Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. Honestly I thought this book was a little unusual, it took me a little while to understand what was happening. It was a good story, just not for me to be honest.

What a brilliant book! I have adored all of JP Delaney's books to date, they are rich, exciting stories and The Perfect Wife was no different. I was excited to read it each time which I think is a testament to how well written it was. The characters are all really strong and 'Abbie' is fantastic as an unreliable narrator. I love that you never quite know what to believe or who to trust and it works so well with the book. I really enjoyed taking a step into the world of AI and Silicon Valley was a fascinating setting for the story to unfold. Will be recommending this to everyone!

A chilling and very thought provoking read. Is this the future for us all?
Five years ago Abbie had a devastating accident. Five years later she wakes in a hospital but doesn't remember why.
Her husband is by her bedside but what has he done to her? To the outside world she is Abbie but she has changed beyond our wildest imagination.

In The Perfect Wife J.P. Delaney explores the boundaries of technology and questions surrounding what it means to be human.

Abbie wakes up in a hospital bed, believing herself to have been in an accident. That's sadly not the case. She's a robot, a synthetic copy of the real Abbie who has been missing - believed murdered by her husband Tim - for the past five years.

Over the course of the coming weeks, Abbie soon becomes unsettled. Why would anyone recreate their dead wife? She's the subject of media attention, hounded by the press, disliked by those around her. She's not real.

After discovering books and an old tablet disguised in a bookshelf in the home she shares with Tim, co-bot (companion bot) Abbie starts to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the real Abbie...

First things first, this book has one of the most engrossing opening chapters I've seen in a long while!  The way that a robot might react to being told it isn't real plays out in a very realistic manner and the book feels reminiscent of the wonderful Black Mirror episode Be Right Back. If you enjoyed that set-up, then you'll probably love this novel too.

Delaney's use of dual narratives is an incredible narrative tool to build up the suspense within this thriller. The use of the second person allows the reader to fall into the head of a robot, you are a newly created co-bot questioning the motives of her creator. The chapters set in the past are told by a mysterious narrator who has intimate knowledge of Abbie and Tim's relationship, yet doesn't reveal themselves.

Abbie is likeable, especially when you learn more about her through the chapters set in the past. You see the art exhibits she set up in the tech office, including one (do as you please I believe it was called) which I would love to see in real life! You see her fall for Tim and he for her...

She is sweet and creative. Tim is, quite simply, a creep. As the novel goes on his actions get stranger and stranger. This created a sense of panic within the novel, because her creator was the very person she grows to fear and distrust. The interplay between Tim's role as husband and as creator (and his simplistic views on women as whores/mothers) were very well developed.

The novel is filled with twists and turns and I raced through it, finishing just before midnight. Wow, what a tale!

However, the discussions of autism towards the beginning of the novel were unsettling to me. If Delaney's afterword discussing his personal experiences parenting his son had been an author's note at the start of the novel I would have felt much more comfortable, especially as I was concerned about the representation.

Aside from discussions about the ability of autistic people to empathise, the other aspect that concerned me early on was the descriptions of the ABA technique as like a fix-all. While I don't have personal experience of this technique I have seen numerous autistic people online discuss the negative impacts ABA has had on their wellbeing and I was concerned that anyone who did not have personal knowledge of autism might not be aware of the controversies behind ABA.

I wish that Delaney's skilful debunking of Tim's extreme use of ABA had been hinted at earlier in the novel, or the author's expertise mentioned in a foreword. As Delaney discusses in the afterword, ABA has brought great results for his family, and I appreciate his acknowledgement in the novel of the potential downfalls (e.g. electric shocks when used extremely).

I would also question whether this plotline would have been better served as a novel in its own right, as at times the focus on Danny's autism felt unnecessary to the wider narrative. The care of a mother for any young child would have created similar effect.

Like always, Delaney weaves a gripping tale.

If I could review the story of Abbie, the companion bot who wakes up five years after her originator's death, on it's own then I would be giving this whirlwind book an impeccable five stars. My fears regarding representation were dampened later in the novel when the discussion of Abbie's relationship with her autistic son was heartwarming and very moving.

The Perfect Wife releases 8th August from Quercus Books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read in exchange for my honest review.

