Vanessa has a wonderful job that she loves and now she meets a new boyfriend and life appears near perfect. She starts to think about buying a house together but he's not keen. As a few cracks begin to appear in their happiness she finds she gets relief by going to look a houses she can't possibly afford.. Eventually a house catches her eye, it was the inspiration for a series of books that captivated her as a child.
The plot contains a slowly unravelling dysfunctional relationship and an unexpected final development to this psychological drama. Excellent.

A story of want...……………...wanting what others have and you desire. A little bit of 'make believe' is it so dangerous? It can lead to accusations of murder even when you are innocent. A well thought out, constructed story with a conclusion that you may not suspect.

An interesting storyline and a view of the escapism that many of us use when looking around other peolpes homes and lives. Really engaging.

Lots of twists and turns in the plot.

The ending was a surprise.

Good strong believable characters.

Heart stoppingly good. I stayed awake ling into the night unable to stop reading til the totally unexpected and brilliant finish. Vanessa is able to try on new personas as easily as trying on new clothes, which comes in handy as she fools estate agents into thinking she is a cash buyer for the expensive dream homes they show her around. But is she a killer? When is caught on camera running from a house where the body of her favourite childhood author is found, all indications point to Vanessa as the killer. I don't want to spoil the suspense for the reader but you will never expect the nailbiting denouement. So cleverly written with shoals of red herrings, this is the ultimate psychological thriller. Highly recommend

This is the story of a woman, Vanessa, in her thirties with a range of problems many of which stem from her childhood. Making friends was difficult and after the early death of her mother, she relied as she still does on the steadying influence of her much older sister Georgie. Her childhood escape was into stories written by Geoffrey Rivers who lived nearby in a house called Holly Maze. She identified with his fictional character, a boy called Angus. Vanessa enters an apparently steady relationship with Connor but it turns out there are control issues there too. Then she becomes obsessed with contacting estate agents to view houses for sale. She uses an assumed identity each time and steals an item from each. It turns out that the author Geoffrey was not all he seemed to be. The story around that is revealed late on in the book and stretches credulity a bit. Nevertheless, the book is well written and keeps the reader keen to know where it is going.

I enjoyed this book! I was guessing from the outset and I thought it tackled the topic of domestic abuse really well.

Vanessa is likable and you find yourself hoping she will prevail. And yet, you don't know if she's the murderer until right at the end of the book. I didn't enjoy the last few chapters as much as the start of the book but on the whole it was an enjoyable read!

This story had me guessing right until the end. I couldn’t read it at bedtime because I just couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed it, although I did get confused with the different time periods from time to time. I’d recommend this book to family and friends.

This is a fast paced read with and unreliable narrator. Vanessa is our protagonist and her story is told first person. Chapters alternate between present day and times before her nightmare began. She is a likeable character and the reader is put on edge seeing the stress and difficulties she goes through. I definitely recommend this book if you like a good psychological thriller.

I haven't read anything but Nuala Ellwood before so I was really pleased to be given the opportunity to read this book. It was really well written and a great psychological thriller and I must admit I didn't guess the twist at all. Would really recommend.

I enjoyed the Perfect Life, Vanessa’s narrative was so untrustworthy it was intriguing and kept me wanting to read. I was always wondering how reliable what she was saying was true or not, then you had Lottie who vanishes from the friendship and Connor who is obviously controlling. Between Vanessa & Connor you’re never quite sure who’s worse until the awful thing Connor does. From that moment on, the story takes a quicker more darker pace and what happens in the end is both odd, yet believable and a satisfactory ending to a strange tale of people who were hard to like and yet compulsive reading.

The book was a disappointment the first half I really enjoyed but the second half loses momentum and was about rape and murder which I found very hard to believe it was very disjointed and skipped over many pages to finish it, the ending was very rushed I was just glad I finished it thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy

I enjoyed this book! I felt it was quick paced and constantly kept my attention. The characters were very believable, especially Vanessa and Connor! It highlighted just how easy it is to get your self into a situation/ situations that you can’t easily get out of! I would definitely read other books by this author!

