I was gripped from page 1 and I raced through it. I’ve always loved Claire Cooper’s books and this one is certainly no exception. The ending developed well and came with a great twist.

After a promising start, I felt this story just dragged on and on. None of the characters were fully fleshed out. Laura's actions were never really believable. All that really saved it was some of the descriptive passages of the area where the three teenagers went swimming.

This book started with great pace and an interesting build up of tension. But then it slowly lost its fizz and just meandered its way to the ending.

The character of Laura is frustrating. Either she wants help or she doesn’t? But she so inconsistent that it’s hard to follow who she is or what she’s doing. Her need to solve a crime that she believes has happened is borderline crazy and unrealistic. At one point I did wonder if she was just loosing the plot completely but I couldn’t understand how she had built a life and had nobody to turn to or that would check in on her other than a colleague that supposedly fancied her.

This book could’ve been an absolute masterpiece had it been thought through with a little more care and edited to maintain intrigue. For me this book left me with more questions than answers and little need to answer them.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Awful. I read as much as I could stand and then skipped to the end.. I decided I had been right to give up, as the ending was as awful as the beginning,

Laura notices the couple on the train, the way the man is holding the womans arm a little too tightly, the way the womans fists are tightly clenched, showing white knuckles, and the way she is slightly angled away from the man, the body language uneasy. As the couple rise from their seats to get off the train, Laura catches the womans eyes, and sees desperation in them. Seeing she has Lauras gaze on her, the womans eyes flicker briefly to the seat where she had been sitting. Laura looks at the seat, sees a piece of paper pushed down the side, only the corner sticking out. Laura picks it up and reads the two words written on it....help me.
And so begins a roller coaster of a read, a gripping storyline that draws you in completely. This tangled plot is addictive, and kept me turning the pages until an ending that was a total surprise to me.

Wow!
So many twists and turns!
The book switches between “then” and “now, telling the story of Laura as a teen, and then a decade later, as an adult. She sees a woman silently plea for her help, and can’t help but get involved. She faces bs lash, however, as no one seems to believe her.
We also learn her deep secret from her previous life, in a different place. Are the two connected? How could they be?
Left me shocked literally up to the last chapter!

I did enjoy this book, more so the scenes set in the present. I found the scenes set in the past not so interesting. It was a very interesting premise but I think the execution of the story grew a bit too convoluted.
It was a well written thriller and I enjoyed the story but it wasn't outstanding for me.

This book has an interesting premise and starts with great pace, almost immediately into the action with our protagonist Laura seeing a woman on a train whose male companion may be mistreating her. Once the couple have left Laura finds a note which says “help me” and thus starts the journey.

Laura has some issues from the past which are gradually drip fed during the book in a dual timeline, present day and her teenage years. Now Laura struggles with mental health and is an aspiring artist making ends meet in a job she hates. Then Laura was best friends with a girl called Amy, who was everything Laura was not, but they were best friends until the entrance of Will, a boy who threatened their friendship. In addition to the dual timeline the story is told by Laura and an unknown individual, as Laura becomes more obsessed with finding the woman from the train.

The book was good although I didn’t really grow to like Laura and couldn’t really get my head around anyone throwing their opportunities away as she did to find a complete stranger who may or may not have needed help. The past and her decisions may well have had a huge influence in this however some of the narrative I found a little far fetched. The ending has a good twist though and although I had guessed the identity of the man and woman there were some good red herrings along the way.

Thank to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, @NetGalley for giving me an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. Unfortunately, I guess I’m going to be the first one star review.

From the beginning, the story seemed unbelievable. There’s a woman who needs help and the main character is so hell bent on figuring out a way to help her, while the story also shows us there is something very wrong with her. Without giving much of a storyline, more characters are introduced and the timeframe goes back and forth from present day to past and different view points as well.

This was hard for me to follow and even harder for me to care about… it was a DNF about halfway through. I flipped to the end to find out what happened hoping to reveal something that tied it all together and saved it, and I obviously missed something since I didn’t read all of it, but it just really fell flat for me, unfortunately.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me an ARC copy to read and review.

The couple on the train - Claire Cooper.

This book is a page turner from page 1 and keeps you on your toes!

When I first read the blurb for this I had thoughts of trigger warnings, domestic abuse etc but this book took off.

The character development and tension build up was incredible.

The plot is brilliantly crafted, with layers of mystery and a rollercoaster of emotions. Could it have a different ending? Potentially. Was it awful? Absolutely not.

Always remember that even though you're paranoid, that doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

This poor woman (Laura) is a catastrophizer and hypersensitive (I feel yah, sistah!!!) due to an event in her past which isn't revealed until the very end. She has an encounter on her train ride where she sees a woman passenger being seemingly manhandled by the man she is with and then finds a note left behind when the couple leave the train that says "Help Me". Well, that's all that is needed, and off Laura goes. She has convinced herself that the woman is in trouble and that it's up to her to save the day. Laura goes to the police, and they investigate, but find nothing to substantiate Laura's version of events. They know her history, so believe she is probably overreacting. But Laura knows what she saw, so she investigates it on her own. She is pretty darn clever in uncovering clues. The police still won't help her and, in fact, have told her that if she continues to waste their time she could be arrested. Laura digs in her heels and things spiral out of control in her life quickly and completely.

