This is another book that has been on my TBR for a long time and I finally got to it. It is the second one I have read by this author.

Lily appears to have the perfect life. A well known and popular television reporter who always looks impeccable, with an adorable daughter and a devoted nanny. Underneath, though there are family secrets including the identity of her daughter’s husband and the sister who disappeared when Lily was a child. When a source who has provided accurate tips starts getting too close to her own secrets, will that perfect life implode?
Well written, with twists and turns, this was an entertaining, engrossing read, albeit the plot, and some of the characters, strained credibility a bit. The story is told from multiple POVs and dual timelines.

Lily Atwood, a famous television reporter whose seemingly perfect life hides dark secrets. With her every move scrutinized by the public, Lily has to maintain her pristine image while protecting her daughter, Rowen. However, when a mysterious figure from her past reappears, Lily’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.
However, she harbors a secret related to her sister's disappearance years ago. When her anonymous source, who has fed her top stories in the past, begins dropping cryptic messages about her sister, Lily is thrown into a whirlwind of emotions. Her assistant, Greer, plays a key role in the narrative, aiding Lily while trying to protect her own career. The tension builds as Lily must confront not only her past but also the true cost of living a "perfect" life in the public eye.

This book kept me interested with every page. I hope to read more from this author.


Many thanks to Net Galley and Forge Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed it but not as much as I would have like to. I would give it 3.5 starts out of 5. I would recommend it but not my favorite of his.

In this current age of social media, it is easy to project a perfectly curated image of your life to the world. Such is the case for award-winning journalist Lily Atwood, who despite maintaining her #PerfectLily image, is in truth hiding some terribly dark secrets … one being that her sister disappeared away at college some 20 years ago, and has never been heard from since, presumed dead.

Another of Lily’s dark secrets is that the leads for her groundbreaking stories come from an anonymous source - a man who is feeding her tips on where the action is happening, prompting Lily to investigate. Things take an unsettling turn, however, when Lily’s source starts revealing details about Lily’s own life. Could her mysterious source have the clues to what happened to Lily’s sister so long ago?

Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Her Perfect Life is a finely crafted, multi-layered tale of suspense. Ryan has woven a smart tale of sisterly devotion full of twists and turns. Readers beware - it’s difficult to tell just who you can trust in this compelling page turner.

Be prepared when you start this novel that you will be completely unable to do anything else until you finish this story. The author does a great job creating so many storylines that flow perfectly together creating this deep, complex and suspenseful book that will keep you enwrapped until the very last page. Like most of this authors stories it has a great twist at the end that will have you trying to figure out if you missed any hints throughout the story. I highly recommend this book to all loves of suspense thrillers.

I work in the news business, so I understand about sources. Sometimes they don't want to give a name. Sometimes their tips are spot-on right; sometimes they're way off the mark.

In "Her Perfect Life," reporter Lily Atwood, and her producer Greer, have gotten a couple of good leads from a caller, so when he calls again, they're inclined to trust him. It turns creepy, though, when the leads start hitting very close to home.

As a regular reader of Hank Phillippi Ryan, I must say her newest novel falls somewhere between my favorite Ryan books and my least favorite (not that the least favorite gets a very low rating, it's just lower on my list). The story moves quickly, with each chapter giving one more nugget of information; it definitely kept me racing through (which - word of warning - can be tough when you're reading on your lunch hour).

Ryan knows her stuff about journalism and the business of media. I love how she used social media and the trappings of fame to show both how hard Lily works for her #PerfectLily hashtag, and how important online perceptions are to a 21st century journalist's career.

Ryan also created a great antagonist; hopefully it's not giving too much away to say that this person is intelligent, methodical, and well organized.

I'm the type of mystery reader who likes to "play along" and try to guess whodunit. This book gives you all the clues, but because there are a lot of puzzle pieces, it's not simple to decide who should be trusted and who shouldn't. I will pat myself on the back and say one of my theories did turn out to be partly correct, but only partly.

If you love mysteries with intricate plots and surprises around every corner, you can't go wrong with Hank Phillippi Ryan. As soon as I finish one book, I am waiting (impatiently) for the next.

I received an advance reader copy of "Her Perfect Life" in exchange for my honest review.

This book sounded so good but in reality it was slow and somewhat boring. If you are just starting out with thrillers it may be entertaining but truthfully it was just another run of the mill mediocre story.

This wasn't a bad story but I didn't love it either. It seemed mostly anticlimactic. It felt rushed and unfinished. Nothing was really resolved or changed no one came together nothing was solved. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

A life in the spotlight is not easy. You need to be perfect, and being perfect requires a team. It also requires no dark secrets from your past to mysteriously resurface. So what will Lily do when secrets threaten to unravel Her Perfect Life? Thanks to Forge Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My sincere apologies for the delay!

As I mentioned in a recent review, I have been reading more thrillers about social media stars in which the tension between the (im)perfection they project and their reality is what drives the suspense. What fascinates me about these stories is that everyone's idea of perfection looks slightly different. It all depends on the audience you're trying to reach, for example. Maybe being perfect means admitting to your flaws and embracing them wholeheartedly. Or maybe it means pretending to have the cleanest diet or the cleanest house or, in Lily's case, a spotless past. Often, however, this perfection is entirely a surface thing, a projection supported by the work of a group of other people. Once multiple livelihoods depend on your perfection, a kind of pressure builds up which can quickly become toxic and lead to ruin. I have found this kind of tension and pressure fascinating lately, as it leads me to look for truth rather than for lies in a thriller. It was with this hope that I read Her Perfect Life as well. What kind of let me down about this book is that the perfection kind of remains present in the main character. While she has her flaws, technically, it didn't feel to me like there was a real edge there.

