Vanessa seems to have it all apart from a boyfriend. When she meets Connor after an evening at the theatre with her best friend, he seems like her perfect man. As she puts him before her friend, you wonder whether it will last?

She also develops a penchant for looking round houses for sale with no intention to buy - an addiction she struggles to control.

There is a good storyline and it is quite believable. Lots of twists and turns and an ending I wasn't expecting.

Vanessa is forever looking for happiness ever since she lost her mother at an early age. One of her favorite pastimes s viewing houses that she can't afford. A harmless activity until a dead body is found and she is a suspect. Thoroughly addictive with a twist that I didn't see coming.

Have you ever wished for the perfect life? To be someone else? Vanessa Adams (Nessa) gets a buzz from inventing personas and making appointments to look at properties she cannot possibly afford. It’s a harmless pastime, until the owner of a property she’s recently looked over is found dead and the police want to talk to her.
With Nessa’s background, drifting since she lost of her mother at ten years old, it’s clear why she behaves the way she does. She’s had no supportive father. Instead, she has been raised by a much older sister (Georgie). Now as an adult, she is close to Georgie and lives with her best friend Lottie, both women very much part of her support network. But something is missing...And then she meets Connor. On the surface he’s perfect. Handsome, with a well-paid job. And his own apartment. She dreams of a perfect life with him, one where they can buy a home together and settle down.. Moving in with him is the trigger to Nessa’s downward spiral as Connor turns her life into a living nightmare.

All through this book we see Nessa as someone who still clings to memories of her childhood when her mother was alive. TV and radio programmes, music, and smells, all can take her back to a time when she felt safe, happy and loved. Central to those memories is her favourite book, one which tells the story of Holly Maze House and the small boy Angus, his friend Iris and the blackbird. It' plays a pivotal role.in what happens to her.

Nessa’s character has been written in a way which made me both sympathetic and frustrated at times. There was also an element of mystery – the strange packages arriving. The messages. All through the story, which is told between the past and the present, I had no idea how this would end. Could she be the murderer? All the evidence points to the fact she is. The final and unexpected twist is brilliant.

My thanks to Netgalley, Penguin and Nuala Ellwood for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A thought provoking read and worthy of the five stars I’ve given it.

I’m really conflicted about this book. Whilst it is well written and the story moves along at a good pace I felt there was too many stories running concurrently but not actually having anything to do with each. At nearly the end of the book a new character was brought in which didn’t make any sense nor did I feel it gave any sensible conclusion to the storyline. I was quite confused by what message the author was trying to portray to the reader by the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this book as I had enjoyed the authors previous book but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations. I found the separate timelines hard to follow and really struggled with this as it felt like two separate stories.

The Perfect Life by Nuala Ellwood
Pub Date 5 August 2021
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...
From the author of My Sister's Bones, Day Of The Accident and The House on The Lake comes The Perfect Life.
What a suspenseful, well-written domestic psychological thriller. Incredibly gripping and twisty, completely addictive and very fulfilling.
The Perfect Life alternates between a present and a past timeline, both told from the perspective of the protagonist Vanessa Adams. In 2017, she was an accomplished, confident woman, but in 2018 we meet a rather distraught Vanessa brought in by the police to be questioned; as a murder suspect. What can possibly have happened?
This is another great story from the hand of Nuala Ellwood that I am more than happy to recommend.
I want to thank NetGalley, Penguin General Uk, Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business and author Nuala Ellwood for a pre-publication copy to review.

The Perfect Life had an interesting description which drew me in but unfortunately once I started to read this book it all became a little confusing with the multiple timelines. Once I got the story straight in my head I did enjoy it but it wasn't particularly one of my favourite reads.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

This book drew me in immediately, from the first few pages, I couldn’t put it down, and had to know what was happening at every opportunity I could. The storyline was interesting, and the characters believable. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reading more of this author’s books.

I have previously enjoyed some of this author’s work and was so excited to be invited on the book tour for this book.

I started reading this book and at first, i was confused about what was happening with the different timelines. This was strange for me because I usually love this book format.

