There were quite a few story lines happening at the same time being told from different POVs. It took a while for my brain to figure out who was who but I appreciated the different POVs as the story progressed.

I thought that Patricia Santomasso, Jess Nahikian, ans Elise Arsenault did a great job narrating this book. I will definitely look for books narrated by these individuals in the future.

I found this reminded me of a modern Big Little Lies with a social media influencer twist.

The concept was interesting and I enjoyed the foreign retreat atmosphere. The ending interaction of Celeste and her daughter made me teary eyed. But I found most of the story predictable and I didn't feel invested in finding out what happened to Alabama.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced audiobook for review.

I liked the setting, Iceland, and the premise is that one of the influencers brought to Iceland to promote a product goes missing. All of that sounded good, but I found myself bored. It seemed like nothing was happening. Maybe it’s just that I’m bored of stories of influencers. Maybe because I listened to it as an audiobook and the pacing seemed slower than if I’d just read it. In any case, I didn’t care what happened to any of these characters.
NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel.

Narrated by Patricia Santomasso; Jess Nahikian; Elise Arsenault ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story by Nicole Hackett ⭐⭐⭐

This book was ok, but I felt like I was waiting and waiting for it to come together and then just as suddenly it was over. For me this book didn't feel finished.

A little hard to keep up with who is who at the beginning, but you get used to the rapidly changing POV/storyline. The discussion about autism and mental health was great. This was a good read with a predictable twist, BUT unexpected and chilling cliffhanger.

This book is an interesting thriller that keeps you guessing with lots of plot twists. I had the audiobook version of this book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A story about social media influencers going on a trip and one goes missing. Totally up my alley in a thriller. After struggling to like any character and the slow paced story, the twisty ending made it a whole lot better. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook.

*Thank you @crookedlanebooks @dreamscapemedia and @tlcbooktours for the #gifted ebook and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.*

I am going to resist being "That Person" that subtracts stars because the book is mislabeled as a thriller. I would say this is more of a Women's Fiction with a mystery. Even the "Mystery" what happened to Alabama Wood? is not too mysterious, it was pretty obvious what happened mid way through the book. That being said Nicole Hackett had me deeply invested in the characters and I wanted to know how they got to where they were.
Hollie a running guru (also I totally loved her opinion of Teslas and Dogs in Sweaters-ha!)has shown up for the Social Media influencer retreat excaping her "perfect healthy life".
Celeste arrives trying to distance herself from problems at home.
Alabama agressively asserts herself into the women's lives.....but as we know from page one, Alabama Wood is missing, Hollie has a knife wound and CEleste has some incriminating motives...
Hackett unfolds the mystery and does a great job of developing the characters, I kept turning the pages wanting to know more. I really fell into each of the characters mind and felt what they were feeling, which was weird because I am the opposite of a social media influencer.
Hackett touches on some pretty heavy issues in this book, but it exposes a lot of reality.
Women's fiction is usually not my cup of tea, but I think Hackett did a fascinating job of showing how women grit their teeth, smile and act like everything is "just fine" when behind the camera is chaos, secrets and turmoil.
I suggest this book, only if you are not expecting a mystery thriller.

Narrorators were SO spot on! I felt like Robin-ha was right beside me!

Thank you Netgally for this advanced copy read. I was not influenced for this honest review. I also want to thank Nicole Hackett for letting me have early access to this book.

Thank you DreamScape! This audiobook is one of those sneaky good stories, nicely narrated and well produced. What is good is that as a listener I got drawn into the story through the narration, which was nicely done to capture the nuances in the multi POV plot, I really appreciated that a seemingly straightforward story about social media influencers and maybe a murder was so much more... there were deft themes on motherhood, marriages, mental health, and women's friendships that resonated and added really great depth and personalization to the story. I admit the end delighted me, a little wink to what I hope is a next book.

A select group of influencers have been chosen by fashion brand Pink Purse to go on a trip to Iceland, however soon thing begin to fall apart as one member of the group disappears - Alabama.

