The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney is a thought provoking, clever read. While I thought I knew what was coming - Delaney surprised me...TWICE. Although I love suspense/thrillers - this is nothing like anything I have ever read. For that reason alone, this book will stick with me and be a quick recommendation to anyone who is looking for a compulsive read. I highly recommend it!

I really wanted to like this book because I liked J.P. Delaney’s previous books but sadly this one wasn’t for me. I love thrillers but this mix with sci-fi really got to me and I just couldn’t bring myself to like this book. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I only continued reading because I was curious about what really happened to human Abbie. I appreciate the opportunity to learn a little about AI but in this context it really creeped me out.

Thanks to NetGally and the publishers for the ARC and the opportunity to offer my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Ballantine Books for the advanced copy.
Abby wakes up in a disconcerting position, unsure of what has happened to her. It turns out she is not exactly who she thought, no is anything in her life what it appears. I couldn't stop reading! This is a gripping story full of questions on what humanity really means and what love truly is. Am looking forward to whatever this author writes next.

WOW! I wasn't expecting that. Go in blindly. Your mind and the actions of the characters will have you believing in one thing and you will be floored when you realize that there is more than meets the eye in The Other Woman by Sandie Jones. This is my first read by this author and I was intrigued, captivated and this book was downright unputdownable.

When Emily met Adam she thought she had found the man of her dreams. Not realizing what came with him... his baggage—namely his mother Pammie.

His mother and her need to be in every facet of Adam's life changes the dynamic of Emily and Adam's relationship and I couldn't help but HATE Pammie. Every little thing she did seemed spiteful and mean and I just couldn't stand her.

Until the truths were revealed and whoa... I don't read a ton of psych thrillers so I didn't see this one coming.

The Other Woman is addicting and a complete surprise for a debut author. I say this because I have been let down so many times by new authors that I went into this with an open mind and was so freaking pleasantly surprised. Addictive, well-written, suspenseful and a complete page-turner.

This is an author that you do not want to miss and I look forward to reading more from her!!!

I love the story. The writing is fantastic. Definitely a must read! I’ve been a hug fan of this author for quite some time and this book does not disappoint.

This novel was an extremely unique psychological thriller. It had so many twists that even the ending was completely unexpected. An amazingly plausible yet fictitious novel!

Imagine all the people.......(John Lennon)

But what if the people are really not the people who say they are the people?

J.P. Delaney creates a whirlwind of opposing ideas and characters marching to different drummers and hearing rhythms not privy to all. Buckle your seatbelts. The Perfect Wife is at the wheel and it's gonna be a rough, rough ride.

Abbie Cullen, talented artist and superb surfer, died under strange circumstances over five years ago. Yet, she wakes one morning groggy and trying to sort out her whereabouts. Slivers of memory crash and dive within her confused mind.

Her husband, Tim, is by her side shocked to see her stirring. Tim is the CEO and founder of Scott Robotics in Silicon Valley.He's an absolute wizard at what he does with versions of AI. He dotes on Abbie and their young son, Danny, who is autistic. And it is Tim's obsession with his wife and son that will send this story into the speed cycle. He bought Abbie a multi-million dollar beach house for an engagement present. He researches every advancement and new technique in regard to autism, sending little Danny to schools he alone deems worthy.

But there's something a bit off with this cozy little family.......way off. And it's best that you peek behind the elegant draperies yourself to see what is amiss. Not going to give away a single nugget here. Just gonna let you trip over a few boulders on your way in.

J.P. Delaney has upped the ante in this one. I've read The Girl Before and Believe Me and enjoyed them both. This one was hit out of the ballpark for sure with its original storyline and features. Delaney presents scenarios that tip the scientific cup of morality and ethics. Just because you can, should you? Hmmmm........

