I don't know how Robyn Harding manages to write books filled with characters that are completely unlikeable but I STILL want to read - how does that work??
The Perfect Family is basically 4 privileged people behaving badly while pretending they're not, all the while screaming "WHY US" when dealing with the fall out of what they've done.
The events in the book unfold slowly but the switching POV and short chapters make it feel quite pacy.
A book I loved with characters I hated - Robyn Harding does it again.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* The Adler family seem to have it all - a lovely home, solid jobs, and one son and one daughter. But, as is often the case in this genre (my favourite genre), all is not as it seems. All four of the Adlers haver secrets that they are hiding, that could have devastating consequences for the whole family. As such, when the family home is repeatedly targeted, any of them could be the cause. I loved how the book kept you guessing as bit by bit, the pieces all fell into the puzzle.

When a privileged, seemingly perfect family are targeted by vandals with increasing malice each member begins to suspect its their own secret that is the cause. This is a fast paced, low stakes thriller that touches on darker undercurrents, but never quite goes there. I prefer my thrillers with a bit more bite, but if you feel like a fun read without too many stabby bits - this domestic thriller is for you.

The Perfect Family is Thomas and Viv Adler and their children. The successful and charming couple are the envy of their neighbourhood, until their perfect facade is broken when their home is under attack from unknown assailants. It soon becomes clear that everyone in the Adler family is feeling guilty because they're each keeping a juicy dark secret.

Now, the characters in The Perfect Family aren't the most likeable or relatable. But nevertheless, this twisty book has you constantly turning the pages to find out what happens. Harding knows how to write a suspense novel that keeps you guessing until the end and changing your mind multiple times about who the culprit truly is.

If you're looking for a captivating domestic suspense novel and family drama, I recommend The Perfect Family.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

From the outside, the Adler family seem to have it all. Their house is beautiful, the parents have successful, fulfilling careers, the two children are doing well at school. But, all is not as seems, as the family experience a series of escalating attacks on their house. As the novel progresses, we discover that each member of the Adler family is keeping a secret, and one of those secrets might be the one that tears the family apart.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It is, however, one of those stories that could have ended in the first chapter if any of the members of this family had a proper conversation with each other. But, if you can ignore that glaringly obviously fact, this fast-paced book is an entertaining way to spend some time. It would be the perfect read for a poolside vacation

This was a good read about what appears to be a put together family but behind closed doors is fairly dysfunctional with plenty of secrets from one another. Everyone is getting on with life until their home comes under attack and with not knowing who is behind it sees everyone in the family looking at each other and accusations fly and the happy family façade shatters. You are kept guessing on who in the family has a link to what's happening to them and you go from thinking its one of the parents Thomas or Viv Adler to their teenage children Eli and Tarryn and flipping between them at times. I did find a times things were a bit drawn out but it didn't stop it from being a great read.

This was a book I couldn’t put down. I was intrigued to see where it was going and where the drama was heading. I couldn’t predict the ending, even with the snippet from the start!
Great read!

After establishing herself as one of my favourite authors I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Robyn Harding’s newest novel and let me tell you I wasn’t disappointed.

I had trouble putting it down every night and it kept me guessing right until the very end.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading thrillers.

I want to thank Simon & Schuster Australia and Netgalley for generously providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for family dysfunction and domestic drama then look no further as THE PERFECT FAMILY is it! Has there ever been a more dislikeable or disliked family - probably not!

Viv and Thomas Adler have a beautiful house, good jobs, two smart, beautiful children in Eli and Tarryn. They appear to have it all. But as is often the case, the 'in real life' is so disparate from the image they are all portraying to the world. They are all harbouring secrets, from their community, from their friends, and from one another.

Suddenly things start happening around the Adler home that can't be explained as mere coincidence. There are too many strange goings on, and the situation is escalating. The problem is, each Adler wonders if they are the reasons their lives are unravelling. And if that's the case how are they going to rectify the situation. Can they discover what's going on without everyone else knowing, or will the have to come clean and suffer the consequences before one of the family are seriously injured.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. As is often the case with ARCS the formatting on an e-reader was a little tricky and and jumbled. I felt within the chapters including the multiple points of view was a good idea, it just seems a little overwhelming and messy early on, but I eased into it by the end, and felt it suited the final chapters, portraying the speed with which the family's life was disintegrating. You could feel Thomas and Viv's desperation most obviously, Thomas in his wanting to react and lash out, and Viv in her withdrawal and wish that things would just return to normal. This book definitely confronts the notion of coveting what your neighbour has - as not even the Adler's themselves could have predicted things would head south so quickly. Every worst case scenario possible was explored in this book which made this a little unbelievable .... and don't get me started on the ending. I have no idea what it meant.

