The Perfect Patient
A completely gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist
by Luana Lewis
Pub Date 28 Sep 2023
Bookouture
General Fiction \(Adult\)| Mystery & Thrillers


Through Bookouture and Netgalley, I am reviewing a copy of The Perfect Patient:


Is she an innocent young girl? Or a dangerous killer?


Upon meeting Jade for the first time, I am immediately impressed. As a young, smart, and confident woman, she is everything I wish I had been when I was 18. However, Jade is not an ordinary teenager; she has been accused of murdering a man twice her age. I am responsible for finding out the truth.


As we settle down to talk, I notice a change in Jade - a hardness in her responses and a refusal to cooperate. Although she claims that she did not kill him, I am not certain whether I believe her.


As soon as she begins skipping sessions, I visit her family home unannounced and immediately regret doing so. The father makes it clear that I am not welcome, while the mother seems to remain in the shadows. Can you tell me what they are hiding?


In the midst of Jade's opening up, her family suddenly halts the sessions, and I know that I am close to discovering the truth. Then I notice a late night visitor standing outside my little cottage and watching my every move. What is the secret that someone is trying to keep from being revealed? Could I have put myself in an unimaginable position of risk?


I give The Perfect Patient five out of five stars!

Jade, a 17-year-old girl with no history of violence and no apparent mental health problems has been charged with killing an older man who she has never met. The police had found him stabbed eleven times in her hotel suite. She remembers chatting with him at the bar and then going up to her room.

She knows she didn't kill him but she is covered in his blood.

Six months have gone by and Jade walks into her therapist’s office, Dr. Tara Black ready to answer the question … Is she a murderer? Dr Tara Black is her only hope of clearing her name by accessing her memories of that night.

Jade's parents are not wanting Jade to share much about her childhood. They are making it difficult for Dr. Black to do her job. Dr. Black is beginning to uncover family secrets.

Thank you Net Galley for the advance copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this Arc.

I enjoyed the premise of this book but I found it to be quite slow overall.
The characters were fine but nothing super exciting.

I didn’t see the twist coming until right at the end but I did enjoy the twist

Jade a 17 year old girl has been charged with murder but she knows she hasn't done it.
How far will Jade have to go, to prove her innocence? A great story was an interesting read.

This was a gripping psychological thriller. I loved the characters and enjoyed all the plot twists I did not see coming. I highly recommend this book. I will look for more books by Luna Lewis.
I received this galley from NetGalley.

This book was just okay for me. There were things that I loved about it and things that just didn't sit well with me. I am not a fan of a slow burn book but totally understand how sometimes it just needs to be that way. I loved Tara and Jade and that keeps you interested but unfortunately, there were too many unanswered questions for me. Maybe there will be a sequel coming to wrap it all up.

I am sure that plenty of people will eat this one right up. So definitely give it a try.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Dr Tara Black, a clinical psychologist, has been given a case working for the defence team on a murder in a popular hotel. She meets 17 year-old Jade, her patient in question and the suspect in a brutal murder. Jade has no apparent history of violence or psychological struggles. When Tara starts to interview Jade things between tricky. Jades father Ray is a tough piece of work and makes it difficult for Tara to do the job assigned to her. Something doesn’t sit right with Tara and she delves deeper into the families past and uncovers some dark history and trauma. Dr Tara Black throws herself into a dangerous situation in order to bring justice to the correct party.

🌟 📍
* psychological thriller
* Complex characters
* Twists and turns
* Fast paced
* Author has first hand experience of the job the main character has and it shines through perfectly

LOVED this books. Kept me guessing the whole time. Fast paced and easy to read, completely immersed me.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the digital ARC of The Perfect Patient by Luana Lewis! I read the first few chapters over a few days, but once I got into the story, I read the majority of it in 2 days! The publisher has asked me not to recap the plot (which you can find yourself anyway), but to specifically comment on a few things, which I have listed below.

What I loved:
I loved the mystery of the novel, trying to figure out exactly what had happened in the past, and who was "the bad guy". I also loved the narration style, that the chapters mostly followed Tara, but every once in a while you'd get a chapter that was set in the past, following a younger Tara or another character entirely!

How it made me feel:
Most of the time, I felt tense while reading this book. I never knew what would happen next or who to trust, which was great!

Characters I loved:
I really loved Tara. She's a complex character, which a mysterious back story, and I loved that she wasn't perfect. I liked Jade too, she kept me curious, with her words and her actions throughout the story. And Lucy - she was just a teenager, trying to do the best she could and help her friend!

My thoughts on the plot:
I thought the plot was excellent. I predicted Jade's medical condition - I annotated it 57% through, but I had some suspicions before that, as I do know a little about it. I didn't predict the "whodunit" at the end though, and I certainly didn't predict Jade and Ray's conversation right at the end!!!

