Eleanor, Nancy and Mary have been friends since college. Nancy seems to have it all, she is beautiful, wealthy and married and in love with her husband. She has always struggled with mental health issues though and especially after the birth of her daughter.
Eleanor is the only one of the three who never married. She has a job that not only allows her to travel but that she finds meaningful and fulfilling.
Mary is a stay at home mom with a husband who offers her little support. She met her husband when he was married to another woman and he only left his wife because she learned of his infidelity and Mary being pregnant. She becomes a doormat for a man who is a serial adulterer who neglects her and their children at best and is cruel and neglectful.
Each of the women is unhappy with their lives and makes foolish choices which will ultimately lead to one their deaths.
This book was a bit tedious in the dull litany of each characters inner thoughts and I never connected with any of them in a way that made me care about the outcome.
The men in this book were cads and I still don’t understand why any of these women tolerated them.
I didn’t like or dislike this book but it was depressing. I I still have the authors previous book on my ever growing TBR pile and have heard good things.
Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This one just didn't work for me at all, It was hard to connect to the characters, I found the plot weak and was generally just frustrated when reading it. I persevered but sadly the twists didn't pay off.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

Oof. There are unlikeable characters and then there are -unlikeable- characters. This was full of the latter. I couldn’t even enjoy not liking them. I truly did not enjoy this book, I’m sorry. These women were a mess. Maybe that’s the point, but it was too much.

I liked Our Kind of Cruelty that's why I requested this book.
Unfortunately I did not like this book.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book for my honest review. Yayy I was so excited that I was chosen to read this as I'm a big fan of Araminta Hall's other books. As previously said in other reviews the characters were not very likable which for me is hard to relate to so that being said I gave it 3 stars.

I have a hard time reading books with unlikable characters so this one was a struggle for me. While the concept is interesting the characters took away from the story. This is a personal opinion and many readers are sure to disagree and love this one but it wasn't a favorite of mine.

I want to say that I hated pretty much all of the characters in this book, but I think that was the point. They were all flawed and imperfect most of all in their understanding so each other which led them to treat each other badly and behave selfishly. When Nancy is brutally murdered the other people in her life are forced to reevaluate who they are and find themselves wanting in morals, empathy and understanding. Told by our three female characters we see the events from their differing points of view and realize that we never truly know how others think or feel and that our understanding of them, flawed as they are, can create monsters. An in-depth look at friendships and the roles women are forced to play in society and in marriage, this book is a slow burn and thought provoking.

Imperfect Women is about female friendship, and the many ways women will betray it. Nancy, Eleanor and Mary allow themselves to be eroded by thoughtless men. There is no sisterhood here. I liked how the book was told from the viewpoints of all three women, who are all shamelessly selfish.
At the start of the book, Nancy is found murdered, and it gradually becomes clear how complicated her life had become, and how she suffered from being seen as perfect. The men in this story are utterly awful, and it is hard to understand how they were ever appealing to the women. Eleanor takes Nancy's death as an opportunity to behave really badly, which has terrible consequences.
For a small cast of characters, there is a juicy amount of secrets and lies which makes for a fun read although none of them are likable at all.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and author Araminta Hall for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

The three characters in this book, Nancy, Ellie, and Mary were a great cast throughout. They were unlikable, yes, but I think this is something that the author truly thrives in. I find that flawed characters end up making things a lot more interesting, and they’re more relatable. As humans, we all have our flaws. I felt completely immersed in this novel, and related to the impossible expectations and secrets that these women experienced.

Thank you to those named above for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I loved Araminta Hall's book, Our Kind of Cruelty, so I was very excited for this one. I could not get into it. The characters were not well developed, but also very unlikeable. At the same time, the husband/wife roles were very stereotypical and hard to believe. I could have still enjoyed the book, but it went at a very slow pace where nothing seemed to happen until the twist in the middle. Overall, disappointed.

I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

It was such a relief to close this book and be away from these horrible people. Yes, the characters and thrillers are really perfect and we wouldn’t want them to be, but this was just beyond. It just felt like an exercise in misery. I loved her last book, but I can only give two

Her previous novel was so good I was worried that this wouldn’t live up to it. It does. However it starts off slowly for me. But then it changes narrator and I am so glad I persevered. Definitely give this a go!
4/5 on goodreads.

