I am finding it difficult to review this book. I thought I was reading two separate stories, and neither was believable. Short chapters that took you through several timelines made it quick to read.. The twist at the end was very disappointing.
Not for me I am afraid.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the advance copy.

Great book, kept the pages turning until the end. I felt like the main plot and the sub plot didn’t necessarily fit together but very enjoyable

Vanessa pretends to be other people in order to escape her own life. It gives her a release to view expensive houses whilst being someone else for the day. Until one of the owners is dead, then Vanessa enters a whole new nightmare.
Trigger warnings, rape, assault, and domestic violence.
Initially I found the start a little slow, however once it got going I found myself totally immersed. The little sinister hints of abuse build, until you really see how truly horrific the situation is. Without even knowing the details of the events surrounding the home owners death, you sympathize with Vanessa because of her situation.I found myself willing her to reach out to her friends, family or work colleagues
The way the story is told is incredibly realistic, the gas lighting, the slow build of control and the cutting her off from the people around her. You really get a sense that Vanessa is trapped and has no way out. You are mindful of the threat she lives with.
It is well paced, intriguing and realistic. The plot unravels delicately and I really liked the ending. I thought it was very fitting for such a sensitive subject..
Thank you to Netgalley, Nuala Ellwood and Penguin for the ARC copy.

Nuala Ellwood, The Perfect Life

“And then I see it: an Edwardian Arts and Crafts house in Bishop’s Stortford. I can feel the adrenaline returning, the same buzz I got when I saw Rosedale Manor advertised. This feeling is better than drugs or alcohol. It is pure euphoria.”

Vanessa, the protagonist of Nuala Ellwood’s The Perfect Life, is addicted to fantasising about being the owner of multi-million pound properties, creating different identities for herself as she makes viewing appointments for each new dream house. It is an enjoyable and inventive premise, and Ellwood’s novel is a polished, ingenious exploration of a form of escapism that is guaranteed to trap her protagonist in situations that rapidly become unsustainable.

Vanessa’s fantasies include a relationship with a man who perfectly fits her idea of a soul mate. The delectable Connor, however, gradually reveals the dark side to his character. He is in reality a match that’s as make-believe as the possession of her ideal house. Confined by his domineering possessiveness, Vanessa becomes increasingly distressed, lying to herself as well as to others:

“What I didn’t know… is that for some people, love means power, it means ownership and control. These people would have you believe that you have no voice, no right over your own life. They chip away at your self-esteem, at your judgement, at your very essence, until there is so little left you might as well be a ghost.”

She ultimately finds that she can no longer “carry on being Vanessa, the levelheaded professional. She, and the life she had enjoyed, are gone for ever. This is the new reality: trembling hands, heart palpitations, anger and fear.”

One of the most familiar transgressors of contemporary psychological thrillers is the handsome, irresistible and unbelievably hot lover who turns out to be a narcissistic misogynist, controlling, abusive and adept at gaslighting the female protagonist, a woman much too willing to give way to her tormentor and to believe that she is the one at fault. Ellwood’s novel is a well-written and fast-paced version of the story, and there’s a nice ingenuity in weaving together the strand of wrong-headed romance with that of self-deceived house hunting. The characters arguably remain a little too stereotypical – to some extent lacking in the depth and subtlety needed to create an unpredictably disturbing narrative. The Perfect Life does, however, have plenty of good twists and enough momentum to keep the reader hooked throughout.

A good read which I thoroughly enjoyed although not as much as her previous books. It was well written with good characters but for me personally it wasn't an edge of seater.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin UK Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read, which had me hooked from the first few pages. This young lady didn't deserve the controlling relationship she found herself in, but she gave as good as she got and her fantasy world pulled her through. There was enough twists and turns, hanging questions which finally got answered...but it certainly wasn't obvious.

This was a great read. Suspense was present from very early on and consistently built throughout. It held my attention from very early on and I eagerly read on to learn how Vanessa would fare. While she was strange, and difficult to figure out, and at times her behaviour was a little excessive, she wasn't guilty of all she was being accused. The story line was intriguing though and I was captivated from very early on. This was a great psychological thriller, one I'd highly recommend for those who like a good story of suspense.