I received a copy of The Perfect Wife through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Ballantine Books and to J.P. Delaney for the opportunity.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this book! It’s set to be published on August 6th.
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Abbie wakes up with no memory of who she is or what happened to put her in the condition she’s in. Her husband says she had a tragic accident five years ago. He tells her that some brand new technology has brought her back and he helps Abbie begin to piece together the life she’s forgotten. But when Abbie starts to remember things those things makes her uneasy and she starts having doubts about the man she loves. Is he telling the truth?
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Woah!!! This was unlike anything I’ve read before. Legitimately genre bending! I tried so hard one night to finish it because I HAD to know what would happen but I had to give up at 2 a.m. Haha! It was suspenseful, thrilling, and jaw-droppingly twisty. I’m looking forward to reading J.P. Delaney’s The Girl Before which has been hanging out on my shelves. I definitely recommend this book.
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Now I’m off to go prattle on about it to my husband which will probably be annoying because my head is still spinning😂

Another great read by JP Delaney!
The concept of the book, artificial intelligence, is on point and the characters done in such a way that I felt the whole range of emotions while reading. Imagine being "woken" up and being told you aren't really "you" anymore. Your thoughts, emotions, etc. were implanted into an artificial body and your real body was gone. I didn't want the book to end. The author did a great job at finding ways to make you rethink your stand in each chapter.
I highly recommend- a great suspenseful thriller.

I had to stretch hard to put this one at a 3 for me. I think the synopsis should have mentioned that this was primarily about AI and I would not have chosen to read this one. While it did have some good parts and kept me fairly interested, I am not a sci-fi person so didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would since I didn't realize that was the premise of the book.

Wow! What a read! This book seems to be a mixture of thriller, a little sci-fi and a family trying to navigate the challenges of a child with Autism. The writing is great and the book is full of plot twists that keep you guessing until the end. A very entertaining read that I highly recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine.

Thank you so very much to the publisher, Ballantine Books, NetGalley and the author, JP Delaney, for an early read of this book, in exchange for an honest review of this book.

The book focuses mainly on a companion robot that was made to resemble a scientists deceased wife. I honestly wasn't a big fan of the concept, and the plot of the book, and I had a very hard time getting through this one, to give a review.

This just isn't my type of book, however I can relate to the concept of The Perfect Spouse, as I could see how that would be beneficial in everyday life, however I don't think I would ever understand living with this type of 'spouse'.

The writing was great, however it just isn't something that I would be able to think about again, or read again.

My uncle died and we put our dog to sleep this week. I am not in the right frame of mind to enjoy a book about comfort robots that embody the personalities and physical features of deceased loved ones.
It is just too much for my bruised heart to process right now.
The three chapters I read were very well-written and engaging. I read this book in a different time, I would thoroughly enjoy it. It would be a good book to read on a plane ride where you can get sucked into a book for several hours with no interruptions.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.
Edited to add: I'm required to give a star rating so I'll put it in the middle. 3 stars.

So, I was pretty vocal about how badly I disliked "The Girl Before." So you are probably wondering what in the world caused me to willingly pick out "The Perfect Wife" to review. Well, I heard that it had a lot of science fiction elements in it and since I want to read more science fiction this year I decided to go for it. I initially thought it was going to be something superficial, but Delaney works in the science fiction aspects very well. I am a bit disappointed though that other reviewers gave away the jaw dropping beginning (don't do that!) though was happy I was unspoiled for the rest of this. "The Perfect Wife" does a great job of showing Abbie before when she first meets her husband Tim and then what life is like now that she has waken up. The only reason why I didn't give this five stars is that parts of the book dragged here and there. Also, I wish that we had some confirmations on some loose threads that Delaney left dangling.

"The Perfect Wife" follows a woman named Abbie. She wakes up in a room and is told that five years ago she was in an accident, and the man that is looming over her is her husband Tim. Abbie quickly finds out she is ready to go home with her husband Tim who she barely remembers. Abbie's memories slowly start to come back and she remembers that Tim is a CEO of a company focused on developing cobots (companion robots) and he is up there with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in terms of money and influence in the tech industry. Abbie also realizes that she and Tim had a son together, Danny. Danny was diagnosed with Heller's disease (FYI, this is a childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) and is a rare pervasive developmental disorder which involves regression of developmental ability in language, social function and motor skills) and worries that her son won't remember her and she is scared that her being away/sick has caused his condition to worsen. However, Abbie returns to her home and finds it pretty much unchanged from when she was there last. And after a while Abbie starts to find clues that things were not all champagne and roses with Tim.

