The absolute best way to read this novel is to know NOTHING about what you are going to read. If I had read a blurb or synopsis before picking up this book, I do not think I would have read it and that would have been a real shame. Having enjoyed THE WIFE BEFORE by J.P. Delaney was my impetus for picking up THE PERFECT WIFE and I am so glad I did.

This book deals with so many timely issues; science, technology, morality, family dynamics and autism.

I do not want to give anything about the plot away. This book will make you think, will make you gasp and shake your head in disbelief, yet it is believable. The ending was masterful. One of the best books I have read in a long while.

After reading The Girl Before I was beyond excited to read The Perfect Wife and it did not disappoint! The story was thought provoking with unique characters that make you consider points of view you wouldn’t have otherwise looked from. The book blends Sci-fi (more specifically artificial intelligence) with a domestic thriller and family drama almost seamlessly. The book also poses questions of ethics and morality that make you stop and think for a few minutes before diving back into the book. Overall I think this was a fantastic read and I look forward to more books from this author!

The Perfect Wife by J.P Delaney is sublimely original. Abbie wakes up in a cloud of missing memory and must piece together who she is from who she thinks she is. She does not recall the accident she’s been told she’s had and there are many holes in her memory. While Abbie tries to piece together a life lived with her husband and son, her husband tries to help her understand the past five years without her.

In pure Delaney form, there is a masterful twist embedded within a twist that you won’t see coming. Delaney also spotlights real human challenges and atrocities as well as the resilience of the human spirit. Original and with perfect scaffolding and sequencing, The Perfect Wife by J. P. Delaney will have you rushing through the pages to see what happens next.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Very good! I loved the premise of this and was hooked; I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I was fully invested in the story and will be thinking about AI in such a different way now. Definitely recommend.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

JP Delaney turned the premise of this book all kinds of sideways for me. I went into this book thinking it was a psychological thriller about a woman waking up in the hospital with no memories. Then the fact that she has no memories because she is a "Cobot" or companion robot, created to replace a missing woman makes the novel twist into the scifi realm. I had a hard time with this novel because I never quite got a handle on the Cobot, she always seemed two dimensional and I didnt know if that was deliberate on the author's part. The pacing was a little uneven, and the ending left me scratching my head and rereading.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

This was an interesting book. It wasn't quite what I expected - I normally don't read sci-fi - but I enjoyed it. Tim's wife Abbie disappeared 5 years ago. Some think he killed her. Some think she ran away. Others think it was suicide. But Tim, a tech titan of robotics and artificial intelligence, builds a robotic replica of Abbie. She's a cobot (a companion bot) programmed with Abbie's voice, social media posts, and telephone info to remember the past and grow a personality over time. But what is Tim's real motive in creating the cobot?

Tim was an interesting combination of Steve Jobs and Elizabeth Holmes - brilliant but delusional and cruel. The addition of an autistic son made the story seem to have more weight and meant Abbie had something to protect.

The plot to this book is sci-fi meets pyschological thriller. When Abbie awakens wondering who she is and the man beside her says that he is her husband, except Abbie went missing five years ago and this AI is an exact replica of her. While she does have memories, they are only the ones that Tim, her husband has programmed for her to remember. This was a good read, even if it was a little "out there", the author did a great job making it believable.

This is my 3rd JP Delaney book - and let me just say they never disappoint - and best of all - they are always very very different!!

This A.I novel - while likely farfetched it was still very interesting to read and piece together. There was a lot to think about while reading - without giving much away - I kept putting myself in "Abbie's" shoes - what would I do? Who would I believe? What memories are real and are any fabricated etc?

I definitely recommend this book to any reader - even though it is SciFi-y and does involve Artificial Intelligence, I do find that it can still be enjoyed by those that might not be into that genre.

Really enjoyed this captivating and suspenseful read. I'm a fan of the author's previous two novels. I love the way he can balance intensity and suspense. His latest is speculative fiction that combines a lot of today's issues- consent, me too, data sharing, AI automation. This was a really nice spin on the over-saturated domestic thriller market.

The synopsis of this story is deceiving. I was completely thrown off at the beginning of the book when I realized what the actual story was here. Honestly if the synopsis had been more transparent, I probably wouldn’t have chosen this book. Although overall it was entertaining, it took me awhile to get through it. It just didn’t hook me. The ending was completely unexpected which I did enjoy.

Very timely subject matter. The topic of harvesting a personal digital footprint to provide a AI companion after they are deceased was discussed at a Information Literacy Summit recently. As always with Delaney....a real page turner where the whole story does not unfold until the very end!

