DNF at 18%

Ruth Ware has been fairly hit or miss for me, but few blurbs have drawn me in as much as the promise of Survivor meets And Then There Were None. Given my record of being let down by blurbs, I should have actually steered clear of this. Instead, I made the request only to be vastly disappointed by the contents of the book.

While the prologue certainly hooked me, things quickly went downhill once the lead couple was introduced. I didn't care for either of their characters individually or as a pair; in fact, suffering through their selection process for the reality show tanked any goodwill that I could have built for them. I'm far more interested in a couple that is really into each other slowly discovering the dark secrets versus a couple that is ambivalent. Alas, this ended up being more of a miss for moi!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

3.5 Island Terror Stars

Can you call a thriller set on a remote island in the Indian Ocean a closed-room thriller? I read this one on a long flight, so I was sharing the character’s feelings of being trapped!

Lyla and Nico are the last contestants invited to join the latest reality TV production, One Perfect Couple. They are flown to Jakarta from London, and then a boat takes them to an island not quite open for full tourism. Nico is a wanna-be actor who thinks this experience will launch him fully into his career. Lyla is a virologist who is struggling to get funding for her scientific research. She somewhat reluctantly agrees to accompany him.

The island is as beautiful as the pictures promised, and the production team is ready to launch the first challenges. After the contest, the first contestant is out, and the production team leaves with him via boat. It doesn’t take long until things go horribly wrong though. Overnight, a huge storm rages, doing serious damage to the island. The couples are stranded with limited food and water. They had to turn in all their technology, so they can’t even reach out for help.

As one of the survivors takes out all the stops to be the winner, lives are at stake in this fast-paced thriller. While I’m not a huge fan of reality TV, I did enjoy the thrills and turns in this one. While not my favorite Ruth Ware, it definitely entertained me on the flight.

Holy crap this was my very first Ruth Ware book, and I was totally captivated from the very first chapter. The twists were impossible to see coming & that’s pivotal in a good thriller. I can’t wait to read more from her!

I didn't find this book suspenseful or even to be a page-turner. I wanted to find out what happened, but didn't particularly care about the characters. I appreciated that the female characters came together to take down the villain, however, there were a bunch of loose plot holes that bothered me. For example, power went out on the island during the storm, but then the fridge and cameras were still on? This didn't totally make sense to me. I love Ruth Ware, but unfortunately, this was not one of my favorites. Appreciate the opportunity to read and review though!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books Scout Press for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by a favorite, Ruth Ware. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Lyla's post-doctoral virology research is not going well and she's worried about her future. Her boyfriend, Nico, is an aspiring actor with no steady work. When an opportunity arises for Nico to take part in a new reality tv show, The Perfect Couple, he convinces Lyla to join the cast. Before they have time to catch their breath, they are on the boat to a private resort island in the Indian Ocean. They will be competing with four other couples. But things go wrong right away and a bad storm takes things to a crisis point. They are no longer worried about winning, just surviving.

This was a tense, atmospheric thriller, with the locked-room genre that I always enjoy. Told from Lyla's point of view, we still hear from all the characters without any confusion - helpful with so many characters. There are also intermittent journal entries included that will have you thinking. Lyla is a very relatable character and Ware highlighted the tension between all the characters to perfection. I felt like I was actually watching a reality TV show, yet the stakes were so much higher so the tension was ratcheted up to high. I couldn't put it down - a great read!

