This is your worse nightmare if you think computers are too smart. Programing computers to think or solve complex problems is reality to the extreme in this story. The computer actually starts thinking and acts with emotion. The husband who has lost his wife builds a substitute who looks and eventually acts like the original human wife. Will she suffer the same fate as the real wife or will she escape and save the autistic son. I really got caught up in the story and the many shocking surprises.

I adored THE GIRL BEFORE so I couldn’t wait to read this new book by JP Delaney. Although the book was well written and the storyline solid, I really couldn’t get into the plot. I don’t want to put any spoilers out there, but what happens to Abbie isn’t what I expected when I read the blurb and how the story unfolded for me about she got to the opening of the book was a bit…much.
Having said that, I’m sure this book will be a bestseller because the elements of storytelling are solid and the premise – again , no spoilers – is an intriguing one.

Thank you netgalley but really no thanks. Couldn't get past the first couple pages. Robots?? Not my thing....however I will say the writing was good.

I loved this book. I found it less “psy-fi,” as other readers have called it, and more of a domestic thriller - my favorite genre.

I love books that voyer into a marriage, and display the reality within. I also am fascinated with the potential future of AI. This book provides both, with a swift narrative that carries the reader along.

Well this book was... weird. I was intrigued in the beginning, then weirded out, the interested, then I don't know. I alway enjoy reading from 2 POVs and I liked the 2nd POV at the end (spoiler). However, there was some droning on a little bit that I had to gloss over. I skipped an entire page about a recipe... unnecessary. I saw afterwards that the authors son has the same disease as the son in this book, but I just didn't like how he discussed the sons disease. Overall, it was an ok book but I like JP Delaney's other 2 book much better.

I am not a sci-fi reader. Nothing against the genre, it's just not my normal read. I never thought I would care about a robot as a main character. In JP Delaney's "The Perfect Wife" I was proven wrong. When Abbie wakes up groggy and confused, she (and the reader) quickly discover that she is a robot made in the exact duplicate of the robotics company's founder's wife. But what happened to the wife? That is the mystery at the root of this one-of-a-kind thriller.

"The Perfect Wife" read quickly with satisfying turns and twists throughout.

Sorry, but I requested this book in error. I do not personally enjoy science fiction, but I'm sure there are a lot of people who do. But since I haven't read it I really cannot evaluate it.. So you can ignore the 1 star rating.

I did not think I would like this book based upon the description. Well, I was wrong - I loved it.! Very thought provoking on a number of issues - AI, autism, sexism, etc. - and a compelling mystery! This is the second book I've read by JP Delaney and can't wait for the next one!

I went into this book blind having heard positive things about this author and am glad I did as the first little twist I had no idea about and not sure if I would have picked this up had I read the blurb. There is a sci-fi mash up to this book but I would still consider this a thriller type book and would compare it to something similar to Dark Matter. There is an element of sci-fi in the book but I felt it was uniquely done and done in way that the book didn't feel sci-fi to me and still felt like a thriller. This book was just what I needed, a unique story and a fast pace thrill ride. It had me interested through out and left me entertained. I can't wait to get my hands on J.P. Delaney's previous books.

*Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books, and thank you to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. My review will be posted immediately to goodreads and my facebook page.

This book was phenomenal. At the start, I began reading it thinking; here’s another AI heavy thriller that I’ve heard of or seen plenty of times already. Though, as the story progressed, I was increasingly surprised at the thoughful and thorough details that went into this self reflective family thriller.
A tech/robotics icon, and head of a major company located in the Silicon Valley of CA, embarks on what one could only describe as a futile endeavour to create and control artificial life. Ruthless and highly motivating boss Tim Scott is admired by those around him, even when he’s in the middle of degrading them for not working hard enough. It’s when Tim hires artist in residence Abbie Cullen, temperaments begin to change and almost soften. These two opposites attract and it’s not long before they are building their dream home and starting a family. The real life struggles this brings could never prepare the couple, or those around them, for the rollercoaster of questionable moral and ethical choices that follow. A dark tale, brilliantly depicting a seedy tech industry underground, marvellous descriptions of CA coastal regions, and a very touching exploration of what it mean to raise a child with special needs. I would whole heartedly recommend this tale as one of caution for what happens when we try to interfere with the natural order of things, and a hope story for those who find trouble seeing their way through the dark.