As the book progresses we learn about the build up to this event, various timelines emerge and the characters backstories are revealed.

Celeste has been friends with Alabama for 10 years and both of them are influencers, but Celeste has recently come to suspect her is child autistic and is spending more time worrying about her family, which has lead to her and Alabama growing more distant. When on the Pink Purse trip Alabama tries to befriend another influencer who she idolises, Holly. Holly has her own problems to deal with and doesn’t really want to hang out with Alabama who is being over the top and clingy. Overall there is not much about Alabama’s backstory or character in it considering she is one of the main characters and has disappeared.

The premise is interesting and I like how it illustrated the falsehood of social media; everyone has a lot of issues going on behind the scenes no matter what the facade they show online. Unfortunately none of the characters are very likeable and the slow pace makes it a bit of a slog to get through overall. This is the second book in a row I have read where there are no likeable characters and for me I think that is really something I will look to avoid in future, as I didn’t feel invested in anyones story, so lost interest.

It had the potential to be interesting, but just fell flat. 2.5/5

The narrator was pretty good, but it was quite hard to tell characters apart at times.

A book that follows the perspective of several social media influencers (this is becoming a common theme!) and the mystery of what happened to Alabama Woods. We journey through each influencer's thoughts, as we learn more and more about everyone’s history, and their potential connections with Alabama, and of course who is hiding what.

The novel starts slow with a lot of details, but then about half way through it begins to pick up the pace.

Honestly I’m still not sure I know fully what I read… so there’s that.

If you enjoy thrillers themed with social media influencers, multiple POVS, Iceland as a setting, you may enjoy this one! The audiobook helped the novel move much quicker, and I liked being able to go between the audio and digital book.

The Perfect Ones by Nicole Hackett was fine.  It’s not a book I’ll remember much about, but it was amusing enough to listen to.

The premise is fun: while a group of fashion influencers are visiting Iceland, one of them — Alabama Wood, who nobody likes — goes missing.  The book bounces back and forth between the present and the past, mainly following two influencers: Celeste and Holly.

Alabama was by far the most interesting character, so it was unfortunate that we only saw her perspective a few times.  I had trouble differentiating Celeste and Holly.

I think part of the issue is I went into this expecting a thriller or a mystery, but it reads more like general fiction, which is less my genre.

Overall, it was just okay for me — I liked Hackett’s writing style and found it pleasant to listen to as an audiobook. The narrators were decent, though I didn’t actually realize there were three; I thought it was all the same woman. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for my review copy of this book.

The reviews are in and this for me was good but not overly memorable.
It begins with the storyline about a powerful influencer gone suddenly missing on an Icelandic trip.
Sure, icebergs are as chilling as they can be bombarding and so too seem to be the perfect description of the two friends being looked at for their knowledge.
What I can say is the book never seemed to take us on the voyage that I was hoping to take. I wasn't thrilled with anything persay, as the crime connection or lack thereof, was mediocre.
We learn of an ice berg, of a rope, of some binge eating scenarios, but all in all I'm just not feeling it.
As the story progresses we are told about some harrowing moments, some emotional turmoil, pregnancy, and the latter issues with drugs, with a weapon involved.
The ending for me was too weak and nothing was concrete or substantial to peak my interest.
Thank you to Nicole Hackett, Dreamscape Media, Netgalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC audio.

This sounded very intriguing, but was trope after trope. There wasn't a lot of character development. I did appreciate that Holly stuck to her wants and didn't end up having a child just because it was what would be expected of her like most movies/tv/books do. It was a predictable thing for what happened with Alabama, but then the ending turned it more extreme that what was psychologically presented - which felt like it was just to leave it on a cliffhanger. 2/5 stars.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I don't usually choose thriller's to listen to, but I felt the need to branch out. I thought this was a fun read, but I figured it out pretty early on.