For me, this book was mismarketed. It is not a mystery or a thriller. It was too slow moving for me and I didn't have a good time. I hope Ruth Ware will go back to mystery roots because I love them so much, such as Turn of the Key and The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

I love a great Ruth Ware and this has a bit of everything. The story involves a wannabe actor who is dating a woman who has her doctorate in virology. He signs them up to participate in a new reality show that will be filming in the Indian Ocean on a remote island. She reluctantly agrees because she sees the importance to his career and wants to try to support him. They take a ridiculously long journey to the island and meet the other cast members, Surprising twists occur and also a massive storm that leaves the cast facing dire circumstances that they have to handle to try to survive,
This is classic Ruth Ware, with an isolated setting, a group of questionable characters, and challenging circumstance, followed by people dying one after the other. The other interesting aspect of this book that fits the remote setting is the Lord of the Flies nod.
I really enjoyed picking this one up and highly recommend it for those wanting a great setting and a closed circle mystery.
#OnePerfectCouple #NetGalley #GalleryBooks

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy from one of my favorites!!!! Ruth Ware doing love island meets survivor with murder was just awesome. She gets better with each book, which seems impossible because they’re all perfect!

Ruth Ware once again brings her yearly "summer" psychological thriller to her fans and as always she keeps your pulse racing with every page. Her descriptions are so real and accurate, I actually felt like I was stuck on the island with the characters. Great book...thanks for the advanced copy!

Ruth Ware did it again! She is such a mastermind with mysteries, thrillers, and twists, all while writing compelling and complicated characters. I was hooked from the beginning. The study of human behavior through her characters is also compelling from a behavioral perspective.

What a page turner this book was. I am quite familiar with Ruth Ware’s work, as I’ve now read 7 of her books, and this one will definitely be rated amongst my favorites.

It was a high-stakes thriller, with a well-written plot. I always love when she creates a whodunnit type mystery and adding in the element of these characters being stranded on an island with a reality tv premise, just really worked so well. This book was so visually descriptive and utterly captivating that I felt like I was right there alongside these characters fighting for survival. I loved how the reveals were done. I was pleasantly surprised by how much emotion I felt towards these characters. Most thrillers don’t have me as invested as I was in the fates of these particular characters, but I think that’s just another testament to Ware’s writing. She really captured the human spirit in a thriller predominantly about survival.

Overall, this was an absolute solid thriller and I will be highly recommending it.
Thank you to Gallery Books, Scouts Press, and NetGalley for my #gifted ARCs!

I was very unsure this book would deliver much excitement with the “trapped in a storm or on and island (or both)” becoming very played out and often predictable, not to mention, it’s been done already but Ruth Ware herself.

However, despite it taking me a good while to remember which of the many characters was which, I got past this and was hooked.

I love Ruth Ware, she has, so far, never disappointed me, and I can always count on an intriguing and suspenseful read. Is every single thing believable? No.
But suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to enjoy the ride, because this was a fun one.

*Thank you to Scout Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to Simon Audio for the gifted ALC*

Eeeeeee!! This is a Fyre Fest of a reality show - "One Perfect Couple" is essentially the Newlywed Game meets Temptation Island and honestly I would've been game if that was all that happened. Luckily it quickly devolves into a Lord of the Flies situation, so there are plenty of thrills. Alternating between Lyla's PoV, the distress call transcripts, and Zana's found journal entries, it all tells a conflicting story... Also someone please tell me what happened to Joel because I have NO idea. Imogen Church's narration was riveting and I loved the different accents she did.

I do think that there were several missed opportunities for plot twists, but I still really enjoyed the read. It's truly a story of women coming together to survive at all costs.

Ruth Ware delivers another page turner! I finished this one in a day. Reality tv gone wrong, 5 couples compete to be the perfect couple before a perfect storm leaves the contestants stranded on the island with a murderer. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ruth Ware loves to put groups of people in remote locations where trouble is sure to follow. This formula has worked for her before (One By One especially) and also in her latest One Perfect Couple. Five couples are sent to "Ever After Island" in the Indian Ocean to compete for the title of One Perfect Couple for a "Survivor" type show. But there are red flags from the beginning-producers evade questions as to if One Perfect Couple has been actually picked up by a network or is still in "development." Upon arrival on the island the contestants are told they must surrender their phones and other electronics- seemingly to prevent details of the show from being leaked, but with all communication to the outside world cut off, their biggest challenge becomes far more than not being to able to post on Instagram. When a massive storm hits Ever After Island they are left to fend for themselves in brutal conditions. Narrated by contestant Lyla, who was pressured to participate in One Perfect Couple by her actor wannabe boyfriend Nico, the tension increases with each passing day as their meager supplies decrease with no way of reaching the outside world. One Perfect Couple is a blend of old school psychological drama & suspense and modern day "reality TV" where it's already impossible to know what is truth and what is being staged for the cameras. The characters are an interesting mix of Millennial's and Gen Z'ers, all looking for their shot at fame. It's fast paced and a bit quirky, with an ending that is perfect for none of the couples but works brilliantly.

