I was excited to read this story after reading the description. I enjoyed the alternating timelines and points of view of the story. I felt at times it was a slow build and the characters were hard to connect with. The story dragged on longer than necessary.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for access to this ARC.

I am a huge fan of this author and always look forward to her new books. Her Perfect Life revolves around Lilly and her missing sister. There are multiple POV and two timelines. Overall, I enjoyed the story and was looking forward to what was going to happen next. 3.5 rounded up to a 4

Good story that kept you guessing. The narrator was good. There were times the story was a little unbelievable.

3.75 stars

This one was largely good, but wow, were some of the main characters incredibly frustrating. Several times, I found myself just wanting to scream at the ridiculous and illogical decisions they were making. Acting out of emotion is one thing, as is having a general lack of life experience, but…I don’t know. I just felt like there were too many people naively and unquestioningly trusting what others told them. Anyway, it was a fun story, and frustrating characters aside, I did enjoy it.

Hank Philippi Ryan has pulled off another intriguing, fast-paced thriller where tension and twists abound. The narrator is highly successful at conveying suspense and moves the plot forward quickly. The dual time periods and narrators make this suspense at its finest and the conclusion is one that you won’t see coming.

Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Thriller.
Lily is a television personality. She guards her life and secrets carefully. Greer is Lily’s assistant and researcher. She sneers at LIly’s perfect life and knows Lily wouldn’t be where she is without Greer’s help.
Three perspectives: Lily and Greer in current time, Cassie in the past.
Lily seems driven by fear of discovery. Greer is all about the story. When their source turns to Lily’s past, the past starts unraveling.

Intense and dynamic.
Lily was cold, mostly from fear. Greer unravels emotionally more and more as the story unfolds. And Cassie I feel sorry for. I won't spoil it by saying more but her road is the hardest.

🎧 I listened to an audiobook at the same time as reading an ebook copy. The audiobook was narrated by Angela Dawe who did a wonderful job with the emotions and tenseness of a lot of the scenes. The child’s voice was a bit forced and unnatural but it was distinct from the adults. Fortunately each chapter clearly stated whose POV is was but once each of the three woman was established, the content alone was really enough to determine who was speaking. I listened to this at my standard speed of 1.25 which was a good conversational speed. Any faster and I lost the clarity of who was talking. The intro and afterward included a bit of theatrical music that would fit a thriller.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, MacMillan and MacMillan Audio.

Lily’s perfect life is about to change. Two secrets from her past are headed on a collision course. When Lily was seven her sister Casey went away for college returning only as a memory to never be heard from again. Twenty-six years later a source calls Lily with information regarding her sister.
Lily is a reporter for Chanel 6 news. Her face is widely recognized making it both a blessing and a curse. She’s a private person trying to keep her personal life private is challenging. Unfortunately, her privacy is about to end when the latest source provides information about her past.
Lily works with Greer. They are colleagues not close friends. Yet she trusts Greer with her daughter. Greer keeps Lily’s life unblemished protecting her perfect image. Lily hasn’t confided in Greer about her past yet she was coerced into the secrets when the source began calling in with information.

The source - Lily gets tips from callers all the time but when this caller gives her information it’s reliable, yet she’s unnerved by his calls.

Sam Prescott is a secret best kept for later in the story. He’s one of the secrets from her past.

The story’s told from three narratives: Lily, Greer, and Casey. Lily is the woman with the talent and front runner in the newsroom. Greer is the woman with the means to entertain the viewers. Casey is the sister that Lily remembers fondly. Casey was known as an impressionable eighteen year old who went away to college.

Narrator:
Angela Dawe was the solo female narrator who performed Her Perfect Life in its entirety. Angela’s work includes film, television, theater, and improvisational comedy, as well as audiobook narration. Her voice acting skills were sensational. I could envision the scenes with Angela’s voice creating the image in my head. With headphones on my head and her voice in my ear I settled in for a domestic thriller that was both original and unique in its content. This is the type of story where only a good narrator and a good writer is needed.

This audiobook was produced in Macmillan audio studios. Netgalley was the app used to listen. The audiobook is in English with 11 hours of listening time. Netgalley is not my preferred listening app for audiobooks however it’s the only app available when requesting audiobooks from Netgalley. Netgalley is new to the audiobook experience and while there still are a few bugs to work through I’m pleased with the choices they offer. For this audiobook I listened at 1.75x speed reducing the listening from 11 hours.