So first off. We have after Abbie (who we get to follow via first person point of view) and before Abbie (who we only hear about via an anonymous narrator). You realize right away why there are differences between Abbie before and after. Abbie before seems more confident and all of the dialogue showing how she was when she was first hired by Tim to be an artist in residence at his company showed a woman who was not going to be bowled over by anyone. Slowly though via the Abbie before and after you start to get a better picture of Abbie and also of Tim. Abbie is warned here and there about Tim who starts to do what he can to attract Abbie and start to date her. You are left with two people who it sounds like fell in love and then got dealt a terrible hand when their son was diagnosed with Heller. However, that's just a small part of the story. I can't really get into this character much without spoiling, but I thought the way that Delaney handled Abbie was very good. I had sympathy for both versions that we are shown and loved how it ended.

Tim is a typical tech bro that seems to have softened up when he met and fell in love with Abbie. It seems that Tim only sees Abbie as perfect, she's the perfect wife and mother. He doesn't see anything wrong with her at all.

We also get a lot of secondary characters that I thought were developed very well. We have Abbie after interacting with Tim's best friend who also works at the company (Mark), Mark's wife Jenny (who also works for Tim), Abbie's sister Lisa, and Danny's therapist that seems to party live in and take care of him.

The writing I thought was good. I was initially worried when we went back and forth, but I see why Delaney did that. You also have the narrator becoming more and more omnipotent about things after a while and you realize why that is at the end. Delaney also did a good job with talking about and showing how the tech industry even years in the future still has a whole dude bro culture that needs changed. I also thought it was great that Delaney showed us the answer to a certain extent about do androids dream of electric sheep.

The flow was a bit clunky at first, but quickly smooths it way out. I think it's just because we have that reveal very early in the story and then we jump back in time to when Abbie was first hired by Tim and then we jump forward again. After a while I got used to it.

The ending was heartbreaking and unexpected. I liked it though we are given a clue that there's a cycle that is going to get repeated until someone finally puts a stop to it.

After having read and loved The Girl Before, mostly because of the creative storyline, I was very excited to receive a copy of this book. What a book! Creative, Creepy, Captivating! A robot designed to be an exact replica for a dead wife, but why? The answer to this isn't so simple and neither is this book. Loved the ending! I highly recommend!

When I first started reading this book, I had to stop and re-read the description. Was this the book I requested? I didn't expect Abbie to be quite like THIS. But I read on and loved every minute. It's both entertaining and thought provoking. The underlying them will leave you pondering the concepts of "self" and "humanity."

Abbie wakes up and realizes she's in the hospital. Very quickly she finds out that things aren't as they seem. This book was very different from my usual books. There's an element of sci-fi, and I'm not usually interested in this genre. However, this book captured my interest quickly. There are many twists and turns in the book! What IS the "Perfect Wife"? Abbie's husband, Tim, believes he can, and has, answered this question. But will his creation be perfect? This is a great exploration of the links between family members and the strong bonds of motherhood.

Abbie wakes up in what she believes to be a hospital room with no recollection on how she got there. She has her husband by her side however things seem odd. Little by little she notices things that don't seem right. Then Tim explains that she is in fact a robot. He has made a replica of his missing wife. His perfect wife! As you start to piece things together you're not so sure that is true. Or even which one to trust. Tim the silicone valley tycoon or the information you have been putting together about Abbie.

I have been doing this a lot lately, going in blind and it has worked out great with this book. I didn't read a review previously so I was unsure what to expect. I am the last person to pick up a sci-fi book yet it was great! I was caught up in what Abbie would find out about the "real Abbie". I wanted to see what Tim's reasoning behind making a robot of his missing wife. It all comes together nicely with a twist in the end I had no idea coming. (Two of them actually)

If you like a good psychological thriller you will love The Perfect Wife!

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Netgalley.com and Ballantine Books. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.

The Perfect Wife is just that, perfect. An excellent mix of science fiction, mystery and psychological thiller. It is set to be this summer's biggest hit.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

I should have done more research on this book. Had I known it was about a woman who died — and was recreated by her husband into a robot— I never would’ve requested it. I read enough to know it’s not something I’m interested in. It wasn’t badly written, just not a subject I want to read about. I’m giving it a neutral 3 for that reason.