A good thriller with plenty of action. This is a good read overall but I feel that it was a bit busy in places and the story got lost sometimes as a result. It is also not believable in places.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I don’t even know where to begin. I have loved all of Nuala Ellwood’s books but I think this could possibly be my favourite. Thank you so much to Penguin UK and NetGalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Everything about this book was perfect, from the characters to the plot, it was all I had hoped for. Once I started reading that first page I was carrying my kindle everywhere trying to squeeze as much reading time in as possible because I had to know what happened. I had the book finished in just over a day!

I loved Vanessa’s story and how it was told, flicking from present to past events. From the moment Connor walked into her life I knew he was trouble, something about him set me on edge but I never imagined certain events taking place. There were many times when I wanted to scoop Vanessa up and get her as far away from her mistakes as possible. She spiralled so drastically and couldn’t see where she’d gone wrong but I guess it’s easier to spot the wrong choices when you’re on the outside looking in?

We all like to play detective when there is a mystery in front of us and I knew that there would be red herrings and lots of misdirection thrown my way. I also knew all the different storylines were connected in some way and was eager to find out how. About half way through I thought I had an incline as to what had happened and was feeling pretty chuffed that for once I had outwitted the author and solved the mystery early. Imagine my dismay when the final revelation came and I was miles off. Whilst I was disappointed at my detective skills the final revelations made me love the book even more.

Mystery aside there was plenty of drama and tough topics. Grief, rape, abortion and abuse can all be found in this story but Nuala Ellwood dealt with them with sensitivity and grace. She captured the emotion without the gory details and whilst the topics are unpleasant it didn’t make the read difficult or unenjoyable.

This story was gripping, engaging, fast paced and intense! I could go on but I honestly don’t think I would do it justice. Thank you for another great addition to the collection Nuala.

This is the story of Nessa, a woman with a controlling boyfriend. Nessa makes up personas to look at properties out of her price range, as a form of escapism but it's also an addiction. When the owner of one of those houses iss found dead, Nessa is the prime suspect. The plot jumps between then and now as we try and get to the bottom of this mystery! A solid well rounded thriller that is easy enough to digest.

I have not read anything by the author previously but i must say I will most certainly be eagerly awaiting the next book!

I think we have all browsed houses we couldn't afford, dreaming of a better life so it is very relatable that Vanessa took this a step further and the consequential events following the fateful viewing of Holly Maze house had me turning page after page!

The only unresolved issue that let me down was when Vanessa's best friend Lottie disappeared from her life. She had a gut feeling about Connor and seems unfitting she would take off and change her number, no matter how much Vanessa had hurt her. I would have liked perhaps to see a plot line with Connor manipulating her out of Vanessa's life, fitting with Connors manipulation and behavior, the same way he did with Luna London cosmetics but other than that minor deviation i is an outstanding psychological thriller that I highly recommend!

4/5 thank you to Netgalley for the ADR, a truly wonderful and easy fast paced thriller that will leave the reader on the edge of their seat (or page!)

"The Perfect Life" is the story of Nessa, a vulnerable and fragile young woman with a controlling boyfriend. Nessa's habit of making up identities to look at houses way out of her price range is escalating into something approaching an obsession. But when the owner of one of those houses - a children's author whose books Nessa had a strong connection to as a child - is found dead, Nessa is the prime suspect...

On the whole, I enjoyed this thriller, which is told in alternating Then and Now sections, but I did get frustrated at times with the characters. Nessa had too little backbone and not enough actual vulnerability for me to really like or relate to her, and Connor was almost a panto villain. I liked the back-story though, and on the whole the story was original and well told.

An enjoyable if not particularly memorable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who gave me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have previously read ‘Day of the Accident’ by Nuala Ellwood and loved it so had high hopes for this one. In all honesty it wasn’t as good as the previous read but still entertaining and did seem to get better with every page I read.

Vanessa likes to pretend to be different people and enjoys playing make believe looking round houses she couldn’t possibly afford. What started as harmless fun became sinister when one of the owners is found dead and everyone suspects Vanessa.

Entertaining read overall but I felt that there were a few holes in the plot.

A tangled web of a story that never quite manages to untangle itself. Vanessa’s wild imagination tends to get her into trouble and her poor elder sister has the job of trying to pick up the pieces. A romance that isn’t quite as it seems and a murder involving our narrator never quite managed to catch me in the web of this rather incredulous tale!