Wonderful thriller again by Ware! She is a go to writer if you love thrillers. I will recommend this to all I know looking for a great thriller.

Ruth Ware never misses. This drew me in right away with a unique premise and POV. The whole plot was gripping and nearly unputdownable.

3.5 stars. This has more of a survivalist focus rather than the kind of thriller she generally produces. Didn't have any serious 'twists' just an aggressive antagonist that was pretty easy to clock early on in the book.

Ruth Ware has done it again! This was such a fun summer thriller, perfect for fans of Survivor and Love Island. I flew through it -- if you're looking for something light and fast-paced, I'd highly recommend ONE PERFECT COUPLE!

In Ruth Ware's latest thriller, Lyla's post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself heading off to a tropical paradise with Nico. They are boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone upset, an overnight storm makes things worse. The group is cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, they have no phones, and no contact with the crew, the group must try to survive. The situation takes on a deadly twist with every new revelation. I loved the twists and turns and Ruth Ware's books just get better and better.

This book was a ripoff of love island, survivor and the lord of flies. There were so many characters and all of them were the same. There were parts that didn’t even make any sense. It was atrocious.

One Perfect Couple 🏝️☀️🌊🐚🛳️👩🏼‍❤️‍👨🏽💉
by Ruth Ware
4.8/5 ⭐️

First, my heartfelt thanks to NetGalley, Ruth Ware, and the publisher for gifting me an ARC of this title.

I read the ARC and listened to the audiobook for One Perfect Couple, both of which kept me hooked the whole way through. The audiobook is narrated by Imogen Church, who is a joy to listen to. Even when I was physically reading I could still hear her voice narrating.

This is about a group of couples who end up stranded on an island as part of a dating show. Everything you think this book will be about? Forget it. It was SO much better than I could have ever imagined. I’ve picked up Ware’s titles here and there, but man am I glad I didn’t let this one pass me by. If you’ve never read a book of hers before, grab this one to start! This is truly one of the best summer reads I’ve consumed so far. I stayed up until 2 AM last night to finish it, and I haven’t done that in a long time. 😳

I was rooting for Lyla the entire way through and the entire cast of characters, from Conor to Santana, were a joy to experience. Tuck this into your lake/beach/vacation bag and buckle in for a ride!! 🚢

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
Narrator: Imogen Church
Rating: 3 stars
Pub date: 5/20

Thank you so much to Gallery Books for my advanced copy and to Simon Audio for my complimentary audiobook.

"One Perfect Couple" is a fast-paced, high-tension thriller that combines reality TV drama with life-or-death stakes. The story centers around Lyla, a scientist in a rut, and her aspiring actor boyfriend Nico, who join a reality show called The Perfect Couple. The tropical Ever After Island seems idyllic, but after a storm leaves them isolated, contestants start ending up dead.

This author excels at creating a suspenseful atmosphere, with the island’s isolation ramping up the tension among the five couples. The "And Then There Were None" trope kept me engaged, though the final reveal is somewhat predictable and disappointing.

I went back and forth between my ecopy and the audiobook, and the narrator did an incredible job bringing all the characters to life. She made distinctive differences to her voice for each character, which was easy to follow.

After seeing so many great reviews, I desperately wanted to love this one, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. It’s over the top, and you have to suspend your disbelief immediately. If you can do that, you’ll be able to enjoy this as a fun beach read.

Another great book from Ware! All of her books are absolute page turners, and this is no exception. While this one falls more into the thriller rather than mystery category I still really enjoyed it! Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This fast paced summer read grabbed my attention right from the start! I loved how it was broken down into 3 parts and kept me at the wedge of my seat the entire time! Definitely recommend!

I am a huge Ruth Ware fan and I am always excited to read her new releases, so when I was approved for this ARC I was over the moon. While I did enjoy this book, it was not my favorite Ruth Ware book so far.

I loved the premise of reality TV cast members being stuck on an island together and everything going terribly wrong. There was some very good misdirection throughout the book, however it reached a point where it felt like there was only one reasonable answer to everything. While I appreciate that the book did not go into the territory of unbelievable, I would have liked to have still been guessing at the end rather than just seeing how a few loose ends were tied up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. I leave this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

Ruth Ware gets me every time! I have no idea what was going on with this couple the entire book and was surprised at the ending!!! There were a lot of shocking moments and twists in this book and I just love Ruth Wares writing so much. This is a domestic thriller that you do not want to miss.!!!’