Vanessa likes pretending to be someone else, especially when viewing houses, it's a lot of fun to her, she gets a buzz when she's done it. Unfortunately for her one of the house owners ends up dead and the police think she killed him. Vanessa knows she didn't do it, but how can she prove it wasn't her? Wonderfully written loved reading this book will be recommending to friends and family.

Another great read from Nuala. It is a story that goes back between past and present, and lots of drama. Highly recommended for anyone that enjoys a good murder/mystery

Read this in a day, such an easy read and really enjoyable!
Such a true message behind it and I hope lots of people take this message on board! Love love love ♥️

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC of this book!

I remember requesting for it right after I read the blurb. I just knew it was a story I’d enjoy. I finally started it and oh boy!!

Firstly, this book follows Vanessa Adams who lost her mom when she was younger and has had to find ways to deal with the loss. She immerses herself in the books she reads and is a huge fan of Geoffrey Rivers the author who wrote the books she grew up reading. While others are doing things with their lives in their spare time, Vanessa goes for apartment viewings using fake names and profiles. This all comes to a mess when the owner of one of the homes she visited ends up dead.

The perfect life was an absolutely fantastic read. The author did an amazing job tying the past to the present and keeping the suspense alive. I felt quite triggered by some aspects of this book like Vanessa’s gaslighting boyfriend but I didn’t mind and if anything, that shows how good the author is at making the characters come alive.

I definitely recommend this is you want a good thriller that’ll have you flipping the pages so fast !

Fantastic read, didn't want to put it down because I just had to know what was happening! Great work!

Loved it! We all have dreams and ambitions don't we?
Vanessa also has these dreams of a bigger nicer house somewhere that is just perfect.
So Vanessa starts to look at homes that she couldn't possibly afford using different names for each estate agent.
When the house of her childhood favourite author comes up for sale and he personally agrees to show her around Vanessa can't believe her luck until he is found dead.
Can Vanessa prove that she had nothing to do with his murder? A gripping read that had me wishing the pages away to get to find out the ending ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Perfect Life tells the story of Vanessa, a marketing professional working at her dream job in a thriving makeup company. She almost has it all except a relationship, and then she meets Connor. Tall, handsome with a great job, they quickly fall in love, but there’s something not quite right under the perfect surface. Vanessa has a habit of viewing dream houses that she’ll never be able to afford, but when one of these viewings ends in tragedy, will she be able to avoid suspicion?

The story is told through flashbacks, going between the current day and the past, showing the contrast between the current day, where Vanessa’s life has gone badly astray, and the past, beginning with how Vanessa meets Connor and how their relationship progresses. It’s actually quite a dark story and creepier than I expected. I did find the pace a bit slow, there were just a few too many flashbacks for my liking. The story did resolve well, which was good, as there ended up being a lot of threads to draw together, but I just wish it had got there a bit faster! Definitely worth a read!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel takes on very emotive subjects like domestic abuse, abortion, obsessive behaviours and mental ill health. It may seem like a lot for one novel but they are needed as a vehicle to drive the novel forward in relation to the main character. I did find this difficult to read because it was so skilfully crafted that I could not help but be drawn into the appalling life the main character was having to live. I carried on reading despite my discomfort because I felt the topics of focus deserved to be given voice to shout this loudly to be heard, and they deserved to be known by me as a reader. This novel is completely different to Nuala Ellwood's other writing so if you're a fan please go into this with that in open mind. I do think the first page / foreword should signpost to appropriate services in case support is needed during or after reading this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Nuala Ellwood and Penguin for an advanced copy of this book for my honest review, so here it is....

This is my first book by this author and I will be looking to read Nuala Ellwood's other books, especially as I have seen some excellent reviews for some of them.

The story is really gripping, such a great read and a brilliant idea from the author.. Vanessa is in her early 30s and we find out that she was greatly affected by her mothers death. Vanessa goes to out of reach houses to view for fun, Vanessa is caught on CCTV coming out of a house where the occupier is found dead. Of course, Vanessa is the prime suspect.

A great and intriguing read, the novel goes between the present and the past and is easy to read.

If you love a good murder/mystery then this makes for a good read.

