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the_empty_bookself's review against another edition
4.0
What a page turner!
I initially found the fantasy of viewing overpriced homes rather strange and couldn’t see the relevance but it all came together with a magnificent plot twist which I didn’t predict!
This story follows the life of Vanessa who sadly lost her mum when she was 10. As an adult she experiences a difficult relationship resulting in loss of friendships, her career and herself.
She finds herself being taken in for questioning when the vendor of a property she viewed was found murdered. The vendor also being her favourite childhood author.
Well written, with chapters jumping between ‘now’ and ‘then’ slowly giving the reader snippets of the ‘what happened’ leading to the big reveal which was not disappointing.
A good psychological thriller which will make a nice addition to my bookshelf!
I initially found the fantasy of viewing overpriced homes rather strange and couldn’t see the relevance but it all came together with a magnificent plot twist which I didn’t predict!
This story follows the life of Vanessa who sadly lost her mum when she was 10. As an adult she experiences a difficult relationship resulting in loss of friendships, her career and herself.
She finds herself being taken in for questioning when the vendor of a property she viewed was found murdered. The vendor also being her favourite childhood author.
Well written, with chapters jumping between ‘now’ and ‘then’ slowly giving the reader snippets of the ‘what happened’ leading to the big reveal which was not disappointing.
A good psychological thriller which will make a nice addition to my bookshelf!
helenpickett's review against another edition
5.0
This is the story of Ness. Ness is in her early 30’s and shares a flat with her best friend Lottie. She has a job that she loves and her big sister who she meets up with regularly.
We find out that despite her happiness, her mum died suddenly when she was young and she sought solace in the series of books she read as a child.
The book is written as a dual time frame of then and now and it seems to make perfect sense with it all fitting together nicely.
We follow Ness as her life falls apart after she meets a new man and believed that he was as head over heels in love as she is, so much so that she leaves the comfort of her best friend to move in with him and then dreamt of owning their own place. All is not as it seems and after falling out with her best friend, gaslighting and giving up her dream job, she seeks solace in looking at lovely houses beyond her budget and allowing herself to dream.
This is a page turner full of murder, gaslighting and stalking that kept me wandering how and who right to the end.
With thanks to NetGalley for this preview read. #Netgalley
We find out that despite her happiness, her mum died suddenly when she was young and she sought solace in the series of books she read as a child.
The book is written as a dual time frame of then and now and it seems to make perfect sense with it all fitting together nicely.
We follow Ness as her life falls apart after she meets a new man and believed that he was as head over heels in love as she is, so much so that she leaves the comfort of her best friend to move in with him and then dreamt of owning their own place. All is not as it seems and after falling out with her best friend, gaslighting and giving up her dream job, she seeks solace in looking at lovely houses beyond her budget and allowing herself to dream.
This is a page turner full of murder, gaslighting and stalking that kept me wandering how and who right to the end.
With thanks to NetGalley for this preview read. #Netgalley
kellyvandamme's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve been a fan of Nuala Ellwood’s writing for quite some time now so I was thrilled to be invited to read The Perfect Life. I know I can always rely on Ms Ellwood to help me escape reality by means of an engrossing psychological thriller, and The Perfect Life was no exception.
The Perfect Life alternates between a present and a past timeline, both told from the perspective of Vanessa Adams. Only about a year apart, yet the contrast between Nessa’s life then and her life now is steep. In 2017, she’s an accomplished, confident woman. She’s happy in her job and as we witness her falling madly in love, we see a really happy Vanessa, despite the troubles with her best friend/roommate who feels somewhat abandoned. In 2018, on the other hand, we see a rather distraught Vanessa brought in for questioning by the police, a murder suspect, and from the manner in which she is questioned, she appears to be a woman who has recently gone off the deep end. What happened? That is the question that plagued my mind almost from the onset, what the hell happened to Vanessa?
