The Perfect Wife by J.P. Delaney

Read Dates: March 20, 2024 – March 22, 2024
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Source: owned ebook
***Group Read with Book Bitches Book Club***

Goodreads — Amazon

From Goodreads:

A missing woman receives a second chance at life, thanks to her billionaire husband–but the consequences are deadly in this gripping psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before.
Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s an icon of the tech world, the founder of a lucrative robotics company. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago, and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss. She is a miracle of science.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives–and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?

“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,” he quotes. “Sonnet one sixteen, remember? We read it at our wedding. Four lines each, in turn. Then the final couplet together.”

WOW. This was unlike anything I have ever read before. While it was definitely an amazing and intriguing story, I don’t believe it’s something I would have picked up based on the Goodreads synopsis alone. I can’t go into too many details without giving the story away so I’m just going to talk about how I felt while reading it.

A friend of mine, Jess, and I started a book club and it’s, for the most part, full of introverts. We created it as a place for people to be able to do book club things without having to step out of their social comfort zone. That being said, we do still try to do some social book club things as well for the few of us who are interested in that. So we recently started doing a group read every month. This was our second group read and it was chosen by my friend, Jess. She said she had been struggling to get into the right mindset to commit to and finish this book. So she suggested it as the next group read. I had never heard of this book nor did I expect what I would find inside.

I was expecting something akin to Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson, which I believe I read before I started blogging so I never actually wrote a full review for it. In Before I Go to Sleep, the main character is a woman who is in an accident and loses her memory every night when she goes to sleep. Every morning she starts anew with her husband whom she has to blindly trust to honestly depict who she is and what her life is supposed to be. That’s what I thought this book would kind of be like. I was thinking, “Oh here we go. I’ve seen this one before.” But it was nothing like I thought. Truly NOTHING like I thought.

The author tells this story while somehow consistently using imagery and language that provide a creepy and uncomfortable environment throughout. Truly, I was consistently uncomfortable reading this book. In a creepy, icky way. The male main character is egocentric and the way the author portrays it and the level to which it grows as the story goes on… it’s just… unsettling. Not in a bad way. I was just really impressed with how consistent it was.

This book was predictable and completely unpredictable at the same time. Part of me thought I knew what was going to happen but there were so many possible outcomes that I kept doubting myself.

Now, the ending is part of the reason this book lost a half-star/cat. It felt rushed and a little all over the place. I had some serious plot-related questions that I guess could have some far-fetched explanations but it was just quick and confusing and I found myself re-reading a lot of the ending because I wasn’t sure who was talking and who was even present in the situation. I’m also not sure how some things were achieved without anyone else knowing/seeing. I literally went and googled “ending of The Perfect Wife explained” to see if I could find answers that were maybe right in front of my face that I may have missed.

Other than that, this was pretty enjoyable most of the way through. There were the parts in the middle where I was praying no elaboration/progression would happen as I was already uncomfortable with the situation and there were times when it felt like things were going a bit slow. Overall, though, I’m really glad I found and read this one thanks to my bestie.

If anyone reads it shoot me a message here or on my socials and let me know what your take on that ending was. Maybe it’s just me but I’m still reeling a little. Maybe that was the author’s intention. To leave us still asking questions and second-guessing ourselves.

“If I die before you, I’ll expect at least a palace,” you informed Tim mock-seriously. “I won’t let you die before me.” Even in the upload, you can hear the absolute conviction in his voice.