The Perfect Couple

This book was a complete waste of time and money. It was a travel advertisement for Nantucket and for foodies who visit Nantucket disguised as a whodunit. By the middle of the book, I frankly didn't care who did it. I finished it only in the hope that it would get better. It didn't.

I was looking forward to this book. It is an easy summer read. However, the pieces of the story do not come together in the end. I don’t want to spoil the story as the author created an interesting plot around a wedding. The disappointment was there were so many ways to go to tie it all up . However I felt as if I was left midstream waiting for an epilogue or follow up chapters as to the final ending. You cannot give a Reader 400 pages of story line and not create an ending appropriate to this lengthy story!

Upon reading the book blurb for this one, I knew I just had to pre-order it – a beautiful island wedding where the guests are all staying at the same location, and the maid of honour is found dead – sold! And did it live up to my expectations – yes, yes, yes! I knew going in that it was going to be tamer than my usual crime read, leaning more towards contemporary drama, which it was, but I have to say it was a nice change of pace for me, and I really enjoyed it. The mystery plot, which I worried might be too obvious, wasn’t, and even when I thought I had worked it out, turns out I was wrong.There’s a lot of glamour and glitz, talk of décor, scenery, parties, outings, heaps of descriptions of food and drink (which all sounded delicious by the way) but again that was a given before I even opened the book, and was told in such an interesting, insightful way, that I even relished those parts. Nantucket Island sure does sound like a gorgeous place, and the author definitely did it justice.The story opens with the Chief of Police receiving a phone call that the maid of honour has been found floating in the ocean, on the morning of the wedding day, and covers the subsequent investigation that follows. There are also multiple flashbacks to the day before the wedding, as well as the two years leading up to the event. At times the story is pretty heartbreaking and tragic, so keep those tissues handy, but there’s also some amusing and touching moments that have you smiling.After perusing Elin Hilderbrand’s other books, it looks like this is the authors first mystery novel, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed she writes more in this vein, as she did an amazing job. Even though it’s winter here, and I read under the covers with the electric blanket, this would make an excellent summer beach read, as it’s easy to read, and follow.

I see this gimmick more and more - and hate it more and more, and in this book it reached the heights of stupidity. The author took a mediocre storyline with a fairly predictable ending and tried to spice it up by using each chapter to bounce around in time. No, not back to the distant past to explain how someone's childhood could create a murdering monster - just to bounce around in a year (EACH CHAPTER) from the murder to a week before to a month before, back to the murder again, back to a month before - and on and on and on. It was annoying, pointless and ruined the book for me. It added nothing to the book. The story itself was a mediocre plot line that added in a small twist of angst.The only good part was the actual writing - the author handles words well. But in the end, I prefer my mysteries to have a little more intrigue, and a storyline that doesn't bounce around so much that I get nauseous trying to keep up with the timeline.

Wow!! I just finished this book and disappointed is an understatement!! It was ok until I realized that the end was near... how can she finish this thing w/2% left so we can FINALLY see "Who done it??" YAWN!!! Seriously?? Talk about anticlimactic!!!

I always look forward to Hilderbrand's summer books, they are usually a beach staple. This book ... I don't know. It seemed like 2 different things: half a story and then several different stories stitched together that fell flat. It is a supposed to be a whodunit, but the mystery part of the book is trite and unsatisfying -- not enough development in the characters to even make you care, and then, it ends up not really being a murder mystery after all. So, it was half a story as far as that goes. Then the different characters with secret lives and difficult decisions -- each of these could have been its' own story, but each was portrayed with superficial details, you wanted to know more about what happened to them, rather than just highlights thrown in now and then. Too many characters were underdeveloped and unlikeable. I felt a little cheated: both on the story and mystery. If the Perfect Couple was Romance and Mystery then they are a definite mismatch here.

I love Elin Hilderbrand and have read all her books. The Perfect Couple, in my opinion, is her best one yet. Nantucket is known to have many rich and famous residents. Many prestigious weddings have been held here. The Perfect Couple is Tag and Greer Winbury. They are planning a wedding for their son Benji to Celeste Otis. With their money they want to be sure everything is perfect. It may appear to be on the surface but cracks start to appear. Everyone has their secrets. Some secrets may crumble everything around them. There is much going on as the weddings draws closer and preparations are made. Just when you think you you know what will happen next, things change. The Winbury's may have lots of money but it doesn't buy any of them the happiness they are looking for. There are secrets upon secrets until someone dies. As the investigation continues the secrets begin to surface. Just when you think you know what happened and who did it there is a new twist. But in the end it all works out in the way it should. I loved every minute of this book and was sad for it to end. I would love for the author to write a sequel to this book and update us on Celeste, Shooter, Benji, Abby and Thomas and of course the perfect couple, Tag and Greer. What their lives may look like a year or two down the road. It could prove to be very interesting.

