Abbie awakens with no idea of the events that happened during the past five years. During her search to learn who she is she is told that she had the perfect life. She was also a creative celebrated artist and perfect wife and mother. Now if she can only get it back...

This psychological thriller grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go (in fact, I stayed up too late binge reading this one since I couldn't wait to find out how it ends!) But more than a thrilling story, it also runs deeper, and makes you question what it means to be perfect. And what it means to be a mother and wife. And what it means to be human.

The perfect wife is a sentient robot who interacts much the same as the individual she represents. Much of the book is from the mind of this robot. Other information is from another mind, but just who is not revealed until near the end. The writing style is simple and straightforward, and the characters are defined in detail and appear very realistic. Suspense grows throughout the story, with several surprises along the way. The family for the robot includes a son with severe autism, which is the trigger for much of the conflict between husband and wife. The robot is using an advanced form of Artificial Intelligence to provide very humanlike thoughts and actions. This is a good story and is very thought-provoking.

Last summer, I devoured Delaney's second novel in one sitting - and I would have done the same here had life not intervened! At first, the perspective threw me off a bit... most of the book is told in second person-singular ("you") and the other parts are in first-person plural ("we"). But, I quickly got used to it once I became absorbed into the story. The premise, on its surface, is similar to so many in this suspense/thriller genre - the titular perfect wife has gone missing. But, this book's fresh spin on that sets this opening five years later, with the cobot (for "companion robot") Abbie "waking" up and discovering that she has been created to help with the grief of Tim, the husband. As cobot Abbie learns about human Abbie's past, she begins to uncover secrets and maybe even flashes of real memories that may help uncover the truth.

The "we" portion of the novel provides additional background, coming from a sort of collective opinion of the employees of Scott Robotics, Tim's company and the creators of the cobots. This does lend the book a certain science fiction flair, but I wouldn't really categorize it as that... the book is very flawlessly written and is not only engaging from the get-go, but also quite unique. Plus, the ominous tone really keeps the reader on edge. On top of all the family dynamics, Abbie and Tim's son, Danny, is autistic (and his character especially shines as realistic). The book is creepy, exciting and the plot definitely holds some real shocks! Plus, the whole book just sort of oozes a cinematic quality that makes it all so easy to visualize. And it's a satisfying read in the end - I loved how inventive this book is as well being quite the suspenseful thriller. I am really excited to see what Delaney will write next!

4.5 stars
What doesn’t come across from the book’s blurb is that this is sci-fi. Abbie awakes from what she thinks has been an accident. Her husband and child are alive, so no worries, until her husband says that she’s actually a cobot, a “companion robot” -that she actually died and what she thinks of as HER memories have been uploaded into her.

Now Abbie maybe a robot, but she’s one with empathy. It was hard to remember that she wasn’t human. And the book contains the best definition of what it means to be the parent of an autistic child I’ve ever read. (The reason why is explained in the Acknowledgments.)

I always find it unusual when a story is told in the second person. But Abbie’s portions are. The historic sections are told in first person but we aren’t told who the narrator is. It’s a very disconcerting approach but it works really well.

The book is an interesting mix between sci-fi and domestic thriller. It raises some fascinating moral questions and will have you thinking about what makes someone human. Abbie is even asked at one point if she thinks she has a soul. As someone who hates that pets are treated as property, I really got into the legal aspects as well.

This book took me places I didn’t expect. It’s one I highly recommend, even for those that think they don’t like sci-fi. My only criticism is that Tim is more caricature than real person. I had trouble buying his simplistic view of women which read like a Freud 101 case.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.

She is a miracle of science.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives—and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?

Beware the man who calls you . . .

THE PERFECT WIFE



My Thoughts: At first glance, The Perfect Wife could be one man’s attempt to recreate his dead wife, unable to move on after the loss of her. Since he is adept at technological advances, what Tim does to create his dream wife seems almost sweet.

But it doesn’t take long for the artificial version to fill the reader in on the true motives, and even then, we have persistent questions about what is really going on.

The story unfolds in alternating narratives: Real Abbie vs. Artificial Version. We soon come to empathize with each part of her, turning pages rapidly to learn what she will ultimately decide to do when her very existence is threatened.

At the very end, I was stunned by what happened. Could there be some kind of happiness in whatever chosen existence prevails? Would the Real Abbie please stand up? 5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in return for my honest review. This book was so good. It kept my attention and really kept me guessing!!!! I never knew what was going to happen next!!!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery!!

