Different than her normal thrillers- more of a survival, locked room vibe! Fans of reality shows and the thriller genre will enjoy this one.

Lyla and Nico join the cast of a reality show filming on a deserted island, what could go wrong? Will the couples band together or is it everyone for themselves? I love an And then there were none readalike and this one did not disappoint!

Ruth Ware will always hold a special place in my heart as she is one of the authors that helped me get back into reading after college. I had a hard time reading while studying and her early thrillers helped me immensely.

With that being said, One Perfect Couple ranks among my least favorite of her works. It was still a fun, easy read and I absolutely loved the setting. A lot of the mechanics just didn’t work for me and I didn’t find this one to be “twisty” at all - which is one of the things I’ve come to love about Ware’s work.

I would agree that some of my earlier favorites from this author like In A Dark, Dark Wood (my favorite,) would rank pretty closely to Agatha Christie’s work. But to compare this to And Then There Were None is insulting to Christie’s legacy. One Perfect Couple felt more like a survival show than a thriller (which is fine,) I just don’t feel that this one was branded correctly.

While this one didn’t work for me, I do think fans of Survivor, deserted islands, and Lord Of The Flies will really enjoy this one!!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Scout Press for the eARC of this title!**

Read this if you like:
•island setting
•fight for your life
•reality TV

This book felt a little long and dragged on at times. I liked the concept though!

This is definitely one of my favorites of Ware's books. Loved the premise / setting, the build-up, and the perfect ending.

There were a few things that bothered me (I'm picky):
-snakes are venomous, not poisonous (hopefully a copy editor fixed that and it will be correct in the final version)
-there aren't that many characters and one is names Santana with the nickname of Santa and one is named Zana and that was just confusing
SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD
⚠️
⚠️
⚠️
⚠️
⚠️
-they just let a guy beat someone to death?!?

Isn’t it wonderful when you just enjoy reading and lose track of your percentage read? That’s how I felt while reading this book! It was just enjoyable! While there were no major twists, and I didn’t care for the final explanation, I was having fun going for the ride! With so much drama and tragedy, it kept my interest throughout. I felt myself getting sad and angry. And someone holding out water was plain horrifying! The premise of a couples’ reality show was a great theme for the book. And you guess immediately that there will be couples’ drama, but it really wasn’t about that! You will certainly feel a range of emotions! Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Wow! Ruth Ware delivers yet again! It’s always such a pleasure to sink into one of her novels. An array of characters that kept me flipping page after page. Jam packed with more tension than I could shake a stick at. So many lies! It’s impossible to know who to trust. Highly recommend!
Thank you NetGalley, Ruth Ware and Gallery Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I couldn’t even begin to guess the twist(s) in this page turning love island-meets-survivor thriller. Totally original and unlike anything I have read, this one kept me so engaged and had a unique storyline for a thriller. I highly recommend.

Thank you, NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC. I was so excited to read this ARC because I’m an avid reader of Ruth Ware’s books. This book definitely added to my love of her other books that I have read from her. So many parts of the story were enjoyable to me. For example – I loved the reality TV theme that was throughout this book. I love the characters, the character development, and I could really relate to each and every character too. Another part I really liked was the mayday calls, diary, entries, and the whole island setting. The ending of this book left me with so many questions but it definitely correlated with the whole atmosphere of the book -,the mystery and excitement. I hardly recommend this book. Definitely five stars. I will continue to read more of Ruth Ware’s books. thank you

Ruth Ware never lets me down, and of course in this fast paced thriller she has achieved literary wonder again! One Percect Couple is a must read.

What an absolute treat! I am so far behind on my Ruth Ware backlist but am so glad I made time to listen to this one! Written in three parts, the ominous tone is set immediately with snippets from mayday calls and journal entries from the remaining characters after something goes terribly wrong on the island. We don’t know what happens and we don’t know who remains but each entry in between chapters kept me anxious to find out! As the story unfolds, secrets are spilled, true personalities come out, and a literal storm is the catalyst for all of it. There are likable and unlikable characters, an unreliable narrator, and one person who takes control of everything which puts everyone on edge. How will they make it off of this island alive?!

