when one day she meets Paul at a nearby pub. Everything is picture perfect: they get married almost instantly, and find a beautiful house to stay in. However a piece of Paul’s past comes to life and everything Lucy thought she knew is ruptured before her very eyes, and her husband is clearly not the man she thought she married.😱
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Something that the main description doesn’t include is that there is a second mini mystery that hangs around for the first half of the book,
possibly even more, focused around Luce’s job. I actually really liked that aspect and was disappointed with how it wrapped up, and was tossed to the side. Two other things kept me from giving this a four or higher, and one of them, unfortunately was the main character. I often felt frustrated by her actions, and felt like she was a stereotypical horror film dummy from time to time. Speaking of stereotypes, if you’ve read a lot of psychological thrillers, like myself, this book and it’s twists might come across as easy to guess, or predictable. That being said, I can tell a lot of people will enjoy this when it comes out, and I am excited to see what else Elena might put out in the future. I’m keeping my eye out for sure!🤗
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What’s a thriller stereotype you enjoy? Let me know!💋
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Dm me to talk about all things book or writing related! I’ll be looking forward to it! —Em😌

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3 Stars

I really liked the premise of this novel and looked forward to reading it. However, the story just didn't work for me. Thanks to Hera Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher, Hera Books, for the eARC.

Lucy, a probation officer, is back in Yorkshire for a job assignment, a place she never thought she'd return. A place full of only painful memories and guilt. Painful memories of a failed relationship with Dan. And, guilt for abandoning her sick mother and leaving her toxic older sister to care for her. Then, Emma, her colleague/confidante drops a bombshell. She is leaving, moving out of the country. Now, Lucy is the one left behind. As if the past wasn't bad enough, the present and future is not looking much better for her. Until she meets him...Paul.

They dive into a whirlwind romance and things are moving fast. But, even in the closest, long-lasting relationships, there are secrets. It's inevitable. Lucy's discovery and disillusionment crops up much sooner than expected. She doesn't know who to believe. Who to trust? Herself and her instincts? Emma? Paul? The woman from Paul's past? The man she married has changed. Or, has he?

Told from Lucy's perspective, this was a pretty good psychological thriller. The second half was better and moved faster than the first. The Simon Gould sub-plot was intriguing and could have been expanded. Overall, I liked it.

Not a bad read at all, Lots of suspense and action, with a slow burn that leaves you guessing right up until the end. Lucy meets and falls in love with Paul, and it appears her dream life has just begun. Strange things start to happen along the way, has Lucy made a terrible mistake? And who can she trust? Certainly gives rise to the question 'do you ever really know someone?'

An interesting study into the horror of emotional abuse. many thanks to Net Galley, Hera Books and Elena Wilkes.

Entertaining, yet very predictable. This book was extremely slow in the beginning. The story did pick up at about the halfway point. Lucy is in a constant battle between what she believes to be true and what the new man in her life, Paul, tells her is true. The plot unfolded like your typical Lifetime movie. Once the final twist was revealed, I expected more. The ending was somewhat convoluted and rushed. This is definitely not the worst thriller I have read, but undoubtedly not one of the best either. Three stars for entertainment value. Thank you NetGalley and Hera Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When you’re reading this book you have a real sense of danger right from the beginning. This book is fast paced, intense and an edgy read and also a little bit provocative! This is a real psychological thriller and when I say that I mean it in a very real sense, you can feel the psychological manipulation and that someone is messing with your head. And at times you don’t know who is messing with who’s head. If it was a TV show I would have found myself shouting at the TV, instead I was shouting in my head!

Lucy and Paul meet, fall in love and get married. It’s a whirlwind romance. Lucy suddenly finds she has the perfect life, everything she’d ever wanted. But one day she finds a photo in Paul’s bedside draw, that leads her to realise she doesn’t really know much about Paul’s past life. But what does she really know? Can she really trust anything Paul tells her or even trust her own mind?

Twisty and turny. Something I feel like I have read before but it was well written and enjoyable. Thanks for the opportunity to read!

The Man I Married by Elena Wilkes is a dark psychological thriller that will keep you reading long into the night. Just how well do we ever really know those with whom we share some of our most intimate moments? And to what lengths will someone go to conceal the very darkest recesses of their soul?

When Lucy meets Paul, she believes that her prayers have been answered. After all, he is everything that she could ever want in a partner, and life seems to be idyllic. That is, until Lucy discovers a past that Paul will do anything to keep hidden from his adoring wife.

This is a compelling read that will leave you questioning all that is initially accepted at face value. It is probing, sinister, and creepy, and I loved every word of it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hera Books for this ARC.

The Man I Married is the story of Lucy and Paul. Lucy is a probation officer and meets Paul after work one day in a bar. Within weeks they are married. On their wedding day Paul tells Lucy something about his part that makes Lucy realise she has no idea who her husband is.
This book felt like a hard slog for me. It took me forever to get in to it, in fact I’m not really sure if I ever got completely in to it. I work in the same profession as a Lucy and some of the practices and things that happened caused me to roll my eyes due to inaccuracies.
The ending was ok, I still felt like there were some unanswered questions though.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you really know someone? Or do you really only know what they tell you about themselves? Does anyone ever question if the person is telling the truth? Of course not we tend to believe what people tell us. Lucy has had bad relationships with men, until she met a charming man (Paul) and he swept her off her feet and quickly married her. Things were great for awhile until he started acting very strange. She started wondering who this man she married was. What did she get herself into. He started making her think she was losing her sanity because there were days he was normal and suddenly was controlling and angry. She wasn't sure what do. Then she noticed a women kept following her. Lucy knew this was so strange but things got creepy, even scary when she found out what this woman had to say about her husband. This book was amazing until the end. I would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Wow - fast paced and a page turner! At times I was frustrated with both Paul and Lucy
And never sure who to believe or who was crazy! Ma6be both!!
Disappointed in the Simon storyline and her friendship with Emma - neither were really resolved.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to more by this author.

