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nzlisam 's review for:
The Marriage Secret
by Carey Baldwin
*Out Today – Happy Publication Day!*
The Marriage Secret was a chillingly devious psychological thriller of intimate betrayal, mistrust, mind games, murder, and plot twists aplenty.
Holly is married to a handsome, rich, successful, doctor – Zach.
Days before the birth of their daughter Jolene, Holly leaves her shoes on the kitchen floor, instead of putting them away in the closet, causing Zach to trip over them. He vows to punish her, and when she goes into labour he gives her the silent treatment. Holly also suspects him of sabotaging her delivery, resulting in her needing an emergency c-section. But, when she confronts him he denies it, says she’s overreacting, blames her ‘baby brain’ – has an answer, excuse, or comeback for everything.
As things escalate Holly comes to the realisation that Zach is a controlling abuser, and she is not going to stand for it, not now that she has a daughter to protect.
But, Holly has a terrible secret in her past, a secret she confided in Zach on their wedding day, a secret that he threatens to reveal if she tries to leave.
Of course Zach has secrets of his own – many of them.
The Marriage Secret was utterly gripping and intense. It took me a day to listen to because I just couldn’t stop, it was that binge worthy. Okay, so perhaps it was a tad far fetched in places, but I don’t care, I was addicted. It reminded me a little of one of my favourite domestic noir reads from 2017 – The Breakdown by B.A. Paris.
I loved how at the beginning of each chapter you were given a tidbit of information regarding an ‘incident’ {usually involving Zach undermining, blaming, guilting, or gaslighting Holly, or her discovering something disturbing about him) and over the course of the chapter what had occurred would slowly be revealed little by little and it wasn’t until the end of the chapter that you had the whole picture. Being in the dark like that really ramped up the tension and pace. The majority of the novel unfolded through Holly’s eyes, but their was the occasional chapter narrated by someone else, but I’m not going to say who.
The characters were amazing. Holly was a strong woman who didn’t take Zach’s behaviour lying down, even as she struggled to believe what he was capable of. Zach was repulsive, and the most dangerous type of abuser – a clever, manipulative, charming, good-looking one, who ran hot and cold. He’d smother Holly with kindness one minute, and be berating her, or making her feel small the next. And the dialogue – I can’t rave about it enough – the reactions and behaviour were spot-on.
The audio narration was brilliant. Stephanie Cannon used a different voice for each character, so you always knew who was speaking before the dialogue tags came up. The various nuances, and emotions of human speech shone through, and she utterly nailed Zach’s mother, Frances, especially one particular hilarious phone conversation where she’d had a falling out with her friends. In print it wouldn’t have even been that funny, but out loud I couldn’t help laughing with delight over how good it was.
I’ve already bought Carey Baldwin’s previous book, Her First Mistake, because the audio sample at the end of this book has already sucked me in. I’m so happy to have discovered this author and narrator.
I’d like to thank Netgalley, Bookouture Audio, and Carey Baldwin for the audio-ARC.
The Marriage Secret was a chillingly devious psychological thriller of intimate betrayal, mistrust, mind games, murder, and plot twists aplenty.
Holly is married to a handsome, rich, successful, doctor – Zach.
Days before the birth of their daughter Jolene, Holly leaves her shoes on the kitchen floor, instead of putting them away in the closet, causing Zach to trip over them. He vows to punish her, and when she goes into labour he gives her the silent treatment. Holly also suspects him of sabotaging her delivery, resulting in her needing an emergency c-section. But, when she confronts him he denies it, says she’s overreacting, blames her ‘baby brain’ – has an answer, excuse, or comeback for everything.
As things escalate Holly comes to the realisation that Zach is a controlling abuser, and she is not going to stand for it, not now that she has a daughter to protect.
But, Holly has a terrible secret in her past, a secret she confided in Zach on their wedding day, a secret that he threatens to reveal if she tries to leave.
Of course Zach has secrets of his own – many of them.
The Marriage Secret was utterly gripping and intense. It took me a day to listen to because I just couldn’t stop, it was that binge worthy. Okay, so perhaps it was a tad far fetched in places, but I don’t care, I was addicted. It reminded me a little of one of my favourite domestic noir reads from 2017 – The Breakdown by B.A. Paris.
I loved how at the beginning of each chapter you were given a tidbit of information regarding an ‘incident’ {usually involving Zach undermining, blaming, guilting, or gaslighting Holly, or her discovering something disturbing about him) and over the course of the chapter what had occurred would slowly be revealed little by little and it wasn’t until the end of the chapter that you had the whole picture. Being in the dark like that really ramped up the tension and pace. The majority of the novel unfolded through Holly’s eyes, but their was the occasional chapter narrated by someone else, but I’m not going to say who.
The characters were amazing. Holly was a strong woman who didn’t take Zach’s behaviour lying down, even as she struggled to believe what he was capable of. Zach was repulsive, and the most dangerous type of abuser – a clever, manipulative, charming, good-looking one, who ran hot and cold. He’d smother Holly with kindness one minute, and be berating her, or making her feel small the next. And the dialogue – I can’t rave about it enough – the reactions and behaviour were spot-on.
The audio narration was brilliant. Stephanie Cannon used a different voice for each character, so you always knew who was speaking before the dialogue tags came up. The various nuances, and emotions of human speech shone through, and she utterly nailed Zach’s mother, Frances, especially one particular hilarious phone conversation where she’d had a falling out with her friends. In print it wouldn’t have even been that funny, but out loud I couldn’t help laughing with delight over how good it was.
I’ve already bought Carey Baldwin’s previous book, Her First Mistake, because the audio sample at the end of this book has already sucked me in. I’m so happy to have discovered this author and narrator.
I’d like to thank Netgalley, Bookouture Audio, and Carey Baldwin for the audio-ARC.