Unlike other readers, I thought the tone of this was outstanding. Though, the plot was somewhat uninspired.

"A gripping, immersive novel about impossible expectations and secrets that fester and become lethal," The theme of this book is buried secrets. All of us have them, and they affect everyone differently. But it's not just that we have them, it's that nobody understands that everyone has them and that nobody is perfect, no matter how one's life appears on the outside. The story "explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises we make that alter our lives irrevocably."

I do not understand the terrible reviews. First, have they read Our Kind of Cruelty? Hall does not specialize in "like-able characters", although the women in this book are definitely more like-able than the Cruelty characters. Second, the three women in this book, Nancy, Ellie, and Mary are human, which means they are imperfect. Do they all make choices we would agree with? No - but that's part of the point of the book - women especially get bogged down by life and love, desperately trying not to appear "crazy" to others and they forget themselves a little bit. The life compromises that affect our entire futures.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This one was meh for me. I loved the authors first book but this one seemed to throw random plot points and storylines and characters in that just turned out to be a red herring. At least until the final third of the book when it became obvious what would happen. Not my fave but I would try this author again!

Absolutely did not like this book at all and it had so much potential to be better than it was. A huge level of predictability with been-there/done-that idea just with different unlikeable characters. Nancy and her two friends meet at university and remain in contact for twenty years. Nancy is found dead and her husband Robert is told by her friends. Some other secrets are revealed and perfect Nancy isn't so perfect after al. Neither are her friends Eleanor and Mary. And the mentioned husbands Robert (Nancy) and Mary (Howard) aren't perfect either.

I understand this is an ARC and some typos and grammar aren't prefect, but geez , gimme a break! Some of the same metaphors and wording are used over and over again. And like another review said "Over ambitious words—this is not literary fiction. This is a mystery. Use words that the average mystery reader will understand. Get over yourself.-Quirkychic" I totally agree!

It was not easy to finish this book but I did, and I knew when the few big twists were coming. SMH. Glad when this was over so I could read something else. This book was just a big fat no. Don't let the pretty cover and interesting cover sway you, it was a boring tedious read.

Thanks to NEtgalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own unless quoted.

Available: 8/4/20

Unlikable characters all around! But good story, and I could sympathize with some of the experiences of the three women. Not the most surprising mystery but still a good story!

Because I loved the twisted novel, Our Kind of Cruelty, I was excited to read Imperfect Women by Araminta Hall.

You should know right away that this novel doesn’t have the same dark undertones as Our Kind of Cruelty, it’s not sick and twisted like that book was. This is a suspenseful story that involves characters I found to be insecure and somewhat unlikeable which isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes flawed characters like this are the most intriguing. My favorite relationship in this whole book was Eleanor’s relationship with her neighbor, Irena.

When Nancy Hennessy is murdered, she leaves behind two best friends, a loving husband and daughter, and a secret lover whose identity she took to the grave. Nancy was gorgeous and wealthy, with adoring friends and family—from the outside, her life was perfect. But as the investigation into her death flounders and her friends Eleanor and Mary wrestle with their grief, dark details surface that reveal how little they knew their friend, each other, maybe even themselves.

A gripping, immersive novel about impossible expectations and secrets that fester and become lethal, Imperfect Women unfolds through the perspectives of three fascinating women. Their enduring, complex friendship is the knot the reader must untangle to answer the question: who killed Nancy?

I like Araminta’s writing and the pace of the book, it moved along nicely. There were some plot bombs here that surprised me and kept me turning the pages. Imperfect Women incorporates themes of friendship, jealously, abuse, secrets, sad women and terrible husbands.

This comes out on June 16, you can pre-order this now by going here.

Loved this book. Liked the different characters speaking. Great storyline.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

So well written so involving.I was drawn in from the first pages a story that kept me guessing with very well written characters.This is an author who I will continue to follow.#netgalley #fs&g