
The Marriage Rule
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Juliette Burton
About this listen
After you say, “I do,” there’s one more thing you must do. . . .
A propulsive domestic thriller about what it takes to keep marriages together and what will tear them apart from “addictive” (People) author Helen Monks Takhar
Includes a note from the author.
Nine months into motherhood, Elle is struggling. She’s battling being sidelined at work, fighting to feel at home in her post-baby body and feeling pressure to be intimate with her adoring husband, Dom. Why does everything seem so hard, especially when Dom is such a helpful, hands-on dad as well as an ever-attentive husband?
Elle turns to her charismatic new colleague, Gabriel, to get through the day and red wine to soothe her at night. For a while, the distractions work until one night she wakes up bleary-eyed in a hotel room next to a man who’s not her husband. A dead man who’s not her husband.
Elle realizes Dom is the only person who can help her escape the hotel room with her future intact. She also knows she’d never have found herself next to the dead man if she’d followed The Marriage Rule, the one thing she’s been told a wife needs to do to keep her marriage alive.
©2025 Helen Monks Takhar (P)2025 Random House AudioCritic reviews
“A new mother wakes to a dead man in her bed in Helen Monks Takhar’s latest feminist thriller. Unnerving and propulsive, The Marriage Rule is a gripping exploration of family secrets, toxic power dynamics, and the snare of abuse. I tore through it.”—Allison Buccola, author of The Ascent
“A compelling and suspenseful thriller that boldly tackles the ever-topical themes of the struggles of being a new mother, bullying in the workplace, and, above all, the insidiousness of psychological abuse. . . . This is also a story of female solidarity—women supporting women. I loved this book and whizzed through it in two days!”—Diane Jeffrey, author of The Crime Writer
“If you’re looking for smart, suspenseful prose, look no further. Helen Monks Takhar is now on my list of favorite authors.”—Georgina Cross, author of Nanny Needed
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Your Husband's Fault
- By: Kerry Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma is so happy to have moved from the city to her husband’s small hometown. James was strangely reluctant at first – but she convinced him their little cottage is the perfect place to settle down. The perfect place to give their six-year-old son a new life. But then a woman at the school gates asks Emma if she is really married to ‘that man’. ‘Which man?’ Emma asks. The woman replies…
By: Kerry Wilkinson
-
The Perfect Gift
- By: Winter K. Willis
- Narrated by: Aracelis Gotay
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chloe, a woman leading a double life as a mysterious international pop star, seeks solace with her best friend at an idyllic island resort. Her peaceful retreat is soon shattered by unsettling gifts from an unknown sender—each item a fragment of her concealed identity and a remnant of her past. The situation threatens her safety and the life she has built.
By: Winter K. Willis
-
The Flower House
- By: Nicky Black
- Narrated by: Phillippa Wilson, Trevor Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Property developer Vivien Young thought she’d finally rebuilt her life. After a messy divorce, she’s returned to her childhood sanctuary, the grand Georgian home she now shares with her ageing father. Landing the contract to redevelop the Valley Park housing estate feels like the icing on the cake – a chance to prove she can succeed and keep her floundering business afloat.
By: Nicky Black
-
The Woman in Our Marriage
- By: Victoria Jenkins
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley, David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After my beautiful daughter Annabelle died in a tragic accident, I thought I would never recover. With my world in pieces, my husband Matthew did what he could to support me and our son, Noah. He hired a young woman, Reka, to help us at home, to be the mother for Noah that I couldn’t be. She cares for him like he’s her own.
By: Victoria Jenkins
-
Be Mine
- By: Lizzy Barber
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth is a new mother struggling to find her place in the world. She is exhausted, mentally and physically, but her anxieties are not simply the fears of a first-time mum. A terror burns in her, fuelled by a secret past she is lucky to have escaped. When a letter arrives, bearing only the infinity symbol, Beth knows immediately it is from them. And that her past is finally catching up with her…
By: Lizzy Barber
-
The Basement
- By: Alan Petersen
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Cassie Walsh returns to her small Minnesota hometown for her mother's funeral, she intends to leave as quickly as possible. But a shocking discovery in the basement freezer of her childhood home changes everything. The discovery of the body of Cassie's long-lost teenage crush in her mother's chest freezer shatters her world and forces her to confront a buried secret from fifteen years ago.