My second book from JP Delaney and this one was definitely different thank the first.

The whole concept of the book is that a successful computer geek builds a compassion bot , COBOT , to replace his wife who went missing five years ago.

It holds you interest but is far fetched and a bit predictable.

I don’t want to give too much away but this book is so far from what I expected. I went in blind and I’m so glad I did. The writing style took a bit to get used to, but as the story unfolds you see why it’s necessary it’s written the way it is. I love nothing more than a good twist in a story and this one was completely out of left field! I thought I had it all figured out countless times while reading and I was not even close. This is a bit of an unconventional read, but it’s definitely worth your time.

I started this book without knowing anything about the synopsis or premise. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that this story is unlike anything I'd ever read before...definitely a thriller, but with Sci-Fi elements added that give it an extra creep factor. The characters in the story were engaging and well-developed and the twist was something that I never would have guessed. I did find the story to be a bit long and drawn out at times but overall, this was a very solid, unique thriller that will stay with me for a long time.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Interesting concept that was sometimes drawn out but for the most part was compelling. Abbie wakes up confused and pretty much stays that way throughout the book. She discovers she is not who she thinks, but instead a new form of AI her "husband" has built after her death. He claims that he loved her so much that he just wants her back. Even if you take him at face value that is creepy enough to make him a bad, bad man. We mostly see events through the point of view of the robot as she tries to figure out her place in the world. I actually liked that part. It was an interesting dilemma. The other parts are told in second person voice. I'm not much of a fan of that point of view, but I see it's use here.

The ending really ruined it for me. It was obvious that there was a character waiting to be exposed in the form of the 2nd person author. That reveal was a surprise but I didn't like the way it was handled. Any more than that would be spoilers. Let's just say I found it anticlimactic. If you like sci-fi it's still worth a read.

“The Perfect Wife” was definitely not what I expected, well maybe besides being a well-written psychological thriller, since J. P. Delaney is well known for writing some very intriguing and twisty books in this genre. This book was a mix of suspense, mystery, sci-fi, and domestic drama with strong and unique characters. A fast-paced, captivating and thought provoking read that had me turning pages so fast that my head was spinning. I highly recommend this book to all psychological thriller genre junkies!

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books, and the talented author, J.P. Delaney, for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was really nothing like I had expected. At the very start, I thought I had quite a firm grasp on things, but this is definitely one of those novels where literally nothing is what you expect. Even the perspectives shift wildly, moving between the second person while following Abbie and a plural first person (???) when diving into Abbie’s history with her husband. This definitely lends some additional intrigue to the narrative, and by the end I felt that this decision had paid off for Delaney.

While there isn’t much else to say about the plot itself -- it’s interesting, it’s timely, and it makes you want to keep reading -- there was an additional aspect to the novel that I found interesting. Abbie and her husband have a son named Danny, who was diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder. While I know next-to-nothing about this, the book explains it as late-onset autism. The disclaimer here is that I am allistic and have been unable to locate any ownvoices posts by autistic reviewers -- so please link me any you have written or seen and I’ll add them here.

At first, I was really taken aback by the portrayal: there was a lot of the stereotypical “my son has been taken from me” wailing, and talk of “curing” him. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that this perspective changed greatly over the course of the novel and seemed positive by the end -- although it’s not up to me to give the final comment on rep that doesn’t apply to me. I mention this for two reasons: first, this could obviously be triggering to some people. And second, if you’re considering putting down the book due to its characters’ problematic stances, they do change.

Overall this was a decent read and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting, creative thriller.

Going in, I definitely expected to like this book, but I did not expect to love it quite as much as I did. I got so wrapped up in the story that I flew through it in two sittings. Unfortunately, given the genre of the book, a spoiler-free review is going to be a challenge. In fact, there is a twist that happens in the first few pages of the novel that completely shocked me and took the story in a delightfully unexpected direction. Now, this twist and not knowing it was coming made this book so exciting that I absolutely do not want to say what it is—going into it blind was fantastic. All this being said, I will try to tell you about this novel as best as I can.

In this story, we follow our main character, Abbie, as she is recovering from an accident that has caused a great loss of memory. As she gathers and puts together the pieces of the life she forgot and the time she has missed, she finds that nothing is as it seems—her past is a blur and her future may not be under her control.

From page one, I was absolutely hooked. This is a unique and fast-paced story with plenty of twists and turns that you will not see coming. The original synopsis I read was actually a lot vaguer than the finalized one, but either way, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting in to. This had everything I love about psychological thriller novels and more—a twist that made my nerdy little heart sing even louder. And more…nerd-ily.

