This novel was an extremely unique psychological thriller. It had so many twists that even the ending was completely unexpected. An amazingly plausible yet fictitious novel!

Imagine all the people.......(John Lennon)

But what if the people are really not the people who say they are the people?

J.P. Delaney creates a whirlwind of opposing ideas and characters marching to different drummers and hearing rhythms not privy to all. Buckle your seatbelts. The Perfect Wife is at the wheel and it's gonna be a rough, rough ride.

Abbie Cullen, talented artist and superb surfer, died under strange circumstances over five years ago. Yet, she wakes one morning groggy and trying to sort out her whereabouts. Slivers of memory crash and dive within her confused mind.

Her husband, Tim, is by her side shocked to see her stirring. Tim is the CEO and founder of Scott Robotics in Silicon Valley.He's an absolute wizard at what he does with versions of AI. He dotes on Abbie and their young son, Danny, who is autistic. And it is Tim's obsession with his wife and son that will send this story into the speed cycle. He bought Abbie a multi-million dollar beach house for an engagement present. He researches every advancement and new technique in regard to autism, sending little Danny to schools he alone deems worthy.

But there's something a bit off with this cozy little family.......way off. And it's best that you peek behind the elegant draperies yourself to see what is amiss. Not going to give away a single nugget here. Just gonna let you trip over a few boulders on your way in.

J.P. Delaney has upped the ante in this one. I've read The Girl Before and Believe Me and enjoyed them both. This one was hit out of the ballpark for sure with its original storyline and features. Delaney presents scenarios that tip the scientific cup of morality and ethics. Just because you can, should you? Hmmmm........

I received a copy of The Perfect Wife through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Ballantine Books and to J.P. Delaney for the opportunity.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this book! It’s set to be published on August 6th.
•
Abbie wakes up with no memory of who she is or what happened to put her in the condition she’s in. Her husband says she had a tragic accident five years ago. He tells her that some brand new technology has brought her back and he helps Abbie begin to piece together the life she’s forgotten. But when Abbie starts to remember things those things makes her uneasy and she starts having doubts about the man she loves. Is he telling the truth?
•
Woah!!! This was unlike anything I’ve read before. Legitimately genre bending! I tried so hard one night to finish it because I HAD to know what would happen but I had to give up at 2 a.m. Haha! It was suspenseful, thrilling, and jaw-droppingly twisty. I’m looking forward to reading J.P. Delaney’s The Girl Before which has been hanging out on my shelves. I definitely recommend this book.
•
Now I’m off to go prattle on about it to my husband which will probably be annoying because my head is still spinning😂

Another great read by JP Delaney!
The concept of the book, artificial intelligence, is on point and the characters done in such a way that I felt the whole range of emotions while reading. Imagine being "woken" up and being told you aren't really "you" anymore. Your thoughts, emotions, etc. were implanted into an artificial body and your real body was gone. I didn't want the book to end. The author did a great job at finding ways to make you rethink your stand in each chapter.
I highly recommend- a great suspenseful thriller.

I had to stretch hard to put this one at a 3 for me. I think the synopsis should have mentioned that this was primarily about AI and I would not have chosen to read this one. While it did have some good parts and kept me fairly interested, I am not a sci-fi person so didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would since I didn't realize that was the premise of the book.

Wow! What a read! This book seems to be a mixture of thriller, a little sci-fi and a family trying to navigate the challenges of a child with Autism. The writing is great and the book is full of plot twists that keep you guessing until the end. A very entertaining read that I highly recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine.

Thank you so very much to the publisher, Ballantine Books, NetGalley and the author, JP Delaney, for an early read of this book, in exchange for an honest review of this book.

The book focuses mainly on a companion robot that was made to resemble a scientists deceased wife. I honestly wasn't a big fan of the concept, and the plot of the book, and I had a very hard time getting through this one, to give a review.

This just isn't my type of book, however I can relate to the concept of The Perfect Spouse, as I could see how that would be beneficial in everyday life, however I don't think I would ever understand living with this type of 'spouse'.

The writing was great, however it just isn't something that I would be able to think about again, or read again.

My uncle died and we put our dog to sleep this week. I am not in the right frame of mind to enjoy a book about comfort robots that embody the personalities and physical features of deceased loved ones.
It is just too much for my bruised heart to process right now.
The three chapters I read were very well-written and engaging. I read this book in a different time, I would thoroughly enjoy it. It would be a good book to read on a plane ride where you can get sucked into a book for several hours with no interruptions.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.
Edited to add: I'm required to give a star rating so I'll put it in the middle. 3 stars.