Author:
Hank Phillippi Ryan is an author of mystery novels and an American investigative reporter for Channel 7 News on WHDH-TV, a local television station in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hank Phillippi Ryan wove the past with the present blending both together creating a clever story with twists and turns. Hank’s methods of unveiling the truth about Casey propelled the story forward keeping the reader questioning and guessing the source. Hank took simple words twisting them together to present an unexpected outcome. This was both thrilling and intriguing. I enjoyed the journey to unlocking past secrets.
There was a clever cast of characters assisting along the way. With the help of the supporting cast of characters Lily’s perfect life unraveled before your eyes. The story came alive and flourished after the source came forward.
Hank offers a new take on a cold case mystery. She offers a talented web of secrets crafting a brilliant and clever twists to shock readers. She stayed on track focusing in part on the secrets leading readers to the truth.

Interesting but somewhat not really my cup of tea. A mystery thriller crime. Well written. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio version of the latest thriller by Hank Phillippi Ryan - 4 stars for an enjoyable twisty tale!

Lily Atwood is the perfect "talent" on a network news channel as well as single mom to 7-year-old Rowen. Lily has a confidential informant who has given her news tips before that have panned out, so when "Mr. Smith" starts getting a bit too personal about his information, Lily is concerned. Suddenly she finds out that someone is investigating a cold case about the disappearance of her older sister, Cassie, over 20 years ago. The secrets that could come out have the potential to blow up the perfection of LIly's life.

Told in 3 points of view - Lily, Greer (Lily's work producer), and Cassie (from in the past) - there's lots of twists and turns in this story. I really liked learning Cassie's story - it's easy to understand her position as a naive college freshman. Lily and Greer are seasoned newscasters though and sometimes were a bit too quick to believe everything they were told. While I thought I had figured some things out, some came as a complete surprise.

The narration by Angela Dawe was great - there were quite a few characters here (male, female and child) and she did a great job voicing each of them. Another great story by this author!

Super twisty! Lots of secrets. I didn’t figure this out at all. Total surprise. I really enjoyed that!
I didn’t feel a connection really to any of the characters tho. I was also confused for a bit about why Rowen and Cassie were both going on. It didn’t really gel well to me. Still a solid read.

Lily Atwood is a well known television reporter who seems to have it all. Lily is protecting a family secret that could destroy her reputation if it leaked. She has an anonymous source that feeds her story tips, which is great! Until it isn't. This source starts telling Lily information about her life that no one else should know about. Lily starts to worry and wonders what this person wants from her. Lily has to decide what she would do to protect herself and her daughter.

This book was really hard to get to through. Like, REALLY hard. Let me start by saying that the character Greer was one of the most insufferable and annoying characters I have ever read. My god.
I didn't like that this book was written in first person for one POV, but third person for the others. It would have made much more sense to do all of them the same way.

Not only was Greer terrible, but Lily was so naïve and honestly just dumb. And Cassie just could not make a good decision at all. The only redeeming character was Lily's daughter, Rowen.

Lily is an award-winning television journalist, who has built her career on being both approachable and aspirational. She relies on a carefully cultivated social media presence to connect with viewers and project a perfect image. Her family secrets are threatening to tarnish this image and ruin the perfect life she has created for herself and her daughter.
While the story is faced-paced and certainly keeps the reader guessing, some story elements seemed unbelievable. The main characters are savvy, successful journalists, but they seemed to unquestioningly accept the information given to them by others. Some conflicts in the book would have been quickly sorted out with a phone call or web search..
That said, it's a twisty suspense-driven thriller that I will recommend to fans of B.A. Paris and Kimberly Belle.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan/Tor/Forge for a digital audio copy for review.

3.25 stars

The story has a great beginning and it's quite compelling. A sister that disappeared, a sister that is looking for her in every crowd, in every place, in every city she goes.
The book alternates between two timelines, the past and the present. The past is recounting the disappeared sister's last moments and the present is telling us about Lily, the celebrity, Emmy-winning sister's story.

But things start to get complicated when a private detective makes his way in Lily's life. He has a persuading way to get what he wants and he is coercing people close to Lily to act in his favour.

The ending is somehow of a let down for me and this is why the book is not a 4 stars. Beyond the fact that it is a bit long and repetitive and at times slow, the main point of this book is milked intensely but the ending is failing to deliver the big wow effect, to close the gap, to surprise and delight, in my opinion.
Nevertheless a decent read.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillian Audio for allowing me to read this book.