The twist didn't come as a great surprise to me, but the story kept me intrigued and flipping pages. What more can you want from a suspense/thriller?

I really liked the writing style. I think it was wonderfully written, which made the story easy to follow. However, I was not really shocked like I normally may be at the end of a thriller novel.

This one caught me hook, line and sinker and kept me dangling all the way to the end. I didn't foresee that twist! Brilliant plot perfectly executed. It would make a good TV drama

I’m so glad I got an ARC of this book. Laura and Amy become great friends. They spent a lot of time at the quarry. Laura had heard of this place because of Will. He ends up being there one day when they are and meets Amy. They hit it off and start dating which Laura doesn’t like. Things take a turn when they all go to a party together. Then Amy and Laura meet up at the quarry and Amy gets hurt. Laura runs to go get help or does she? Years later Laura is on a train when a woman leaves a note saying help me. Laura does everything she can to find this woman and when she does, it’s someone she knows which I didn’t see coming. I was shocked! I can’t even believe how many twists and turns there were in this book. Once I started, I didn’t want to put it down. I was actually so shocked by the ending. I was really rooting for Laura but by the end, I wasn’t really a fan of her. Thank you Claire, NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC! Looking forward to reading more books by Claire.

I really enjoyed this gripping thriller. It was immediately suspenseful from the start and I really liked that the timeline would change from current time to the past. I also thought this was a unique storyline that I haven’t seen done before.

The Couple On The Train by Claire Cooper is a book about Laura Fraser who is finally seeing good things happen after suffering a childhood trauma as a teen in a small town, that she was blamed for. It’s been 10 years and she’s since moved away. She has a full-time job in London but dreams of making her Pottery A career. So when an Instagrahmmer gets one of her vases and post on her channel it really boost Laura’s cachet and even gets her an interview with a museum director that wants to show her stuff in his gallery. However while on her way to the job she greatly dislikes she sees a woman who keeps trying to catch her eye and the man with her doesn’t seem to want to let her go. When they leave the train Laura finds a note in the seat where she was sitting in the note says “help me.“ Laura goes to the police but DC Hollis doesn’t seem to take her serious, I mean she doesn’t even know the girls name. Once Laura starts looking into it slowly but surely she’s learning things about the girl. Due to her childhood trauma and PTSD her mom and the police thinks she’s making a mountain out of a mole hill end it seems every clue she gets either vanishes or could be brushed off is nothing. The only one who seems to believe her is her coworker Sam who she slowly but surely starts to fall for but who can she really trust? The story goes from the beginning of what happened 10 years ago to current day as 2 POV‘s. Once again I am thwarted by not wanting to give too much away because in Laura’s search for marina who she believes to be a missing person and the other story with her new best friend Amy and her crush will
It seems everything I say will result in a spoiler. So what I will say is I absolutely love the way Claire Cooper rights and although some parts of the story were predictable the twists were so good that I’m definitely going to read another book by her and have already downloaded one called The Elevator, that I can’t wait to read. I’m only giving the book 3 stars and I’m still definitely recommending because the parts I liked were really good it was just some of it was predictable that is my only complaint but still a great story with an awesome ending.#Bookoucher , #NetGalley, #ClaireCooper, #TheCoupleOnTheTrain,

What a fantastic read

Totally gripped by the story and the characters from the beginning to the end

Thank you for the opportunity to review

The Couple On The Train is a fast-paced thriller that opens with a bang when Laura sees a woman on a train who looks as if she’s being coerced by her partner, and then proceeds to leave a handwritten message saying, ‘Help me’. The story alternates between Laura in her teens and the current day. The novel kept my attention throughout, although I did find Laura a frustrating narrator, particularly as an adult, and considerable suspension of belief is required, particularly towards the end. Why was Laura so obsessed with this stranger? Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable, quick and entertaining thriller and I look forward to reading more by the author.

Thank you to Claire Cooper, Bookouture and Netgalley for my advance copy.

Laura's life in London is all about keeping a low profile: commuting quietly on the train, dealing with her sneering manager, and returning to her small flat to repeat it all the next day. But everything changes one morning when she notices a well-dressed couple on the train. At first glance, they seem perfect, but why is the man holding the woman so tightly? And why does she look so terrified? As they leave, Laura finds a note from the woman: "Help me!"

Determined to find the woman and ignored by the police, Laura's past and present collide. She once failed to help someone in danger and won’t let it happen again.

I really enjoyed this book by Catherine Cooper. The unreliable narrator angle and the shifts between childhood trauma and Laura's current life are intriguing and gripping.

Thank you to NetGalley, Catherine Cooper, and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

The couple on the train was such an intriguing thriller which had me gripped throughout I loved how it jumped from past to present it definitely helped build up the suspense. The character Laura is so excellently written I was drawn right into her life. There was so much tension throughout I could not put it down really needed to find out how it was going to end and wow what a surprise ending it was. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone fantastic thriller can’t wait to read more from this author.