The Perfect Couple

What a craftily told story! Perfect read! Enjoyed! Nantucket..perfect place for a summer wedding..until the maid of honor "washes" up dead on the beach.. I enjoyed this book, it was filled with characters who each had hidden secrets. It was an edge of your seat page turner read. So good! Merritt the maid of honor and best friend of Celeste Otis..the bride who stutters Benji Winbury..the groom Greer and Tag Winbury...the parents of the groom and a very unusal couple Thomas and Abby Winbury..the brother and sis in law of the groom...couple is struggling with staying pregnant Karen and Bruce..the bride's parents Featherly Dale..the antique seller and uninvited wedding guest And the famous Shooter Uxley..best man and friend of the groom! Wickedly entertaining read!!!

Elin Hilderbrand once again brings her readers to the shores of Nantucket, this time for the event of the season. The wedding of Celeste Otis and Benji Winbury promises to be an epic party, and no expense has been spared. Tragedy strikes on the morning of the wedding, however, when a body is discovered just hours before the festivities are set to begin. With the immediate family and bridal party all staying at the house where the wedding is, everyone becomes a suspect in the ensuing murder investigation. As information is gathered and suspects are questioned, it becomes clear that each and every person at the beach house has secrets to hide. With the Netflix adaptation for this novel dropping in September, I wanted to make sure that I read the book first (because in almost every case, the book is better than the movie). I have read books by Elin Hilderbrand before, and have thoroughly enjoyed them, so I was excited to give this one a try. Almost instantly, she draws the reader in. The plot is super fast paced, and it fluctuates back and forth between present day, and events that happened in the past which culminate with a body in the ocean. There were so many characters in the book, but while there was a perpetually changing POV, it was still easy to follow along with what was going on. One of the things I loved most about the laundry list of characters was that each one of them had some aspect of their backstory that let the reader believe that they had something to do with the suspected murder. My convictions over “who dun it” changed with almost every chapter, and I found myself second (and third, and fourth) guessing my conclusions as the story progressed. This book truly had a little bit of everything. It was part murder mystery, part romance, part family drama, part wealthy society chaos, and I ate it all up. There were characters to love, characters to hate, and everything in between. I loved the Agatha Christie feel of having all the suspects forced together while the detective works his magic. I also loved that it checked off the boxes for both page turning suspense and perfect beach read. I had high expectations for this book from the start, and it absolutely delivered.

First off, I’m a guy. I get that I’m not exactly a part of Ms. Hilderbrand's target audience. But I decided to show some courage and post a review from a regular guy’s perspective. Whether that’s good or bad I’ll leave to you. How’d I get into this? Well, I spend Summers on Nantucket, I was looking for something to read, and I was curious to see what all the excitement over the The Perfect Couple was about. (A starred Kirkus review? That’s pretty serious stuff). So this was an experiment of sorts. I think it was a successful one in that I finished the book. This in spite of the authors chronically pretentious and unnecessary name dropping of every trendy high end fashion brand known to man. (No, that’s not quite fair. I should have said every trendy high end fashion brand known to woman). Is this great writing? No. But it’s not meant to be, is it? It’s not Hammett, it’s chick-lit. Still, I’m embarrassed to say, I really enjoyed the story. It was very easy to follow; and knowing a lot about the island made it fun. There were a lot of twists and turns and the characters were interesting; I think I recognized a few of them in real life. I’ve seen guys like the Benji character. Although a cynic may see him as a bit of a blind sucker, there was something noble about him that fostered sympathy. He could have murdered his best man and it would have been justifiable homicide in my book. But the focus of the story wasn’t really about the guys, was it? It was all about the girls. Most of it wasn’t flattering from where I was sitting. Maybe it was the overdose of fluff that came with every description of what they were wearing that did me in. Nevertheless, I was reasonably successful in separating the confection from the meat of the story, even though I complained and rolled my eyes all through it, right to the bitter end. I know, it’s bad. Yet, here I am confessing that I wanted to read her book. I liked reading it, complaining about it, and I felt compelled to finish it. Apparently, Ms. Hilderbrand has an addictive formula that hooked this guy at a perfect moment in time. She deserves 5 stars for that alone.

Great read!

Très déçue de ce livre qui promettait un style similaire à celui de Liane Moriarty. Je m'attendais à que le livre soit meilleur que la serie Netflix, mais en fait pas du tout. L'intrigue est assez plat, les personnages ne sont pas bien définis et l'écriture est médiocre tout au long.

My first Elin Hilderbrand enjoyed the book. Descriptions of the the characters were all very well done. The story line too was good. Looking forward to read more of Elin .

Enjoyed.

A good read. The series was great but the book was better, especially the ending