Thanks to Netgalley for the copy of The Perfect Life.
I can't decide what I think about the book to be honest. I started it, then set it to the side and didn't pick it up again for a few weeks. When I did start reading it again I couldn't put it down and read it in a day. I was intrigued to find out what happened to Vanessa and if she was guilty and why. On the one hand something kept me reading, but on the other hand some of the story didn't make sense. How can Vanessa forget that she went to a garden party hosted by the author she was such a big fan of? The letters to Angus, she thought her dad had kept them, but we found out Vanessa had actually sent them to Angus, how did she not remember that? How did she not remember she had actually seen Gabriel when he'd murdered Geoffrey? Yes, the mind can blank out traumatic events, but she seemed to conveniently forget a lot of things which made it a bit far fetched. How did Gabriel manage to text Connor and Lottie and make out he was Vanessa? How did he have their phone numbers? So many questions.
The best character in the book was Vanessa's sister, Georgie, I found her to be more believable, the sister everyone would love to have and I enjoyed the parts of the book she was in.
To finish, the book was great up to a point but towards the end I felt it was rushed just to get it finished, which was a shame. But I would like to read more from this author as judging by some reviews Nuala has wrote some good books.

I have been reading every book that Nuala Elwood has written for a few years now and this is her best yet. The pacing was excellent and I was gripped right from the start.

Vanessa, the protagonist is a vulnerable woman as she never really recovered from her mothers death. She meets Connor, a charming, charismatic guy who seems perfect for her.

Vanessa’s big sister, Georgie is more like a mother figure and as their father is absent, her husband is in fact the only man in the whole book who is worth knowing.

I really don’t want to go into too much details about the plot from now on as it would spoil all the multitude of twists and turns that made this book so interesting.

Its not perfect however, there are a couple of plot holes that bugged me a little but I could let them go. Lottie, the best friend and flatmate doesn't like Connor (the new boyfriend) and when Vanessa decides to move in with him after a couple of months she leaves the country. For me that didn’t quite ring true unless there was something going on that was never explained.

There are quite a few aspects of this book that some folks may find triggering (see below), but she handles them with great sensitivity and care that for most people this is unlikely to be a problem. In fact this is one of the best description of gaslighting that I have seen in contemporary fiction.

Then ending is wonderfully satisfying and I love the bits of misdirection that she throws in which make the court room scene we see snippets of in the first half of the book changing quite dramatically by the end.

Took a little while to find its feet but an enjoyable read.

Wasn’t expecting the ending which is always a good thing, I did find however that the timelines didn’t really work as well as they could have, and it had some pacing issues as a result of this but I really did enjoy it so would recommend to anyone who likes a twisty thriller with elements of drama.

Thanks to Netgalley for this arc

This is a decent 'light' mystery. While some of the themes and storylines are rather dark, and the story revolves around a woman who is traumatised, it's light in that it's a quick-read, airport book, not a literary prizewinner.

First, the pros. This novel is well written and well structured. Unlike some other readers, I didn't find it confusing; the shifts from past to present are conveniently labeled (Then / Now). The characters are distinct and individual. It's an easy read and the pacing keeps you engaged.

I see two major cons, however. The first is the distressing theme of domestic abuse through gaslighting, control and manipulation. But then I have a particularly low tolerance for women who allow themselves to be bamboozled by 'romantic' men, whether in fiction or in life, so I was impatient with Vanessa from the start. And I feel frustrated with authors (whether men or women) who create stories based on weak women who get sucked down and helplessly flounder around letting things happen to them. All the more so when their tribulations make them lose their grip on reality and behave irrationally. Even if they do manage to pick themselves up eventually, it doesn't exactly speak 'girl power' to me. Yes I see that the whole point is (or might be?) to show how plucky she is and how admirable for pulling herself out of her predicament, despite how low she had fallen. Women don't need more portrayals in fiction of men abusing trusting, naive women, which do nothing more than perpetuate negative stereotypes about women.

I've just finished binge watching seven seasons of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' which, for all it's faults, is the ultimate celebration of women's power, independence and clear-sightedness, so I feel that there's no excuse for resorting to stereotypes that portray women as helpless pawns. Even in 'light' fiction.

The final con is the fact that the story stretches credibility to breaking point: the plot has more holes than a plate of macaroni.