This is a great read and a well-detailed plot that kept me engaged from the very start. I really liked the well-thought-out characters and found them to be believable. I cannot wait to read what the author brings out next.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

Maddie and the rest of the characters are likeable. The plot is relatively realistic. The mystery and action are woven just right!

Great thrilling novel which kept me turning the pages, would highly recommend to others. Brilliant writing, plot and characters.

This was a hard book to read, not because of the writing (which was good) but because of the storyline. It is like a train wreck that you just have to keep looking at even though you wan to look away. Readers will be turning pages to get to the very end.

The Perfect Family is not what it seems, both the book and its main characters. It starts by describing the aftermath of any parents' nightmare -- being asked to choose which of your children will live or die. For Maddie, it's being asked which of her twins will be spared by a masked man who shows up at her door. Overall, this is an emotionally jarring read -- the tension and anxiety were near constant. As you get to see what lies under the surface of Dom and Maddie's marriage, you learn to take everything else with a grain (or pound) of salt. Through her reflections, you see Maddie struggling to keep from spiraling as she questions herself as a mother, but also no longer understanding what she takes for granted as truth.

I compliment King because she was able to evoke emotions in me that made me need to know what happened next so I could have my own resolution. That being said, this book left me constantly questioning what was happening and who to trust. The suspense was real! I can say that at the outset of the book, I thought I knew what to expect and that it would be predictable. I'm glad to say the ending was not what I expected at all. I also appreciated King's structure of going from future to flashbacks. It allowed her to unfold the story in a way that built suspense as she revealed details.

The Perfect Family definitely gets my recommendation.

Loved this book! Would definitely recommend! I plan on purchasing for my collection in the future! It was a page turner I couldn’t put down!

Maddie Castle had a perfect family ,married to her college sweetheart and has two beautiful children, twins, a boy and a girl.On the twins tenth birthday just as Maddie was about to celebrate the doorbell rings. As they go to open the door a masked man grabs the twins and holds a gun to them screaming for Maddie to choose which one lives. Now Maddie has to live with the consequence of that horrible day with her husband and her son. Will she or her family ever be able to forgive her and move on with their lives?

The Perfect Family by Samantha King is a psychological thriller that started off with a the most horrifying choice that any parent can make. A little slow in the middle it picks up pace later and with a few twists and turns along the way, some of which I wasn’t expecting.

I would like to thank Kensington Books & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This book was quite the roller coaster ride, lots of twists and turns.....
Madeline really was the perfect on reliable narrator.... in the beginning I just knew something was not as it seemed, however I did not see reality coming.... don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but the premise of this book really made you think..... could you ever choose which of your children should live and which of your children should die, what a horrible place ever to find yourself in.... just the thought of it gives me the chills.... if you like psychological thrillers, I would recommend this one, plenty of twists and twisted characters....

Ugh. I wish that I really liked this book. I just couldn’t really get into the story at all. I’m sorry.

Wow! This was an edge-of-your-seat read. The reader is immediately drawn into the lives of Maddie and Dom Castle. Their whirlwind relationship takes off and you are prepared to read about a happy family with twins...a boy and a girl. But, things aren't always as they seem.

Suddenly you're discovering some difficulties in Maddie and Dom's relationship. And Maddie has made a decision that completely changes everything in their lives. But this isn't the end of the trauma! You continue to be sucked into the story of Maddie and her awakening to her horrible things have become.

And just when you think that things are looking up, you are once again such into the vortex that is Maddie's reality.

This book is a wonderful psychological thriller. The author has done a wonderful job of investing the reader into the Maddie. You will waffle back and forth between being shocked at the words she actually said aloud...or she thinks she said aloud...and sympathy at all Maddie has and will endure.

I am looking forward to additional books by this author. She rocked it with her debut novel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book kept me ready very late. The characters are well developed and interesting. The plot twist were good and my questions were all resolved except for one which really bothers me. This would have been a grand slam if not for the one twist not resolved. Thanks to netgalley for the arc, the opinion is soley mine

Samantha King’s latest thriller is a pulse-pounding domestic thriller. On the morning of her twins’ birthday, Maddie Castle is terrified to find a gun-wielding, camouflaged man at her front door who tells her that she must make a mother’s absolutely unthinkable choice: which one of her children should she choose to live. From there the book moves at a frenetic pace with Maddie trying to wrap her head around what actually went down that day and who in her life is to blame as she battles amnesia.

