The Perfect Life follows Vanessa who is desperate to find her happiness, her place in the world, her perfect life. She has a good job she enjoys, has a fabulous best friend and sister, she meets Connor who she thinks is the one...things are finally coming together. What starts off as house hunting (for the perfect home) starts to get more complicated as Vanessa views more and more expensive houses under different personas...harmless really until the owner of one of these houses is found dead.

This book was a bit of a surprise to me and I enjoyed this one way more than I expected to. The book is told in two timelines; in the present where Vanessa is in a bit of a mess and being questioned as a murder suspect and in the recent past when she was in a great place in her life with her job and new love interest Connor. Reading along these timelines until they converge to understand why Vanessa has been behaving the way she has and what happened at that house was so enjoyable. The characters were well developed and the story linked together so well and I was completely hooked from the start. At the beginning I just could not understand Vanessa but after learning more about her I ended up feeling for her and hoping that a bit of luck fell her way. Would highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review

Really enjoyed this thriller of a book. Fast paced, different and intriguing. Never read a book by this author but would again. Great

The perfect life by Nuala Ellwood

What a brilliant thriller! This kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, I didn’t see the end coming, very cleverly plotted!

Taking us back and forth in time, we get to see how webs are weaved, how the different pieces of the puzzle slowly slot with each other, revealing the mystery that is this story.

What did Vanessa do? Who died? Is her boyfriend as perfect as he once seemed?

This book will keep you hooked until the end!

This was an enjoyable read with a well written plot and some surprising twists, this kept me engaged from start to finish

I tried to get into the plot a few times but it really did not grab my attention. It was mainly because I didn't like any of the characters or story overall.

Thank You to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for this ARC!

Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape.
That's how it started: looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't.
Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.
And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...

I found this book confusing at first as the past and present timelines felt a little jumbled for me. In think there was a bit too much happening which made the plot feel rather confusing. It did all come together after a while though. The second half of the book was much better that the first in my opinion. Everything clicked into place and the plot sped up

A great plot with genuine tension and intrigue. From the very first page, I was hooked. I'm becoming a big fan of the author and looking forward to reading more from her.

Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙉𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙖 𝙀𝙡𝙡𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙

I really enjoyed MY SISTER'S BONES by Ellwood so was really excited when this E-ARC was granted. Unreliable narrator? Check. Textbook abusive partner? Check. Eerie and confusing flashbacks? Check again! This was a cleverly woven novel, told through Vanessa’s alternating POV’s between the past and present. Secrets are revealed slowly as the plot builds and we are left trying to piece together the clues.

I didn’t particularly warm to any of the characters and absolutely hated Connor (the point obviously) but just felt so frustrated at everyone. At times the vocabulary felt a bit fake, for want of a better word, with a lot of “darling” and “baby” overused in every communication. I also found that although we were drip fed a lot of clues throughout, I felt let down by the lack of “reveal” or twist at the end.

Ellwood did address some difficult situations in an honest and open way. The emotional abuse side of this book makes for quite a difficult read and I’d say be aware of this being a big topic if you are sensitive to this. Overall however, this was a super easy read that I flew through in a day and enjoyed. Who doesn’t love scrolling through Zoopla obsessing over the beautiful, completely unaffordable houses on offer!? I can definitely relate!

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (3/5)

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫 + 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐀𝐑𝐂!

I loved 80% of the novel. As it was incredibly well crafted, with very nuanced plot, budding tension and the well-honed psychological aspects of a life of young woman who might have (deepening) mental issues. Or does she?
I loved everything about Vanessa who had been loosing the ground behind her feet, her understandable coping mechanisms, her vulnerability and strong, even overwhelming desire for stability.

But then the big twist happened - and it was really not the big twist! And the authoress decided to go more safe (nowadays, at least) route of modern motives. While I can understand what she went for and even why, I still strongly feel that the novel somehow changed its identity at the end and went for the morality story (however important that story is) instead of the mysterious one.
But having said all that, I still find Ms Ellwood one of the most interesting mystery writers of nowadays. I will continue to follow her works, as she is immensely talented overall.

This is a fab psychological thriller that will definitely keep you guessing. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough with all the twists and turns. I liked the then and now story lines and I really think it helped fit a lot in to the plot! My first book by Nuala but definitely won’t be my last!

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for an advance electronic copy in return for an honest review.

This book was all over the place. There were two different threads that did not cross over. Vanessa and her childhood escape to a fictional character in a novel.

To escape her adult reality Vanessa creates fictional characters to go viewing houses she can never afford. Until one of her hosts dies and the finger points to Vanessa.

I just did not get the two parts of the novel and why they came together. Did not stop me enjoying it but I just found that they two threads did not fully tie together and I was left wondering why.

I have come back two weeks later as I felt to edit this review as for me the synopsis and the imagined life are only some of the elements of the novel.

For me the main element of the novel is that Vanessa suffers from PTSD and this is an important theme in the novel. Vanessa is suffering and is suffering alone. This stayed with me long after the visiting other houses and the murder plot.

So much so that I am going to give this three stars as the novel is all over the place but I was found myself thinking about Vanessa and Conor long after I finished the book.

I’ve tried my best to find things that I could like in this story but unfortunately I couldn’t get close to any of the characters or story overall.

Very grateful for my review copy

Took me a while to get into this one… was an ok read.

——————

Have you ever wanted to be someone else?

Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape.

That's how it started- looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't.

Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.

And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...

This is one of those books that you are shouting at the characters over their decisions, and it beautifully described the houses, though the traumas of poor Vanessa seemed never ending. The twisty end had me staying up much later than planned to continue reading.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

A really solid addition to the genre; reliable, if a little predictable in places. Would recommend if you know what you want from this sort of book, as it definitely delivers that.

A bit of a slow burn and I guess a deceptive title. The storyline was a fascinating concept between the breakdown of the relationship and unravelling what the relationship truly was behind closed doors but I didn’t particularly care for any of the characters enough to really care what happened and it felt a little like there was two or three story lines in the one book that didn’t really smoothly tie in together

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc

I did enjoy this but felt it got a little bit slow in the middle, I did stick with it and it hit better but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the way it ended. I’m glad she got justice for what Connor done to her though

We all dream of a perfect life at some time but few of us would ever envisage going to such extremes to experience it. Well, okay, we might venture out with the first slightly shady house-viewing – as that can’t cause any real harm, can it? But would we take it as far as the main character does?
This flits from the Now to a period of time beginning a year previously which is interesting but occasionally confused me a little.
The first few pages seem innocent and normal enough but then Ellwood throws a spanner in the works and the reader begins to suspect the main character may be guilty of a little more than a harmless fantasy. Ellwood creates a complicated network of twisting actions, emotions, complicated relationships and a murder to produce a book that creates doubt and provokes interest.
Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I tried this book a few times but it really did not grab my attention.

Having been interested by the blurb and the cover I was rather disappointed.