“Sometimes, we need to look at our lives from a different angle to recognize the dysfunction and damage certain relationships are causing.”
The first session is Confession, and this is ours: we’re suckers for a twisted ending. A mediocre book can take on a whole new feel if you get us with a plot twist in the end. An unorthodox therapy approach from a recently de-barred therapist claims that you can work through any sticky situation in just 10 sessions. Would you work with her?
Writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are back (think The Wife Between Us) with The Golden Couple, a story centered on an unusual method of therapy. Recently unlicensed, Avery tells her story to The Washington Post to convince D.C. residents of her highly effective 10-session therapy plan. (It hasn’t failed yet!) Desperate for a solution to her one-and-done infidelity, Marissa Bishop seeks out Avery to help her and her husband work it out and regain their relationship.
The Bishops have EVERYTHING: wealth, status, a boutique, blonde looks, and a complete willingness to do everything Avery asks of them. They are truly the Golden Couple…or are they? As Avery works through the Bishop’s 10 sessions, she uncovers secret after secret into their not-so-perfect life and realizes that not all that glitters is gold.
The Golden Couple was silver-medal material along the way, but the ending truly pushed it to gold status. The unexpected twist alone is worth five stars. Overall, the book is probably in the 4.2 range. As W.H. Auden said (and as Hendricks and Pekkanen so eloquently construct), “There’s more than meets the eye” with the Bishops.