The Stranger At The Wedding by A. E. Gauntlett

 

My thoughts

I've not read any of this author's work before but was very intrigued with this one. I'm very glad I decided to read it. 

This is a very good and intense story. It's a bit of a love story and also a family story. With family drama and several deaths. Though none in great detail. In this book you meet Annie. Annie who has fallen deeply in love with Mark. Mark was married before and his wife Hope had gone missing presumed dead. That is the only part of this book that had me scratching my head. How Mark was able to remarry in about a year when his wife's body was not found. How can he do that? Do they not make you wait for a period before declaring a person truly deceased? But that is neither here or there with how the story moves forward.

I enjoyed reading this book. There are a few twists and turns. Annie has a few secrets. She is determined in what she wants and stops at nothing to get it. You learn about her and her sister's childhood. About them as young adults and interaction with their mother and dad. Their grandmother also. You get to know Annie quite well. But not completely. She's something else. Maybe a bit misunderstood. Perhaps underestimated. 

Did Mark and Hope really have a great life. Were they honestly madly in love and trying hard to have a child. Or was that just what he wanted you to believe... Or was someone else pulling the strings. Did someone else do something and possibly put the blame on Mark. I have to admit that I didn't see it coming. I missed the twist completely. 

While I was hoping for a few loose ends to be covered I did like the ending. I thought it was appropriate. Sometimes in life you get exactly what you deserve. In this case I believe someone did.

Thank you #NetGalley, #AEGauntlett, #HenryHolt&Company, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book. 

Four stars.

About

A sinful obsession with till death do us part...

Annie has never been surer of anything in her life as she is about her fiancé, Mark. Ever since their chance meeting on an early-morning train, she has been swept up in their whirlwind romance and hopelessly enamored with her husband to be. But when a stranger appears at their wedding and suspicions start to flare, questions arise around the fate of Mark’s first wife who vanished without a trace. Was Annie’s chance meeting as random as it first appeared? Or is there something more menacing at work?

Twisty and brilliantly compulsive, The Wedding Guest will make you think twice before saying “I do.”