I am clearly in the minority with this one....first of all, I didn't hate the book. I was sucked right in for about a third of the book - the characters were detailed, suspense was well drawn out and Nantucket, ahhh I have never been but would gladly sell all my belongings to go live there right this second. The descriptions throughout the book were beautiful and rich, to the point I could almost feel the sand in my toes and the sun on my face.I got a bit lost at a few points as minor characters were given large parts of the narrative and it was hard figuring out how they related to the story, or which main character they were part of the story line with. I'd find myself reading a page or five wondering when on earth we were going to get to the point!The story also jumps back and forth in time and the same scene often told from several viewpoints. I quite like this technique but I just found repetition of passages (Father of the Bride speech in particular) quite frustrating and slowed things down considerably.Had the book been edited down, I may have enjoyed it more. As for the ending...well, I'll leave the reader to get to that. In some ways I thought it was genius but having laboured through 400+ pages, I was a bit let down.It's my first book by this author and although I'm not overwhelmed by it, would definitely read more of her work.

I surprised myself how much I enjoyed this book. I was staying away from Hilderbrand thinking her books were female fiction, full of romance, which is rarely my thing. And so I was very hesitant to pick this up. However, after reading some great reviews from my GR friends I decided to give it a go. And I'm sooo glad I did.First of all, I want to point out that the Perfect Couple is a murder mystery! Perhaps that contributed to how much I adored it? The book starts on the morning of Celeste's wedding day, when a dead body of her maid of honour is found on the shore of Nantucket. The timeline then jumps from the present to the past revealing the relationships between the wedding guests and their history. There are at least a couple of chapters focusing on each main character which I thoroughly enjoyed. Hilderbrand managed to portray everyone in such a vivid way that they all seemed very alive to me. I found the realistic aspect of the novel even more profound by incorporating the little details such as the titles of the books the characters were reading, places they visited in Europe - all very familiar to me.The novel is based on the island of Nantucket. I haven't been to Nantucket but got engaged next door at Martha's Vineyard last year so felt a bit of connection to the atmosphere and vibe of the place.This was my first Hilderbrand novel and it gets 5 stars for me. I do realise however that I might have lucked out by picking this one as my first book and might not like her other books as much. Who knows.. I will have to read another one and see for myself.

I love Elin Hildebrand's books and having pre-ordered this one for holiday reading, I was left utterly disappointed. It's a complete departure from her usual style, being a straightforward Whodunnit really - and, to be honest, not a very good one at that. None of the characters engaged me, the storyline I found very thin and it left me with the feeling that EH had run out of ideas for another book so wrote this one instead. I will continue to read her books (have just pre-ordered Winter in Paradise, another departure for her in that it's not set on Nantucket apparently, so it will be interesting to see how that works) but I really couldn't recommend The Perfect Couple. Sorry!

In a murder investigation the first step is to lock and investigate social media accounts, but here Elin has Chloe show the police chief Merritt's Instagram just a day before the case is closed and the guy shows no interest at all!Also, a sleeping pill isn't strong enough to knock you out cold while floating in shallow water, not unless they were Rohypnol and that would have knocked her out much quicker.I would have liked more descriptions of the island and the food, as in previous books and Shooter and Celeste deserved their HEA. Also, was Celeste's mother cured? Why did she feel no pain?

As a bride to be I was interested in the book. The storyline is good however the author made characters mind drift to the past at poignant moments instead of sticking to is happening there and then. Example of this both mothers meeting for the first time, one is dressed in beige, the other Mum's opinion she should dress more colourful, as she likes colour from working with it. We get an in-depth story about her job. Then the author returns to them meeting. It's constantly like this throughout the book, won't be reading another novel.

A wonderful read, believable characters, a wonderful location in Nantucket (described so beautifully that you know that you are there), a story that keeps pulling you back and a mystery as well. The story and the characters linger in your mind long after you finish the book. This is one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

This was just a great book! refreshing and a bit different from any of the historical fiction novels I love from Santa Montifore, Phillipa Gregory, but this was just wonderful! had a lot of fun recovering from a surgery with this book. Read it in 2 days!

As always with Elin Hildebrand books, thoroughly enjoyed her latest offering. Perfect aeroplane or summer holiday/relaxing reading - not too taxing on the brain, but a good story well told, and with three dimensional likeable characters. And there is nothing more to say about it!

Not my usual type of book but it ripped along at a pace. Easy to read. Like othrt reviwers said Nantucket sounds fab. However, the author's idea of English names is a bit odd. Featherleigh Dale, Tag and Greer Garrison!! Hear that all the time in Tesco. But that aside it passed a few relaxing ours. Now onto a blog.

I couldn't get into this, and gave up on it quite early on, unfortunately. The setting and characters didn't draw me in, and I was too bored to plough on.

Great mystery novel. I love all of the old characters reappearing in all of the books. Can’t wait for the next release

Another great summer read from Elin Hilderbrand that takes me back to my favourite holiday destination

Really enjoyed this book. Kept me guessing “who did it”. Hilderbrand writes good, escapist novels but apparently can write pretty good mysteries too!

Kept me interested, but felt the ending was a bit of a cop out. Couldn’t help feeling the author couldn’t be bothered with maintaining the ‘who dun it’.

I lived in Nantucket for many years so this is familiar territory, where I can really know where the characters are at the time, but this is a great summer read!