So, I was pretty vocal about how badly I disliked "The Girl Before." So you are probably wondering what in the world caused me to willingly pick out "The Perfect Wife" to review. Well, I heard that it had a lot of science fiction elements in it and since I want to read more science fiction this year I decided to go for it. I initially thought it was going to be something superficial, but Delaney works in the science fiction aspects very well. I am a bit disappointed though that other reviewers gave away the jaw dropping beginning (don't do that!) though was happy I was unspoiled for the rest of this. "The Perfect Wife" does a great job of showing Abbie before when she first meets her husband Tim and then what life is like now that she has waken up. The only reason why I didn't give this five stars is that parts of the book dragged here and there. Also, I wish that we had some confirmations on some loose threads that Delaney left dangling.

"The Perfect Wife" follows a woman named Abbie. She wakes up in a room and is told that five years ago she was in an accident, and the man that is looming over her is her husband Tim. Abbie quickly finds out she is ready to go home with her husband Tim who she barely remembers. Abbie's memories slowly start to come back and she remembers that Tim is a CEO of a company focused on developing cobots (companion robots) and he is up there with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in terms of money and influence in the tech industry. Abbie also realizes that she and Tim had a son together, Danny. Danny was diagnosed with Heller's disease (FYI, this is a childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) and is a rare pervasive developmental disorder which involves regression of developmental ability in language, social function and motor skills) and worries that her son won't remember her and she is scared that her being away/sick has caused his condition to worsen. However, Abbie returns to her home and finds it pretty much unchanged from when she was there last. And after a while Abbie starts to find clues that things were not all champagne and roses with Tim.

So first off. We have after Abbie (who we get to follow via first person point of view) and before Abbie (who we only hear about via an anonymous narrator). You realize right away why there are differences between Abbie before and after. Abbie before seems more confident and all of the dialogue showing how she was when she was first hired by Tim to be an artist in residence at his company showed a woman who was not going to be bowled over by anyone. Slowly though via the Abbie before and after you start to get a better picture of Abbie and also of Tim. Abbie is warned here and there about Tim who starts to do what he can to attract Abbie and start to date her. You are left with two people who it sounds like fell in love and then got dealt a terrible hand when their son was diagnosed with Heller. However, that's just a small part of the story. I can't really get into this character much without spoiling, but I thought the way that Delaney handled Abbie was very good. I had sympathy for both versions that we are shown and loved how it ended.

Tim is a typical tech bro that seems to have softened up when he met and fell in love with Abbie. It seems that Tim only sees Abbie as perfect, she's the perfect wife and mother. He doesn't see anything wrong with her at all.

We also get a lot of secondary characters that I thought were developed very well. We have Abbie after interacting with Tim's best friend who also works at the company (Mark), Mark's wife Jenny (who also works for Tim), Abbie's sister Lisa, and Danny's therapist that seems to party live in and take care of him.

The writing I thought was good. I was initially worried when we went back and forth, but I see why Delaney did that. You also have the narrator becoming more and more omnipotent about things after a while and you realize why that is at the end. Delaney also did a good job with talking about and showing how the tech industry even years in the future still has a whole dude bro culture that needs changed. I also thought it was great that Delaney showed us the answer to a certain extent about do androids dream of electric sheep.

The flow was a bit clunky at first, but quickly smooths it way out. I think it's just because we have that reveal very early in the story and then we jump back in time to when Abbie was first hired by Tim and then we jump forward again. After a while I got used to it.

The ending was heartbreaking and unexpected. I liked it though we are given a clue that there's a cycle that is going to get repeated until someone finally puts a stop to it.

After having read and loved The Girl Before, mostly because of the creative storyline, I was very excited to receive a copy of this book. What a book! Creative, Creepy, Captivating! A robot designed to be an exact replica for a dead wife, but why? The answer to this isn't so simple and neither is this book. Loved the ending! I highly recommend!

When I first started reading this book, I had to stop and re-read the description. Was this the book I requested? I didn't expect Abbie to be quite like THIS. But I read on and loved every minute. It's both entertaining and thought provoking. The underlying them will leave you pondering the concepts of "self" and "humanity."

