Vanessa likes pretending to be other people, even if it’s only to be able to view houses for sale that she could never afford.

Harmless fun, she reasons.

That is until the owner of one of these houses is dead and people thinks she killed him.

From page one, I knew that I was going to like this novel. There was something about the plot and the writing style that is very moreish. It just pulled me in until I was finished and realised I’d read it in one sitting.

Told from the point of view of the main character, Vanessa, it goes between ‘now’ where Vanessa is staying with her sister, is without a job and lacks confidence, to ‘then,’ where we see Vanessa as a successful person with the world at her feet. Through the book, we find out what happens between these two states and begin to understand Vanessa as a character.

Vanessa is an interesting, complex, flawed, relatable (i’ve been known to fall down a Rightmove hole once in a while,) character. Sometimes she was frustrating but at the same time, I was protective of her as things about her life began to be pieced together.

The pace was good and I felt that the themes tackled were done well. I am not going to say what they are as I feel this would give one or more of the plot elements away and I don’t want to do that.

This story has many twists and gradually I became suspicious of everyone, Vanessa included. I seriously did not see the end coming.

Overall, a great psychological thriller that I couldn’t put down. One of the best I have read this year so far.

This was the fist novel I’ve read from Nuala Ellwood but it certainly won’t be the last.

I am a big fan of Nuala Ellwood's My Sister's Bones, so was excited to see another released from this author. The Perfect Life completely drew me in within the first few pages, and I found myself racing through it.

The synopsis talks about a dead man in a house that main character Vanessa has gone to view, despite knowing she'll never be able to afford it - a 'hobby' Vanessa does quite frequently. However, I felt that the plot actually has very little to do with the death and is far more about her relationship with her controlling boyfriend Connor, which to be honest I found the most gripping element to the book - and her house viewings play a part in this.

We see Vanessa at the start of the book as a confident woman but then watch with sadness as her relationship with Connor takes over her life and leads to a steady decline in her friendships, work-life and mental health. The book jumps between the present day - when something awful has happened, for which Vanessa is a suspect, and 'then' when we see her meet Connor and jump, feet first, into a relationship with. Nuala writes really skilfully on this, and I can completely see how someone would find themselves in a relationship like this. It's not all dramatics and Connor isn't a pantomime villain. He's clever and insidious.

The mystery of what happened at 'that house' gripped me less, which is unusual as I often find myself leaning towards any books with suspense or mystery in it. However, I think the story about Vanessa and Connor was just so engaging that I would have quite happily just read more about this. The character development is great and the way things slowly changed between them felt quite realistic.

The plot surrounding the death of the man at one of the house viewings only really kicks in quite late in the book, I felt - the last 20% or so - and all of a sudden it really ramps up a gear. I felt like it was a little too much all of a sudden. Things take a completely different path and the plot felt like it changed so much that it felt out of place in the novel- I much preferred the rest of the novel.

Overall I still really enjoyed most of The Perfect Life but just didn't connect with the last fifth of the book or so. Would still recommend it as a fun, entertaining read.

I found myself totally absorbed in this book. From start to finish.

There is so much going on but the writing is skilled enough to make it flow despite flicking from past to present.

Vanessa is living with her sister Georgie and brother in law, Jack. She's interviewed under caution following the murder of famous author, Geoffrey Rivers. The police believe she was the last person to see him alive. And CCTV shows her running from the scene of the crime.

What has led to this moment?

We move back in time to Vanessa as a child, and then further forward to her meeting Connor. Who she falls for very quickly. He seems perfect for her. But there are red flags we can see that Vanessa is blind to.

Action packed and filled with intrigue, this was an absorbing and interesting read.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of the ARC from Penguin and NetGalley.

The premise of this book really intrigued me; how quickly a fantasy can become a dark reality and spin out of control. The book had a dark edge that I hadn't anticipated, although I did start to clock onto this as the story progressed.

I didn't really enjoy the story within a story, although I can see it was needed for the plot, but the ending felt too far fetched for me.

