I really wanted to like this because of its gorgeous cover and what appeared to be a great concept. However, I couldn't believe that the characters would do the things they did and that got in the way of my enjoyment of the book. I may well return to it over Christmas, but with so many other great books out there it didn't feel worth persevering with. Sorry publishers, but the rise in quality we're experiencing at the moment is also raising the stakes.

I enjoyed this book but find it a difficult story to review: I found the behavour of the 'best friend' very peculiar and could only imagine it was for plot purposes. The victim spent time looking at houses that she could not affoard, whilst this was part of the storyline, the pages and pages of information about the properties was a complete waste of time. I did not see the twist in the tale, but it did stretch the imagination somewhat. A good read but I would not go out of my way to look for other books by this author.

Thank to Net Galley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a novel about coercive control and the perils of social media. To be effective and believable the victim needs to be intelligent, savvy but ultimately have a fragility that allows the coercion to take place. Vanessa is rather shallow and somewhat irritating in the "I can't believe she really fell for that" sense. She has a high ranking job and yet falls for some of the most obvious traps. Why on earth are you staying? I found myself asking on numerous occasions especially after the pregnancy- did she not have a biology lesson at school? The story is told in a dual time line which is a good idea but this felt very disjointed and leapt about all over the place. I could just about believe someone going to look at expensive houses they can't afford but she was obsessed and somehow it didn't ring quite true. Her best friend behaves in an appalling and totally unreasonable way, almost out of character so this telegraphs the way the plot will go. I think it would have been much better to just have the coercive storyline and not muddy the waters with a completely preposterous sub plot. The ending? Again really? Implausible and a "oh well c'est la vie" attitude form the police. No- sorry I can see others are huge fans but I found it wanting

I was lucky enough to of been given the chance from net galley to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Well first of all I would say buy it as soon as u can. I couldn't put it down, there was twist after twist and even though you could kind of see certain people and how they would turn out like later on, the ending in my eyes I didnt see coming at all. I loved the style of writing and the characters. Definitely a must buy and one of my top reads this year.

Vanessa has been unlucky in life. Losing her mum at age ten has left her emotionally vulnerable. When she meets the wrong man she finds solace in viewing huge houses she could never afford to buy. She adopts a different persona for each house she visits and gives herself a new name and detailed back story.
Although she is loved well by her older sister and her best friend Vanessa cannot confide in them when things start to go wrong until the day the police are involved.
I don't know whether I loved or hated this book. I did have to take a break from it for a few days. I didn't realize the subject matter was going to be what it was and found it hard to read.
My blood pressure rose at what was happening to Vanessa and I wanted to make her tell her sister the truth. There was a good if unbelievable twist to the book. I didn't see it coming.
I suppose all that I have said is what a good book is all about. It affects you and makes you think about it after you have put it down.
After that I need a nice quite romance book to read to steady my nerves.

Vanessa Adams leads a double life, adopting fictitious identities as she is shown round houses as she has no intention of buying. Her embarrassment as this subterfuge unravels is enormous, all the more so as her deceit is dissected by the policeman investigating the murder of an acquaintance .
The tale is told as by Vanessa and includes lots about her sister, her friends and her clothes and it was the girlie aspect that had me struggling to get involved. I did not find the central character to be all that interesting.
It's not a bad book, just not one that got me involved.

Vanessa seems to have it all. Perfect job, friends and boyfriend. And she likes stories. So much that she starts to visit houses on sale under false identities. She just wants to find a home, the feeling she had as a child, when her mother was still alive. One day everything turns against her.
Will her perfect life fall apart?

Good novel, just not for me personally. Story is just too all over the place for my taste.

In The Perfect Life, we meet Vanessa Adams in two different time periods - Now - where she finds herself living with her sister, fragile, and being questioned by the police... - and 2 years earlier, where she appears to have the Perfect Life - the perfect job, the perfect new boyfriend, and the perfect dreams of that perfect home for them to move into.

As the story develops, and flips between Then and Now, we slowly find out what has happened to bring Nessa's perfect life crashing down.

The way that Nuala unfolds the story across the two time periods, and from Nessa's viewpoint - which is unreliable as she is unaware of everything going on around her and how these forces are manipulating her - is executed brilliantly, and had me confused (in the good way!), emotionally invested and compelled.

As we only hear from Nessa, we experience the weight of her loss for her mother and best friend, and the strength of the manipulation that she suffers unknowlingly. I found that aspect very powerful, especially looking back when we know the full story.