3.5 stars

Ruth Ware's thrillers have been hit or miss for me. While this one started off as a potential hit, it just missed the mark in my opinion. I think I'm just overwhelmed with the amount of locked-room/stranded/survival/"and then there were none"-type novels that I have consumed in the last year. This is just one of many and I may have had one too many.

First of all, this book is quite slow. Nico and Lila are chosen to participate in a Love Island style reality show set in the Indian Ocean called One Perfect Couple. This is promoted to them as a show that's already been picked up by a streaming service and will be a hit, however the contestants come to find out that it's not the case at all. We learn about what's expected of them on the island, what filming will be like, and get glimpses of the fact that some of the equipment might not be working correctly. And then the storm hits. Of course we expect things to get tense and scary with these people basically stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean alone, with limited food, water, and medical issues with no communication with the main land or the ship that brought them there. But even with a nervous feeling, it was obvious who the killer was and why. I enjoyed the break between chapters, hearing from one contestants journal describing the deteriorating conditions. I also enjoyed the many strong female characters. But the suspense/mystery wasn't really there.

If you're a fan of survival/stranded stories and reality TV, you'll enjoy reading One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book was quite the dread filled roller coaster! I have to say I was on the edge of my seat for most of it and Ruth Ware did an amazing job creating a sense of instability and fear. I did feel like the book dragged on a little bit and the ending did not have the twist I was hoping for, but that just may be personal preference. I overall had a lot of fun reading this and kept rushing back to it to try to find out what would happen next, which is always a good sign!

Thank you, net galley, for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This one kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! I really enjoyed the dual timelines and the reality show premise. This was a true to form thriller and kept me guessing the entire time. I really enjoyed many of Ruth Ware's previous novels, and will be recommending this one also.

This book was so terrifying, being stranded on a tiny island, dealing with medicine possibly running out, reality show contestants and a killer.

I really enjoyed this book and once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I loved the mix of reality tv, survival and mystery.

In my opinion, this book is definitely better than The Woman in Cabin 10! The characters here are far more enjoyable, and the plot is well-constructed and engaging. Ruth’s writing tends to have a slower pace compared to most thrillers, so you might need to push through the initial pages to reach the heart of the story. However, once you get to the middle, the narrative becomes incredibly absorbing, turning into a binge-worthy, fast-paced read. The ending is satisfying, tying everything up nicely, and the final page even had me tearing up. If you enjoy a slower-paced, slasher-type thriller, I highly recommend this one!

I’ve read and enjoyed several of Ruth Ware’s books, and while she’s not quite an auto-buy I am happy to see a new release from her and had no qualms about picking this one up based on the blurb:

A high-tension and ingenious thriller following five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

I wasn’t sure about the reality show setting – I’m a bit of a reality tv aficionado (judge away!), though to be honest relationship shows aren’t my main interest. The only season of The Bachelor I watched (of many, many available) was the one where the British guy (think Wish-version Hugh Grant) got engaged to Lorenzo Lamas’ daughter (spoiler: it didn’t work out).

Anyway, knowing a bit about reality tv made me wonder if some of the details would feel off to me, but Ware did a fairly decent job, I thought. There were a few bits that I didn’t buy, but some of it is explained away by the suggestion that the show is being done on spec (I think that’s the phrase) with the hopes of finding a buyer. I just suspended my disbelief and went with it.

Lyla is definitely a fish out of water amongst the other contestants – more girl next door than femme fatale, and a scientist rather than Instagram model. Her boyfriend Nico is much more the type you’d imagine on a show like this, and also much more jazzed about being on it (the blurb makes it sound like Lyla chooses to audition, but really she is heavily pressured by Nico, who is sure it’ll be his big break). Lyla finally reluctantly agrees to the trip. She doesn’t evince much concern about appearing on television, at least not for the reasons that I would have. But again – disbelief suspended.