This was a pretty good read, with multiple twists and turns. It centers on Lucy, a probation officer who meets a psychologist named Paul in a bar- sparks fly and they end up in a whirlwind relationship that is uncharacteristic for her, and isolates her from her friends. Turns out that Paul is not everything that he seems, and the reader has to decide who the crazy one is as the book progresses.

The gaslighting that Paul did to Lucy was really well written throughout the book- you could easily see how situations got turned around so they looked different to others and caused Lucy to question herself. The whole subplot of Lucy trying to figure out what happened with Paul and his former partner was an interesting twist, though I wanted to yell at Lucy sometimes for not doing a little more research, rather just jumping to conclusions. I was fully surprised when I found out what really happened, though., and that is hard to do!

The ending got a little convoluted for me- it felt like things with Paul and Lucy escalated more quickly than was reasonable and the book crashed towards an ending after being a slow burn up until that point. I was also confused by the last few pages of the book- even after reading it over a couple times, I couldn't fully understand what was happening, which I guess is what the author intended- I came up with my own idea and assume others did too, but I would have preferred a clearer culmination to the story.

All in all, this was a decent read- the "messing with your spouse psychologically" theme didn't really stand out in a genre filled with this storyline, but it was well done and the mystery behind Paul's first relationship kept the story fresh,

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank You NetGalley & Publisher for this gifted e-ARC!

You love him. You’ll do anything for him. But do you really know him?
This is the story of Lucy and Paul.

They met. They fell deeply in love. They got married.

Lucy thought that she had everything she wanted.

Until she found the photograph from Paul's past life, read the text messages he's so desperately trying to hide. Until she uncovered Paul’s darkest secrets.

I enjoyed the storyline told in this book.
It was a dark, twisted, thriller that really gets you drawn into the reality of abuse.
Shows the story of a toxic relationship and what it does to a person.

Enjoyed the book.
4/5 star review
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I'm a little at a loss as to how to review this book. I'll start off by saying that I really liked this book at the beginning. The middle was a little drawn out but I was still invested. But too many questions and not enough answers; it just kept getting more and more difficult to enjoy the story because of all the unanswered questions. Then towards the end it just didn't seem like it was ever going to end! It just kept getting confusing. I had to go back and reread a couple of sections because I was convinced I had missed something. Then we get to the end. And I literally have no idea what happened. I reread the last few pages again and I'm still not sure how it ends. Is she dead? Is it a dream? Is she seeing things? I didn't get it. So confused!

I really liked this book it kept my interest through out the book the twist's and turn's were good found myself yelling at the main female character at times

A good thriller witj a crazy psychotic main character. Well written and crazy twists at times. Highly recommended xx

I was completely torn whilst reading this book. On one hand, I was drawn in, desperate to know how it all ended. The pacing was a little slow but I could feel that fire building. On the other, Lucy had to be one of the dumbest characters ever written and if it all ended badly it was entirely her fault.

Lucy meets Paul in a bar. Sparks fly. It seems like love at first sight. But it becomes abundantly clear that Lucy doesn't know Paul at all. Mixed signals, out right lies, paranoia. And all of this happened before she married him! Why don't women ever listen to their own instincts? There were red flags everywhere and Lucy just couldn't see any of them. Add in a deranged newly released child sex offender and a missing child and I thought I was going to love this.

But then it began to feel like it was never going to end. Without revealing too much, Lucy (and the author) didn't seem to know how this story was going to end. No one believed her and I thought she was going away forever. Then suddenly she's back at the house? What just happened? I didn't get it. Was it all a dream or something? Was it the meds or is she crazy? I'm so confused.

The man I married’ is a pretty unique and readable psychological fiction from Elena Wilkes.

It’s a bit of a whirlwind and would lend itself beautifully to book groups (this novel NEEDS to be discussed - I definitely feel the need to debrief after THAT ending!!)

Essentially the plot is a whirlwind romance that takes a turn for the unusual.

Probation officer, Lucy, randomly meets Psychologist, Paul, in a pub. After a disastrous previous relationship she falls head over heels for him. He seems to feel the same.

Quickly the pair become suspicious of each other. Dark secrets and mysterious characters emerge but who is telling the truth? Is Paul as manipulative as he seems or is Lucy paranoid? Having finished the book I’m still not entirety sure I have answers to these questions!!

My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

When Lucy met Paul, she couldn't help but fall deeply in love with him. And when they got married, she thought that she had everything she wanted. Until she found the photograph from Paul's past life, read the text messages he's so desperately trying to hide.

Now Lucy realises she doesn’t really know her husband. She doesn’t know if she can trust her own mind. And worst of all, she doesn’t know that she’s in danger...

This was quite a twisted read. I love the way the suspense develops slowly as the plot progresses.

The book focuses on the emotional abuse that some people go through in a relationship. At times they are so blind and trusting, that they ignore to recognise some of the obvious signs of warning that something is wrong.

I just wished that the story around Simon would have been better handled.

I also enjoyed reading the letter from the author, where she quite rightly points out that sometimes the people who commit the most deadliest crimes are the -" People who walk amongst us. They appear ordinary, not very different from us at all, but when you scratch a little deeper, you discover they hold some very dark and dangerous secrets."

Thank You to NetGalley and Hera Books for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I love thrillers and this was good. It had the twists in it that I love but at points it was a bit slow. it did not stop me from reading this though.