Imogen Church is a master and tipped the tension into a rolling boil. Her character voices are what always do it for me. No matter how many characters there are, she creates a voice and personality for each one. I especially loved her work with Angel who has a lovely French accent. If you’re an audiobook lover, this one is not to be missed!

I received a gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.

The things I loved:
-Reality TV played a huge role at the beginning of this book. I am a reality TV addict so I really enjoyed this part.
-The characters were interesting and somewhat unique
-some of the reflections near the end
-the diary entries, the Mayday calls, and the texts sprinkled throughout the book

the things I didn't love:
-the comparison to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were No...it wasn't really a whodunit. You pretty much know who is doing it
-Too many Lord of the Flies vibes for me. That's a personal preference. I taught that book too many times so I don't like when books are too similar to that
-Timing of various parts
-a few too many loose ends

Overall, I would recommend someone to read the book, but I wouldn't tell them to rush out and read it ASAP

This was an interesting book. I was very intrigued by the premise. I do wish there was more build- up to the story to see the couples interact more. I think a large part of the beginning of the book could have been learning about all of the characters instead of Lila’s life - although I didn’t feel like I knew much about her life when the book really started to pick up. I feel like the book was kind of slow at times, I wish it was more combative between characters. The book ends with some unanswered questions which adds to the overall uneasiness and thrill. Overall, this was an interesting and fun read! 4/5 stars

Now this book gave me anxiety but in a good way I loved it and it reminded of Agatha Christie And Then There We’re None!
Five couples are stranded on a remote island while filming a reality T.V. show--not all of them will make it out alive…..
Lyla, a scientist struggling with her career she knows she won’t be asked to comeback after the report doesn’t go the way the school hoped it would. She is dating struggling actor Nico. When he is offered the chance of a lifetime to film a reality show in the idea of Love Island, but it’s claws One Perfect Couple. Nico persuades a reluctant Lyla to film with him she reluctantly agrees but plans to arrive back home in two weeks.
When a brutal storm hits, we read as each contestants will be tested in more ways than one! Forced to have handed over all their phones upon arrival, the contestants are now cut off from the mainland and the real challenges begin. Their faced with death, injury, dehydration, alliances, and dwindling supplies, survival becomes the name of the game. Could their be a killer amongst them? As it seems like one by one contestants are dying. Told by Lyla and a diary entry we see how they soon the tension causes tempers and whose willing to do the worst to survive! There was a twist and I really enjoyed the book!

Survivor meets The Ultimatum in this thriller that would make for a fun vacation read. A lot of the setup reminded me of Lifetime's Unreal, a show that I will never stop recommending despite not being a fan of reality television myself. Despite not really having much of a mystery, it was still engaging to see how everything would play out. It's reality television in book form.

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware is a very highly recommended closed circle thriller that follows five couples, the cast of a new reality TV show, who are trapped on a remote island in the Indian Ocean.

Virologist Lyla Santiago is frustrated that her postdoc research is not providing the expected results, so when Nico Reese, her actor boyfriend, wants them to join the cast of a reality TV show called "One Perfect Couple" she reluctantly agrees. She can take off a couple weeks from work and assumes she can write up the disappointing results while on the island. Hopefully this opportunity will be the break that Nico needs and help their relationship.

Their audition leads to a quick approval and Lyla and Nico quickly find themselves on a boat in the Indian Ocean heading toward Ever After Island with the four other couples: Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana. After the first challenge, things go wrong very quickly. This is followed by a powerful storm which slams the island, leaving the contestants isolated, without any support from the show's crew and assistants and with limited resources. Since they had to turn in all electronics, their hope is in reaching someone via the two-way radio. These are strangers who must band together for survival.

One Perfect Couple has strong And Then There Were None merges with Survivor and reads Lord of the Flies vibes and the plot held my complete attention throughout. Once they reach the island, the tension rises quickly and, after the storm hits, stays high as the stakes are life or death and their expectations for survival lower with each passing day. There are new issues occurring daily that will challenge each individual.

The writing is excellent. The narrative unfolds through Lyla's point-of-view, with brief pleas for help on the radio and later diary entries between the chapters. Lyla is an exceptional character and an appealing character to experience the drama through her observations. The characters are all written as unique individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses and it is easy to follow who's who while reading.