<b><i>”The boy who cried wolf,</i> Lily thought again. But again, there was no wolf. Not here, at least.”</b>

<b>I’ve only read one other book by this author, but it was so impressive that I had to try another. And this one didn’t disappoint, with its lovely cover! It’s well-written and full of unpredictable surprises. I alternated between the audiobook and the Kindle version, so I got the best of both worlds on this one!</b>

Lily and Greer are a team. Lily is the talent. An award-winning journalist. Her fans and the camera love her. Greer is her producer. She’s content to be in the background, rather than the spotlight. Or is she?

When Lily was seven, her older sister disappeared and was never seen again. This is a secret she doesn’t share with her fans or coworkers. And she secretly hopes that one day she will be reunited with Cassie.

There are three POV’s and all three are equally as engaging. Lily tells us about her life from her perspective. Nothing is as perfect as it seems on the outside. She’s made her share of questionable choices that she tries to keep private.

Greer describes how she interprets their partnership and Lily’s fame. In public, she’s more than happy to let Lily take the spotlight and stand back in her shadow. But privately, she’s full of resentment and maybe some jealousy.

Cassie gives us an account of the past, leading up to her disappearance. She was a flaky, naive, and trusting college student, who encountered the wrong people and made bad choices. Don’t we all think we’re invincible at that age?

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, Edelweiss, Macmillan Audio, and Forge Books. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

<b>My Rating: </b> 4 ⭐️’s
<b>Published:</b> September 14th 2021 by Forge Books
<b>Pages:</b> 304
<b>Audio:</b> 11 hours
<b>Recommend:</b> Yes

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After publication, my reviews can be found at Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, GoodReads, Barnes and Noble, BookBub, NetGalley, and Edelweiss

@hankpryan @forgereads @NetGalley @edelweiss_squad @MacmillanAudio

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179370-her-perfect-life" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Her Perfect Life" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1624828440l/56179370._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179370-her-perfect-life">Her Perfect Life</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/526376.Hank_Phillippi_Ryan">Hank Phillippi Ryan</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4034480404">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I loved <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/526376.Hank_Phillippi_Ryan" title="Hank Phillippi Ryan" rel="nofollow noopener">Hank Phillippi Ryan</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52378568.The_First_to_Lie" title="The First to Lie by Hank Phillippi Ryan" rel="nofollow noopener">The First to Lie</a>, so I was so excited to be on the book tour for this newest book. It did not disappoint. I like a slow burn story, which this definitely is. We have three different POV, we see Lily (the “perfect” reporter) in there day to day life, Greer, her assistant, and we also see a past POV from Lily’s sister who went missing when she Lily was a child. While there are some thinks that may make you go hmmmm, that is sometimes the point in domestic thrillers, you have to wonder why the people make the choices they do and what secrets they are trying to hide (because there are always secrets). So sit back and enjoy. I know I did. The narrator also did a great job, which is important to keep any audio listener engaged.

Being perfect has its price! Told is 3 voices, Phillippi keeps us entertained with her newest novel. Years ago, Lily’s sister disappeared from her college campus and was never found. All grown up now and in the limelight with her news reporter job, Lily has never stopped looking for Cassie. Lily leads a perfect life, everyone knows and loves her. She will go to great extents to keep her 7 year old daughter, Rowan safe, even if it means keeping secrets. With her producer, Greer, Emmys are won and Lily’s fame keeps growing...but what would happen if her life wasn’t as perfect as it seems? When a mysterious source has some unusual requests, Greer goes along with them to protect Lily’s reputation, but who is Mr. Smith and why is he so interested in Cassie? Fast paced and fun, and perfectly narrated by Angela Dawe.

TV reporter Lily Atwood is one of the nation’s most beloved and most trusted journalists. She manages to balance her busy career with being a mom to her much loved little girl. For some time now, Lily has relied on an anonymous source for insider information and dynamite story ideas. The latest tips are indeed newsworthy, the only problem is that they’re about Lily herself, and a past she thought she had buried. Someone knows her darkest secrets and they’re ready to expose them, the question is, what will Lily do to keep them quiet? In an era when news anchors are disappearing from the air everyday after their secrets are exposed, Ryan’s book is right on the money

Someone said nothing happens until the last 10% of this book?

We must have read different books because this book takes off from the word GO.

There are a couple of places you have to buy into, granted. But I think Ryan gives you enough to go with it.

And it is well worth the buy-in. The story is fast-pace, twisted and keeps you going... the ending is pretty bittersweet. Noone really comes out with the outcome they hoped.