I think the most interesting thing about the characters in this book is that they could be anybody. Your family. Your neighbours. Your best friends. Yes, they’ve got secrets, but they are the kind of ‘normal’ secrets anyone could have - the mother has a touch of kleptomania, the daughter is raking in cash on the side as a cam girl, the son witnessed something shocking at college and is wrestling his conscience, the father got wasted at a bucks party and is now being blackmailed. The thing is that at least one of these secrets has got seriously out of hand. Someone is targeting the family, and it’s escalated quickly from throwing eggs to slashing tires and setting fires. The tension between the family members is ratcheting up tighter and tighter, like a string being tuned… until it finally breaks.

This isn’t your traditional mystery in that there’s no dead body to investigate, but I was nonetheless fascinated. I was a bit puzzled as to why you wouldn’t hire, for example, a private security team to surveil your house properly, rather than relying on cameras which were blatantly ineffective immediately. I’d have dipped into savings and hired someone with a scent dog to be trying to track the offenders, just to start with, but apparently none of the family have ever watched any crime shows because it didn’t seem to occur to them. They were all far too caught up in panicking guiltily about their secret coming out.

I have to admit I never did quite comprehend what the heck Eli was playing at. Tarryn was very relatable, she was clearly doing her cam girl stuff to get the affection and attention she wasn’t getting in real life, and at the end of the book it seemed like she was working through things the best, putting herself on a great upward trajectory for the future. Thomas and Vivian were both too obsessed with appearances and didn’t seem to really get much character growth. Thomas in particular was clueless… who doesn’t go to the police when someone is trying to blackmail them? Especially once he’d realised the photos were faked? Again, utterly illogical.

I was disappointed that the ‘boys will be boys’ attitude referenced several times here was never really pushed back against, except by Tarryn running her mouth a time or two (I told you I liked her best). Eli was kind of spineless (obviously inherited from Thomas). And all of them seemed particularly clueless at moments where the plot required it… calling the police when you’ve finally caught one of the delinquents trashing your home would seem the obvious play, as would asking the police to follow up on the fact that the brat actually named the person who paid him to do so, but following up that thread would have led too quickly to real answers.

The best thing about this was how relatably ordinary everyone was. It really does feel like it all could so easily happen to you or someone you know, but there were times when characters behaved illogically for the sake of stretching out the tension, something I find frustrating. Overall, I enjoyed the read, and I’ll definitely read more by this author in the future. I’ll give it four stars.

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding was a chilling and unhinged domestic thriller.

Full of intriguing and diverse characters this perfect family are all hiding their own sordid little secrets! The parents had to have the perfect home, perfect yard and status-symbol cars. They dress like a wealthy stylish couple and obsessively care about appearances.

We have Viv who has perfect taste and style and her own home decorating company. Her husband Thomas is obsessed with work and is a competitive real estate agent. The ‘perfect’ children are Tarryn seventeen who is moody and bitchy and can’t wait for her parents to go to bed each night so she can cam online. Son Eli is going through a highly emotional time and has left college to come back home.

This family are pushed to breaking point as continuous assaults on their picture perfect home turn into violence. Who is behind these attacks, harassing them and why?

This was a page turner for me, what a mind blowing train wreck of a ride. Fabulously entertaining, I think I love every book Robyn Harding comes out with especially The Swap!

The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding

The Adlers are the Perfect Family, living on a perfect street in a perfect upper-class suburb. They mow their lawns every Sunday and keep their house in perfect condition so that everyone who walks past will see how perfect they are. But all this perfection is just for show, every member of the family is hiding a secret that they don’t want anyone to know.

When they wake up one morning and see their house has been attached by eggs, they don’t think anything of it, its just kids being kids they say but soon the attacks get more dangerous and more sinister. Who is doing this and why?

This book is written from four points of view; Thomas, the husband and father, Vivian, the wife and mother, Eli, the son and Tarryn the daughter.

The drama and suspense are excellent and you feel it right throughout the book.

I Loved this book, once I started reading it, I could not put it down until I finished it.

I would like to thank Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Each member of the family has a secret... A gripping read! I was engaged from the start. A first, for me, from this author, though it won't be the last.

