Cover Image: The Perfect Life

The Perfect Life

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Member Reviews

Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape.
That's how it started: looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't.
Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.
And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...

I found this book confusing at first as the past and present timelines felt a little jumbled for me. In think there was a bit too much happening which made the plot feel rather confusing. It did all come together after a while though. The second half of the book was much better that the first in my opinion. Everything clicked into place and the plot sped up

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A great plot with genuine tension and intrigue. From the very first page, I was hooked. I'm becoming a big fan of the author and looking forward to reading more from her.

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Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book

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๐™๐™๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™š๐™ง๐™›๐™š๐™˜๐™ฉ ๐™ก๐™ž๐™›๐™š ๐™—๐™ฎ ๐™‰๐™ช๐™–๐™ก๐™– ๐™€๐™ก๐™ก๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ค๐™™

I really enjoyed MY SISTER'S BONES by Ellwood so was really excited when this E-ARC was granted. Unreliable narrator? Check. Textbook abusive partner? Check. Eerie and confusing flashbacks? Check again! This was a cleverly woven novel, told through Vanessaโ€™s alternating POVโ€™s between the past and present. Secrets are revealed slowly as the plot builds and we are left trying to piece together the clues.

I didnโ€™t particularly warm to any of the characters and absolutely hated Connor (the point obviously) but just felt so frustrated at everyone. At times the vocabulary felt a bit fake, for want of a better word, with a lot of โ€œdarlingโ€ and โ€œbabyโ€ overused in every communication. I also found that although we were drip fed a lot of clues throughout, I felt let down by the lack of โ€œrevealโ€ or twist at the end.

Ellwood did address some difficult situations in an honest and open way. The emotional abuse side of this book makes for quite a difficult read and Iโ€™d say be aware of this being a big topic if you are sensitive to this. Overall however, this was a super easy read that I flew through in a day and enjoyed. Who doesnโ€™t love scrolling through Zoopla obsessing over the beautiful, completely unaffordable houses on offer!? I can definitely relate!

๐—ฅ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด: โ˜… โ˜… โ˜… โ˜† โ˜† (3/5)

๐“๐ก๐š๐ง๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐จ ๐›๐จ๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐›๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐ž๐ซ + ๐š๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ž๐€๐‘๐‚!

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I loved 80% of the novel. As it was incredibly well crafted, with very nuanced plot, budding tension and the well-honed psychological aspects of a life of young woman who might have (deepening) mental issues. Or does she?
I loved everything about Vanessa who had been loosing the ground behind her feet, her understandable coping mechanisms, her vulnerability and strong, even overwhelming desire for stability.

But then the big twist happened - and it was really not the big twist! And the authoress decided to go more safe (nowadays, at least) route of modern motives. While I can understand what she went for and even why, I still strongly feel that the novel somehow changed its identity at the end and went for the morality story (however important that story is) instead of the mysterious one.
But having said all that, I still find Ms Ellwood one of the most interesting mystery writers of nowadays. I will continue to follow her works, as she is immensely talented overall.

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This is a fab psychological thriller that will definitely keep you guessing. I couldnโ€™t turn the pages fast enough with all the twists and turns. I liked the then and now story lines and I really think it helped fit a lot in to the plot! My first book by Nuala but definitely wonโ€™t be my last!

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Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for an advance electronic copy in return for an honest review.

This book was all over the place. There were two different threads that did not cross over. Vanessa and her childhood escape to a fictional character in a novel.

To escape her adult reality Vanessa creates fictional characters to go viewing houses she can never afford. Until one of her hosts dies and the finger points to Vanessa.

I just did not get the two parts of the novel and why they came together. Did not stop me enjoying it but I just found that they two threads did not fully tie together and I was left wondering why.

I have come back two weeks later as I felt to edit this review as for me the synopsis and the imagined life are only some of the elements of the novel.

For me the main element of the novel is that Vanessa suffers from PTSD and this is an important theme in the novel. Vanessa is suffering and is suffering alone. This stayed with me long after the visiting other houses and the murder plot.

So much so that I am going to give this three stars as the novel is all over the place but I was found myself thinking about Vanessa and Conor long after I finished the book.