Abbie is the perfect wife, a selfless human, always doing and saying the right thing. This thought provoking thriller of sci-fi proportions will have you falling out of your seat. Just when I thought it was going one way it went another. Just when I really wanted to dislike a character I came to love them. But most of all, I learned to have empathy for Abbie, even though she was not what she seemed, she truly was human in the end, for all she did was love her son, just as any mother should. Just read it already!

This book was a wild, weird and totally unexpected ride into the world science fiction, suspense and psychological thriller. Combining a warning against Artificial Intelligence and a husband’s determination to have a perfect wife, this book is not at all believable, but it was definitely entertaining and absorbing. Abbie awakens in a hospital without any memory of her life, but her husband informs her that she had a terrible accident and is a great mom to their autistic son, an surfer and a talented artist. Abbie knows that all is not as it seems, and her memory evolves as does the book. This is probably the most original story that I have read in a long time. It reminded me of “The Stepford Wives” but it has so much more depth to it. Abbie actually has a personality and wants to make choices. This is a domestic thriller with so many secrets to be revealed and so much deception to be uncovered. Fans of contemporary psychological thrillers will enjoy this book, especially the twists and the unexpected revelations.

I had nightmares when I went to sleep partway through the novel. I dreamed of AI, of robotic people taking over my life. It was horrifying, but it also was a huge sign to me that this novel had achieved what J.P. Delaney had likely hoped for. It got under my skin, it was unforgettable, it was consuming. Abbie awakens with little memory, she doesn't know what has happened or why her recovery is such a miracle, but she will once she arrives home to the truth. As her husband tells her, she's a miracle of science, the woman he loves, an AI with thoughts and feelings. Some things don't add up though, like what happened five years ago and why her husband doesn't seem to be telling her everything.

Y'all, The Perfect Wife is like The Stepford Wives mixed with I, Robot; it's just a little too perfect and things are a little too neat. Luckily, we get two perspectives, that of Abbie's and that of an unknown from the tech offices of Tim Scott. We read about a woman finding her memories, finding her place after being away so long, and we read about the same woman, many years earlier, as she creates art and steals the heart of young, socially awkward Tim. These two narratives, at first, meet in the middle, but soon the dark sides of young love, of feverish desire for fame, and the love a mother has for her child, change the tone completely. The story turns bleak and while readers don't know what happened, like AI Abbie we can guess that something terrible happened five years ago, we can guess that someone is holding back the truth.

I was completely caught up in this novel, I am not very often into science-fiction type novels, but I love how J.P Delaney writes a thriller and he mixed the two genres very well. The story touches on misogyny, artificial intelligence, marriage, mental health, and more. It's a complex story with philosophical questions that will leave you questioning your beliefs and morals long after the last page. The Perfect Wife is filled with twists, it was impossible to guess what came next and I found myself shocked at the ending. It truly is a novel where nothing is as it seems.

It’s said that opposites attract, and that was true in the case of Abbie Cullen and Tim Scott. Tim was an intense, driven owner of a tech corporation, while Abbie was an artist who loved surfing. Tim hired Abbie to be the artist in residence as he was designing and developing “shopbots,” automated salespeople that were programmed to respond to customers and upsell as much as possible.

Abbie’s disappearance nearly five years earlier left Tim devastated, and he came up with a creative solution to calm his grief. Meet Abbie, the upgraded “shopbot” who is programmed with the real Abbie’s memories and mannerisms. She is able, through a system of complicated algorithms, to access these memories and learn new things, the better to fulfill Tim’s fantasy of having the perfect wife.

This was a fascinating read, and I was captivated by Abbie and her determination to discover everything she could about Tim and the relationship he and the original Abbie had had, especially since she wasn’t human.

I've read and enjoyed all of J.P. Delaney's previous novels, so I was excited to pick this one up! It definitely has more of a sci-fi element than Delaney's previous works, which is hinted at in the blurb, but was not what I was expecting. Finding out Abbie was actually a "cobot", or "companion robot", was a surprise to me, and to be honest, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy the book because of that. 

Overall, I did really like The Perfect Wife, up until the final few pages. The beginning and middle of the book focus on Abbie trying to figure out what happened to the real Abbie, as her body was never found. The circumstances of her disappearance are suspicious, and many people believe her husband was involved. 

Chapters alternate between past and present, which was enjoyable, and I liked seeing the real Abbie's chapters juxtaposed with cobot Abbie's. Despite this book being a thriller/mystery, the underlying sci-fi elements give the reader a creepy insight into what the not-so-distant future may look like based on current technological advances. 

