A bit hard to follow in the beginning but more of a slow burning psychological thriller. Lots of twists but nothing that really catches you off guard. A well written book and well written characters. 
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy.

Her Perfect Life by Sam Hepburn is a good read for those who enjoy psychological thrillers.  The book centers on an unlikely friendship between two women. Gracie is a “have” and Juliet is a “have-not.” Gracie has an amazing husband, job, child, and life while, Juliet struggles with all of these things. It is clear from the beginning of the story, that there Juliet wants Gracie’s life and is subtly intersecting herself into Gracie’s life. From their first encounter, Gracie is snared in Juliet’s web.  While on the surface, Gracie’s life looks picture perfect, there are blemishes of which as the reader, you soon become aware of. Juliet’s misfortunes and poor choices are laid bare for the reader however, does she have redeeming qualities and has she simply been the victim of misfortune and events beyond her control? These are all questions for which you will gather answers as you power through this exciting psychological thriller. The story is told from alternating points of view which kept my interest.  At times, it was difficult to follow the journal entries from Pauline, but as I kept on, I began to put the pieces into place.  Her Perfect Life captures all of the elements of a psychological thriller, including, mystery, drama, action, and paranoia. I recommend this new author to fans of psychological thrillers. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For many people these days the constant pursuit of perfection is an obsession. And for some, this is the only path to find the recognition and love they crave. This is the story of two women, one who has the perfect life and the other who will stop at nothing to take it from her.

Gracie Dwyer is a celebrity lifestyle and culinary influencer who gives everything to her growing career. Her star has risen so high in the U.K. that now they want her to host a show in the United States. But this grueling schedule and overwhelming demand on her time has put a strain on her ‘perfect’ home life. She doesn’t get the time she wants to spend with her little girl, Elsie, and she’s reshoring the relationship with her husband who’d had an affair.

Read More....https://booksuplift.com/her-perfect-life/

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an advance copy of this book in return for my honest feedback.

I love a good thriller.  This was a well written story about two women with seemingly very different lives, and the intersection of when their paths cross.  The story however was too slow paced for me.  At 85% in I thought I hope something happens soon as there isn’t much time left.  For those of you that like a slow burn, this is the book for you.

I think that this was a well written book, but it was just a bit too slow for me to love!  I would give it a solid 3.5 stars, as it did provide the must thrills, chills, shocks, and twisty turns, but the pacing was just not fast enough for me.  I would still recommend, as I think it’s a fun, easy read, which will provide the necessities us thriller seekers are asking for!

This book took me all over the place. I would have to take breaks from reading it initially. I like suspense novels, but felt like there were so many characters I was trying to place. I am glad I stuck with it as the ending was awesome! Be prepared to have to push through some parts of it, but really is worth it in the long run! 

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Any opinions are mine alone and voluntarily given.

First, I want to thank Sam Hepburn, Bookouture, and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Sam Hepburn is back to bring you another great novel Her Perfect Life! 

One person I loved in this book was Gracie. I loved the fact that she was a Celebrity Chef on TV and writing her own cookbook. She had big dreams to open her own cook shop that serves a bistro menu in the evenings and run a cookery workshops upstairs. 

Sam’s story focuses on Infidelity, stalkers, written threats, etc.

Tom, Gracie’s Husband,  made a poor error In judgement when feeling weak one night. Sam wrote that very emotional filled intense scene extremely well. 

Elsie, Gracie’s Daughter, was the cutest little girl in this book. She had such a bubbly and excitable personality interacting with her Mummy! 

Throughout the book there was a diary entry reading Paulina Bryce Diary with the date. The mystery was who was this character? What did she have to do with this story? 

I loved the names Sam picked out for her characters in Her Perfect Life. Some names I liked were Stefano (I was a huge Days of our Lives’s fan and Stefano played the Villan), Gracie, Daphne, Juliet, etc.They were different and unique.

The article in the magazine feature Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want -Your Six-Point Guide to a New Life was a very interesting read. 

