Reviews

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous

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reganadd's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Slow slow slow oh wait let’s fit like 4 twists at the very end of the book!

I feel like some of the twists could have been revealed earlier, like

Beth being Sadie’s mother.

That was fairly obvious and rather than making the mystery like “why are we all gathered here today,” make it more “I know why I’m here, why are y’all here?”

I did like the twist about

Beth being Markus’s daughter, made the bracelet moment so tender.

But somebody just mow down this dusty old house so we can be done with it. Was really hoping for some deeper motivatiln beyond “I just want to keep my house” you know?

Beth’s parts were so much more interesting than Sadie’s - could have been read with Beth’s complete story (including Markus’s death), followed by a time jump to Sadie’s story - chronological rather than dual time line could have hooked me into the story faster. But all in all this was unique and I liked it well enough for a summer-to-fall book! Loved the scenes with Markus’s father visiting - really thought they sould have Beth go with him to the States to live as “Nina” so they’d all be left alone at Raven Hall, but I’m well enough satisfied with the ending. Beth and Jonas<3

calmcelebration9888's review against another edition

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I’m DNFing this book but might return to it later. It’s a little too slow to keep my interest with how my mind is currently.

taralurae's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

kellyywardd's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5 rounding up. Oh my goodness. Emma Rous has done it again. I had absolutely no idea that the twists or relationships that ended up being prevalent to the ending were going to happen, however my only gripe is that there were 2-3 characters I was extremely suspicious of from the start and my hunch happened to be right. The only reason I removed a half star is because if you’ve read The Au Pair, there are some similarities about character relationships that seem just a bit too close for my liking - but regardless, I flew through this and can’t wait for her next book.

jordysbookclub's review against another edition

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4.0

QUICK TAKE: I'm a growing fan of Emma Rous. I enjoyed her previous book, THE AU PAIR, and found a lot of similarities to that book in THE PERFECT GUESTS, but also thought it did a nice job charting its own path as a mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie. If I had any issues, I felt like there was more attention spent building the mystery set in the 1980s and would have appreciated a little more focus on character and story in the present day murder mystery party. I'm also all for a good twist ending, but it felt like there were way too many twists crammed into the end and would have preferred they were spread out a little more. That being said, I did really enjoy this one and am looking forward to whatever is next from Rous.

howifeelaboutbooks's review against another edition

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2.0

I had to look this up because I didn’t remember reading it. The mystery dinner chapters were appealing to me, but the flashbacks were too much. It seemed like a lot of characters were introduced in clumps and it was tough to keep them straight, and then before you knew it, you were back to present day, so it was a lot of back and forth.