This book is interesting and engrossing and has a shrewd storyline. It is about a wealthy family that is being harassed, but they are not sure by whom. Each member of the family has a secret that they are hiding from the others and they are all convinced that it is their secret that is the reason for the harassment. This is an engaging read and contrary to the subject matter is written with a kind of lighthearted feel. The characters are a written with a bit more depth than you might expect. An entertaining novel. Thanks to Simon and Schuster Australia and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel.

The Adlers have the veneer of the perfect upper-middle class family, but simmering not far beneath is a family full of dysfunction and lies, a family where people talk but nobody communicates. Everybody has a secret, and these secrets cause the family to become victims of a targeted hate campaign which quickly escalates from simple egging to death threats.

Told from the viewpoint of each of the family members in turn, The Perfect Family is a domestic psychological thriller that keeps the pages tuning. Who's dirty secret is to blame for the attacks?

This was an intriguing read. It was a bit of a slow burner for me, because I disliked all four of the Adlers (believable but unpleasant characters), and the hanging chapter endings, but once the pace picked up, it was hard to put down! Nobody comes out of this squeaky clean; nobody is innocent, and who is still out there...?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“The Perfect Family” is a domestic thriller riddled with secrets and credible threats. Harding has a knack for writing believable characters who engage you whether you like them or not, and here she uses this to involve you in the slow motion collapse of a family. It’s an excellent novel, very hard to put down.

In fact, I read this in a day. That’s partly because of Harding’s easy, flowing style, but also because you get so involved in the story that time just passes without you noticing. Luckily, I started it on a weekend morning.

The Adlers do indeed appear to be the perfect family: mother and father, daughter and son. All physically attractive, intelligent, and well off. They live in a nice home in a nice neighbourhood, with nice friends. The parents have good jobs and the kids attend good schools.

But scratch that veneer even slightly, and the perfect starts to flake off. Each Adler has a big secret. And each of them has reason to fear that someone knows it. So when their home starts being subjected to physical attacks, each of them reacts with fear and increasing paranoia.

Each of the secrets is quite credible, and I guessed at least one of them within pages. That doesn’t really matter – Harding doesn’t keep the secrets from her readers for long. The point is that the Adlers are trying to keep the secrets from each other – and from becoming generally known – and unless this is the first novel you’ve ever read, I probably don’t have to tell you that this only makes the situation worse.

Mind you, if you had one of these secrets, you’d probably try to keep it too – the parents’ secrets more so than the kids’. Harding uses that to ratchet the tension up. Readers will believe how the characters react, and empathise, even though the characters aren’t always entirely likeable.

I’ve read all of Harding’s books, and have really enjoyed them. She’s extremely good at taking a situation that initially seems quite low key, and building it into a tense situation with a dramatic climax. Readers will be quickly drawn in, and probably find it hard to tear themselves away.

There’s not a note wrong in this novel. The settings are vivid and grounded. The characters are believable. The action is credible. And worst of all, the situation is both horrible and believable: you’ll be able to picture yourself getting into this kind of problem. The writing style is invisible but utterly involving.

I can’t imagine many readers not enjoying this. It’s very well written, original, and perfectly crafted.

Tom and Viv Adler are the perfect family. Great jobs, nice house, two perfect, well mannered children.
From the outside looking in they are the picture perfect family.

Until one night there house gets egged and then Tom’s tyres get slashed. The vandalism slowly intensifies.

The family are not so perfect after all. Each one has a secret and whoever the vandal is knows this and will do anything to expose them.

This book was hard to put down, I absolutely loved it.
The Adler family were likeable even though they had done some not nice things.
The plot was great with many twists and turns that kept me guessing who the vandal was. As it turns out I was completely wrong.
There was many layers to this book, as there was not one vandal but multiple threads that all tied together at the end to expose a few people who had beef with the family.

In Harding's The Perfect Family, the Adler Family are trying to fit into a world where social and monetary status is all important and being judged is quick and ruthless. The Perfect Family is working hard to show everyone they have the perfect marriage, perfect jobs and perfect teenagers with glittering careers ahead of them. Someone wants to expose the Adler Family and it starts with a simple egging, the intimidation increases and everyone is talking about what is happening. The Adler Family of parents Viv and Thomas and teenage children Eli and Tarryn, hold onto the charade of perfection but the family is at breaking point with each carrying a dark secret.
Each chapter switches point of view (POV) between the four family members. You are able to walk in their shoes and see the pressures each one is facing. Harding makes the switch between each of the characters seamless and you can easily differentiate between the voices. The intrigue keeps you turning the pages as you try to determine why the family is being targeted and who has caused this to happen.
If you like a family drama, with imperfect characters and a mystery to unravel you will enjoy this book.