This is not only a gripping and twisty psychological thriller, but it also deals with several thought-provoking and timely topics. It is very informative, particularly on the topic of parenting a child with autism, which Delaney is writing on from personal experience. I have a very basic knowledge of autism and absolutely no knowledge about what the parent of an autistic child goes through and I learned a great deal through this story. It truly opened my eyes to what incredibly strong and beautiful human beings these children and parents are. I loved the depth that these topics added to the novel as a whole.

The characters are fantastically well-crafted and multi-dimensional. Our main character is very easy to connect with and I enjoyed following her. Many characters are quite ambiguous and leave you questioning their true intentions. I feel that Delaney does a wonderful job of bringing them to life and weaving their roles seamlessly into the main plotline.

Interestingly, this novel is written mostly in the second-person perspective. I have never read a story told in this way and, though I was a bit wary at first, I ended up getting into the style pretty easily. And the reasoning behind using this perspective is yet another mystery you will have to solve by picking up this book.

There were portions toward the middle of the novel—slight lulls between moments of action or shocking revelations—that at first I felt slowed things down. And while, admittedly, there were a few things I felt could have been skipped over, these slower moments actually added depth to one of the main themes in the novel. These sections allow the reader to connect further with the protagonist, putting them in her shoes as she attempts to put the pieces of her life back together. These seemingly mundane tasks she goes about that are described in great detail highlight what her life has become—slowly placing one foot in front of the other, occupying her time by focusing on each individual moment, however small.

The only minor issue I had with the plot was with a portion of the ending. It is a very surprising and intense conclusion, and for the most part, I felt things were resolved well. It is not a perfect, happy ending—which I enjoy a lot—and I was still left feeling very satisfied. There is one moment in the final pages that seemed a bit rushed and unplanned though. It is actually a positive note and one that I am quite happy about, but the logistics of it were confusing. It felt like it was squeezed in simply to resolve a plotline without much exposition to help the reader understand how and why it happened. However, the overall ending was great and I will say that this moment has definitely given me even more to think over after finishing the book.

Wow. This story. It was so unexpected in all the best ways and had me completely enthralled. I never wanted it to end and it totally kicked off a mystery/thriller reading binge for me. This was one of those books that had me making both facial and audible reactions while sitting in a room by myself. I also may or may not have talked to myself for half an hour or more trying to sort out all of my thoughts after finishing it. I have been wanting to read J.P. Delaney’s novels for a while now and this was a wonderful start. I very highly recommend giving this novel a try.

Abbie doesn't remember her life, so as she begins to look into what looks like her perfect life with the perfect husband it all seems like a series of lies.

So I really liked The Girl Before, I didn't know what to make of Believe Me, and The Perfect Wife had tons of promise but ultimately fell flat for me. The whole Silicon Valley culture was a great backdrop, from techno-geeks to artists and the intersection thereof. He covers human vs machine intelligence, sexism in the workplace (#metoo level stuff here), art vs science, what defines the human soul (is it empathy?)... All great stuff. One of the best parts was the inclusion of Abbie and Tim's autistic son Danny, who was clearly written with great knowledge of and care about autistic children. The comparison drawn between Danny, "normal" people, and artificial intelligence was probably the greatest strength of the book.

The narration was also really cool. It alternated between third person and second person chapters, both seemingly omniscient. It actually was an effective method, as the second person narrator took on the task of discussing what it was like for people in the robotics office when Abbie, the artist, first came to their company. The third person narrator took on the task of telling current events as they unfolded and Abbie figured out what had happened to her. And in the final chapter, the reason for the dual narrators, though they were already effective, becomes clear in a major twist that is doubly enjoyable for both plotting and explanation of the literary choice. Pretty neat. And when I say plot twists, this was the mother of all plot twists. Shocking, clever, amazing. Seriously, I can't even.

But. But but but. I know it is suspense and it is supposed to be plot driven, but I am so tired of hating characters or being confronted with stupid flat characters. If I had to hear one more time how sexy Abbie was or be faced with what an asshole Tim was, I was going to chuck the book across the room. Not to mention the slutty nanny. Or the humdrum robotics folks. Because of the characterization, a book that should have been a page-turner felt more like a repetitive crappy romance, hitting you over the head with the same information repeatedly. And that really ruined what could have been a phenomenal book.

Still, people who aren't so picky about characters will love this one. It has so much going for it. I wish it could have reached its full potential. Maybe a movie version.... That would rock.