I was laughing at the fact that Elise was going to be a mushroom in Lynda’s show and that Gracie had to make a costume. The only time I ever saw someone dress up as one of my fave veggies was on Masked Singer.

Gracie appears to have everything. She has a cooking show, young daughter, Elsie, and a successful husband, Tom. Periodically she has received threatening packages with the police have tried to figure out if she has a stalker. Juliet has a failed marriage, a drinking problem, needs a good job, a daughter, Freya, and an estranged husband Ian that is arrested for having some porn on his computer. Gracie befriends Juliet but is it a real friendship. Then there are mysterious diary entries by Paulette Bryce at the end of some chapters. This book has an interesting concept but drags on and on before something really happens. Just too slow for me. I think it would be better to really edit the book more and cut out some of the rather repetitive passages. My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

Gracie Dwyer has the perfect life. Her career is at an all time high, her husband is a sweetheart and her daughter has it all. Her new friend Juliet doesn't quite fit her glossy life, she drinks too much, struggles to pay the bills as a single mom, and has a convicted ex. So what exactly is it that brings the both of them together?

This was an exciting psychological thriller. Gracie is annoyingly perfect and Juliet is perfectly ordinary. The two strike up an unlikely friendship and it seems so baffling until we find out more about why they're drawn to each other. We find out slowly about these reasons and it was really enticing every time something new was uncovered. I enjoyed the diary entries between chapters, even though they didn't really make full sense until the end. 

There were some loose ends that I wish were better wrapped up. For example, why is Juliet so obsessed with Gracie? I feel like there wasn't a good explanation for that. Also it was a bit slow in the middle - I felt a bit restless waiting to know where the story was headed, but maybe that's not a bad thing. 

I recommend this book to those who like psychological thrillers - there was a lot that happened that I totally did not expect!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to give this a 3 or 4 star rating. I really enjoyed the book and it had the twists and turns that I like in books. But sometimes a little slow and I got tired of Juliet and her behavior. I also thought Grace was to good to be true.
Gracie Dwyer has it all: the handsome husband, the adorable child, the beautiful home and the glittering career. The perfect life.
Grace is getting letters from someone that she has no idea who, maybe someone from her past.
Then we are getting to read diary entries and we don't know whose diary we are reading about. I thought it was Juliet and then I thought it was Grace.
Maybe Tom, Grace's husband, is the one we need to watch out for. Or Grace's best friend.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC.

An entertaining slow burn. Gracie appears to have the perfect life. A doting husband, an adorable daughter, a gorgeous home, an amazing job. Juliet’s Life is messy. Her husband is living in a different country with his pregnant girlfriend, her daughter is frightened of her own shadow, her flat is a dump, her career has never got off the ground. But as much as Juliet despises Gracie for her perfect life she still wants to very much be part of it. The story bounces back-and-forth between the perspectives of Gracie and that of Juliet. And there is a lot going on here: adultery, stalkers, infertility, abuse. Neither of these women were tremendously likable, but I sure did want to find out what was going on. My only tiny Kniggle with the story is some parts went on a little too long and I think that’s because there was so much going on. The book really was kind of like a maze. You’d be going along thinking you knew where it was headed and then you’d run into a dead end and have to redirect. A wild ride filled with plenty of twists and untrustworthy characters.

This book in emojis  👩🏻‍🍳  🍷 🩰 📱 🐶 

*** Big thank you to for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

Wow! Just when you thought you had it all figured out, you find out you don’t !! This book has a great twist. The characters are mostly likable, until they are not. This is a deliciously written psychological thriller that is well worth reading! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Hold a grudge much? One Bitter, conniving, manipulative woman whose life is a wreck envies another who seemingly has hers altogether. There are successes, stalking, lying, faking and infertility but there are also surprises in store.
I thought I had it figured out, truly, then the switch flipped and OMG! Just when you think you know a person! The gears all lined up and I realized I’d had no idea all along. One intensely permeating mystery!