The contestants are transported via yacht to the luxury island they’ll be filming on. On the yacht the couples meet each other, size the others up, and almost revolt when they find out totally unexpectedly that their electronics are all being confiscated for the duration (disbelief….sigh; I really feel like they should have figured that out way earlier).

The first day starts with an exercise in how well you know your partner, and chaos erupts when an unexpected contestant is abruptly eliminated. Lyla ends up “winning” and her reward is a night’s stay in the special winner’s suite with Joel, the male winner. Lyla and Joel previously had bonded lightly on the yacht as the two academics in a cast of models and influencers.

Important (and perhaps unrealistic, though I don’t know enough about the behind-the-scenes part of reality tv to say) detail: the contestants are left on the island with only one PA babysitting them while the crew and the producer (a shady character named Baz) head back on the yacht to drop off their eliminated contestant on the mainland. There are supposedly cameras in all the lodgings, so I guess they figure they won’t miss any drama that way. It felt odd to me, though.

Lyla wakes in the middle of the night to a terrific storm, a storm that ends up knocking out communications and isolating the contestants – they are effectively marooned.

Two people are found dead on the island as a result of the storm. Also, there is real concern about what may have happened to the yacht out on the open ocean, and apparently no one has reason to believe that things were organized in an above-board enough manner that they’ll be rescued anytime soon, or that the outside world knows where they are. The group immediately begins organizing to ration their meager available food and water.

I’ve seen comparisons between One Perfect Couple and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, but what follows feels more like a twisted version of Lord of the Flies (not that LotF is not twisted enough). It’s not really suspense of the kind I usually read or necessarily expected based on the Ware books I have read.

Which is not a bad thing! I was just expecting more mystery, but the villain (villains? maybe one villain and one villain jr.) is made clear fairly early on. Further, the deaths that follow are not very mysterious either – the first death (after the initial two from the storm) actually takes place in full view of everyone, and leaves most of the castaways unsettled but ambivalent about how to proceed. They are interested in surviving, and if that means not rocking the boat, they’ll keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

As tensions rise and the food and water start to run low, Lyla bonds with some of the other women, but other contestants are isolating themselves and one quickly evolves (devolves?) from “leader” to “tyrant.”

Back to my expectations for a moment – for the longest time I was expecting a twist, and I thought I knew what it might be. That twist didn’t materialize, and the actual twist was a lot more subtle. I wonder if the suspense/thriller/mystery is unique in having these…sort of the expectation that the reader will be trying to figure out the ending as they read? Certainly, romance is different in that the expectation is a HEA, and the details often aren’t something that I, at least, as a reader, are anticipating or trying to guess ahead of time, at least not to any great degree. General fiction, on the other hand, is a bit too much of a crapshoot for me to read that way, but mysteries and thrillers INVITE the reader to try to guess what might happen and how it all might resolve itself.

So for me at least, there’s a bit of a distraction that can happen when you’re trying to pick up clues that your theory is correct – you are perceiving events a particular way in support of that theory. In the case of One Perfect Couple, there was the fact that the plot was not what I expected, and that even after I realized that I was sort of trying to fit a conventional thriller framework onto it, and that affected how I read it (incomplete reading of the blurb is partly to blame here, and I’ve come to realize that I do that often – either don’t carefully read the blurb or don’t retain the information it includes, and so I end up expecting something different from what the blurb actually told me was going to happen).

I’m not sure why I’m belaboring this so much – I think I’m trying to figure out out if/how all this affected my enjoyment of the book. I did like it – Ware is a strong writer and if Lyla wasn’t the most compelling protagonist, she was sympathetic enough, and proved to be both smart and tough as the story went on. I can’t quite shake the feeling that I wanted a slightly different story than the one I got, but I am fully clear that that’s on me, and does not reflect on the author at all.

(One other issue that was mostly a plus but maybe a bit of a minus? – the villain is detestable. I admire how detestable the villain is and how realistically it’s portrayed. But the visceral ick the villain gave me maybe affected how I felt about the story somewhat.)

I think I’ll give The Perfect Couple a B – even more than usual this is a reflection on many disparate feelings I had about the book. Still looking forward to Ware’s next book.

A compulsively good book! Well-written. The characters were intriguing and somewhat hard to figure out. I never really knew who the killer was. There was a nice twist at the end, but nothing to intense.