I thought the subject of grief and it's long term impact was very well done,

My favourite quote:
"She was the one who said that lovely thing about home, that a 'house is built on money; a home is built on love."

Vanessa Adams has an image in her mind about her perfect life. Every time she dreamed of it, she pretended to be someone else and went on rounds to visit houses on the market as a prospective buyer. The only problem these houses were well beyond her means. Every day she escaped from her real-world to enter this fantasy and imagine her life in those houses. She would imagine her perfect life. However, her dream was shattered. It was replaced by a nightmare when in one of the houses she finds a dead body. Only this time is too real and, she has no place to escape.

Vanessa Adam had a troubled childhood. Now, she is a successful marketing executive for a high-end cosmetics company, Luna London. She is the brightest and comes up with innovative ideas in her organization. Lottie, her best friend, spends the evenings together. During such an outing, Vanessa meets Connor and, things gradually start changing in her life.

Vanessa’s childhood shaped her life. She lost her mother when she was a kid. The only good memories she has are when her mother reads stories from her favorite book. In those stories, she created a fantasy world and, once her mother passed away, these escapades gave her peace and happiness.

The book spreads across two timelines. In the 2017 timeline, readers can read about Vanessa as a successful executive and her excitement over falling in love. The readers see her going through the website for her dream house and her dream life. It became an obsession for her. She desperately searched for her dream life, so much that she ignored the signs of evil that were around the corner.

In the present timeline, readers see the opposite of Vanessa because of the dark times in her life. She lives with her sister, who is much older than her. But things around Vanessa were never simple. Her behavior creates suspicion and, everyone doubts her including, the readers.

The perfect life raises an important question, that what is the perfect life? Our perception of perfection is derived from an image we had in our mind, or, it is borrowed from someone else’s image of a perfect life. The book also raised questions about relationships and the controlling behavior of people. Even the brightest and the best people can ignore the signs of controlling relationships. These ideas form the basis of the central theme of the book.

Nuala Ellwood’s writing is intriguing, thought-provoking, and points towards our social issue. Her writing puts one in thinking mode (and there is also more excitement along with it). The book maintains its theme from the beginning where everything starts perfectly and, as one reads along, sees the perfection was only pretentious. The ending is surprising and is an apt conclusion to the story.

Ellwood’s previous books differ slightly from this one, but it is as compelling as her previous books.

My rating for the book is 4 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin UK, for the copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't enjoy this book. I couldn't get into it. I found the main character not interesting enough to grab my attention and I stopped reading it. I won't be finishing it

There was so much here to love: childhood mystery novels, viewing massive houses while impersonating other people, coercive control, a mysterious death... I really wanted to love this, but unfortunately it just didn't get there for me. There was so much potential, but for the ending to have impact I wanted to see more foreshadowing throughout, and a more gradual untangling of the eventual resolution. As it was, the denouement felt forced and tacked on, like the end of a Scooby Doo episode.

I felt it was a bit too much at times, and the main character wasn't really likable, but all in all, a decent thriller with many twists and turns.

A great read that captured me from the start. Vanessa was not a character that i particularly liked but her story kept me wanting to know more. Why kill someone - what was behind it? The story adds intrigue all the way through keeping the reader trying to work out what was going to happen at the end. The descriptions of places, people and emotional factors are all easy to materialise.
A real twist at the end which brings a warm cozy feeling to the whole debacle.
I loved it

Firstly, a big thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book. The fact that I received a digital arc copy in no way influences the review that follows.
I will firstly touch briefly on reading this in ebook format. I struggle a bit with some books that have extensive character lists because I just find it more difficult to keep track of people. Perhaps it’s an age thing, but some books just don’t work so well in this format. Thankfully, The Perfect Life is not one of these.
The blurb tells you all about the plot so I won’t go over this again, but I particularly liked the way Vanessa is portrayed and how she reasons with herself. We know things are not quite in focus, but that clear sighted answer alluded me the whole way through.
On reflection, I feel that maybe the clues were a bit sparse here and I was tempted to give a lower star rating, but in the end I felt a 4 was fair. A great new author for me to delve further into.

