In August 2018 we meet a young woman called Imogen and she's viewing a house in Goring-on-Thames and telling the estate agent about her three children, Lavender, Freddie and Barclay. The boys are a bit of a handful which is why she's making this trip on her own. The house would be perfect for them.

It's the same month but now we're in Wimbledon and we encounter the same young woman, only this time she's job hunting and living in her sister, Georgie's, spare room, where she's been since she broke up with her boyfriend, Connor. Georgie's the curator of an independent art gallery and she's been happily married to Jack for twenty-five years. Nessa's presence is proving something of a strain though. She's Georgie's younger sister and Georgie has felt responsible for her since their mother's early death. Their father has remarried and there's no support from that quarter.

It was Connor Dawkins, who pushed Vanessa into quitting the job she loved with Luna London, a cosmetics company. Nessa wasn't well, he said, and the job was too much for her. It was true that Nessa wasn't mentally stable: why else would a young woman view houses which she certainly couldn't afford and go complete with a fictional backstory for the estate agent? Why would she take a 'souvenir' from the houses? What she was doing was risky and went wrong when she went to view a house that featured in a book she'd been obsessed with as a child - and was shown around by the author of the book. Geoffrey Rivers would be dead by the end of the viewing and Nessa would be suspected of his murder.

You'll have your suspicions about Connor Dawkins. He's good looking and charismatic but perhaps a little too influenced by his mother. Sometimes he's overly considerate about Nessa - but then he's unworried when he places her in a difficult situation. It's his job, he says - he's trying to make a good impression and was hoping Nessa could help him. Then the doubts creep in when facts don't quite tally but Connor always has an answer. Nessa doubts herself too - after all, she's recently fallen out with her long-term best friend over the fact that she moved out of their flat to be with Connor. Lottie worked for a children's charity and seemed very grounded: now Nessa's adrift and only has Georgie to support her.

I did enjoy this book. I read it over a couple of days when I really should have been doing something else. I had to find out what happened. Had Nessa killed Geoffrey Rivers, as she suspected? What was the truth about Connor Dawkins? I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

If you love a big story with tension and psychology in every corner you will love this book..
This is the story of Vanessa - who is also Iris, also Imogen, also …At the start of the story Vanessa is interviewed by the police in connection with the brutal murder of an elderly writer in his home. He was selling his home and on the day of the murder Vanessa had been to the house for a viewing ..It turns out Vanessa has been viewing a number of properties, all under a different persona..
The story follows then and now timelines - and occasionally a second then timeline. There is also a thread in which we revisit a childhood story that had been a source of comfort to the bereaved Vanessa. I found this really difficult to follow particularly when it switched very quickly and when the action appeared very similar in both timelines.
I really loved the relationship between Vanessa and her sister. It was so very loving and tender. I also really enjoyed the house viewing storyline - inventing different personas and visiting the homes of the wealthy.
However, I think for me the multiple timelines and the children’s book passages meant I really struggled to follow the action. I also felt that there were two many stories - the rape and relationship with Connor and the murder were both big stories on their own. I think readers who enjoy a big story with lots going on will enjoy this.
With thanks to Penguin Books and Netgalley for a digital copy of this book.

To be fair I wondered where the story was going with this book. I thought it was mainly about Vanessa, a successful woman. Who on meeting her boyfriend Connor starts to change. She drinks more, looses her confidence and her job. It seems on the from to be a book on domestic abuse. However, there's a twist.
At first I was like how on earth did we end up there. However Nuala Ellwood, fully explains in the book.
On the whole a book that keeps you enthralled to the end.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC

This book was a bit slow to start for me. The past and present stories felt disjointed. Though at the 60% mark, things ramped up and moved more quickly. A good story, but might have flowed better if told chronologically, rather than jumping around between past and present.
I felt for Vanessa, and enjoyed the mystery. This is my first by this author, and I'll definitely read more.

Thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin General UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin General UK for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Vanessa spends a lot of time viewing large expensive properties she knows she cannot possibly purchase, she makes up different characters for herself for the numerous estate agents. She has moved in with her boyfriend Conor and there are cracks in their relationship. Conor is manipulative and a control freak. She is missing her best friend Lottie whom she argued with.
She finds herself leaving the flat she shared with Conor when things go from bad to worse, she has given up her job, and now living with her older sister. She has a lot going on to add to this a dead body has been found at the last house she viewed and she is now a suspect.
I felt there was too much going on, the timeline was confusing, I didn’t like Vanessa very much, I plodded through to the end but I found the book a disappointing, unbelievable read.
2.5 stars

Not a perfect read.