**5 stars**

If you have read my blog or Instagram feed, you'll know I am a huge JP Delaney fan. His books hook you from the very first page right until the very last!

His latest book, The Perfect Wife, is no exception. If you like cleverly written character driven thrillers with jaw-dropping twists, Delaney is a must read.

The Perfect Wife takes place in the competitive, misogynistic environment of Silicon Valley, a place where tech giants will go to astounding (and unethical) lengths to ensure they make the most money and have the most power. The book explores how far Tim, a tech CEO and billionaire, will go to pursue perfection in his life and in his soulmate.

Tim founds an innovative AI (artificial intelligence) company that provides "shopbots" for department stores. Shopbots are designed to replace salespeople in stores, as they are more efficient, cheaper, and can intuitively determine a customer's needs. Tim rules his company with an iron fist; the ground quakes when he's angry, and his employees are accustomed to his ridicule when they fail to live up to Tim's impossibly high standards.

Given Tim's authoritarian temperament, one would not expect him to be drawn to the arts. But he announces that he is hiring an artist in residence for the company, much to the shock and surprise of his employees. The artist's name is Abbie, and she is everything Tim is not: free-spirited, creative, artistic, go-with-the-flow, impulsive, and laid-back. She is also drop-dead gorgeous.

Abbie observes the employees and Tim, and makes art that reflects these interactions. Her art becomes a commentary on the abuse Tim's employees suffer under Tim's management. His employees expect a backlash from Tim, but instead, Tim seeks to take the art to heart, changing his management style while Abbie is around. Tim also starts to court Abbie, who, surprisingly, accepts his advances. They end up getting married and having one child, a son named Danny, who is on the spectrum.

Tragedy strikes Tim when Abbie disappears from their sprawling mansion on the sea, her body never recovered from the ocean.  Some people speculate that Abbie's past as a wild child caught up with her; others wonder if the pressure of raising a child on the spectrum drove her to depression and ultimately suicide. Many assume that Tim killed her given his controlling nature, but he is acquitted of all charges and set free to continue to rule his empire at work. 

Imagine his employees' shock when Tim reveals he has remade Abbie in the form of a "cobot," or companion AI. Abbie's memories and past have been downloaded from a cloud of social media about her. The new Abbie realizes, however, that parts of her past are missing, including what happened the day the "real" Abbie went missing. AI Abbie also discovers that the "real" Abbie and Tim disagreed on their son, Danny's treatment. Tim wanted not only the "perfect wife," but also the "perfect son." He wanted the latter so much that he was willing to place his son in an experimental school, one that is known for corporeal punishment.

Tim's drive for money, fortune, success, and perfection makes him seem less human than Abbie the AI. This makes the reader ponder if AIs might have the potential to be more thoughtful, more caring, and more human than their makers. As Abbie the AI astutely observes,

"Perhaps the real test of someone's humanity, you think, is how tenderly they treat those like Danny. Whether they blindly try to fix them and make them more like everyone else, or whether they accept their differentness and adapt the world to it."

I greatly enjoyed the deep, philosophical questions this novel raises about humanity and AI, as well as about how people on the spectrum should be treated in this world. Delaney is especially sensitive to and well versed on issues relating to autism: his adult son is on the spectrum (and serves, I am guessing, as a mirror for the character of Danny in his book) and Delaney has devoted his life to caring for him. This book has a lot of heart for a thriller; it will make you reflect on what it truly means to be a sentient human being.

Thank you to the author, JP Delaney, Random House, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of the thrilling The Perfect Wife.