"Now do thy sinful deeds come home to thee." (Virgil, The Aenied)
I found Robyn Harding's latest, The Perfect Family, an intriguing read - part domestic thriller, part cautionary tale.
The Adlers of Portland, Oregon appear on the surface to have it all - a beautiful home, successful careers and two nice, smart kids - the eponymous "perfect family". But appearances aren't everything, and there are a myriad of disturbing undercurrents beneath the carapace of domestic bliss.
Husband/father Thomas is a successful realtor, but his inconsiderate attitude and highly-strung nature make him unpopular with his colleagues and his expectations for his children sometimes prompt controlling behaviour and bursts of anger. After misbehaving at a colleague's recent bachelor weekend, he's receiving the unwanted attention of a would-be blackmailer, adding to the tensions he's already struggling to keep in check.
Wife/mother Viv is an interior decorator and very taken up with appearances. While she makes token attempts to "practise gratitude", she suspects Thomas is cheating on her and is struggling with the apparent deterioration of her relationships with each of her children. Her internal turmoil manifests in episodes of kleptomania from client's homes and offices - she steals small items and hordes them in a concealed drawer. Her behaviour gives her a thrill and a sense of control, but she fears that she will face personal and professional disgrace if she were ever caught in the act.
Son Eli has just returned from his first year at a prestigious Connecticut college, but has announced he won't be returning, throwing his ambitious parents into a tailspin. Thomas responds with anger and accusations of ingratitude, while Viv is shocked but incredulous, acting as though this will just blow over and he'll return to college as planned. But Eli has suffered a significant trauma, having been a bystander at a brutal hazing incident. He's receiving threats to keep quiet about what he knows and is struggling to find the courage to do what he knows is the right thing.
Daughter Tarryn is a junior at high school, and while she's doing well at school and has a close circle of like-minded friends, she's suffering significant teenage angst and is surly and unpleasant at home. Disdainful of her parents' superficial preoccupations and middle-class hypocrisy, she rebels by adopting a risky but lucrative nocturnal online persona. She loves the escapism that her covert activities provide, and the unconditional adoration she receives from her followers, but has begun to see signs that someone from her "real life" knows what she's up to, and she's scared about the potential repercussions.
The Adler family's many embarrassing secrets come into sharp focus as their home becomes the target of a succession of pranks. Starting annoyingly but relatively innocently with rotten eggs thrown at the house, the attacks soon escalate into more threatening territory - a smoke-bomb explosion on the front lawn, car tyres slashed, and the porch set on fire. Local police are powerless to act without evidence identifying the perpetrator(s), and the events trigger increasing persecution paranoia amongst the members of the Adler family. Each worries separately that his or her own behaviour has prompted somebody to seek revenge or send a warning. Accusations are thrown around, both within and outside the family, but the attacks continue. Will things ever return to normal for the "perfect" Adlers?
Robyn Harding's narrative draws on deep roots in Old Testament style fable and Greek tragedy. While there's no apparent gluttony and only indirect references to lust in the story, the remainder of the seven deadly sins - those particular behaviours and feelings that theology says inspire us to commit further sin - find willing hosts inside the Adler household. Harding explores how our thoughtless or ill-conceived actions towards others can breed significant unanticipated repercussions.
None of the Adlers are particularly likeable characters, although the two children are perhaps more sympathetically developed than the parents. Nevertheless, the reader can identify with certain aspects of their less-than-admirable attitudes and behaviours. I was invested in the outcome of their tribulations from the start, and raced through the novel to its conclusion. A final twist left me shaking my head a little, but having given it a couple of day's thought I think I've begun to grasp where the author was going.
I found The Perfect Family a stimulating read, and would recommend it to all readers who enjoy domestic suspense / thrillers and contemporary family drama.
My thanks to the author, Robyn Harding, publisher Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This is a story of a middleclass American family in Portland, Oregon - with a realtor father, décor consultant mother, son home from college for the summer and daughter in senior high school. The Perfect Family by Canadian author Robyn Harding is a family-based thriller, where each member has their own ruinous secrets. Then their home is egged and as attacks escalate, their clandestine lives could be revealed and ruin them all. An enjoyable thriller with building tension and increasing terror. The ending was somewhat saccharine and despite the final twist only a three-star rating. With many thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia and the author for an uncorrected proof copy for review purposes.