This is an addictive domestic drama. It is told from the daughter’s (Anna) and the mother’s (Victoria) point of view. The only thing holding me back from giving it 5 stars is how absolutely vile the characters are. It took away from my enjoyment of the book because the husband is utterly spineless and the wife was a truly horrible person! It was entertaining but stressful!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review*

A great thriller - I would recommend it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My book of the month goes to ….

@Lorna_Dounaeva with The Perfect Family

Absolutely loved this thriller. Read in 3 evenings (around mum duties, pta duties, cat mum duties, wife duties and full time job!). Could hardly keep my eyes open last night finishing this and missed the Apprentice!

Victoria is just the most perfect Mum and Wife. She will do ANYTHING for her kids Anna and Joey. She shows the world how perfect they are and husband Kit just has to go with the flow……. But really, how far will Victoria go to protect her family?

A Mothers love is like no other but Victoria has no boundaries. Fabulous read and my fav this months so far! Thank you @netgalleyuk and @lorna_dounaeva for the opportunity to review

Wow! That was one hell of a domestic thriller that I just couldnt put down. I was so hooked I read this one in a single afternoon. The twists and turns were constant meaning you never really knew what was going to happen next. I think this book is so full of secrets and intrigue which is perfect. Can anyone ever have the perfect family? Why don't you read this and decide for yourself.

There is one in every neighborhood - the perfect family. Victoria has it all - a handsome, successful husband, a huge house, and two beautiful children. Not all is perfect behind closed doors. Things begin to crumble, and it is up to Victoria to keep up appearances. Fasten your seat belts... this is a fast read with lots of twists and turns.and jam-packed with suspense. I can't wait fro the author's next book.

5 stars! What a fantastic domestic thriller! Highly recommend, it doesn't disappoint.
Thank you to Lorna Dounaeva, Inkubator, and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to incubator books, netgalley and Lorna Dounaeva for the advanced readers copy! My Thoughts and opinions are my own. My review is given voluntarily.

This one started fast, and I was intrigued by the plot, but then it just became boring and i found it hard to finish. I could not get behind the characters and that might be the problem. However, the writing was done well, and I will read another of her books. This one just was not for me. I seemed too excessive and slow burn for me.

Wow what a fantastic book with twists and turns all over the place such a good book I would definitely recommend it

If you want Mystery, fast-paced, shocking revelations and awesome character development, this book is for you. A cocktail of greatness.

Cheers to Netgalley for the copy!

A gripping read about a supposed perfect family trying to keep up pretences in q pretentious world! Far fetched but a decent read!!

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

Thank you netgalley and publisher for opportunity to read and review this arc honestly.

If you’re looking for a family drama/thriller that may incorporate some psychological thriller than this book may be for you. If you like to hate the main character for much of a book, this book is definitely for you. The story was quick paced and a few areas felt rushed but overall enjoyed the story.

I love the main charachters that you love to hate. I loved the plot and povs but my ideal thriller or suspense is when everything has a reason to be in the story and everything is tied up at the end and I felt like something’s were just filler. It was building up and up and then sort of fizzled down. But I don’t regret reading at all but it’s not in my most rememberable category. Thanks for my arc :)

From the first few pages I was pulled in. The family of four, Victoria and her husband Kit along with their teenage daughter Anna and young son Joey look as though they lead a happy and privileged life but they hide a secret that has brought heartbreak to a family in their community.
Victoria isn’t a particularly likeable character but is convinced that everything she does is the best for her family but her actions make hiding the truth more difficult to conceal and damages the families relationships with each other.
I enjoyed the children’s perspective especially the very chapters through Joey’s eyes. This clever boy didn’t miss a thing. After a good page turning read I really felt that the ending was a rushed let down and didn’t tie up well.
.

Victoria Hill has the perfect family. Joey, 9yo, is well-behaved and a musical prodigy, and Anna, at 14, is a model student at St Bernard’s School. Victoria herself is an Environmental Ambassador at Joey’s school. She and her husband, Kit, a stockbroker, have a huge house and are doing very well. But the truth is that the couple are paranoid about having their secret revealed.

When Joey’s teacher, Miss Henley, suggests that he might be autistic, Victoria goes into denial mode, unaware that Joey has stopped taking his pills. Meanwhile, Anna has begun to rebel and has made friends who are undesirable in Victoria’s eyes. Victoria is barely holding it together when Belinda Donovan asks for a piano class for her son, Ricky, both she and Kit baulk at the idea. They are both afraid of the consequences of Belinda learning a truth they have tried hard to run from.

The book is written in the 3rd person past tense point of view of Victoria and Anna. We are also given excerpts from Joey’s diary.

The pace of the book is slow. The first hint of the extent to which she is willing to go to preserve the façade of the perfect family comes at the 57 percent mark. Thereafter it’s downhill.

The book offers a subtle critique on the lengths some people go to maintain a façade, especially for social media.

None of the characters are really likeable. In Victoria’s case, she starts out as unlikeable, and then her behaviour worsens. Because she had a less than perfect upbringing, she is determined to ensure perfection for her family in every aspect. While the motivation may be sound, the way she goes about achieving it is not.

Kit gets short shrift. He rarely takes any action, unless directed to do so by his wife, and so, he comes across as flat. He doesn’t even have any deep connection with the children. It is Victoria who makes all the decisions.

Some of the details we are given about her are bizarre. On a day on which she has lots of housework to do, she remains on hold on a call to a busy restaurant, Harry’s Burger House, we are told, for a full hour, before hanging up. Surely if she were that obsessed, she’d hang up and actually go to the place. Also, it’s crazy that a busy restaurant doesn’t cut the call but lets her hold on for an hour.

I liked the cover, the cracked windshield against the house was beautiful. It served to remind us readers of the perfection that was threatened for the main characters.

The ending was really twisted, and not in a good way. It was completely unbelievable. Nothing that had happened before prepared us for the end.

I enjoyed this book and the dynamics of this family. Mom did everything she could to keep her family from falling apart and and from their darkest secrets being revealed. I would read more from this author, and recommend to friends and family.

This was such a uniquely written thriller, as you find out the what and who almost right away. The suspense comes from wondering just how this person thinks they’ll get away with it. I will Definitely be checking out more from this author. Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

** 3.5 Stars **

Brief Synopsis: Victoria has the perfect family and she will do whatever it takes to keep this upstanding image. When her life starts to unravel, we see how far Victoria will go to preserve this perception of perfection.

Thoughts: This had a quicker paced, easy to read narrative told through three POVs. The characters were realistic and had believable dramas that you would except to see among middle-class “PTA moms”. Our main character Victoria is a bit unreliable and isn’t very likable. I wouldn’t say there are any major twists, but the storyline and writing style did keep me invested. My main qualm was that the last chapter and the prologue felt poorly executed compared to the efforts taken to get there. I also didn’t find the clean-up of loose ends by Victoria to be very believable, even though there was a sense of believability up until that point.

Thank you to Lorna Dounaeva, Inkubator Books, and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

This was entertaining enough that I finished it but it was full of very unlikable characters and at times I did consider putting it down. I did get over that and saw it through and in the end it sort of resolved in the way that it had presented the people in it. Not amazing, but not terrible.

The lead character is really unlikeable but you don't warm up to anyone in 'the Perfect Family'. This book is another reinforcement that you really don't know what is going on in the lives of others. Fairly limited character development and not too suspenseful.