King captured the frantic pace of this perfectly and it was a definite page-turner. Every time I thought that a question was answered, another equally perplexing question popped up, right up to the end. The only negatives I have to say were that at times I found Maddie’s character to be a little naive and annoying. Though she was portrayed as a sympathetic character, I did not always like where her mind was taking her. I won’t go into specifics because I don’t want to spoil the plot.

There was also one question which seemed to remain unresolved at the end, which I found very displeasing because it was a major part of the plot. Again, I won’t go into specifics, but I’m sure you’ll know what I mean after you’ve read the book.

Despite these couple of flaws, the Perfect Family was an enjoyable, fast-paced psychological thriller that I would recommend to all.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Kensington Books and Samamtha King for providing me with a complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review.

***Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.****


It was an entertaining story from the beginning till the end. Most of the twists were solved except one and it kind of bugged me not to know that one detail but other than that I think it wrapped up pretty good. I would like to read another book by Samantha King.

The Perfect Family by Samantha King begins with a chilling prologue. Maddie’s twins are celebrating their tenth birthday. The three are home preparing for the celebration when the door rings and everything suddenly changes. A masked man with a gun asks Maddie to choose between the twins. Who gets to live and who dies? How crazy is that!
I was hooked from then on, curious to know what happened on that day. Who was the masked man? Why did he want Maddie to make the decision? I had so many questions and couldn’t wait to find the answers. However, Maddie’s memories were all tangled up so despite being the narrator, she wasn’t providing any answers. I had all kinds of crazy theories about the incident. Was it the mafia? Some serial killer with a twisted MO? Who was the masked the man? My mind was reeling!
Unfortunately, despite the great premise and the suspense, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The pacing was a bit up and down. Some sections were super fast and exciting while others really slowed down for my liking. I did like the reveal about the about the birthday though and couldn’t have predicted the twist.

I really enjoyed this book so much. Definitely a book that stays with you! Could not put it down!

Highly recommended if you enjoy suspense genre! Thank you for my review copy, which I received through Net Galley.

Honestly, I gave this book such a low rating because I skimmed through chapters straight through until about 56% in because the beginning is that weird and irritating. I did want to find out what really happened and by whom but the story is very overdrawn, hence the skimming.

Dom and Maddie had met at university, quickly falling in love, with Maddie just as quickly getting pregnant. They each had lost their parents years earlier. Maddie is an only child and Dom has a brother, Max, but doesn’t have a good relationship with him.

After a difficult birth of fraternal twins, Annabel and Aiden, Maddie is a busy mum totally centered on the twins. Maddie has been stressed with the twins and even has feelings that something may happen to them.

Today is Annabel and Aiden’s tenth birthday. As Maddie is making their birthday cake, the doorbell rings and a masked man with a gun drags both children to the backyard, and asks Maddie which one he should shoot. Maddie thinks she said Annabel and believes the child is now dead. She then blanks out.

Maddie sees herself as invisible to Dom and Aiden and seems to float through the days in grief not knowing what is real and what is not.

This is a review where I cannot add too much without revealing spoilers. The story goes back and forth in time as the reader learns more about Dom and Maddie and their relationship. While I felt like there was too much repetitive verbiage in the book, I think the author wanted to ensure the reader understood the ending. This book is shocking and one that I think readers will enjoy up to the last page. I must add that I think the book wrapped up too quickly leaving some unanswered questions. All in all, this is a good read.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, atmosphere, and characters. I would recommend the book to friends and family for their reading pleasure.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this great book!

I love a good thriller and if it is a thriller set in England? Even better! This book really fit everything I wanted in a good thriller. I have been craving an English thriller so this was awesome.

The twist were really good and actually very surprising! I thought I had the twist figured out and nope! It went somewhere different!

The novel begins with Maddie Castle feeling lost, alone and depressed after something horrific happens on the tenth birthday of her twins.

Told through flashbacks and broken memories we find out just how Maddie found her somewhat perfect life and family falling apart.. As she struggles to put the pieces together she discovers horrific secrets and terrible truths about the people in her life that she though she knew and could trust..

If you love a good psychological thriller this is the book for you!

#ThePerfectFamily #NetGalley