I was invited to read The Perfect Wife because Id enjoyed JP Delaneys previous book.
This reminded me a little of the TV Show Humans, It the story of a tech millionaire and an AI robot, built as a companion, a cobot. designed to learn and adapt, with a specific persons memories.
This book feels like a peak into how easily someone can get carried away when they want something and have easy access to money.
I really enjoyed the book, it was compelling and intriguing, with the cobot trying to learn and understand whilst also parenting a young boy with autism.

2* A futuristic book set in Silicon Valley that delivers less than it promises. I felt a lack of connection/ soul despite that the author strives to show us his concept of true motherhood. This review lacks the spoilers in many reviews of this book.

Tim Scott is a tech billionaire/ robotic expert, in what is portrayed as a misogynistic industry and company. He aspires to be the next big thing in AI. He’s not the everyday billionaire though. He was the chief suspect when five years ago, his beautiful, model-like, wife, Abbie Cullen-Scott went missing. With no body found, she can’t be presumed dead in what the police consider a cold case.

At the opening of the book, a woman wakes up in hospital covered in plaster, with a swollen face and little memory of what happened to her. So far so cliched. The story rapidly exposes the heart of the story: its AI, robotic, science fiction elements. The human-related aspects include the mystery of the missing woman, Tim’s child who is on the Autism spectrum, and a semblance of loving motherhood.

The points of view (POVs) of second person intermixed with third person were tiring. To be convincing, a second person POV means that the narrator is watching the protagonist, Abbie, all the time. This wasn’t convincing. It felt a bit voyeuristic and stalker-like. The third person POV was so groupie-like and full of wonder that it grated too.

JP Delaney expects you to suspend belief with the AI ‘science’ talk, but didn’t succeed in this case. There was no / not enough mention of power packs or recharging of the “cobot” (companion robot), when we were led to believe that an AI robot could function without humans/ its maker. The back-up computer function was cursorily mentioned at the end.

The so-called twists and turns were about concealing the facts from the reader, rather than a satisfying mystery, where the reader is given enough clues to try to piece the mystery together. The ending is unsatisfying. Ultimately, I believe that a good story has the odds stacked in the favour of all the parties, especially of the protagonist. We are suddenly supposed to believe in JP Delaney’s concept of motherhood as making the ending work, but it doesn’t work.

I could not relate to any of the characters, especially not Abbie. She was not believable. The world the world the author has created is not believable. There was so much more that a novel like this could have explored both of a science-fiction and a human nature, but it fell short. It could have explored at least one of: immortality, false memories, sentient robots, carer robots. But it didn’t more than superficially. A great shortfall of the novel is that the reader isn’t given a good human character to identify with.

Regarding immortality, the author throws out that Tim Scott has created a replacement for his ‘perfect’ wife he loved so much, and was so heartbroken when she disappeared. This is juxtaposed against the monetary motives. Is Tim using his cobot to launch a prototype that will be a world first? Really, at the end, the questions aren’t answered what happened and why – at least not well enough for this reader to understand why the time was invested in the story to find this out. Tim’s actions and motives at the end are totally contrary to what the book started out to portray. Hard to have suspended belief.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. #ThePerfectWife #NetGalley. This book review also appears in https://www.netgalley.com/member/book/161451/review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2872379037

This book sounded good but it was too sci-fi for me. I couldn't get into it and gave up . Sorry, not my kind of story

I enjoyed this novel, but felt it could have been so much more. It begins in a slightly cliched way (but bear with it) - woman wakes up in hospital wondering what has happened. Then the bombshell at the end of that chapter threw me completely. Wow! I was hooked. High concept, well written, a completely different character yet one I could root for. I loved the next few chapters - I love anything to do with AI, dystopia. But then the twists started coming and honestly, I stopped believing in the characters completely. So, to sum it up: enjoyable, page turney, full of plot. But also, in my view, a high concept novel that could have been more.

Brilliant book, a very exciting plot, that had me hooked from the very first page. I love the way the book unfolded. Highly recommended. I love all this author’s books. Can’t wait for the next one.

Many thanks to Netgalley and JP Delaney for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

What a book!!

I have been waiting for this book to come out, and it was better than I ever expected it to be. Robots and futuristic things aren't really my forte or something I would usually read. But this author does something to me while reading his books, that whether I was out of my comfort zone or not I could not stop reading. The story is so far fetched yet so believable once you realise how advanced modern day technology is becoming. I was hooked from page one, and the hype that I built up for myself for this book was completely satisfied. I cannot wait for the next one.

