Before and after timeline of a woman who’s gone missing while on a trip in Iceland. The chapters alternately relate each character’s life. Apparently I’m in the Baby Boomer group, far removed from what I believe are the Millennial women featured in this mystery. Hollie, Alabama and Celeste are Social Media influencers. These women post their lives online for followers and ‘likes’. They only reveal their best lives, nothing about troubled marriages, difficult young children, insecurities, pudgy tummies, flabby arms, cheating and jealousy. The women were varied and each has her own secrets and genuine traits. There were jaw dropping scenes and threads left tangled.
The book exposes the perils of perfection, the consequences of displaying everything online. The plot lends itself to self-reflection and hard questions about what is really important. I haven’t read this author previously, enjoyed the story’s concept. The expected publication date is May 02, 2023.
Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of “The Perfect Ones” by Nicole Hackett and to Crooked Lane Books. These are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without compensation.

This was a very good book. I loved how the scenery of Iceland played such an important role in the story. The relationships between the characters were interesting and the end includes the perfect amount of resolution and mystery.

Twisty, and unputdownable, with its Iceland setting that shimmers off the page. The hook is immediately compelling: influencers meet for a sponsored trip, and one of them goes missing... Stellar writing, and I was invested in the characters, and the secrets and lies between them. Definitely a must-read!

Hollie is a successful influencer, with over 1 million followers on Instagram, a gorgeous husband and an apparently enviable life. Celeste is also a successful influencer, but behind the scenes she is increasingly preoccupied with her five-year-old daughters' issues and persistent feelings of rage against her husband. Celeste's friend Alabama wishes she were a successful influencer and wants nothing more than to emulate Hollie's success. For very different reasons and bringing with them very different problems, the three influencers at the centre of this story travel to Iceland on a promotional trip. While there, disaster strikes when Alabama goes missing.

The Perfect Ones is told from the perspective of each of the three women, with the time period skipping between before and after Alabama's disappearance. I found the opening of this book very gripping. I've read a few books recently involving influencer culture and The Perfect One seemed to be explore how motivations and desires differ within the influencer community. However, I did find that the book got a bit lost towards the end. The final denouement was a bit underwhelming given how it had been built up out and, honestly, for a bunch of influencers, they didn't really seem to spend much time on their phones or taking photos. In particular, although Celeste was one of my favourite characters in the book, I did not buy her being a successful influencer at all.

This was a good summer read that would have been great if it had stuck the landing a bit better.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy of this book.

I was excited to read this book because the idea of influencers on a trip sounds like there would be lots of drama. I liked each character individually, especially the backstory and the parts of the book that reveal their inner thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn't love the way the characters interacted with each other. The interactions didn't make sense, and I wasn't a fan of the ending. Thanks for the advance review copy. Although I didn't love this story, the writing style was good, and I would consider reading another book by this author.

Influencers and a trip gone wrong. Sounds like a modern day dream book to me! I really enjoyed this and all of the twists and turns that came along with the story. If you think you know, trust me you don't.

This book was unbelievably intriguing and suspenseful! Be prepared for twists and turns. You may think you’ve got it all figured out but you likely aren’t expecting these kinds of plot twists!

This book sounded like exactly what I love to read. I was so excited for this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. I wasn’t a fan of the writing or the way things were explained. I couldn’t keep an interested in the story and I found myself bored at times. I put it down around the 40% mark but by the time I thought I was ready to come back to the book, I just couldn’t get grabbed this time either. Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. Out of respect for the author, I will not be posting a review on social media.

I felt like this is more like a slow-burn thriller, not a fast-paced one.
The beginning felt slow-ish, but it did pick the pace up by the end of the book, yet it still did not feel like a fast-paced read.
The feminist in me was not loving the female characters of the book, nor their relationships, and the way they treated each other. Also, I usually look for something relatable in every book I read, in every character there is. In this book? Unfortunately, there were none. Nothing relatable. At least not for me.
The twist at the end was sort of redeeming though, it made the whole book somewhat so much more enjoyable. This definitely was an ok read in the end.

I normally love novels like this. They are my guilty pleasure and influencers are so interesting to me.
But I couldn't relate to this at all. I felt nothing for any of the characters or the setting.

This was a very good plot. Very modern and new. It was an interesting plot. I enjoyed watching it play out. There were lots of twists and turns. Just when I thought I new what was coming they threw a ball changer. Very well written.

A group of influencers invited on a sponsored trip which suddenly goes awry when one of the dies...this storyline peaked my interest from the start. I found it slow off the start but then developed into an interesting read (especially towards the end). Overall, it's a quick and easy read. The author does a great job in keeping you guessing. When I thought that I'd figured it out, it would turn out that I was very wrong. Would recommend.

Thanks to Crooked Lane & NetGalley for the ARC.

I was initially intrigued by the plot: a group of influencers go on a PR trip in Iceland and one goes missing. I loved the Iceland setting particularly because I loved my trip there a few years ago. But, I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likable or super compelling and I predicted the ending SUPER early so it ended up falling flat and being pretty anti climactic in my opinion.

Still a pretty easy read, with some interesting social commentary. Gave me sort of a “Big Little Lies” vibe with being a slow burn suspense more than a fast paced thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Damn, talk about drama! This had it in SPADES! Couldn't put this down and was shocked by the outcome. Really enjoyed this from start to finish!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publish date: May 2, 2023

This book tells the story of 3 influencers: Hollie, Alabama and Celeste. Each have their own problems and demons they battle throughout the book. There are three timeliness: before, during and after their influencer trip to Iceland where Alabama goes missing.

The before does a good job at setting the groundwork and developing the characters however it is ‘snail pace’ slow. I am glad the story is not told chronologically as it allowed the pace to pick up ever so slightly, without this it would have been too slow and I likely would not have finished this book.

The chapters that take place during the trip to Iceland are great, there is that feeling of dread you get while reading that makes you want to keep going and this really redeemed the book for me.

After the trip to Iceland we really see a few of our characters grow which I loved to see as these characters were all very unlikeable throughout the book.

According to the other reviews there was a ‘twist’ however I didn’t think it was a twist as I thought it was fairly obvious what happened to Alabama. However I did have questions about the logistics and the author did a great job of it writing it in and having it all make sense.

Overall there were some great redeeming qualities to this book and I think it was a good debut novel. I think the description is fair in saying those who like Lucy agilely would like this book as she is another author who rights slower paced mysteries.

You never know what’s happening behind the photos on social. Wow. What a great book. Loved the multiple POV’s and multiple timelines. This read like a classic thriller—revealing one piece of information at a time, and just enough that my mind jumped to all kinds of crazy scenarios with the new info.

The end wasn’t exactly a twist—but it was definitely unexpected. I think the last couple of pages felt a little rushed—I would have loved to hear more from that character’s POV to wrap things up. But wow. Creepy ending that I really had to think about.

I love the conversation about mental health related to social media that happens throughout these pages. It’s so important to recognize that life exists both on and off a screen—and what we have off-screen might be more difficult at times, but it’s very much real. I also loved the conversation about girls on the spectrum. It can be incredibly difficult to get an accurate diagnosis for girls, let alone the cost and waiting time involved in attempting to get one.

Celeste, Alabama and Hollie are just three of the many Instagram influencers who have gone to Iceland for a promotional trip, and these three women are quite different, despite all of them being the “perfect” image of how to live your life.

Celeste and Alabama are friends with a tumultuous history, and they both completely admire Hollie - the perfect beauty who runs marathons and has loads of followers. Alabama actually admires Hollie a bit too much. Her need to win at the influencer game has her coming off a bit desperate when everyone gets to Iceland. She just wants to be friends with Hollie, but Hollie doesn’t want a needy new friend - in fact, Hollie just wants to be left alone.

All three of these women have things they are working through/struggle with, and those things come out with a slooooow build to the disappearance of Alabama. This entire book was quite slow, which isn’t normally something I enjoy. Not much else can be revealed without spoilers, but the spoilers weren’t really that exciting. The ending, however…

The whole time I was reading this, I was going to give it 3.5 stars, but I didn’t know how I’d round. Then I got to the ending, read the twist I should have seen coming but didn’t, and I decided to round up for that and this being a debut novel. The current Goodreads rating is 3.56, and I’d say that’s very fair. The atmosphere was great, the writing was great, but the story just didn’t hit. Still, it was an entertaining plot, and a good look at how social media can affect mental health.

(Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Nicole Hackett, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released May 2, 2023.)

The Perfect Ones by Nicole Hackett
First off, the cover is gorgeous. I will read a book for the cover alone not even knowing what the book is about. I loved the setting Iceland, it’s definitely on my list to visit. I loved the premise of the book. Influencers and how perfect their lives appear versus reality. That’s certainly very relevant in today’s day and age. However, I literally did not like any of the characters, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book. That means the author did a fantastic job. This was a very well written book, very engaging.

This was a great debut! I love anything around an influencer and a trip gone wrong. They're a few of my favorite tropes. This hit it out of the park and I cannot wait to read more of Nicole's writing in the future.

What a great book! I love everything by this author and this book was no different! I couldn't put this down and was up all night waiting to see how it ended!