Book #11: The Golden Couple, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Synopsis:

The Golden Couple is the next electrifying audiobook from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the number one New York Times best-selling author duo behind You Are Not Alone, An Anonymous Girl, and The Wife Between Us.

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal – she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault – and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death.

Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple – until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.

When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Avery and Marissa both experience the loss of a spouse in very different ways. Explain how death and grief shape their characters and play into the overall plot?

2. How did the multiple perspectives affect your reading of the story? How would the story be different if it were told from only one perspective?

3. Did you enjoy hearing from two different narrators? How did the separate voices help to shape each character? 

4. Avery employs a unique style of therapy to help her clients. She refers to herself as a “consultant” instead of a “therapist.” What did you make of her ten-session methodology? Would you ever consider hiring someone like Avery to help you?

5. At the end, Marissa says, “Do you know what some people used to call us? . . . The Golden Couple.” What is the meaning behind the title, The Golden Couple? Discuss the irony in the name.

6. During Matthew and Marissa’s first session, Avery makes several assumptions about the Bishops based on their appearance and body language. What assumptions did you make about Matthew and Marissa in their first interaction with Avery? Why? 

7. Did you expect the ending? What moment surprised you the most? Did you suspect Matthew is behind it all? What parts led you to your suspicion?