I admit it. I picked up The Perfect Ones because I liked the idea of a murder mystery that targeted influencers. So I probably deserved to not really enjoy this book because it focuses on a group of women who are set up to compete rather than connect, and it's awful to read them cut each other down: "All of her aggravating qualities were just so excruciatingly nice."

"Influencing, like many professions, attracted the especially vapid." While author Nicole Hackett does make some attempts to diminish the importance of social media engagement and reach as measures for what sort of person you are, The Perfect Ones is still largely a book about a group of women—Hollie, Celeste, Alabama—that I wouldn't like to hang out with. They're taken on an influencer junket to Iceland where one of the women disappears, presumed dead. Their tenuous connections to each other are marred by behaviour you wouldn't expect from friends, further complicated by their weird relationships to their fan bases: "It was the nature of the business, the inevitable outcome of treating one million followers like friends." This makes the presumed death of a fellow influencer awkward and marred by lies and omissions.

You will get a few laughs from the influencer-eye view of the world: "She seriously doubted there was anywhere in Iceland she could even get a facial peel. The people in this country didn't need it. Everyone she had met so far—every single person—had emanated youth, like they had all slipped into a permanent Instagram filter." You might even cheer when one of the women decides to move away from Instagram and "thinking her Instagram images could stand in for an actual life." However it's my view that Hackett spoils the bits that were entertaining with a bizarre twist at the end. I think The Perfect Ones would have been a better novel ending with the race for Alabama with a feel-good real-life connection between the women.

Oooh this book was certifiably creepy and I was here for it all! It had me glued to the edge of my seat to find out more!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Crooked Lane Books and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A glimpse into the world of influencers. Thrilling, entertaining and suspenseful.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I love a good thriller, and one that combines influencers, Instagram, friendships, and an Iceland vacation is too perfect to pass up! Two days after arriving in Iceland for an exclusive influencer-only trip, Insta celeb Alabama Wood vanishes. Hollie Goodwin, fitness guru and Alabama’s idol, and Celeste Reed, Alabama’s long time bff, are police’s first stop in the investigation.

This book jumps around in time from before the trip, during, and after, with chapters alternating between Hollie and Celeste’s POV, and the occasional chapter from Alabama. Each girl has their own difficulties happening behind the facade of their Instagram perfection. Celeste has been struggling with her five-year-old’s behavioral issues and her husband’s refusal to acknowledge their issues. Hollie is struggling to keep up the act of a perfect life that she portrays while everything around her falls to pieces. One thing both Hollie and Celeste have in common is they both feel responsible for Alabama’s disappearance.

My favorite thing about this novel was the look into the dark side of social media and how sometimes our desire to project a certain type of image online controls us.

Pub date: May 2, 2023

What a great debut! The Perfect Ones is a stunning debut novel. Very fast moving and a great storyline! A group of influencers travel to Iceland and the story takes place there. I read this book in one day. Very well written and I look forward to the authors next book. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Nicole Hackett and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Not all vacations end the way we expect!

5/5 for being realistic, funny, suspense and twists.
What a fun read about a work trip/vacation that didn’t go as planned when instagram influencers go on a trip to Iceland but not all of them return.

Alabama is missing. Celeste has her plate full with a child and family and the it girl Hollie who’s life may not be what it seems. I love fun thrillers and this one is definitely up there! If you like a book with twists and turns give this one a try.

I wanted to enjoy this one but felt the overall mystery, plot and characters hard to relate to. I can totally see the potential here though, I might just not be the target audience.

Instagram celebrities on an influencer trip to Iceland run into trouble when one of them disappears. The Icelandic police are questioning two women who appear to be Alabama Woods’s closest friends, fellow influencers, Celeste Reed and Hollie Goodwin. What the authorities don’t realize is that this little group is not as cozy as they used to be, as their real lives, nowhere near as perfect as they are portrayed online, have created a unique, and deadly set of problems. Social media is the real villain in this book, the belief that we all need to share every moment of our lives online and that those lives need to be perfect

Super fun thriller! My favorite books are always vacations gone wrong (not sure what that says about me...) In The Perfect Ones,
a group of instagram influencers are brought to Iceland for a trip to promote products. We meet good hearted Celeste and her overbearing and obsessive friend Alabama. While Celeste still questions her commitment to instagram influencing Alabama is gung ho and committed to befriend the top influencer attending the trip, Hollie Goodwin. Hollie herself has some demons to contend with and we see the world through all three of the women's eyes.

Before long, Alabama is missing and it's hard to determine what happen or where she went. Was she murdered? If you like vacation gone wrong, books focusing on pop culture, or just want an icy thriller set in Reykjavik, then The Perfect Ones if for you!
#CrookedLaneBooks #ThePerfectOnes