-
-
a real stinker
- By SB on 05-13-25
By: Alan Petersen
-
Your Husband's Fault
- By: Kerry Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emma is so happy to have moved from the city to her husband’s small hometown. James was strangely reluctant at first – but she convinced him their little cottage is the perfect place to settle down. The perfect place to give their six-year-old son a new life. But then a woman at the school gates asks Emma if she is really married to ‘that man’. ‘Which man?’ Emma asks. The woman replies…
By: Kerry Wilkinson
-
The Perfect Gift
- By: Winter K. Willis
- Narrated by: Aracelis Gotay
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chloe, a woman leading a double life as a mysterious international pop star, seeks solace with her best friend at an idyllic island resort. Her peaceful retreat is soon shattered by unsettling gifts from an unknown sender—each item a fragment of her concealed identity and a remnant of her past. The situation threatens her safety and the life she has built.
By: Winter K. Willis
-
The Flower House
- By: Nicky Black
- Narrated by: Phillippa Wilson, Trevor Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Property developer Vivien Young thought she’d finally rebuilt her life. After a messy divorce, she’s returned to her childhood sanctuary, the grand Georgian home she now shares with her ageing father. Landing the contract to redevelop the Valley Park housing estate feels like the icing on the cake – a chance to prove she can succeed and keep her floundering business afloat.
By: Nicky Black
-
The Woman in Our Marriage
- By: Victoria Jenkins
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley, David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After my beautiful daughter Annabelle died in a tragic accident, I thought I would never recover. With my world in pieces, my husband Matthew did what he could to support me and our son, Noah. He hired a young woman, Reka, to help us at home, to be the mother for Noah that I couldn’t be. She cares for him like he’s her own.
By: Victoria Jenkins
-
Be Mine
- By: Lizzy Barber
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth is a new mother struggling to find her place in the world. She is exhausted, mentally and physically, but her anxieties are not simply the fears of a first-time mum. A terror burns in her, fuelled by a secret past she is lucky to have escaped. When a letter arrives, bearing only the infinity symbol, Beth knows immediately it is from them. And that her past is finally catching up with her…
By: Lizzy Barber
-
The Basement
- By: Alan Petersen
- Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Cassie Walsh returns to her small Minnesota hometown for her mother's funeral, she intends to leave as quickly as possible. But a shocking discovery in the basement freezer of her childhood home changes everything. The discovery of the body of Cassie's long-lost teenage crush in her mother's chest freezer shatters her world and forces her to confront a buried secret from fifteen years ago.
-
-
a real stinker
- By SB on 05-13-25
By: Alan Petersen
-
The Funeral
- By: Helen H. Durrant
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The invitation is anonymous. It doesn’t say whose funeral I must attend, only that I can’t afford to miss it. I’m sure it’s a mistake, but when I arrive, I know immediately it isn’t. The name on the gravestone stops me in my tracks: Alice Anderson. That’s my name. Or at least it was. I want to run from this crowd of slick designer clothes and sunglasses hiding prying eyes. But I can’t show my fear. I have no choice other than to stay and find out who sent the invitation. Someone here knows the secret I’d kill to keep.
-
-
Twists and Turns abound!
- By CindiLM on 05-15-25
By: Helen H. Durrant
-
Dying to Meet You
- A Domestic Thriller
- By: Sarina Bowen
- Narrated by: Kathleen Early, Caitlin Kelly, Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she’s a mess. She knows that stalking her ex’s avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she’s out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms. Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront.
-
-
So Good!
- By Claudia Fosca Stahl on 05-15-25
By: Sarina Bowen
-
The Birthday Party
- By: Shalini Boland
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It started out as a party: six little girls gliding and giggling at the ice rink to celebrate Natalie’s daughter’s eighth birthday. But by Natalie’s next head count, it’s turned into a crime scene. Six children went onto the ice—and now there are just five. Nobody saw her niece, Elle, being taken. Nobody saw the person in a cartoon costume lure her quietly away. Traumatised by what happened on her watch, Natalie spends the next decade supporting her sister, Jo, as the years since Elle’s abduction tick by.