It was also easy to get lost in the magical world of Holly Maze House - the children's books that Nessa thinks back to throughout the story - and the dream world of exploring the luxury homes for sale that Nessa feels she needs to aspire to in order to be happy.

A very powerful read that I will keep thinking about!

This is far from an easy book to read; Vanessa is a damaged, vulnerable character before she meets Connor who subjects her to horrific verbal abuse and worse. Viewing houses and making up stories has always been an escape for her and shows just how important books can be in allowing us to escape through them.
Well written and absorbing I read this book with a feeling of dread for Vanessa.
This book highlights so many issues in a sensitive way and is ultimately a story female empowerment in this modern, twisted world.
A five star read.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin General and Nuala Ellwood for allowing me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

"In front of me the screen darkens, obliterating Gloucestershire and polished floors and perfect lives, leaving me only with the stark truth of what I have done."

Vanessa is pulled into an intricately weaved web of manipulation, obsession and murder. Her life falls apart and for the first half of the book you really think that she committed the murder.

As the book progresses, we see that she is horribly manipulated into thinking she is crazy.

For me this first half was very slow, and I almost stopped reading. However I am very glad I kept going.

The second half delves deeper into the manipulation. As Vanessa starts to decline mentally her sister is there to support her throughout.

We reach the end which has some twists i did not expect, justice and finally some happiness.

The second half more than made up for the slow first half, this was a brilliant story.

As someone whose guilty secret is looking at houses I can’t afford on Rightmove, I could identify with Vanessa, the main character in this novel, who escapes from her problems by dreaming about the perfect life she would lead if only she could afford one of the luxury homes she covets whilst browsing property websites.
Vanessa is a vulnerable, rather child-like young woman in her thirties who is still suffering from losing her mother at the age of 10. Unable to accept reality, she takes her property fantasies a step too far and makes appointments to view high end properties, adopting different personas and back stories, and posing as a cash buyer. Harmless enough, if unfair to estate agents. However, when a house owner is murdered whilst Vanessa is viewing his house, her lies and tendency to fantasize make her look guilty.
As a child, Vanessa escaped into fantasy literature; as an adult, she escapes into fantasy houses. The plot cleverly interweaves her childhood obsessions and her adult daydreams, as both lead her into dangerous situations. Unable to trust her own grasp on reality, Vanessa becomes a victim of coercive and violent behaviour. Can Vanessa grow up and find a way to cope with reality?
I read this book in a day and found it an easy, undemanding read, perfect for a duvet day.

Vanessa misses her mother who she lost tragically when still quite young. She is close to her sister who is thirteen years older and has always looked after her. Vanessa craves nothing more than a family life of her own so when she meets Connor she can’t believe her luck he is seemingly perfect.
Things start to go wrong and things between her and Connor become very tense. To escape Nessa creates new personas and visits luxury houses that are on the market that she can’t possibly afford as a potential client. However on one of these visits a crime occurs that leaves her as a suspect.
Lots of tension twists in this, really enjoyed it and didn’t want to put it down - definitely worth reading!

My thanks to Netgalley for my copy of The Perfect Life. I thought this was a slow burner and rather disjointed with it's Then and Now narrative. The idea that someone could find enjoyment in taking on a pseudonym and view houses they are clearly unable to afford is reasonably believable but the idea of scrolling through property listings and find peace totally baffled me. I also found the conclusion rather weird and forced.

Having said all that I still enjoyed the book in that the characters were depicted in a believable manner and the storyline running through the book is sadly only too believable. The further you get into the story the more chilling it becomes so, overall it was a good enough read but no no more.

This is a story of Vanessa, a woman who is seemingly living her best life. She has her perfect job, a best friend who knows her inside out and a sister who she is incredibly close too. Then she meets Connor and a year later she is accused of murder, the murder of an author whose books she loved as a child.

The book flicks backwards and forwards through the last year as you read Vanessa’s spiralling behaviour and the actions what eventually lead to the death of the old man.

This is a story about manipulation, abuse and mental health.

The book was a fairly easy read and I flew through it. I didn’t predict the ending, tbh I didn’t even see it coming. In someways it didn’t fit the narrative of the book but for surprise value it was up there!