Good plot and interesting characters! I kept waiting for something to jump out and yell "boo!" but when it happened it wasn't what I was expecting. Also, what I wasn't expecting was how slow the book went at times and then how quickly it seemed that connections were made. Connections that didn't seem really there to me. Did I miss something while reading? I don't think so. I think the jumps were a little too easily made to get things wrapped up. Maybe some of those pages spent in the middle could have been removed and replaced with more detail as things were coming to a close? But still, a good read.

Sam Hepburn writes a cozy domestic noir, which isn’t a thing, but could easily be the next genre. Two unlikely women , Gracie (the one with the  absolutely perfect life) and Juliet (the one with practically nothing) develop a  must needed friendship.  Neither women are particularly likable but the characters are so well written that you care about what happens to them.  And, oh, what happens indeed to them.  I e joyed reading all the twists and turns leading to a rather unexpected ending.  It’s a fun, easy read, nothing too hard, perfect for a quarantine day.

Gracie Dwyer has a well-known and popular cooking show.  She makes it all look so easy.  She is married to Tom and step-mom to Elise.  They live well and have a nice home.  

Gracie has had a number of threatening notes over the last years sometimes saying she needs to die.  She doesn’t have any idea who her stalker is and the police are well aware of the case and are on it.

Recently, when Gracie was filming in New York, Tom brought a young office intern to see his house and ended up having sex with her.  When he confessed to Gracie, she was devastated but determined to make their marriage work.

Juliet is the mother of Freya, Elise’s age.  Juliet admires Gracie’s life and wants to be a part of it so she works to insert herself there.  What is her motive and why is she so centered on Gracie?  Is there some past history with the two women?

Juliet drinks and smokes a lot.  While she is intelligent, she just hasn’t made a good life for herself.  Gracie, on the other hand, is charismatic, the perfect hostess, wife, and mother.  She’s efficient and gets things done.

This is an overly long, twisted story that at times seemed so far-fetched that I thought about abandoning the book.  However, I know that the author is a good writer and decided that I just had to stick with it.  It wasn’t until the very end that it all finally wrapped perfectly and the plot was a good one, leaving the reader with a lot of food for thought. 

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wonderfully addictive. An absolutely amazing and transporting read. This author is just brilliant at creating characters who stay with you and who make you think and question, wonder what you would do in their situation. Just absolutely fab! I would recommend this to everyone.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It was pretty slow moving and I am not a fan of slow moving thrillers. I like them to be fast paced to keep me engaged. Wasn't a fan of the characters didn't really care what happened to them. I struggled with this book and it took forever for me to finish it.

Wow - there was so much going on in this book! 

When Juliet was first introduced, I was rooting for her - she's on the cusp of getting awarded a big project...but man is she one bitter lady.  She's jealous about the the success of Gracie, a woman who has it all - looks, a handsome husband, a big house and a famous cooking show.  But there is a bratty daughter who is the link between them as single mom Juliet maneuvers her way into Gracie's life by way of her daughter Freya, a kind little girl who goes along with whatever her mom wants.  

You can't help but like Gracie, because even when she's feeling put out she responds with a smile and food.  Speaking of which, do not read this book if you are hungry!  The descriptions of gourmet dishes had me looking up definitions to see what these edible creations were.  The author really did her research (and it's worth reading the author's note to the reader at the back of the book - "A Letter From Sam").

Did I mention there was a lot going on?  At times, characters seemed to jump into the story and I found myself doing a search to see if the character was mentioned before, but they hadn't been.  So a little more back story when characters were introduced could have helped to smooth some of the transitions.  I also found some unresolved (for me) threads, like what was the nanny, Heather's deal? And was there more than one stalker?  I also found the diary entries annoying.  I knew they would be tied into the plot eventually, but that technique breaks up the flow of reading for me.  However, the ending was so unexpected, I can forgive the quirkiness and applaud the author for her creativity.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced reader's copy of this interesting read.

Loved this book, and wow, what a shocker of an ending!  Highly recommend.  Great writing and plot, and had me mesmerized from the very first page.  Going to read another from this author!