The Perfect Life by Nuala Ellwood was published on 5th August 2021 by Viking Books which is an imprint of Penguin. My thanks to the publishers for the review copy and the blog tour invitation.
HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO BE SOMEONE ELSE?
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.
Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.
And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...
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.
Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead.
And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him...
My Thoughts:
The Perfect Life by Nuala Ellwood is just one of those books. It has a short blurb that is just enough to hook the reader. I love this author so I was sold straight away. She manages to take things that on the surface look ordinary and uncomplicated but manages to unravel them and reveal an underside that leaves the readers head spinning.
Vanessa or Nessa as she is more commonly known is the main protagonist in this story that is told across two timelines. Nessa hasn't had it easy, her mother died when she was little and her older sister helped to bring her up. A sense of belonging is important to Nessa and she longs for stability and a place to call home.
What slowly starts as an idea to view property slowly slides into an obsession with wanting to be somebody else, of wanting more. A continual striving for perfection. What if everything on the surface is supposed to make you happy but it just doesn't. Is this just a form of escapism and an overactive imagination or is there more to it. Is Nessa playing a dangerous game? When a body is found at one of the properties she has recently viewed suspicions start to be drawn but surely there is more to it than that.
Nessa seems to have it all already a steady relationship and a good job. So when cracks start to appear the pace and the plot pick up and the reader is taken in unexpected directions. This author creates some of the best suspense that I have read.
It is unsettling and shocking and just when you think you have it all worked out. Something else happens. Highly recommended if you enjoy thrillers where the author is always several steps ahead.
I loved it.
About the Author:
Nuala Ellwood is the author of three bestselling novels: My Sister's
Bones for which she was selected as one of the Observer's 'New Faces of
Fiction 2017', Day of the Accident and The House on the Lake. Nuala
lives in York with her young son.
You can find the author on Twitter: @NualaWrites
Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.
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