Vanessa Adams (Nessa) is in search of the perfect life but when she meets Connor everything changes. Her older sister, Georgie is the stability she so desperately needs and having lost her mother at the age of ten, she no longer has a sense routine. The things she looked forward to as a child have been cruelly snatched from her and you can easily identify with her feelings of loss. The underlying story of Holly Maze House, Angus, Iris and blackbird and the ghost children is so clever, I found myself wanting more.

One of Nessa’s hobbies is looking around beautiful homes well out of her price range. In order to be taken seriously, she invents roles to play, even going as far as providing the estate agent with profiles of fake children and a career. What I liked about this is how accurate and familiar it is. You can easily resonate with Nessa’s point of view and understand how desperately she wants to reinvent herself. But it becomes more of an obsession than simply a happy place and as events unfold, looking around beautiful homes may be more dangerous than she realised.

It’s Connor’s behaviour that kept be reading late into the night. His manipulative and unpredictable actions terrified me. His controlling attitude left nothing to be desired and I wondered why Nessa felt the need to stay with him for as long as she did. I didn’t know how this story would unfold and although I found the alternating time line distracting, I had to ask myself how else could this book be written? Weaving the past with the present is a familiar device used in this genre and it takes a little getting used to. The past tells us what happened to Nessa, how she met Connor and how things unfolded with her sister and best friend.

I could feel Nessa’s panic and fear rising as the danger intensified. Her inner turmoil, the pregnancy, Connor’s mother, it all seemed as if she was being gaslighted or unable to wake from one horrific dream. I loved her job, it seemed her only safe place, but as she declined I wanted to put the brakes on and tell her to wake up! I never thought she was unstable, even though her drinking and partying was getting out of hand. I always had faith she would see the light.

To say I was hooked would be an understatement. I was thoroughly invested in the characters for the entire journey. It’s a chilling read and I can’t commend the author enough for writing this book. Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin and Nuala Ellwood for the privilege of reading an advance copy.

A most unusual strangely weird intriguing storyline, strangely no gruesome murders, not my normal read having got into the story I couldn’t put it down.

I enjoyed this book, and found the story gripping. However it was so unbelievable in places that I found it irritating at times, hence the four star review. It deals with important issues very well, and the twist at the end is clever, but I found it a bit disappointing.

It's seems I'm in the minority here. I didn't particularly like this. It's tricky to pull off a coercive control book. Firstly you have to find believable reasons for isolating the victim from their family and friends. The isolation was way too far fetched in this one. The best friend acted in such an extreme, unreasonable way that it made me hyper-aware that this was simply a plot device. Secondly, you have to make the victim relatable and normal, yet fragile enough to fall for a seemingly charming person, otherwise you risk making the character irritatingly stupid. Unfortunately I found the main character incredibly frustrating and didn't quite believe in her actions. But the main reason I didn't like this book is that the blurb gives no indication that this will be about coercive control. Then the twist at the end? As a few others have said, it doesn't work.

I had never read anything from this author so I was really excited after reading the reviews of her other books. To be fair it did not disappoint. It was very slow going at the start and I got very confused about the story on how the strands fitted together. I was a bit confused about the Lottie character. So I nearly gave up.

But quarter way through was engrossed and really started to enjoy the book and needed to find out what happened.
I am not going to go into the plot at all as that will spoil everything and please read this for yourself you wont regret it.

I was given this book by netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review which I have done.

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.

I enjoyed this read, I just did not love it. I did love Vanessa and her quirky characterisation, her obsession with houses is both interesting and serves a purpose. Plus it was a bonus reading about stunning, luxury houses from time to time. Anyway, back to the plot. Ellwood writes this in the past and present. I much preferred the chapters set in the past. As the book progresses, the present becomes more important and of course, the past and present intertwine, however I found the past more intriguing and suspenseful. It was the past I was constantly racing to get back to.

For a lot of the book, the chapters set during the present come across dull and a bit infantile, events do not make sense but not necessarily in a good way. The latter half of this read almost feels like a different book. Seemingly from out of nowhere, the atmosphere becomes chilling and full of danger. I was hooked by the second half of this read and I only wish the whole book had been the same.

I have touched on Vanessa's character briefly and I now return to her. She is a very interesting character, I did not always find her likeable and I did not particularly connect with her but there was something about her that kept my interest and ensured I kept reading. As the book continues, the reasons behind her behaviour become clear and I must commend Ellwood for the twists and reveals as they are set up perfectly and suddenly everything makes sense.

'The Perfect Life' is a good read that slowly transforms into an intense, chilling read. I only wish this had been the case the whole way through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for an advance copy.