Book Review: The Happy Couple by Samantha Hayes

 "The wrong relationships teach you how to recognize the right one when it arrives."

--Mandy Hale

The Happy Couple is a compelling, nail-biting tale that will have you wondering how well you actually know the people you care about. Anybody who like The Wife Between Us, The Girl on the Train, or Gone Girl will enjoy this book.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Me and Will. Will and Me. A perfect match. He said he would always be there for me, but it’s been a year since he drained his coffee, walked out the front door and vanished.

Did he leave me? Or did something terrible happen? I’m scared someone finally found out about what happened on the drive home that night…

I lie awake at night trawling the internet for rental properties, desperate for an escape. Until I see my husband’s gorgeous face smiling back at me from a photograph on the fireplace in someone else’s home, and something inside of me snaps.

At the house, I find no trace of him and the woman who lives there has no idea who I am. But I’m certain she’s hiding something behind the locked door upstairs. I know that if I want answers, I have to stay.

You might think that what’s inside that room is the answer to all my questions and the end of all my pain. But it’s only the beginning…

My reaction to this novel...

I have finally finished this book. I really purchased this since I had read in several reviews that it would be perfect for me if I like Gone Girl, so I made the decision to buy it right away. I truly enjoyed the book's cover; it piqued my curiosity and made me want to read it more. I haven't read anything by Samantha Hayes before, but I had high hopes for this one because it was compared to one of my favorite books. So I started getting lost in the narrative. I truly focused my head so that I could properly grasp and visualize what was going on in the tale.

I was fascinated after reading the first few chapters. I didn't realize I was reading it so quickly until I noticed that I had already finished numerous chapters. Given that the first few pages of this book resemble those of Gone Girl, I became really intrigued in what was happening. The moment the missing husband was brought up, my mind quickly began to think of all the possible outcomes for the narrative.

Around halfway through the book, I started to become bored and realized how absurd the plot is. Although I don't particularly enjoy this weird narrative, I find it to be very aggravating. At times, the primary female character is slightly sidetracked by the thought of her missing spouse, and those instances also left me perplexed. There is no effective method for the tale to tell its plot without confusing the reader about to whom the characters are speaking. It was unsettling that the main character, Jo, was always seeing her spouse and talking about something in her head that she kept unwittingly blurting out. Given how frequently such situations occur, it is so irritating that I became really annoyed. It was revolting.

Suzanne and especially Simon's contributions to the narrative are unclear. It appeared as though the author was unsure of where to put them or how to effectively tell the story. Halfway through the novel, I also really guessed the twist right, albeit it did not startle me or even make my pulse race as much as the book had promised. In my opinion, the tale was a failure. Simply put, I had the impression that the author tried too hard to make the tale exciting and unpredictable so that readers would enjoy it, but as a result, the story fell flat in terms of evoking strong feelings in me. That seriously confused the reader in me and drove me to finish the book as soon as possible in order to go on to other novels to completely forget this one.

Anyway, I was disappointed and because of that I was unable to enjoy this book, which was contrary to what I had anticipated beforehand. I also purchased a few of the author's works because I had high hopes for how well I would respond to this one, but I was mistaken. Even yet, I'm still holding out hope that her other works will differ from this one and be much, much better. As the plot made me frustrated and perplexed and caused me to regret reading it, I am unable to suggest this book to anyone.

My Overall Rating: ⭐✨(1.5/5)