Final thoughts and rating: I found this to be a really fascinating and original mystery novel! I would've loved to get answers to the questions I still have about Tara and her past though, as I feel like it was left somewhat unresolved. This book gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 from me!

A captivating psychological thriller, following a Clinical Psychologist’s assessment of a murder suspect. Tara is asked to assess if Jade’s memory loss is clinically sound or a fabrication. However, as Tara and Jade edge nearer the truth, Tara’s family interfere with the investigation, terrified about what will emerge…

I was initially drawn in by the themes of memory loss and Clinical Psychology, as a Clinical Psychologist myself. I flew through this. It was gripping from start to finish and I found the descriptions of trauma, memory loss, consent and the assessment processes so accurate, that it was no surprise to find that the author is a Clinical Psychologist. Of course, details are added to hype the drama and suspense. The only downside was that some plot lines were left unanswered, that I would have liked a resolution to, as it felt a bit disjointed that these were included but never picked up again.

One of my favourite thrillers of 2023!

❤️ 𝓝𝓮𝓽𝓖𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓐𝓡𝓒 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 ❤️

The Perfect Patient by Luana Lewis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓲𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮:
-psychological thrillers
-complex characters
-murder investigation
-twisty conclusion
-psychologist’s POV

For my psychological thriller reader friends: I don’t know about y’all but I LOVE these kind of reads because I love the psychology behind the story/event that occurs. For that reason, this book instantly had me intrigued when I knew the story line was told through the psychologist’s POV. The brain is such a complex organ and sometimes we cannot understand the reason behind things from the outside looking in because we don’t get to see what is happening in other people’s brains!! It’s truly fascinating to me (and also a bit terrifying as well 🙃). This book emphasizes on that and I truly enjoyed it! However, it was a bit of a slow burn and that’s why I rated it 4 stars instead of 5. I do still recommend this one though because the twist at the end had my jaw dropped to the floor!

This was a fast and entertaining read. I didn't connect with the characters very well, but overall it was a good read.

Loved this book so much. Thrilling and tense and completely addictive. A rollercoaster read packed with twists. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read and review this ARC of The Perfect Patient by Luana Lewis.

This was my first book by this author. The storyline kept me engaged throughout. Psychologist Tara Black has taken the case of trying to prove that young Jade Jameson’s claims of “amnesia” were true regarding what happened the day she was found in a room with a man who had been stabbed to death. But Jade’s wealthy father, Ray Jameson wasn’t interested in his daughter actually remembering those events…he just wanted her cleared of the charge of murder. Tara has her own past to deal with regarding her parents’ deaths and her brother’s disappearance. And Jade’s parents seem to have something to hide as well.

The story weaves thru past and present and it felt like it was building up and had the potential to have a really shocking and unexpected reveal at the end, but sadly it never came. The one twist came but I was still expecting the really big one, right up to the last page. It’s always disappointing when I read the last sentence of a book and actually say out loud, “What? Are you kidding? That’s it??” But that’s exactly what I did.

I gave this 4 stars because I enjoyed the author’s writing style very much. But there were so many unanswered questions, it makes me wonder if there will be a sequel? I sure hope so, because I really need answers!

This book was a thrilling page turner. I kept me guessing as a I read it. I really enjoyed the story arch throughput the book.

I really enjoyed this thriller! It was very easy to read, an interesting subject as I'm interested in psychology myself, the characters are good, and I loved the plot twists!

A great physco thriller with plenty of twists throughout

I was hooked from the start :)

Very easy read.

Lewis is a new author for me and I'm definitely going to invest in her future books if this one's anything to go on, especially when you realise she's also a trained clinical psychologist and knows what she's talking about.

Jade was rather a complex character wasn't she? Accused of murdering a man twice her age, but did she? What secrets are her parents keeping?

I love books like this that hold your interest all the way through and you can never just be satisfied with reading one more chapter, it's all or nothing!

There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged, the characters are interesting and the plot engaging.

Entertaining ✔️ Enjoyable ✔️ Recommendable 💯

This novel had so many twists and turns, you just didn't know who to trust! Jade woke up in a hotel room with a dead body and was covered in blood, the problem is she can't remember what happened! The police want to charge her with murder but need a psychological report with regards to her memory. In comes Tara to do the report but it reminds her of her past and brings feelings back to her that she would rather forget.
Loved this novel will be recommending to friends Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of The Perfect Patient by Luana Lewis.

I really enjoyed this book. I was kept guessing throughout and didn't actually manage to figure out what happened in that hotel room before the end which is exactly what I want from a thriller.

There were shocks, twists, suspicions around multiple characters and a well thought out plot which was really enjoyable to read. I would definitely like to read more from this author.

Overall I really recommend The Perfect Patient for anyone looking for a gripping mystery book.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC of The Perfect Patient by Luana Lewis. I couldn’t put this one down. I kept guessing throughout and now was I wrong