The Perfect Ones is a story about influencers and there seemingly perfect lives - which are not perfect at all.
This book gave a really good inside into the life of influencers and showed that not all that glitters is gold.
I enjoyed reading about the individual struggles of the characters. What I didn't enjoy so much was the ending and the reveal of the mystery. It wasn't as shocking as I hoped.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced listener copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5/5 stars. Please check content warnings before reading this book in regards to miscarriage, disordered eating, body image, etc.

Description: On a brand trip, an influencer, Alabama Wood, goes missing. We really have two folks we're looking into: Alabama's "BFF" Celeste and the largest influence on the trip, Hollie. Why did Alabama disappear into Iceland? Who's responsible and will she be found, or will one of the two main suspects be found guilty?

The good:
- I appreciated Celeste's background story.
- I thought the concept was intriguing (which is why I requested this.)

The loss of 2.5 stars:
- This was extremely clunky in terms of pacing. I felt like we hardly spent time on the mystery and mainly focused on the back stories of our two main suspects.
- If there is a sequel or a novella added to this book, I'll add a half star, because we leave on a very open ended note and I have a million questions. I am one that does not like questions at the end of stand-alones and this left me with a lot.
- I wish Alabama was a bit more fleshed out as we only get a few convoluted chapters in her perspectives. I wish I had a bit more.

Overall: If you like slow burn thrillers with multiple POVS and are okay with a cliffhanger of sorts, this is the book for you.

Tantalizing Trickery! 😳😯🤯

⊰ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐎𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐭 ⊱

Interesting. Veeerrryyy interesting! This was quite a loopy-da-loop m'dears! This one is one I've gone back and forth on for what I wanted to rate it. It had some true potential but I feel it did fall flat at some points along the way. Now even with that being said, I was still really interested in how the plot played out. I was more invested in it then I thought once the story hit the halfway point. I will say, there was some real cliche subplots that happened along the way which dulled it for me, BUT those aside it was still quite interesting.
Celeste & Alabama have been close friends for ten years, & are major online influencers. But the portrait they paint for their followers is far from the truth their individual lives contain. Recently as they've grown apart, Hollie is another Instagram influencer who enters the scene; an idol to Alabama. But an Icelandic influencer trip is about to throw everything off kilter & turn deadly.
The ending left me a bit unsettled and unsatisfied, not that I expect a tidy ending ever. But I had hoped for a little more. It was definitely fast paced but I found it a bit dizzying trying to remember who was who and what was with who at times. That aside, for a debut novel this was actually quite good and fast paced. A lot of people will be able to relate to each individuals life story quite easily which I found helped quite a bit!

🔴 Trigger Warnings: Miscarriage / Mental Health / Suicide

Thank you to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for this ARC.
Release Date: Out Now!

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭: 3.5 / 5 Full Moons! 🌕

I am an avid thriller and suspense reader. This one hit several marks for me. I loved the narrator which is huge.

I have more tolerance for a slow-moving story when I’m listening to it, especially if it’s a well-narrated one. In the case of The Perfect Ones, I found it quite interesting, and it definitely offered food for thought, but would it have kept my interest if I’d been reading it? I’m not sure.

While the premise is quite unique, famous Instagram influencers meet in Iceland and one disappears, the feel was more of dissecting the lives of the influences, than that of a suspenseful thriller. However, I did enjoy discovering where the story was heading.

My Concerns

Multiple POVs with past and present timelines usually work for me, but this time it came across as somewhat disjointed.

While the idea of the characters being influencers felt very original, I would like to have known a bit more about that aspect of their lives. I learned some of their secrets and weaknesses but needed to feel more in tune with the social media part. And the disappearance/mystery felt more like a slow unraveling.

Final Thoughts

Despite my concerns, this is an audiobook that I’m not sorry I listened to. The narration was exceptionally well done, and I did get a glimpse into the lives of several women. Much of it was uncovered nicely. However, the book was more wrapped around relationships, the pressures that can be involved regarding social media, facing reality, and more.

Even with my concerns, I have no trouble recommending this. It still has plenty to offer as an audiobook, though you're apt to be disappointed if you think it's going to be a thriller or suspenseful.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook. I was under no obligation to post any particular type of review.