Soon I had my suspicions, and a while later my suspicions came true. There is little I can say about that cos spoilers, but holy crap I got angry again! It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to strangle a literary character, but I sure as hell wanted to strangle… they-who-shall-not-be-named. I love feeling all the feels, though, negative or positive, doesn’t even matter, so I really enjoyed that about The Perfect Life.
As things go from bad to worse, there’s this feeling of claustrophobia, which is something this author is really good at, creating a tension, making you feel like you’re right there in the thick of it. However, at one point, it sort of lost me a little bit. Again, I can’t explain why I felt that way cos spoilers, but what felt like a plausible story suddenly gained momentum through a reveal I found quite unbelievable and I struggled to suspend disbelief, mostly, I think, because of the contrast in plausibility: as opposed to what came before it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me and it sort of yanked me out of the story for a minute there.
Despite having that (poorly explained) niggle, overall I did have a great time with The Perfect Life. It’s a suspenseful psychological thriller, addictive and easy to read. If you’re looking to add to your psychological thriller collection, do check out The Perfect Life.
Thanks to Viking Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are still my own.
The Perfect Life alternates between a present and a past timeline, both told from the perspective of Vanessa Adams. Only about a year apart, yet the contrast between Nessa’s life then and her life now is steep. In 2017, she’s an accomplished, confident woman. She’s happy in her job and as we witness her falling madly in love, we see a really happy Vanessa, despite the troubles with her best friend/roommate who feels somewhat abandoned. In 2018, on the other hand, we see a rather distraught Vanessa brought in for questioning by the police, a murder suspect, and from the manner in which she is questioned, she appears to be a woman who has recently gone off the deep end. What happened? That is the question that plagued my mind almost from the onset, what the hell happened to Vanessa?
Soon I had my suspicions, and a while later my suspicions came true. There is little I can say about that cos spoilers, but holy crap I got angry again! It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to strangle a literary character, but I sure as hell wanted to strangle… they-who-shall-not-be-named. I love feeling all the feels, though, negative or positive, doesn’t even matter, so I really enjoyed that about The Perfect Life.
As things go from bad to worse, there’s this feeling of claustrophobia, which is something this author is really good at, creating a tension, making you feel like you’re right there in the thick of it. However, at one point, it sort of lost me a little bit. Again, I can’t explain why I felt that way cos spoilers, but what felt like a plausible story suddenly gained momentum through a reveal I found quite unbelievable and I struggled to suspend disbelief, mostly, I think, because of the contrast in plausibility: as opposed to what came before it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me and it sort of yanked me out of the story for a minute there.
Despite having that (poorly explained) niggle, overall I did have a great time with The Perfect Life. It’s a suspenseful psychological thriller, addictive and easy to read. If you’re looking to add to your psychological thriller collection, do check out The Perfect Life.
Thanks to Viking Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are still my own.
knygu_skaitytoja's review against another edition
3.0
Knyga nei patiko nei nepatiko, vidutiniška. Ilgai stovėjusi lentynoje pagaliau jai pribrendo eilė, tačiau am likau nesužavėta. Kažkaip šiais metais galbūt skaičiau kelias tikrai stiprias knygas, tai kitos tiesiog nublanksta akyse. Bendra istorija ganėtinai įdomi, netikėtas žudiko posūkis, tačiau tai ir viskas. Tikrai nuobodoka knyga.
markreadsbooks_sg's review against another edition
5.0
I got The Perfect life by Nuala Ellwood from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
The Perfect life is one of those books which on the outside is a domestic thriller mystery, about a young woman who lost her mover when she was younger and is trying to find her place in the world.
Which she does through her friend, sister, job, a series of novels she read shortly after her mum died and more recently Conner her new boyfriend.
However, as you start reading The Perfect Life, you find out it is more than that, it is about control, wanting to live the perfect life, as well as using to social media that you are living more than the perfect life.
As well as the price of fame and fandom, not only on those who are fans, but those involved with the creator of that art.