Lily Atwood is a star and so her life needs to be perfect. Fresh of winning an Emmy for her investigative reporting, thanks to tips from an anonymous Mr. Smith, Lily is on a high. But there are things in her past she is trying to keep hidden. Like the father of her adorable daughter, Rowen, and the disappearance of her sister, Cassie, decades back. When mysterious messages begin appearing that hint at the reason behind her sister's disappearance, and when Mr. Smith becomes a little too involved, Lily finds her perfect life under threat. Also not happy about this is her producer, Greer, who has always been in the background and needs Lily to remain perfect so she herself can remain her producer. As things begin unravelling, the narrative jumps back and forth between Lily and Greer's point of view, as well as jumping to the past to figure out what happened to Cassie. It's a lot and most of it is fun. But oddly enough I didn't really find myself really connecting to any of the characters. Lily was too clean, despite some dark edges, and Cassie too much of a teenager for me to really see them as fully-formed. The one character I was really intrigued by was Greer and I kind of wish the novel had been told purely from her perspective. As Lily's producer, she is fully reliant on Lily's image remaining perfect, and Greer's desire to remove obstacles, combined with her simmering dislike of Lily herself, was really intriguing! But I didn't get enough of that to really satisfy that craving.

This is my first book by Hank Phillippi Ryan, although I have seen plenty of her books around and had an eye on quite a few. While I wasn't entirely here for the characters in Her Perfect Life I was absolutely intrigued by the complexity of her plot. We're moving backwards and forwards in time, there are plans upon plans, secret partners, potential conspiracies, and more. The pace throughout Her Perfect Life is pretty snappy, to the point that I am not entirely sure how much time actually passes during the whole story, but that did help keep the tension consistent. I also very much enjoyed the way Ryan described the settings and action, which did really help me picture the novel's events but also, quite often, added a really cinematic vibe to the whole endeavour. I could see this as a TV series! What did stop my enjoyment, however, were the characters, as I mentioned above, which is why my rating falls somewhere between a 2 and a 3.. I will definitely be giving Ryan's other books a go, however.

While I wasn't entirely blown away by Her Perfect Life I did enjoy my reading experience. This novel goes loads of different places and I didn't see all these different directions coming.

This book was intense. I loved the different POV. I think the build up was strong but it ended so quickly. Definitely looking forward to reading more by this author!

This is a super psychological thriller that follows the life of successful TV reporter, Lily Atwood. To the outside world, Lily has it all - a glamorous career, a handsome husband, and a beautiful daughter. But behind the scenes, Lily struggles to maintain the perfect facade she has created, with a secret past haunting her every move.

When Lily's daughter is kidnapped, she is forced to confront her past and unravel the truth behind the carefully constructed image she has created. As she delves deeper into the investigation, she begins to uncover shocking secrets about those closest to her.

It has a gripping plot and complex characters. A thrilling page-turner that explores the darker side of perfection and the consequences of keeping secrets.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm trying to remember why I gave this two stars. Hmm. I know a lot of this story dragged on and on. Unnecessarily. As some books do.

I had everyone pegged early on. There was nothing that really surprised me when it happened. Except one little thing in regards to Lily's sister, but at that point I had stopped caring about the story. I kept reading in hoping something would happen.

It appears that this is far from Hank Phillippi Ryan's first book, so I'll definitely be checking out other books from them. I'm just hoping it was a one off kind of thing.

I love when authors weave into their story elements which are a part of today’s world. Lily & her life have become so well known there is a hashtag #perfectlily. But her life isn’t perfect just as in real life she has secrets- and what those are the reader wants to know as well as those who hold her fate in their hands. We are in trusted hands with Hank Phillipi Ryan- you know when you pick up any of her books you are in for a ride- one of the many reasons she is beloved amongst her fellow thriller/suspense authors. This did not disappoint.

Another boring start to a book. I’ve had so many of those lately. Again, can’t get into the novel or storyline. It just drags. A no for me.

This thriller seemed right up my alley, but I thought it was convoluted and a bit confusing, I also didn’t find there to be much thrills, but rather modest suspense. The cover pulled me in, but the plot just didn’t do it for me nor keep me interested enough to follow the confusing storyline. I didn’t like this one, so it’s a 2 star ⭐️ rating for me. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy for review.

This was a fast and suspenseful read that kept me turning pages from beginning to end. Hank Philippe Ryan crafts a story filled with mystery and characters that keep the reader guessing what's going to happen next. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the twist and turns that kept it interesting.

It was a great read and I would recommended to anyone who enjoys thriller stories.

Sign me up for anything that explores the dark side of fame! Thank you for the advanced copy!

This one was such a page turner with an abundance of secrets and turns! I love when books keep you continually guessing and I was constantly being thrown for a loop!

I always find multiple POVs and duel timelines extremely compelling.

Another excellent Hank Phillippi Ryan novel. This one had me turning the pages all night and I read it literally in one sitting. As with all her books, you really get invested in the female character, and this was a deep down into the emotions of the character.

This page-turner thriller kept me glued until the end, twists and turns galore. I enjoyed the book, and can't wait for the next one!