It’s scary to see how a little boys life is destroyed by the ignorance of his own father. And it is a great reminder, that in the world of the Internet, everything you put up on social media sites can be accessed by anyone. Great story!

This gritty and intense thriller, the shifting timelines made it tricky to grasp and I found myself re-reading sections. This would usually bother me, but I was loving the story so I just wanted to understand it better and going over sections helped. Overall a great story,

The Perfect Life took me a bit to get into, but once I was in, I enjoyed what I read.

I am quite a fan of stories written with dual timelines and a mix of characters with Vanessa being a well-rounded protagonist.

If you enjoy a good a psychological thriller, you will like this one and it will have you guessing until the end.

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this review copy.

Vanessa has dreamt of living the perfect life since losing her mother at a young age. She often puts on an act and pretends to be someone she’s not. Dressing up and viewing luxury houses she couldn’t possibly afford. No harm in that is there? Or maybe there is because one day things go horribly wrong and a man is found dead in a house Nessa has viewed and she is identified as the last person to be there.
Told in the then and now style we’re taken back through the last year as Nessa’s life begins to unravel. She is not an easy character to get to love as she comes across as extremely naive for a woman of her age and it took me a while to engage with her
However I enjoyed the read and would recommend

This book was SO busy and eventful it made my head spin!
I did lose track of a lot of the plot though, I think the author could have been more selective in choosing which sidestories to use and then develop them further.
Traces of an unreliable narrator, which is a great selling point for me, but the timelines made it a challenge to follow.
I love some of the authors that endorsed it, but it fell short for me.

I found this one kind of hard to get along with. The starting point – a woman who adopts fake names to go and view houses that she couldn't possibly afford in real life - really appealed to me as a concept, but that side of things seemed to fall by the wayside as it turned into one of those dark domestic thrillers where you can't be completely sure who is gaslighting who. I found it quite hard to follow and couldn't really get invested, but the writing is good and it's an entertaining read.

This was a story over two time lines, where a troubled women takes on other personas in a search to improve her life. Her life spirals out of control and there is an unexpected twist in the tail.

Gripping, gritty and addictive, Nuala Ellwood's The Perfect Lie ticks all the boxes for an engrossing psychological thriller.

This book captured my attention from the very first page with a complex, intriquing character as the protagonist, a well written storyline and a twist you don't see coming. I could not put it down. Highly recommended.

The Perfect Life is a dual timeline read that takes a while for them to meet but is worth it.
Vanessa craves the perfect life especially after her mother died while she was young leaving her to grow up at her sisters and husbands house. Vanessa meets Connor and and things move very quickly, so quickly she looses her best friend forever. As time moves on Vanessa is left at home in the evenings whilst Connor works on an important project at work. It is during this time that the perfect life comes to a head with Vanessa whiling away the hours hunting for the perfect house that is way out of their budget. Vanessa steps it up and starts to arrange viewings and goes under different names until one of the houses owners is found murdered and Vanessa becomes the main suspect.
This was a book that took me a few chapters to get into but once I did I found this a dark read that I couldn’t put down. There was a good mix of characters I liked and some I instantly loathed which always helps. The ending EPA’s definitely something I didn’t see coming.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin UK for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

It was OK. I loved "Day of the Accident," so I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I was confused through much of the book, with all the different flashbacks and timelines. I didn't like any of the characters and I found the story so convoluted. Could all of this stuff happen to one person? There were so many twists and turns and strange things happening. I could see what Connor was doing from a mile away. Vanessa ignored every red flag, even the ones that were flashing right in her face. I would never have guessed the ending. It was so strange. Vanessa has a way of attracting the crazies.

Recommend giving the book a try, it just wasn't for me. I'm definitely in the minority for my thoughts on the book. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business, Penguin through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.