The perfect life is told using two time lines, however for those of you who do not like this form of story telling the time the story is set only changes at the start of the chapter, with the chapters headed either Then or Now to distinguish what part of the story your on.
As for the narration of, The Perfect Life, is told though only one Point of View and that is Venessa.
The character of Vanessa throughout the book is portrayed as fantasist not only the way she was involved with being a fan of a series of books when she was younger. But the way in which she goes around making up personas for herself and booking appointments at estate agents to look at dream homes she cannot afford.
While Vanessa has been viewing these homes, she is starting to have a breakdown for example not doing her work or blacking out occasionally. This is further enhanced when she goes to see the house of the writer of the books she loved as a child.
What I liked about this novel is the way that the writer uses the rules of a thriller and all the rules of the genre combined with the store only being told through only one point of view. To provide a novel that examines so many issues.
The perfect Life is one of those stories that could be classed as slow burn as the story dose not get going for the first half, however once it gets past that pint it takes of and becomes a page turner. That had me gripped to the end.
All in all I can very highly recommend Nuala Ellwood’s latest book The Perfect Life.
The Perfect life is one of those books which on the outside is a domestic thriller mystery, about a young woman who lost her mover when she was younger and is trying to find her place in the world.
Which she does through her friend, sister, job, a series of novels she read shortly after her mum died and more recently Conner her new boyfriend.
However, as you start reading The Perfect Life, you find out it is more than that, it is about control, wanting to live the perfect life, as well as using to social media that you are living more than the perfect life.
As well as the price of fame and fandom, not only on those who are fans, but those involved with the creator of that art.
The perfect life is told using two time lines, however for those of you who do not like this form of story telling the time the story is set only changes at the start of the chapter, with the chapters headed either Then or Now to distinguish what part of the story your on.
As for the narration of, The Perfect Life, is told though only one Point of View and that is Venessa.
The character of Vanessa throughout the book is portrayed as fantasist not only the way she was involved with being a fan of a series of books when she was younger. But the way in which she goes around making up personas for herself and booking appointments at estate agents to look at dream homes she cannot afford.
While Vanessa has been viewing these homes, she is starting to have a breakdown for example not doing her work or blacking out occasionally. This is further enhanced when she goes to see the house of the writer of the books she loved as a child.
What I liked about this novel is the way that the writer uses the rules of a thriller and all the rules of the genre combined with the store only being told through only one point of view. To provide a novel that examines so many issues.
The perfect Life is one of those stories that could be classed as slow burn as the story dose not get going for the first half, however once it gets past that pint it takes of and becomes a page turner. That had me gripped to the end.
All in all I can very highly recommend Nuala Ellwood’s latest book The Perfect Life.
hannahmaybookreviews's review against another edition
3.0
Title: The Perfect Life
Author: Nuala Ellwood
Publisher: Penguin Fiction
Pages: 400
Rating: 3/5
A huge thank you to Penguin Fiction and Netgalley for allowing me to review this book!
Synopsis:
Vanessa Adams has been fragile ever since her mum passed away suddenly when she was little. Supported by her older sister Georgie, Vanessa continues to search for happiness and a place she can call home. When Vanessa meets Connor, she thinks she has finally found what she is looking for. However, she also finds happiness elsewhere too, by pretending to be someone else. She begins to take on different personas and viewing houses she knows she will never be able to afford. This was all harmless fun until a man who lived in one of the houses is found dead, and every believes Vanessa to be the killer.
Review:
It was the description of this book that initially caught my eye, it left me hanging and I felt I needed to know what would happen! I was very intrigued about Vanessa too, I wanted to get to know her as I was very unsure if she would be a main character I actually liked. The reviews looked promising, but I didn’t read any as I wanted to discover this read for myself.
The story is told through present day and through past events, I found this clear to follow and I really enjoyed how the story was told like this because I felt like I was getting too stories in one.