Vanessa Adams has a fantastic job – marketing for a cosmetics company called Luna. The finance officer of the company introduces Vanessa to Connor Dawkins and its love at first sight. Much to the chagrin of her flatmate and best friend Lottie, Vanessa decides to move in with Connor after a few months of dating.

Soon Vanessa starts behaving strangely. Pretending to be someone else and looking at houses’ way out of her league. Connor convinces her that it’s all her fault that there are arguments. That her drinking is getting out of control. But is the truth?

I had a problem with the opening lines of this book – Vanessa! She has never recovered from the death of her mother when she was young and her sister, Georgie, thirteen years older than her, treats her more like she’s her daughter than a sister. As a result, she tells one lie after the other until it all catches up with her. I found her to be a thoroughly irritating character. Not just her but I couldn’t identify with any of the characters.

There is also a twisted plot concerning the man Vanessa is originally suspected of murdering. This is far-fetched and almost seems invented to fill lines.

Unfortunately, Nuala Ellwood’s latest novel hasn’t ticked any of my boxes. However, I can only hope that she returns to her winning ways with her next novel.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

An excellent read.
Easy to see through the author's writing how easy a person can be duped into a toxic relationship without realising that the signs are there.
A vivacious woman having her self-confidence broken down until she doubts herself,what is true what is false.
Had me gripped from the start

I enjoyed the beginning of this book, and the writing was fast paced enough to keep me reading to the end. However I did find it difficult to completely understand Vanessa's need to visit all the different houses, and the extracts and dreams from the holly maze house just felt uneccessary. While I realise that controlling behaviour, gaslighting etc are things that happen too often to people in real life, they do seem to have become an almost ubiquitous trope in psychological thrillers, and, oh dear, the ending with the arrival of a new character!
However, I 've enjoyed Ms Ellwood's books previously and look forward to her next one
Thank you to netgalley and penguin books for an advance copy of this book

Thirty-two-year-old Vanessa’s life has fallen apart over the previous year with a relationship break-up and the decision to quit her job and in August 2018 she is living with her older sister, Georgie, in Wimbledon and in quite a bad place. Following the death of their mother when Vanessa was just ten and their distant father’s sudden remarriage, thirteen years older Georgie has always been something of a surrogate mother. When a pair of detectives arrive at the house and promptly arrest Vanessa in connection with the death of a man called Geoffrey Rivers, claiming to have CCTV showing her visibly distressed and fleeing his Hampstead house after viewing the property, Georgie assumes it is a simple case of mistaken identity.

From here the narrative rolls back from this present day component to 2017, when Vanessa is a successful marketing manager, sharing a flat with Lottie, her best friend from university, and meets charismatic Connor Dawkins. A whirlwind romance ensues and Lottie feels abandoned when just a few months into their romance Vanessa moves in with Connor and their friendship splinters. Four months into their relationship Vanessa thinks it is time she and Connor bought a home to make their own, something that ever since the loss of her mother she has pined for, but he immediately dismisses the idea. Vanessa, however, has already booked her first property viewing and before she knows it she is making a habit of creating new personas and posing as a potential buyer of properties well out of her price range. Meanwhile life with Connor isn’t quite as harmonious as Vanessa had imagined with his continual undermining of her and subtle manipulation leaving her questioning her own sanity and more vulnerable than ever. When the relationship takes a darker turn it is to her sister than Vanessa runs as she continues to take solace in viewing properties and posing as someone different. When she sees that Holly Maze House, the home of the children’s author, Geoffrey Rivers, and the place that featured in his popular series of books that her mother bought for her is up for sale, Vanessa interprets it as a sign.

The story is told entirely through a ‘Now’ and ‘Then’ narrative, both narrated in the first person by Vanessa and her obvious frailty make her reliability as a narrator questionable, with the pace frustratingly slow for the majority of the book. My main bugbear was that Vanessa’s troubled relationship with Connor and the murder of Geoffrey Rivers at Holly Maze House feel like two distinct stories with Ellwood making no obvious attempt to weave the two together and the murder simply tacked on to fulfil the mystery criteria. It doesn’t follow intuitively and the premise leads the reader to believe that the novel is more of a mystery thriller than it actually proves to be. The twist which reveals what exactly happened to murdered Geoffrey Rivers essentially comes out of nowhere with no way to work it out from anything that happens in the build-up bar telepathy. In addition to a far-fetched reveal I came away from the book with a number of unresolved questions and whilst the prose was very readable I did find that in the later stages there are a number of occasions when pertinent details were simply omitted in an obvious effort to keep the reader in the dark. This was a source of frustration along with the fact that the first half of the novel basically treads water with very little of actual substance occurring or suspense mounting.