Ruth Ware is a writer who always seems to deliver an excellent novel. This one would make a heart-pounding movie. Thanks to Gallery/Scout Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I enjoyed this book a lot, even though it was quite unrealistic and hastily written at times. Definitely a quick and easy popcorn thriller that I finished within a day.

Even though there is a pretty large cast of characters with 10 contestants on the reality TV show, the author did a good job distinguishing them all so I was never confused. This is helped by the fact that the book is written from only one perspective, Lyla. There are also diary entries from another contestant, Zana, every few chapters to add a different take on the events that occur.

The weakest parts of this book were the prologue and the ending while the rest of the book was really good at setting up the finale, building conflicts, and slowly revealing information.

The prologue feels out of place and really ruins a lot of the suspense because it basically reveals how the final showdown with the main antagonist occurs. So when the characters devise a scheme later in the novel, the reader already knows that it’s not going to work.

The ending of this book was quite strange and left a lot of unanswered questions. The main one is why they were suddenly able to make contact with a boat through the radio after all their previous attempts went unanswered. It felt so convenient that right when they had wrapped everything up on the island and were close to running out of food, they got one last shot at calling for help and it worked.

Another half-baked aspect of the novel is the cameras that were set up to record everything for the reality TV show and keep recording after the storm strands them on the island. For some reason, these cameras are the main drivers for a lot of the tension/drama in the final act of the story. It’s explicitly stated that there’s no wifi connection on the island so the video recordings would either be uploaded to a central drive (and thus not an issue since all the equipment except a single radio was destroyed in the storm) or stored on the cameras themselves. But the survivors inexplicably decide that it would be too suspicious for them to take down all the cameras so they have to let them keep recording everything.
What?! I think it would actually be extremely reasonable for them to take down all the cameras after they’re stranded in a storm.

Even if we accept the whole camera thing, it’s still really baffling why all the remaining survivors were so convinced that they were going to be prosecuted for the murder of the main antagonist after they were rescued from the island. They insist that they would never be believed if they claimed self-defense but the explanation/solution that they come up with is even sillier.

But overall, I thought the characters were compelling and I enjoyed the survivor/Lord of the Flies aspect of the book.

Five couples set off to film a reality show seeking to find the perfect couple. Filming takes place on a private tropical island on the Indian Ocean. The story is told from the main character, Lyla’s point of view. She is a scientist at a crossroads in her career and agrees to do the reality show with her boyfriend Nico, a struggling actor, who hopes the show will catapult him to fame. Shortly after they arrive, a strong storm hits the island and a game of love turns into a game of survival. The couples are trapped, faced with injuries, and limited food and water as they find out if they can survive the island as well as each other.

This book turned out to be a great thriller but it did take me a bit to get into it. Ruth Ware is a must read author for me and I was so excited to read this one. I don’t love how the ending all tied up and a few other things but I don’t want to give away any spoilers. If you love thrillers and tons of suspense you will love this book. It was very captivating and entertaining!

Thanks to Gallery and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

With her post-doc research going nowhere, Lyla agrees to go on a new reality tv show with her boyfriend Nico, an aspiring actor. On One Perfect Couple, Lyla and Nico must compete against four other couples on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. After the first challenge leaves everyone angry, a storm cuts off the contestants. At first, everyone is grateful when a leader emerges, but they quickly begin to wonder if they made the right choice.

Ruth Ware shines with a fun beach read that mixes the cutthroat survival of Lord of the Flies with an Agatha Christie-style isolation thriller. With Lyla as a narrator, the large cast wasn't too hard to navigate and I loved that the characters reflected a typical reality tv casting, primed to have grating personalities that place stress on everyone. Lyla's levelheadedness, realistic plot twists, and page-turning pace keep you glued to the page in this psychological thriller that belongs on all the summer reading lists.

This is one of my new favorite book tropes - reality shows! 8 strangers come together for a sketchy reality show on a secluded island to find out who is the one perfect couple. After a horrible storm, things start to get dark. Ruth Ware does an excellent job of making you feel like you are really THERE on that island. It was hard to put this one down and had my heart racing through every chapter! A must-read for the summer.