-
-
Boring
- By Julie on 05-18-25
By: Shalini Boland
-
Make Me Famous
- A Novel
- By: Maud Ventura
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since she was a child, Cléo, the French-American daughter of two academics, has had only one obsession: becoming a famous singer. Over the years, to everyone’s surprise but her own, she overcomes every obstacle and becomes a global superstar with millions of dollars, countless awards, and several Los Angeles villas to her name. But as any celebrity will tell you, getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another. Now thirty-three years old, Cléo is taking her first real vacation in years, on a remote island with no one else in sight.
By: Maud Ventura
-
Concrete Evidence
- Evidence Series, Book 1
- By: Rachel Grant
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Greg Tremblay
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
She wants revenge. He wants her. Blackballed from underwater archaeology after accusations of artifact trafficking, Erica Kesling has a new job and a new life on the other side of the country and is working to clear her name. She's closing in on her goal when she's distracted by a sexy, charismatic intern who makes her want something other than revenge. But Lee Scott is no intern. He's looking for the lead conspirator in an international artifact smuggling scheme, and Erica is his prime suspect.
-
-
Meticulous research in every book
- By Amanda on 06-04-24
By: Rachel Grant
-
The Red House
- By: Mary Morris
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Viola was never found, and her family never recovered. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant.
By: Mary Morris
-
The Woman Next Door
- By: Penny Batchelor
- Narrated by: Charlotte Worthing
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jen Cartwright returns from holiday to find her new next-door neighbour is Stacey Abbott, her childhood bully. It could be coincidence—but when Jen's close friends start to abandon her, and Jen's livelihood becomes threatened, it seems that the vendetta from the past has begun again. But why now, twenty years later? And if Stacey isn't to blame, then who is? Or is Jen inventing her own nightmares as her career and marriage seem to be foundering around her?
By: Penny Batchelor
-
One in Four
- A Thriller
- By: Lucinda Berry
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Tessa Albertson, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Laurel Harlow can’t believe she’s agreed to do a reality TV show. But her years as a chemical dependency counselor and personal history with the show’s director make her the obvious choice. Treating a mansion full of former child stars on the road to recovery is the tallest order of her career—especially when one of them turns up dead while the cameras are still rolling.
-
-
That ending!
- By Dana on 05-19-25
By: Lucinda Berry
-
The Favourite Child
- By: Emma Robinson
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we discovered we were having twins, a boy and a girl, I couldn’t believe our luck. Within months we would have the perfect family we’d always dreamed of. The first few years were so happy. Our house was chaotic but full of love, just as it should be. But as the years passed, we had to acknowledge that our son Ben needed a lot more support than Mollie. I had no choice but to put his needs first. I wanted him to have the best life possible. But it came at a devastating cost.
By: Emma Robinson
-
Everything We Thought Was True
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Montanaro
- Narrated by: Annalee Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Los Angeles lawyer Lena Antinori has dedicated her career to fighting discrimination, including for the LGBTQ community, but her own family's secret haunts her. At thirteen years old, she made the startling discovery that her father, Frank, was gay and her mother, Teresa, knew. Fearing social stigma, Teresa instituted a code of silence meant to protect their Italian Catholic family—a code Lena adhered to for decades. Now, Frank plans to marry his partner, and he wants Lena to help plan the wedding.
By: Lisa Montanaro
-
Maine Characters
- A Novel
- By: Hannah Orenstein
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every summer, Vivian Levy and Lucy Webster spend a month with their father at his lake house—separately. Raised in New York City, Vivian is an ambitious sommelier with a secret that could derail her future. Lucy grew up in a tiny Maine town, where she now teaches high school English while watching her marriage unravel. They’ve never met. While Lucy envied her half-sister from afar, their father kept Vivian in the dark. When Vivian arrives at the lake to spread his ashes and sell his cabin, she's shocked to find Lucy there, awaiting his return.
-
-
Her best yet
- By Ashton on 05-19-25
By: Hannah Orenstein
-
The Space Between Secrets
- By: Sheri Langer
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her forties and desperately yearning to be a mother, Rachel Sutton is devastated each month by a negative pregnancy test. Her marriage is on the rocks, but she believes a child will fill the hole in her heart. Life seems bitterly unfair until Rachel is presented with an opportunity to adopt a baby overseas.
By: Sheri Langer