3.5 stars.
This is told from the now and then. Vanessa has a fantastic job and a loving boyfriend but why does it all go wrong?
Vanessa's life starts to spiral so she sets up appointments to look at posh expensive houses to make her happy. She uses a different pseudonym with a back story each time so that she doesn't get caught.
She splits from the boyfriend and moves in with her sister. She is then arrested on suspicion of murder.
I didn't particularly like this, it seemed a bit disjointed to me.
I didn't understand why she couldn't see that she was being manipulated and gaslighted.
The scene with Connor's mother was implausible. It just didn't ring true. Who's mother would come across like that having never met the person before?
Another part for me that was unbelievable was the author's son. This just seemed to be written in a make it up as you go along.
I also thought the ending was rushed and again a character appears to help get the ending Vanessa wanted.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for the ARC in return for an honest review.

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚 The Perfect Life by Nuala Elwood - Publication Date- 5th August 2021

Vanessa loves to go and view houses - houses that she would never be able to afford! Each time, taking on a new character and loves to become someone with a different life to hers. It becomes an obsession. Even when she meets someone, who she loves and plans a life with him,

But at one of the houses she views.... there is a dead body ..... how did it happen and why this obsession of viewing homes?!

This book goes back and forth between now and then. We find out a bit more about Vanessa, the losses she went through as a child, they reason she allows herself to be in a domineering relationship.

I loved the relationship that Vanessa has with her sister. She is 12 years older than Vanessa and is a mother like character to her.

I felt the book had a great fast paced storyline which I like and the then and now was done fantastically, with no confusion. It’s the first time I have read a book by this author and would definitely read more of her books. The only thing for me was the ending .... I felt the stalking storyline in the book - well the outcome I was like “oh ok....” #random

#nualaelwood #theperfectlife #netgalley


https://www.instagram.com/Bookstagramshaz

Nualla Ellwoods My Sisters Bones was such a fantastic book and I was keen to read more. The Perfect Life had so much going for it but I found it to be really confusing with so many multiple timelines back and forth all the time. It was a fast read for me but there were times that I tuned out.

Vanessa likes to pretend to a wealthy woman by viewing properties she could never afford. Why can't she have the perfect life, and why is there a man in one of those properties now dead? The police are very interested in her and her alter egos.

Once you get to grips with the format the story is good but it wasn't a favourite for me.

Thanks to penguin and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book.

‘It’s not a crime to want to be someone else, to live someone else’s life.’

We meet Vanessa Adams in 2018. She is living with her sister Georgie and her family. And then the police come calling. A man has been found dead, at a house Vanessa recently inspected (under a different name). Did Vanessa kill him?

When Vanessa meets Connor, she thinks that her dreams have been answered. Vanessa has been vulnerable since her mother died when she was young, and while she has the support of her sister Georgie and lives with her friend Lottie, Connor sweeps her off her feet. He seems perfect. But then things start to go horribly wrong. Vanessa has always been able to escape into her imagination: a particular author and stories are a connection with her mother and happier times. But while imagination is a great place to visit, it is not somewhere to live.

The story switches between past and present. But who can we trust? Connor seems genuine, while Vanessa certainly seems to have some issues to address. Several difficult topics are covered in this fast-paced psychological thriller and Ms Ellwood kept me guessing until close to the end of the story.

Did I enjoy this novel? I have mixed feelings. While I admire the way in which Ms Ellwood dealt with so many complex issues, for much of the story I was frustrated by Vanessa’s choices.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Sometimes your life would be easier if you could just be someone else, right? Thats what Vanessa tells herself, until one day turns into her worst nightmare and there's nothing she can do about it.

I love Nuala Ellwood’s writing. It’s gritty, clever, descriptive, emotional, thrilling, and deeply disturbing. So I was I love Nuala Ellwood’s writing. It’s gritty, clever, descriptive, emotional, thrilling, and deeply disturbing. So I was excited to get her latest book, and excited to start reading it.

The Perfect Life is a tale which switches back and forward from the dire situation facing Vanessa now, to the carefree, well, quite mixed-up actually, young woman with ideas and dreams, who finds the perfect boyfriend and wants to settle down with him. Bridget Jones with a toxic boyfriend. It doesn’t take the reader long to worry about his controlling nature–and the details suggests it’s on one spectrum or other.