This was... not great.

It didn't feel like a mystery. It felt like the big reveal happened around 50% and after that, there was no suspense. I don't know how or why this book fell flat, but it was just not her best.

I also got all the characters confused, which is a me problem and not the author's fault. That's my reading red flag. It's a curse. But they all started to blend together because everyone was GORGEOUS.

I definitely felt like the MC was not the brightest. She kept trying to be the peacekeeper instead of figuring what the F was going on.

It was quick, I'll give it that. Didn't drag on too long but was definitely not my favorite of hers.

One Perfect Couple is a new reality TV show pitting couples against each other to proclaim one the Perfect Couple. Lyla is a scientist whose latest experiments aren't turning out the way she hoped so when her wanna be actor boyfriend asks her to join him on the show, she acquiesces. Nico desperately wants to be on the show because he thinks it's his shot to fame since his acting career isn't going anywhere.

There are four other couples along with Baz, the producer and his assistant Camille who deals with the contestants. They all meet in Indonesia and then head out on a boat to the middle of the ocean, a 20 hour trip from land. The competition has only been underway on this deserted island for one day before a storm comes through and devastates the island leaving the competitors not knowing if they will be rescued or stuck for a long time. This is when a story about couples becomes more a story of survival.

Most of the story is told in the first person by Lyla, but we also hear the SOS calls and diary entries. This is very much a character driven novel, my favorite! It takes a little bit to really get to know all the characters and of, course, they act differently when they know they are on camera versus when they cameras aren't around. But you really get to know them and I couldn't help but root for certain ones.

I couldn't put this down, another sign of how much I enjoyed it. I think I will stick with novels though, I still don't have a desire to watch the type of reality TV that this book talks about. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Great Ruth Ware as usual! Loved the storyline and setting. Was interested in the characters and couldn’t finish fast enough. Definitely recommend for any mystery lover. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Lyla has concerns about the project from the first time Nico discussed it with her and she was right. When a mystery starts out basically telling you there is going to be a problem, you know going in there is going to be a problem. The mystery is how big a problem and who is going to survive. It's like "Survivor", "The Bachelor", and "Lord of the Flies" mixed it up and produced "One Perfect Couple" as a Reality TV series. What could possibly go wrong? Throw in a hurricane, a deeply hidden agenda and a volatile mix of personalities and the answer is: a lot. The story grabbed me, kinda like a train wreck or a Nascar race, I just couldn't look away. I can't say I enjoyed it, I'm not really a psychological thriller reader, but it did make me want to know how it all ended.

Lyla is a virologist whose research has not produced the results she, and the school she is working for, were hoping for. She is facing the end of her contract and wondering where she goes from here. Lyla thought she would be more settled at 32 years old. Her boyfriend of over two years, Nico, is a struggling actor just waiting for his big break. When Nico's agent approaches him with the opportunity for a new Reality TV series for couples, he is so excited. This will surely be his big break. He just needs to get Lyla on board, but how hard could that be? Afterall, she would be guaranteed a two-week trip to an island paradise and help Nico get his big break.

3 1/2-Stars

My thanks to the Publisher and Author for providing a complimentary digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley. This is my fair, honest and personal review. All opinions are mine alone and were not biased in any way.

One Perfect Couple had so many twists and turns....and the journal aspect really kept me on my toes.