Abbie wakes up and realizes she's in the hospital. Very quickly she finds out that things aren't as they seem. This book was very different from my usual books. There's an element of sci-fi, and I'm not usually interested in this genre. However, this book captured my interest quickly. There are many twists and turns in the book! What IS the "Perfect Wife"? Abbie's husband, Tim, believes he can, and has, answered this question. But will his creation be perfect? This is a great exploration of the links between family members and the strong bonds of motherhood.

Abbie wakes up in what she believes to be a hospital room with no recollection on how she got there. She has her husband by her side however things seem odd. Little by little she notices things that don't seem right. Then Tim explains that she is in fact a robot. He has made a replica of his missing wife. His perfect wife! As you start to piece things together you're not so sure that is true. Or even which one to trust. Tim the silicone valley tycoon or the information you have been putting together about Abbie.

I have been doing this a lot lately, going in blind and it has worked out great with this book. I didn't read a review previously so I was unsure what to expect. I am the last person to pick up a sci-fi book yet it was great! I was caught up in what Abbie would find out about the "real Abbie". I wanted to see what Tim's reasoning behind making a robot of his missing wife. It all comes together nicely with a twist in the end I had no idea coming. (Two of them actually)

If you like a good psychological thriller you will love The Perfect Wife!

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Netgalley.com and Ballantine Books. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.

The Perfect Wife is just that, perfect. An excellent mix of science fiction, mystery and psychological thiller. It is set to be this summer's biggest hit.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

I should have done more research on this book. Had I known it was about a woman who died — and was recreated by her husband into a robot— I never would’ve requested it. I read enough to know it’s not something I’m interested in. It wasn’t badly written, just not a subject I want to read about. I’m giving it a neutral 3 for that reason.

Was worried the AI aspect would make this less thriller more sci-fi but it seemed so realistic and kept me guessing the whole book. Great summer read for fans of suspense.

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives—and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?

This one is a thought provoking, fast paced thriller that was incredibly difficult to put down! I loved it!!

Thank you #Netgalley for the ARC of #ThePerfectWife
Pub Date: 06 Aug 2019

The Perfect Wife is about a young mother/wife, an autistic son and a tech “genius” father/husband dealing with the loss of the wife/mother, Abbie. But then husband/father (Tim) builds an AI version of Abbie and that's where the story begins. We are introduced to the AI version of Abbie at the start and then we discover that something happened to the real Abbie and no one knows what. Is she dead? Did she run? Is she hiding?

The story flashes back and forth between the present and the past when Abbie & Tim meet and fall in love. The present takes place 5 years after Abbie's disappearance. There are twists and turns that I’m sure will shock readers. For me it took almost a month to finish this book. I never took to it. I think for me the characters weren’t for me.

From the beginning I didn’t like Tim and I didn’t understand why or how Abbie would fall for him. That was my question throughout the entire novel. How does this carefree, artist fall for someone who treats people so badly and controls so much of her life?

I'm not sure I needed the flashbacks, I found myself skipping over them more and more and I get they set up parts of the twists but I am interested to know how the book would read without them.

I will recommend this one to others because I know people see things differently and just because I wasn’t a fan does not mean other people won’t love this. It's well written and the twist will for sure get people. The tech part was interesting and I honestly enjoyed some of the scenery we were introduced to.

Thank you Net Galley and Simon & Ballatine Books for providing this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fantastic book! I loved all the characters and thought the writer was brilliant. I don’t want to put in any spoilers so I will have to keep this short. Run to buy this book!

So I was merrily humming along reading the story about this woman waking up from what seemed like a long coma, that she had died 5 years ago, but then to realize she was a robot with artificial intelligence. I almost laughed my way to the trash can. How preposterous I thought; what a ridiculous premise. JP Delaney should castigate me and wipe the smirk off my face. This turned out to be an involved fascinating expose of sexism, autism, artificial intelligence and a world not too far away from reality. Just this morning I opened the NYT to find an article about research trying to make automatic bots into more human empathetic creatures. The story itself is about a robot who was created to be a facsimile of a powerful controlling husband of a robotic corporation whose wife disappeared under mysterious circumstances. However, the real mother left behind a child with autism and the "robot" is very concerned about the school that he is placed in according to his father's wishes. Everywhere the robot turns there are questions about what really happened to her husband's wife, his sexual depravity,and his controlling methods.Lots of twists and turns with a wonderful surprise ending so keeping with the thrust of the novel. In the acknowledgements, we find that Delaney has his own autistic 21 year old son, which lent to the credibility of the autistic section.
From going to ugh, I went to a solid hurrah..I urge you to suspend belief and dive right in. You will be deeply rewarded.