However, once I got over the beginning chapters, I fell in love with the book.

This book made me question on several occasions, just how far I would go for the perfect life and do I actually have the perfect life already?

Seeing Vanessa’s world crumbing around her, it brought it home that we are all so desperate for the perfect life, but where do we draw the line?

The book was extremely dark and manipulating in places and I loved it

That’s my first book of August finished

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book.

I got The Perfect life by Nuala Ellwood from NetGalley for a fair and honest review.
The Perfect life is one of those books which on the outside is a domestic thriller mystery, about a young woman who lost her mover when she was younger and is trying to find her place in the world.
Which she does through her friend, sister, job, a series of novels she read shortly after her mum died and more recently Conner her new boyfriend.
However, as you start reading The Perfect Life, you find out it is more than that, it is about control, wanting to live the perfect life, as well as using to social media that you are living more than the perfect life.
As well as the price of fame and fandom, not only on those who are fans, but those involved with the creator of that art.
The perfect life is told using two time lines, however for those of you who do not like this form of story telling the time the story is set only changes at the start of the chapter, with the chapters headed either Then or Now to distinguish what part of the story your on.
As for the narration of, The Perfect Life, is told though only one Point of View and that is Venessa.
The character of Vanessa throughout the book is portrayed as fantasist not only the way she was involved with being a fan of a series of books when she was younger. But the way in which she goes around making up personas for herself and booking appointments at estate agents to look at dream homes she cannot afford.
While Vanessa has been viewing these homes, she is starting to have a breakdown for example not doing her work or blacking out occasionally. This is further enhanced when she goes to see the house of the writer of the books she loved as a child.
What I liked about this novel is the way that the writer uses the rules of a thriller and all the rules of the genre combined with the store only being told through only one point of view. To provide a novel that examines so many issues.

The perfect Life is one of those stories that could be classed as slow burn as the story dose not get going for the first half, however once it gets past that pint it takes of and becomes a page turner. That had me gripped to the end.
All in all I can very highly recommend Nuala Ellwood’s latest book The Perfect Life.

Was really looking forward to this as have enjoyed the authors previous books but the different timelines were confusing and so was a dnf at 15%,I look forward to the authors next book

A fast-paced and entertaining read, The Perfect Life is a gripping psychological thriller that will have you questioning everything that you read.

Alternating between the Then and Now, the plot is really intriguing as you don't know whether to trust Vanessa as the narrator or not. That being said, I warmed to the characters quickly and hoped that she would redeem herself, so it's an easy story to engage with.

Ellwood addresses some important topics in her book and obviously has a message that she wants to share. I especially loved the focus on the different coping mechanisms that we can use when life gets tough, which is why I felt so close to Vanessa, whether she snapped in the end or not.

Sadly, the ending was too far-fetched for me. It definitely avoids being predictable, but it was just a little too detached for it to really shock or engage me emotionally, which is what I wanted after getting to know Vanessa. Some readers will love the bizarre twists that work their way in though, and I definitely still enjoyed this read.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book but it didn’t absolutely captivate me, it was entertaining in places and easy to blitz through but not particularly memorable. There was a continuing shift of ‘now’ and ‘then’ perspectives and while I usually like multiple timelines, I didn’t feel like it worked for this story and made things feel a bit confused and messy.

I wasn’t a huge fan of main character Vanessa so found it hard to empathise with her and the questionable choices she made. There were some challenging issues tackled including emotional and psychological abuse but it seemed as though these topics were just thrown in for shock value, more definitely could have been done when these moments arose to make them constructive. Overall an okay read but lacking in some areas.

Big thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Vanessa had an exciting, somewhat glamorous job and a loving fiance - till it all went wrong. Now she's living with her sister, but still dreams of a home of her own. But why would she kill the owner of a house she goes to view? Vanessa can't remember the sequence of events but as she reflects over her recent past, a dark story emerges that sees her confusing reality with fantasy - just what is true in her recollections and what isn't? This is a well-paced and absorbing thriller noir, with Gothic undertones, which addresses some very dark modern-day issues. Though Vanessa is a sympathetic character, the reader is never sure of her innocence, which makes for an enthralling read.