JP Delaney quotes Ovid’s myth of “Pygmalion” at the opening of his novel, but as I read it I couldn’t stop thinking about Victor Frankenstein. This is a domestic thriller with a side of sci-fi. The main character is -- for all intents and purposes -- an emotionally advanced AI that is capable of empathy. (Creating an AI with empathy seems paradoxical since empathy is unique to human beings, the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes.) It -- or AI-Abbie -- is also capable of recalling moments from the life of the woman of which she’s a “replica.” I won’t rehash the synopsis but essentially a man pieces together a prototype of his dead wife to bring her back to life. That seems the gist of the story. Or so you think …

I love reading AI fiction, which isn’t always done well because it’s difficult to make AI’s “real” to the world they’re set in. Often storytellers deal in the future to make it easier. Delaney’s story is set in the present time, which presents several problems. We obviously can buy into the AI idea. We see it in the news and advancements have been made. We’re already having conversations about the rights of sex robots and whether it’s acceptable to create ones with rape settings. So the reader gets this world. And of course Abbie’s husband, Tim, is a tech bazillionaire with carte-blanche to experiment on/with/for whatever the heck he wants. We’ve seen that, too. We live it. But one of the silliest leaps Delaney makes -- and one that makes me incredulous -- is that AI-Abbie is so lifelike people mistake it for the dead wife. Um, what? This happens several times and is actually an important plot point. This doesn’t work and isn’t going to work no matter the suspension of belief for fiction. The story falls apart with that alone.

But it does have notable qualities. The writing is good and specific. The setting feels real and sometimes the characters seem real -- though I may be reaching since all of the characters, with the exception of Danny, are basically stereotypes. I mean even Victor Frankenstein had some redeeming qualities, but Tim Scott is a cardboard cutout of demented and pathetic. He’s really not a good character in any way. So, nuance is missing big time here. AI-Abbie is cardboard as well, but it’s a cobot, so it’s acceptable -- or at least, expected. But Abbie Cullen, Tim’s wife, is dreadful. She’s uber gorgeous and artsy and cool and free-spirited and every man wants to do her. No, just no. Delaney’s characters have no complexity, which makes the book feel like junk food, and that’s just hard to digest. I will say I think there’s an interesting dynamic between Danny, who suffers from Heller’s syndrome, a rare form of autism, and the AI. The way Delaney explores empathy here and how the brain functions, as well as sensitivity to environments, are brilliant. To me, that’s the value, but he covers this truffle in mud.

At this point, I’ve got to talk about plot to get at my next few points, so if you are worried about spoilers please stop reading.

STOP. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Too many writers take the seismic hit that is “Gone Girl” and try to replicate it. I really feel like Delaney was mashing some original ideas about AI and autism with GG. This makes the book an epic fail for me, and a patchwork of Frankensteinean proportions.

But also we’ve got a serious problem from the get-go. Delaney outright lies to his reader. AI-Abbie discovers some of Abbie’s secrets, leading to the suggestion she faked her death to leave Tim. Once the AI realizes that, Tim confirms he believes Abbie is still alive and he’s built the AI to find her. Okay, so we’re on a slightly different trajectory now, but fine. Yet, Tim is lying. Tim killed Abbie. Tim built AI-Abbie for who knows why. Tim is a psycho. Tim is a liar. That’s the twist? That bit at the end is the twist? But it’s not really a twist, is it? It’s an outright lie that makes the whole story fall apart because WHY would Tim build an AI-Abbie and set it on some goose chase to discover what he’s known all along? He killed Abbie. Um, it makes no sense. His motives are non-existent. The best thrillers give the reader the WHY, not the WHAT and WHO. Tim has absolutely no reason to do what he does. The cobot could easily be set up to live with AI-Tim and together they could raise Danny however they wanted. Tim has sole custody already.

Okay, so I blame this “Gone Girl” craze that has made thriller writers confused about what makes a solid domestic thriller. You can plot a missing person. That’s fine. But the characters need authentic motives -- at least authentic to the fictional world you’ve created -- to do what they do. Otherwise, the writer comes off as pulling ideas from the air.

It really does all fall apart at the end -- because of the outright lie -- but also for the deus ex machina. I won’t get into details, but it is completely unsatisfactory. For me, it’s not that it’s open-ended, because I don’t really think it is. It’s simply lazy. Again the idea seems pulled out of a hat. It reads like Delaney painted the story into a corner and need a forklift to get it out. I also think the reader would’ve enjoyed AI-Tim giving Tim his comeuppance. I mean, he considers it. Why not satisfy us a little and let us see it? We kind of earned it, didn’t we?