While I did find the ending of the book to be a little confusing, and a little rushed, I did really enjoy the book overall, and rated it 4 stars. I'd like to thank Netgalley and Random House Bellantine for my copy of the book. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

This was a completely unique thriller, with a sci-fi element! I was completely enthralled with the story, both the mystery and the moral question of robots. I was so glad I had nothing to do all day yesterday so I could devour this book! A definite 5🌟 read!!!

Let's talk about how CRAZY the story is in The Perfect Wife. It is not at all what I thought it would be about. I was expecting some book about a murdering wife who's trying to be the best. NOPE. Not at all. Instead, I was treated to a book about the emotions and struggles of an AI, who "used to be" (not sure what the lingo is here) married to a visionary. Then the wife died or disappeared or something nefarious, and the visionary decided to put his wife's essence in an AI. Bizarre, yes. But so so freaking good.

I read this book over two days and had a hard time putting it down. Nothing like I thought, and everything I didn't know I wanted. Super great book.

Highly recommend!

Review The Perfect Wife
Abbie wakes up from what seems like a coma. Then she learns that she is a cobot, a companion robot, with Artificial Intelligence created by Tim to replicate his dead wife, Abbie. Her hair and skin are coverings over a plastic body with moveable parts. She has many but not all of Abbie’s memories. She also has many gaps in her memories that will fill in eventually.

Tim Scott was the hard driven & extremely wealthy founder of Scott Robotics, a tech startup in Silicone Valley. His beautiful wife Abby had vanished 5 years before and left Tim and Danny’s, their autistic 9 year old son alone. Tim professed his great love for Abby, the cobot, but his work took precedence over his family life as it did when Abby was alive.

This story is told from Abby’s point of view as well as from a historical point of view. We learn about Tim and Abby’s courtship as well as their married life. Yet the more we learn about Tim, the more unappealing he became. He expected his employees to perform extraordinary things but excoriated them when they fail. He showed little interest in Danny’s progress but professed to love him as well.

Abby, the cobot, started getting text messages from an anonymous source and began to investigate the circumstances surrounding Abby’s disappearance. She learned that Tim had been accused of Abby’s murder but the case was thrown out when the judge ruled that without a body and conclusive evidence, it could not be proven that Abby was really dead.

This psychological thriller kept my attention soon after it began. My initial reaction was a distaste for science fiction stories but the story was so much more interesting. I was hooked until the very end and surprised at how it did end. The author based the experiences with therapies for autistic children on her own experiences as the mother of an older autistic child.

This ARC was provided by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book fascinated by the description and the author. But this was just not my type of thriller. It was a bit too sci-fi for me. While it did have a twist, it just wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped! I will say this, the concept is totally original and well written. Just not my cup of tea.

DNF at 35%. The plot sounded really interesting, and I liked Delaney's other two books all right, but this one just didn't work for me. Tim was an awful character, and nothing showed me why Abbie would want to be with him to begin with. While the mystery aspect of what happened to Abbie kept me going as far as I did, I skipped to the end to see how it panned out, and uh...let's just say I'd have been really upset if I had read 400+ pages for the ending/explanation that was served up.

People may wind up enjoying this, but just know, the description of the book versus what you get in the book are almost night and day...and not in a good way.

This was a very exciting book. It never lagged and kept my interest throughout. The ending was a total surprise and was extremely well written. I highly recommend it.

The Perfect Wife: A Novel
Author: JP Delaney
The genre of this book is a psychological thriller. The author keeps you in suspense until the very end, which fooled me, as I did not think the person who manufactured and plotted the “crime” was one of the main protagonists. I am not a lover of Sc-Fi and it did take me longer than normal to finish the book.
Tim Scott, famous entrepreneur, is married to Abbie Cullen. One day she goes missing while surfing in rough waters. Five years later, Tim builds a robot re-creation of his wife (cobot Abbie). This robot can talk and was created to have emotions and even memories. The cobot begins to look into what actually happened to Tim’s wife. We follow the twists and turns of this thriller, which is disturbing, and at the same time fascinating.

OMG - what a great book!! The well-crafted storyline will keep you guessing until the end. This is the first book I’ve read by JP Delaney and I look forward to reading more.

Holy Moly was this a fantastic book. I read this book in less than a day. It complexly sucked me in right from the beginning. And I literally could not put it down.

The book is told in the second person, and on two different timelines. While some authors would not be able to do this without simply confusing readers, XX does it in a way that not only makes it clear what is going on, but it somehow adds to the story.

This book kept me guessing from the very beginning and I loved every minute of it. There is. West world feel to this as a robot is essentially the main character. And much like east world you are made to wonder just what makes something human.