I loved the person and tense this was written in. How you felt like it was your story that you were telling. But it also referred back to the past which connected the dots and set the scene for what was about to happen next.

My only criticism is that I got a bit confused at the end of who you, me and I were. But I tried to figure it out and I hope that I succeeded.

I will wait patiently now for the next book from this author!

Firstly can I say this is not my "usual" kind of read - a little sci fi, and a whole lot unusual!
Abbie wakes up, groggy in a hospital bed - next to her sits her husband Tim - the man who has been grieving for her for 5 years. However all is not as it seems - Abbie has been bought back - as a Cobot - a bot that has some of Abbie's memories and feelings - however not all of them. Tim is the happiest man alive, having his wife back - and her being a scientific breakthrough.
For Abbie, things are not as easy - she has an autistic son that needs her love and attention but she needs to learn how to relate and "tap" into him. He has Sian who looks after him but Abbie wants to look after him herself - will Sian allow that? Will people accept Abbie as a "cobot", what will happen to her - does she even want to live her life like this, ? As Abbie becomes more curious about her husband and her old life, things unravel and she finds things out about Tim that may not all be as it seems!
This is definitely an unusual story but scary to think it could actually happen one day in the future!

Oh my goodness, not only have I just discovered that JP Delaney is a he not a she…he also writes as Anthony Capella, which means that he has also written one of my favourite books, the one I kept giving to people and having to rebuy- The Food of Love. Is there no end to this man’s talents as a multi faceted writer?

With shades of  The Stepford Wives this book is unputdownable, absorbing, creepy and challenging-  I loved it. Having recently attended a talk on AI development in Silicone Valley , I constantly found myself thinking, this could happen, this could be true.

This book is a very good combination of a thriller and sci-fi. I really enjoyed it. It was a bit hard to get in, but I'm glad I kept going. It got better and better and I was curious about the end. Didn't disappoint.
Definitely recommended.
Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly I didn’t really enjoy this book. I think it was due to the Sci-fi aspect of it. I was unable to finish it. I was genuinely gutted as I have read J.P Delaney books before.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Quercus Books for my eARC in exchange for my honest review

When I first started reading this book I didn’t think I would enjoy it. But as the chapters evolved,I found myself hooked and needed to know what was going to happen. There is a twist at the end that I never saw coming and I doubt many other people would either. I will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future.

I love JP Delaney’s books I read this in one afternoon it’s a lot different then I would usually go for but I definitely enjoyed it thank you to JP Delaney and NetGalley for the arc.

A complex technical suspense novel which is both frustrating and intriguing.
Contrasting multiple narrators and flashbacks make this a challenging novel and ultimately distract from the main storyline about robotics and character implants.
In a world where Fake memories, behaviours and emotional responses can be uploaded, I found it difficult to fully engage with the Abbie that had been created as a companion robot for her husband Tim or empathise with her relationship with her disabled son.
There were too many impossible and unlikely sceneries in this story for me to suspend belief and dive into the magic of the storytelling.

The Perfect Wife is a perfect book!

A great mix of suspense thriller and Westworld style sci-fi. Not going to lie when I started reading I found it difficult to get into and did debate not finishing...I’m so glad I continued! You need to read it!

This was so not what I expected, to the point that I nearly put it down never to be finished within the first few pages. That would have been a HUGE mistake, though, and I am so glad I persevered. This was a haunting read and a beautifully complex psychological thriller that will leave you unsure of who to trust. It's like no book I've ever read before and once I'd given it a chance I didn't want to put it down.

In saying that, the ending fell a little flat for me and felt slightly rushed. I'm not sure if that was because I flew through the final few chapters, desperate to know how it was going to end, but it fell a tiny bit short of the mark. It was nice to read something that didn't have the typical "happy" ending though.

This book was the perfect mix of Gone Girl meets Ex Machina and made for a refreshing change from the typical psychological thrillers I usually favour.

4.5/5

I don’t read that many sci-fi books but was intrigued by the description for this one.
Whilst I didn’t care much for the two main (human) characters, particularly Tim, the book raises interesting questions about the future of robotics and how far we can take it. I can quite believe that In years to come the appearance of robots and their functionality can be improved to such an extent that they will look, move and even ‘think’ like humans.
This will probably raise all kinds of ethical issues and it will be interesting to see how it develops.
My thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this copy.