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Iโ€™ve tried my best to find things that I could like in this story but unfortunately I couldnโ€™t get close to any of the characters or story overall.

Very grateful for my review copy

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Took me a while to get into this oneโ€ฆ was an ok read.

โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”โ€”

Have you ever wanted to be someone else?

Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape.

That's how it started- looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't.

Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.

And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...

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This is one of those books that you are shouting at the characters over their decisions, and it beautifully described the houses, though the traumas of poor Vanessa seemed never ending. The twisty end had me staying up much later than planned to continue reading.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

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A really solid addition to the genre; reliable, if a little predictable in places. Would recommend if you know what you want from this sort of book, as it definitely delivers that.

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A bit of a slow burn and I guess a deceptive title. The storyline was a fascinating concept between the breakdown of the relationship and unravelling what the relationship truly was behind closed doors but I didnโ€™t particularly care for any of the characters enough to really care what happened and it felt a little like there was two or three story lines in the one book that didnโ€™t really smoothly tie in together

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc

I did enjoy this but felt it got a little bit slow in the middle, I did stick with it and it hit better but I wasnโ€™t the biggest fan of the way it ended. Iโ€™m glad she got justice for what Connor done to her though

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We all dream of a perfect life at some time but few of us would ever envisage going to such extremes to experience it. Well, okay, we might venture out with the first slightly shady house-viewing โ€“ as that canโ€™t cause any real harm, can it? But would we take it as far as the main character does?
This flits from the Now to a period of time beginning a year previously which is interesting but occasionally confused me a little.
The first few pages seem innocent and normal enough but then Ellwood throws a spanner in the works and the reader begins to suspect the main character may be guilty of a little more than a harmless fantasy. Ellwood creates a complicated network of twisting actions, emotions, complicated relationships and a murder to produce a book that creates doubt and provokes interest.
Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I tried this book a few times but it really did not grab my attention.

Having been interested by the blurb and the cover I was rather disappointed.

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This was a strange read. I didnโ€™t find it to be a thriller at all. There was so much going on in this book, so many subjects being tackled but everything seemed half hearted. I do like that an abusive relationship was one of the subjects of this book, thatโ€™s such a taboo subject but shouldnโ€™t be and it was well done. Overall though I really didnโ€™t enjoy this book. It was a slow read and I kept waiting for the thriller that just didnโ€™t come. I am used to faster paced books, many others will enjoy this but it wasnโ€™t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

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Once Iโ€™d started this I found it very hard to put it down, I felt like it was such a good psychological thriller with the interesting premise of Vanessa having an escape where she pretends to be someone else, something I think we all wish we could do at time to time!
I found it interesting, intriguing, fast paced and thrilling and genuinely enjoyed it from start to finish. An easy thriller to read!

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Vanessa likes viewing houses that she can't afford. She pretends to be someone else each time she views a house. She believes that this is harmless fun until someone ends up dead and everyone thinks that she is responsible.

This book had a lot going on and there were multiple timelines. I found it at times confusing to keep up with this book. I found that the pace moved quite slowly and I would have preferred if the story had moved a bit quicker. Overall this was an ok read for me. The premise sounded really interesting but I didn't enjoy this as much as My Sister's Bones by this author.

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Thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

Coming across this book is the first time I'd heard of this author but the blurb sounded really intriguing and something I would enjoy.

I think at some point we've all wanted to be someone we aren't, but the MC Vanessa takes the thought to another level and does just that; pretends to be another person, living another life, whilst viewing houses she can't afford. Until it all goes wrong.

I really did feel for Vanessa and her reasoning behind it - there were definitely some mental health issues hidden there after a hard life with losing her mother so young. And then a narcissistic boyfriend who was so good at what he did, she couldn't see it.

I didn't think I'd connect with her in the beginning because she seemed a bit naive but as the story developed she really did too. I did think her best friend was a bit of a brat though...

Overall a well written story and I managed to hold off guessing the twist until right before the reveal!

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dnf @ 20%

sorry publisher for not finishing this book. it was a bit messy and boring for me. i just couldn't relate with the main character and the mystery is not compelling.

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