Review: The Newlyweds by Arianne Richmonde

Synopsis from Goodreads:

One marriage. One lie. Two sides to the story.

The moment Vivien meets Ashton, she knows she will be his wife and absolutely nothing will stop her.

Powerful, rich and from a good family, Ashton is everything Vivien is not. So, she molds herself into Ashton’s perfect soulmate.

Pouring his favorite vintage wine, whispering ‘I love you’ over dinner in front of friends and biting her tongue when she disagrees with him are simple sacrifices for the perfect marriage she has always craved.

When people begin to notice the bruises on her cheek, she holds their stares. There is no cry for help from Vivien. She simply keeps her mouth shut and lets the gossip continue.

If you saw Vivien nursing a black eye, you might be forgiven for thinking what everyone else does – that she is the victim in her marriage, but you’d be wrong. Vivien and Ashton’s life together is much more complicated than that. You will never guess the true story behind Vivien’s undying devotion to her husband. Nor could you possibly predict what she does next…

Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, Behind Closed Doors and The Perfect Couple. If you enjoy reading twisted psychological thrillers with bags of suspense, then you’ll love The Newlyweds from USA TODAY bestselling author Arianne Richmonde.

I received a copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. It does not impact my review.

The Newlyweds publishes January 19, 2021. 

This is one of those books that sounded so intriguing in the synopsis, but the actual story failed to deliver. What should have been suspenseful and twisty came across as cliched and boring.

The first line of the synopsis mentions two sides to the story, so I was expecting Ashton’s POV at some point, but the story stayed in Vivien’s 1st person POV the whole time (though we do get a couple monologues from him in the final chapters). I think that even without the synopsis basically giving the whole plot away, I would’ve known very early on that Vivien is not what she appears to be. It made the first half of the book seem unbearably long. And the “big reveal” employed one of my least favorite narrative clichés – Vivien relays her whole backstory and scheme in a third person story that even begins with “once upon a time.” My eyes rolled so hard. Everything that happened after that was predictable and I’ll admit that I skimmed large parts of it just to make it to the end.

Overall, The Newlyweds was not for me. I was hoping for some fun cat-and-mouse type of suspense, but it all played out like a predictable Lifetime movie. I did like the setting, though. That and the fact that I actually felt compelled to finish the book and not DNF it, is why I’m giving this book 2 stars.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars