Who is the perfect couple you might ask. Is it the young couple due to get married the next day as this novel opens? The parents of the bride? Parents of the groom? members of the wedding party? As you might expect, all is not going to be perfect on this wedding weekend in Nantucket, and a murder brings the wedding quickly to a halt. This is a page turner, not only because of the suspense involved, but also because of Hilderbrand's skill in making us care about the characters, flaws and all. The mystery is carefully constructed, and the relationships well-drawn.

You know summer is around the corner when Erin Hilderbrand has a new release! It's summer and there's no better place to be than Nantucket. The Otis and Winbury families are excited for the upcoming Nantucket wedding of their children Celeste Otis and Benji Winbury. As with most weddings, they bring out a bit of family drama and, in this case, some family secrets. The picture perfect weekend quickly gets turned upside down when the Maid of Honor, Merritt, is found dead on the morning of the wedding. As the investigation gets underway, secrets of the Winbury family come out and it leads to a lot of questions and not many answers. It quickly becomes apparent that no one is perfect. Reading this book was like being a fly on the wall of a well-off family that's filled with drama. I absolutely devoured this book at the pool over the weekend. This book was a bit of a departure from her typical books, but I found it refreshing and still very much quintessential Elin Hilderbrand.

Beach Read Time!!! I swear Elin Hilderbrand’s books are always my beach bag essentials.
The Perfect Couple was amazing! It was full of everything romance, family drama and even a dose of suspense! It could be called The Perfect Book! Elin writes between the past and present in this book which I adore because I can get lost in the story!
I cannot wait for more from Elin!

THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hiderbrand The perfect beach book read for the summer. Part of a series but a good stand alone too. Revisit old friends and solve a new mystery.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This was a wonderful surprise from Elin Hilderbrand. Slightly more than a murder mystery, it's the story of a family preparing for a wedding. The Winbury family of Nantucket Island is hosting the youngest son's wedding and there are several surprise guests. Benji and Celeste have moved up the wedding to July because her mother has advanced breast cancer and wants to see her daughter married. Celeste's best friend Merritt is the Maid of Honor and ends up dead on the beach the morning of the wedding. As the local and state police investigate the secrets start unraveling and it turns out several of the guests have motive to kill Merritt. This is a stand alone book but several characters have appeared in previous books by Ms. Hilderbrand. I loved the way the timeline was revealed by the police investigation and the various perspectives from the wedding party. Great read that I couldn't lay down. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It never seems like summer to me until I’ve read the newest Elin Hilderbrand novel. Sure, she has her holiday novels and those are fabulous as well, but I am sure I’m not the only one who finds the name Hilderbrand synonymous with summer.
Similar to her other novels the narrative of ‘The Perfect Couple’ alternates between various characters, there is excellent character development, and a charming Nantucket setting. This story however, has a different twist.
Everyone is on the island for a wedding but then the Maid of Honor, Merritt Monaco, turns up dead and we now have a murder mystery to unravel. Very interesting, since Greer, the mother of the groom is a famous mystery writer.
I really enjoyed ‘The Perfect Couple’ and all of the secrets that were revealed leading up to the conclusion. Told partly in flashbacks, it is a real page turner as the reader tries to uncover what really happened to Merritt. There are many, many secrets in this novel. The reader is engaged until the last page and won’t see the ending coming.
Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Perfect Couple is an easy summer read. I found myself getting lost in the Nantucket lifestyle, the dysfunctional family drama, and the internal struggle felt by Celeste. I felt the ending was a little flat, though. It was as if there was a large buildup but the climax was, well, anticlimactic.

I typically love Elim Hilderbrand’s novel, but this one was just okay.

I found it challenging to connect with any of the characters. Celeste and Benji seemed like such a perfect couple, but there were small nuances that irritated me with each character.

My biggest disappointment in this book is the ending. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but I wanted more. Everything just seemed to wrap up too neat and tidy.

If you’re looking for a quick beach read, this book is for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

If the nearing 100 degree temperatures outside weren't proof enough that it's summer, the arrival of Elin Hilderbrand's new book definitely would prove that it must, in fact, be summer, and it's time to take the annual literary trip to Nantucket! Reading this book in the landlocked Midwest, the way that Hilderbrand writes about this place makes it take on an almost mythical quality- I love reading her dreamy descriptions of the way the insanely wealthy live on the island and getting a glimpse at their troubles. And troubles abound in The Perfect Couple- the morning of Benji and Celese's wedding starts with the bride discovering the body of her best friend and maid of honor in the water. This family and their friends have a lot to cover up, but is one of them a murderer?
While this book has elements of a mystery (and Greer, one of the main characters and mother of the groom, is a mystery writer), it's also a contemporary fiction book with plenty of relationship drama. There's so many secrets and sordid details in this story, and all of the pieces don't come together until the end.
This book is definitely typical "beach reading"- lots of drama and intrigue, but more like a fun umbrella drink than a complicated craft cocktail. WHICH IS TOTALLY FINE (I loved it and I don't apologize for my reading taste, ever!). This author needs no introduction, but if somehow you have a reader who is just finding her, she's got a long backlist to hand to them!

4.5 Stars

The Perfect Couple is Elin Hilderbrand's best summer book ever in my opinion and I've read everything she's written! The Queen of the Beach read is at the top of her game with her newest novel, and just like every year, I know that my summer has officially arrived because it's time to lounge by the pool all day and devour one of her books in one sitting....that is 100% what I did while reading this fab read!

Nantucket in the summer is the perfect place for a lavish wedding, which is exactly the exciting event that is supposed to take place in Hilderbrand's newest novel. Yet, the wedding between Celeste Otis, the bride-to-be, and Benji Winbury, the groom-to-be is canceled in the most horrific way when the maid of honor, Merritt Monaco is found by the bride-to-be early on the morning of her wedding day floating face down in the ocean...

Merritt's death is the beginning of a clever novel that kept me glued to the pages! This "beach read" was definitely more than I expected since it not only delivers everything you've come to expect from Hilderbrand's novels: the wonderful atmosphere and setting of Nantucket, interesting and complex characters whose lives you can't help but get engrossed in (some of the characters you will love and others you really won't), a smart and satisfying plot, and her signature warmth and humorous writing style, but she entwined a very clever murder mystery into the plot that was not quite like anything she's ever written before. I really enjoyed this little bit of a darker vibe!

This exquisite read is told in alternating character perspectives and shifts back and forth in time as the mystery is solved, and the writing is just enthralling, as usual, so you are quickly turning pages as each character reveals some tidbit that ties in with a different character or event in some way or another. It seems that no one in the novel is safe from being a suspect in the maid of honor's murder, which makes the mystery all that more delicious!

Oh, and I loved that Hilderbrand brought back some of my favorite characters from her other novels, especially Chief Ed from The Castaways, which is one of my favorite of her books! This fantastic whodunit is the perfect summer read that should most definitely be added to your summer reading list!

**Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Co for my review copy in exchange for my fair and honest review. **

Thank you NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Coy.

I liked this one, but it wasn't my favorite ever. That being said, the magic of Nantucket was evident throughout this book, and that is one of the reasons I love Hilderbrand's books! This one has repeat characters (police chief Ed Kapenash and his family), which I also loved. It's always nice to catch up with old characters.

This one features an expensive wedding, a suspicious death, and the mystery behind that death. The story was intriguing and I loved how Hilderbrand set out a few details at a time, and made us keep guessing who did what, and what they had to do with death. There was a lot of intrigue, and the couples were showing us their very imperfect sides.

Although I loved this one, and once again it was a very satisfying beach read, I felt like the story line was just a tad bit thin, and could have been expanded just a bit.

As an Elin Hilderbrand newbie, I picked a fantastic book to get my feet wet!

Can you imagine what it would be like to find your best friend, your maid of honor, dead on your wedding day? Wow! I cannot even imagine how horrible that would be. This very unimaginable event is the premise of this story.

Celeste and Benji are getting married on the beautiful island of Nantucket. On the morning of their wedding Celeste’s maid of honor (Merritt) is found dead. Rather than the wedding of their dreams, the day has now turned into their worst nightmare. No one is free of suspicion, family and friends alike – everyone is a suspect.

There were times when I felt like this was a story within a story. Make no mistake about it – the murder mystery is the main story here, but there is also a sub-story about Celeste’s mom, Karen. She has some very serious health problems that got my attention and I wondered where that storyline would go.

There were a lot of characters in this book and more than one was a plausible suspect in the death of Merritt. There were moments when this book felt a bit like a soap opera. Who likes who, who is sleeping with who, who has broken who’s heart, and so on.

My favorite character was Karen. My heart went out to her and I deeply admired her strength. I also found Greer (Benji’s mom) to be a very interesting character. She is tough on the outside, but there were moments of tenderness that I found quite touching.

There were a couple of storylines that I felt could have been wrapped up a bit more, as a result I felt like I was left hanging a bit, but all in all an enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more of Elin Hilderbrand’s books in the future!

Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of summer. She can write a mystery, a romance, a drama, and most of all she can write about FOOD. Every single book of hers makes me want to get in the car and drive to Nantucket just for dinner. Told in alternating time periods of before the wedding and after the wedding, readers delve into a sticky relationship as they try to figure out who murdered the maid of honor! Perfect beach read.

Elin Hilderbrand's books, which are typically released in early summer/late spring every year, are the official start of summer for me. The Perfect Couple is no exception and I found myself immediately sinking into its world. There are some repeat characters from one of Elin's other novels, The Castaways, which I loved revisiting. But even without the familiar characters (which are only tangential in this book), I could not put this book down! I had to know what happened. This was slightly different from Elin's other books in that it was sort of a murder mystery but so much more complex than that. I love Celeste and found myself turning every page with anticipation and delight. I'm definitely in the mood for summer now!

The Perfect Couple comes out next week on June 19, 2018, you can purchase HERE! This book is definitely another winner from Elin and the official start of summer!!

Miranda's eyes widen. The mother huffs and Celeste smiles indulgently as if to convey that she know how tedious trips to the zoo can be. The things parents do for their children! The fighting couple are expensively dressed, lots of suede and cashmere, a nice watch on the man, ballet flats on the woman, and she carries some kid of designer bag. (Merritt would be able to identify not only the designer abut also the year; she feels about bags the way that most men feel about Corvettes.) Genus: Manhattan, Celeste things. Species: Upper East Side. Their natural habitat includes doormen and cabs, private school and Bergdorf's.

It's a typical sighting here at the Bronx Zoo.

Just like every other Elin Hilderbrand novel, this one hit the mark. Celeste, a zookeeper, finds herself marrying into the affluent Winbury family. Little does she know that the family that she, at first, believes is perfect actually has many flaws and secrets. However, Celeste has a few of her own that must be resolved before the wedding of the summer in Nantucket can happen. When Merritt, the maid of honor, is found dead the morning of the wedding, it unravels the wedding and the secrets each of the characters has been desperately trying to hide.

It's the July long weekend and Celeste and Benji are getting married at Benji's parents' home in Nantucket. They had met about a year ago and come from different backgrounds. Celeste's parents barely got by but raised Celeste with a lot of love. Benji's parents are rich and Benji never lacked for anything and still leads that kind of life, which is foreign to Celeste.

The night before the wedding, Merritt, Celeste's best friend and maid of honor is found dead. Needless to say, the wedding is cancelled. As the police investigate, they discover affairs and secrets. Was Merritt's death an accident or was she murdered?