I did worry about her. I fretted so much about her, and what was going on, that I got seriously worried about her. And… house-hunting. That’s something I’ve done a lot of lately. And imagining life is somehow different from reality. Oh, so easy to do during lockdown, especially for a writer, just write yourself into a different role, why not.

If you're suffering from post-lockdown sensitivity to psychological thrillers - be careful! If not - you'll love it.

What an interesting, intriguing, dark read! The main character Vanessa (Nessa) is still learning to cope after the tragedy of the death of her mother at an early age. She has an amazingly supportive, older sister Georgie, a best friend Lottie and a job she adores but is searching for her own ‘place of safety’ in the world. When she meets Connor her ideal boyfriend, she feels life is becoming perfect.
The story quickly evolves using ‘then’ and ‘now’ timelines and we begin to glimpse her world falling apart. The plot lines are dark and twisty, constantly keep you searching for a path through them.
Not wanting to spoil the story, I would say the character development and traits of Connor are cleverly well-portrayed as is the depths of confusion Nessa reaches. There were times when I wanted to shake her but reflecting on the storyline, I felt that is what I was meant to feel and also her complete loss of proportion on the world and her fragility.
As the gaps between then and now narrow, so the pace of the story picks up, along with the complexity. I was relieved when the plot was wrapped up into a satisfying ending. Nuala Ellwood has dealt with several very tricky topics (again not listed to avoid plot spoilers) within the narrative and created a very believable fast-paced, psychological thriller.

This book is well written and I liked the main character, but there is a lot of back and forth between the recent past and the present. The main theme running through the book is gaslighting and I had a lot of empathy for Vanessa. Not the book to read if you are looking for something light, but I did think the plot was well thought out, even if the subject matter was a little grim. Thank you #net galley.

Looking online at houses that are for sale is something that many people enjoy and Vanessa is no exception. When she wants to escape from reality, she finds a home and arranges a viewing, adopting a different persona each time in order to convince the seller that she is a serious buyer. All harmless fun until one of the householders is found murdered and Vanessa is the main suspect.

Vanessa is the classic unreliable narrator. Clearly suffering from mental health issues due to events in her past, she has created a fantasy world for herself, one that sees her pretending to be in the market for an expensive property. While, at first this seems an innocent pastime, we see this quickly becoming an obsession, especially when she starts to take little mementos from the houses.

Told in two time frames, we find out about Vanessa’s past, her ex-boyfriend, Connor, featuring prominently. We see how Vanessa is being manipulated by her controlling partner, even if she cannot see it herself. This helped to explain the situation she finds herself in as time goes on and helped me to develop a sympathetic attitude towards someone who could, potentially, be a killer.

As the book progresses, the plot starts to take a more sinister turn when Vanessa starts to realise that someone has been watching her. Could this person prove her innocence or even her guilt and what exactly do they want from her?

I have enjoyed Nuala Ellwood’s previous books and was just as gripped by this one. The Perfect Life has a gripping plot with superb characters, something I have grown to expect from this author’s writing.

This was a page turner, once I had got into the story: i did find the multiple timeline narration a little difficult to keep track of at times and had to go back to check when things were actually happening (then, now, or antoher time entirely!)

I didn't totally empathise with the main character Vanessa. I found her a little irritating and desperate at times, to be honest. I found her inability to answer questions, particularly those asked by her sister, Georgie, very annoying. Vanessa has gaps in her narrative, which are part of the story but don't quite come off as convincing until you realise this. I found her childish reliance on the Holly Maze House stories as immature and unconvincing.

However, Ellwood writes a good mystery which means that many characters at one time or another seem to behave suspiciously. The change in Connor's behaviour towards Vanessa puzzled me, even when his past is revealed. How could she fall for his charm and lies so easily. Their relationship, at times, makes for extremely disturbing reading and I would not recommend this as a read to anyone who has been in an abusive relationship.

Vanessa's addiction to viewing houses and constructing fakes personas was interesting and certainly got her into a lot of trouble. The book cleverly shows the dangers of living your life through social media, though I was not won over with the mystery of Geoffrey's murder. That seemed very far-fetched to me. However, the final chapters, which respond to an earlier incident does give hope that all was not in vain.

A quick read, which will keep you guessing until the end!

This was a struggle for me. I read close to 60 percent and at that point I still couldn't get into it. Thank you for the opportunity to read this.