This was an intriguing book . Plenty of twists, and turns, and I wasn't sure what to make of the main character, she wasn't always likable. The book was quite an adventure, and also very original. It kept me interested to the very last page, and it was good to read.

Vanessa Adams has struggled since losing her mum at a very young age, her older sister Georgie has been her rock since then but Vanessa needs more, her escape is viewing properties that she knows she can never afford to buy but, in those viewings, she adopts a new persona for each one and for a short time she pretends she's living the perfect life, until the resident of one of those houses is found dead, was it really Vanessa that killed him?

The Perfect Life is told over two timelines; THEN in 2017 where Vanessa was living a fabulous life and NOW in 2018 where she has lost everything and is possibly facing a murder charge. The story goes back and forth between these timelines which could, at times, be confusing and you do have to concentrate to keep a grip on what is happening, especially at the beginning, but things soon become clearer and events begin to slot into place. It's an intriguing read with some great characters, I especially loved the bond between the sisters, even though there was a thirteen year age gap between them, they were extremely close, with Georgie adopting a motherly role over Vanessa. It's a well thought out plot covering delicate topics which are sympathetically portrayed, and some twists thrown in for good measure. This is the third book I've read by this author and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I'd like to thank Penguin and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

Vanessa (Nessa) lost her mother at an early age and not having much of a relationship with her father relied heavily on her elder adult sister Georgia and Georgia's husband Jack.  She meets Connor whom she thinks is finally the perfect boyfriend and somebody she can have the "perfect life" with that she has been chasing.  She moves in with him very early in their relationship much to the surprise of her long time/best friend Lottie whom she had shared a flat and holidays which causes a rift in their friendship.  

It soon becomes apparent that her life with Connor is not all sunshine and roses and her life spirals out of control.  She takes to viewing expensive houses that she has no realistic chance of buying using assumed names.  This habit gets her into serious trouble when a well known and "favourite" childhood author that got her through her childhood is found murdered in one of the houses she has visited and she is the prime suspect in the murder.

The story switches between "then" (before the murder), "now" (after the murder) and a future date which tends to be the type of writing I favour. 

This is a difficult book to review without "spoilers"   It got me thinking about, who the murderer was, the reason for the murder etc.  It had a surprising ending which, in my opinion was a little incredulous. 

Thanks to Netgalley UK and Penguin for an advanced arc copy in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

When Vanessa falls in love with Connor, moving in with him after a few months, she thinks she is blissfully happy. She has a good job, a great best friend and sister who took on a motherly role when their beloved mother died. Vanessa has a stress relieving secret hobby of viewing properties for sale she could never afford, which she does under a false identity However, when one viewing ends with the dead vendor at her feet, an author whose books she was once obsessed by, things take a turn for the worse.
I enjoyed this book very much. There were several themes going on at once, meaning the ending was quite unexpected.
A recommended read.

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...

The first half of the book is incredibly slow. The mix between the Then and Now chapters didn't have much of a clear definition and I felt like it interrupted the flow of the story a lot of the time. The book did eventually pick up.

The Perfect Life is chilling, unnerving and uncomfortable at times, but as the story went on the plot thickens then you have the twists and turns I just didn't know who was after Nessa there was a few people I was oh it could be you but it might be them, I'm a huge fan of Nuala Ellwood. The Story is great the characters are brilliant and everything fits together perfectly, the book deals with some upsetting situations

The ending felt a bit rushed and, I definitely did not see the main twist coming at the end

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review

Ah well, this was not nearly as gripping as I'd hoped...there are two main disparate themes here...a gaslighting relationship, and a murder...but they are not really linked in anyway? Although the writing was good, I have to admit being extremely disappointed by the endings to both threads...characters, never before mentioned, who pop up towards the end of a book to effectively solve/conclude a thread are not mysterious or twists, they are just plants to finish a book! 2.5/5. Many thanks to Netgalley.co.uk, the Publisher and Author for the opportunity to read this ARC.