I liked the writing style of this book and thought it was an interesting story. It is in third person perspective with the focus on the different characters including Celeste, Greer (Benji's mother), Tag (Benji's father), the police officers and others (the chapters are labeled). This way we find out what was going on from their perspective and what they were thinking. We don't find out until the very end what happened to Merritt.

I thought there were a lot of things left unfinished by the end of the story, though, so I'm assuming there will be other books involving these characters to tie up the loose ends.

A “Beach Read” winner once again. Every year, I think Elin Hilderbrand has written her best summer novel yet, and then she goes and writes one that’s even better than the last. The Perfect Couple was such a perfectly woven, twisty novel; it was brilliant.

Its wedding season in Nantucket and a maid of honor is found dead by the bride the morning of her intended nuptials. The wedding is cancelled and an investigation ensues. You are immediately immersed in the scandalous secrets of all involved. Not just the maid of honor, but the bride, groom, bride’s parents, groom’s parents, siblings…No one is safe.

One thing becomes instantly clear-- No one is perfect.

I was constantly changing my theory of whodunit. And talk about character development. Always on point, Hilderbrand had me immediately attached to the mother of the bride, Karen. Dying of cancer and she was still the most level headed person in the whole group. Told from multiple viewpoints, you are welcomed into the privileged lives of those lucky few on Nantucket, as well as the locals and the humble. When all was solved, I was still left wanting so much more.

Oh, and by the way, none of my theories were correct.

For me, it isn’t summer until I read an Elin Hilderbrand book and this summers book might be her best to date at least in my opinion. In The Perfect Couple we have Celeste and Benji who are set to wed in Nantucket but the night before their wedding the maid of honor is found dead which leads to a who dun it and what is revealed is just secrets after secrets being uncovered.

We get the backstory on how Celeste and Benji met and how their love story is. On paper, both are as different as night and day but Benji showed Celeste a life she never knew and while she has feelings for him she doesn’t know if she wants to marry him not when her heart belongs to someone else. Now, who that person is isn't someone who she should be with but the heart wants what it wants right?

As the police try to solve who was at fault, the question is was the maid of honor murdered or was it indeed just an accident? We see the police undercover the layers of all those involved from both families and their friends. What the police thought would be an easy case isn’t, it's soon revealed that some of the family members have bigger secrets that could point to any one of them as suspects. I loved how there were twists and turns and I was shocked at some parts which were great. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

This is one of Elin Hilderbrand’s best novels, I loved how she brought back some her beloved characters from her past books and I really enjoyed the mystery part that was included which was honestly my favorite. I didn’t think I could love her books more but I do! I felt that this book was fresh and intriguing I just couldn’t put it down. If you want something fun and compelling at the same time I highly recommend this amazing book its everything you could want in a book for the summer.

I’ll admit this is only my fourth of Elin Hiderbrand’s novels, but so far this is my favorite. I can compare it to reading a Nantucket version of the game of Clue. With a small cast of characters, each one seemed to have something to hide.

A wedding is about to take place in Nantucket and the wedding party and several guests are gathered for the rehearsal dinner the day before. That evening things go horribly awry, and instead of a wedding, the next day is filled with a police investigation.

I must admit, I was not expecting a mystery when I began reading this book, and it was such a pleasant surprise. I love an entertaining “whodunit” and this certainly fit that description. If you’re looking for a fun summer read, pick up The Perfect Couple. It will not disappoint.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown & Company for allowing me to read an advance copy.

I have read a lot of Elin Hilderbrand's books and this might be my favorite. It has the characteristic charm that makes us all want to book the next ferry to Nantucket and high tail it to the Chicken Box. It also had an underlying mystery that made me want to jump to the end so I could know who did it (thank goodness for kindle editions!) . Every I thought "oh this person did it", I was pleasantly surprised that the author showed us how they didn't do it. I loved that I was questioning the outcome up until the very last minute. I loved that it brought back "The Cheif" as a character. I could not put it down! My new favorite Elin book!