WOW!!! What a great grab you and not let you go ride. When I started reading this book I wasn't sure if I would like it. It didn't grab me as this author's other books had done but once I started liking the characters I was hooked. I'm going to try and review this book without giving away too much. I personally hate reviews that tell me too much.
I had read previous books by this author and this book was not what I was expecting at all. What would we do if our other half suddenly vanished? Would you consider artificial intelligence to recreate that person again? Would you tell them everything including the bad stuff? After reading this book I started thinking about these questions.
I was taken on a roller coaster and when the ride was over I was not disappointed at all. It took me a couple chapters to begin to care about the characters and once that happened I definitely chose a side and I had theories of my own. Sometimes I was right and other times I was completely wrong. It was being wrong that kept me reading. The only thing I will say is that I was not expecting the ending and when I finally got there I had to sit quietly to process everything.
Its been awhile since I had the moment of woah.

Thank you JP Delaney and Netgalley for this ARC of The Perfect Wife. I loved this book. It was so intriguing to think about AI and technology. We already have shopbots in some supermarkets here, none however that look even close to human. The idea about the ethics of AI, and does because we can mean that we should, begs consideration. This is the story about Tim, a technology developer, and his not so perfect wife Abbie and son Danny who has autism. As expected from JP Delaney, the book if full of twists and turns. Only negative was although it was written in alternately different points of view, it was often difficult to figure out exactly whose point of view I was reading .

JP Delaney has become one of my favorite authors of this decade. One paragraph into this book and I knew I would not be able to put it down. "The Perfect Wife" is full of suspense, technology and characters you cannot forget.
As I read this book I began to see the android main character as sentient and human, you genuinely care about the journey of this robot. I also was impressed with the story of Danny, his autism, and the various therapies and schools they had tried for him. This book had so many ideas in one story - murder, AI, autism, sexual harassment, technology, infidelity and yet all of these ideas were woven in. This book had many twists and turns and I was not sure where it would end up. I was satisfied with an unexpected ending that fit perfectly. 5 stars - I cannot wait for Delaney's next book.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

In the name that of all that is holy, please male writers understand that the concept of “love robots” is inherently misogynist. We understand you’re not doing it on purpose, you just do not have the lived experience of walking in our shoes. So we are telling you. No more love robots. Please God no. It is literally dehumanizing

Beyond that the book itself is just standard suspense. But the love robot thing, just, no.

I really enjoyed The Perfect wife! Each chapter left me thinking, then reconsidering, discarding theories right and left. I had as many theories as there were chapters, and I still didn't figure the ending out! Nicely done author JP Delaney. I recommend this book to those of you searching for something a little different than your usual reads, I think you will enjoy it also.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a unique book -
I received this book from Net Galley for an honest review -
Abbie is missing or is she?
Abbie's husband is robotics tech and he can make the perfect wife, and mother.
As Abbie's memories return she tries to piece together what her marriage is and if she is the perfect wife.

This book was SO good!! I have loved all of the author's previous novels, and while I knew this was a totally different genre, I was still excited to read their latest work. This book kept me hooked until the end. The best part was that about halfway through, I assumed that I solved the twist so I eagerly read the second half of the book thinking I knew what was coming down the pike. I clearly had no idea, as the plot turned in a way that I never expected. I thought about this book for days after. I would definitely recommend this to everyone who loves a good story and is into a bit more sci-fi!

This is the third book by JP Delaney that I have read and it is another winner. Another psychological thriller, this time focused on technology. Here Abbie awakens to find herself in a hospital-like environment with her husband, Tim, beside yet unaware of why she is there. As things start to gel, it becomes clear she is a cobot — a companion robot. Tim, entrepreneur founder of a Robotics company in Silicon Valley, has created her to simulate his missing wife. He imbues her with human Abbie’s memories and little by little, cobot Abbie starts to become more “human” in her thinking and behavior.

The plot is fascinating and intriguing but the writing is a little confusing. Delaney changes between present and past, and from point of view. The present comes from cobot-Abbie, but the past comes from an unnamed third person. These changes are in some places quite harsh, in some place very good.

The mystery is what happened to Abbie that caused her to disappear. Was Abbie the perfect wife? Is the new Abbie a perfect companion? Why did Tim create her? Who is deceiving who? The story kept me hooked and had sufficient twists that when I thought I had figured out the climax I was again surprised. I would highly recommend this book as well as the other two books by this author.

I received this book as a free pre-publication galley version in return for an honest review.