Straight away I was left wondering who actually could be trusted in the story and I feel like the author did a fantastic job at keeping you on your toes with this. I was very unsure about Vanessa at the first and as for Connor, despite a few flaws he seemed genuine, but then I questioned if the author was doing this on purpose, leading me into a sense of security.
Throughout the story the author does a fantastic at changing your mind about the characters, she does a very good job at twisting things to make your judgements wrong which I find is very true to real life, we judge others before we know the full story.
I adored Georgie however she was such a sweet natured likeable character and I loved the bond she had with her sister Vanessa. I didn’t give Vanessa a break at first, I was very quick to make my mind up about her. However, as the story went on, I began to understand her and her actions, her need to escape from reality. I felt awful for judging her even though she is just a fictional character.
I was very fascinated to see how this story would unfold as the storyline is quite complex, there is lots going on and lots to get your head round. There was never a dull moment to say the least. The author did a fantastic job at touching on sensitive subjects too such as emotional abuse and mental health.
This was not the storyline I expected, but it had some very important messages in there. I loved how tense the atmosphere got in places and the twists and turns were definitely unexpected. I definitely didn’t expect what was coming! My one negative about this story was that it didn’t overly excited me, I was hooked in but it would have been easy to put the story down too, I love a read that I find difficult to put down because it puts a fire in my belly. This didn’t spoil it for me though, I was still engrossed with the storyline!
Author: Nuala Ellwood
Publisher: Penguin Fiction
Pages: 400
Rating: 3/5
A huge thank you to Penguin Fiction and Netgalley for allowing me to review this book!
Synopsis:
Vanessa Adams has been fragile ever since her mum passed away suddenly when she was little. Supported by her older sister Georgie, Vanessa continues to search for happiness and a place she can call home. When Vanessa meets Connor, she thinks she has finally found what she is looking for. However, she also finds happiness elsewhere too, by pretending to be someone else. She begins to take on different personas and viewing houses she knows she will never be able to afford. This was all harmless fun until a man who lived in one of the houses is found dead, and every believes Vanessa to be the killer.
Review:
It was the description of this book that initially caught my eye, it left me hanging and I felt I needed to know what would happen! I was very intrigued about Vanessa too, I wanted to get to know her as I was very unsure if she would be a main character I actually liked. The reviews looked promising, but I didn’t read any as I wanted to discover this read for myself.
The story is told through present day and through past events, I found this clear to follow and I really enjoyed how the story was told like this because I felt like I was getting too stories in one.
Straight away I was left wondering who actually could be trusted in the story and I feel like the author did a fantastic job at keeping you on your toes with this. I was very unsure about Vanessa at the first and as for Connor, despite a few flaws he seemed genuine, but then I questioned if the author was doing this on purpose, leading me into a sense of security.
Throughout the story the author does a fantastic at changing your mind about the characters, she does a very good job at twisting things to make your judgements wrong which I find is very true to real life, we judge others before we know the full story.
I adored Georgie however she was such a sweet natured likeable character and I loved the bond she had with her sister Vanessa. I didn’t give Vanessa a break at first, I was very quick to make my mind up about her. However, as the story went on, I began to understand her and her actions, her need to escape from reality. I felt awful for judging her even though she is just a fictional character.
I was very fascinated to see how this story would unfold as the storyline is quite complex, there is lots going on and lots to get your head round. There was never a dull moment to say the least. The author did a fantastic job at touching on sensitive subjects too such as emotional abuse and mental health.
This was not the storyline I expected, but it had some very important messages in there. I loved how tense the atmosphere got in places and the twists and turns were definitely unexpected. I definitely didn’t expect what was coming! My one negative about this story was that it didn’t overly excited me, I was hooked in but it would have been easy to put the story down too, I love a read that I find difficult to put down because it puts a fire in my belly. This didn’t spoil it for me though, I was still engrossed with the storyline!
lkagain's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tesslinnebank's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0