One Perfect Couple – Book Review

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

This book was one of my most anticipated Ruth Ware books and I have to say, I am a bit disappointed with the book.

One Perfect Couple follows the story of Lyla Santiago, who is a scientist. Her boyfriend Nico is a struggling actor and he gets a part to act in a reality TV show One Perfect Couple. Lyla follows Nico along to an island just off from Indonesia. There are other couples as –Joel and Romi, Santana and Dan, Bayer and Angel and Connor and Zana. A storm comes into the island leaving the others stranded in the island. As they are struggling to survive in the island, there is someone who would want to get rid of them one by one and Lyla must find out who before she herself become the victim.

I had a very hard time finishing the book. The pacing wasn’t great, not much of twists and turns that you would expect normally in a thriller and above all, it wasn’t great. None of the characters are likable in my opinion and I skimmed through the book in the end as I am someone who doesn’t want to DNF the books. The book sounds like Lost TV series except they are in a part of a reality TV show. However, this was OK compared to her last year novel Zero Days which in my opinion wasn’t great.

Just because this book wasn’t great doesn’t mean I am going to stop read Ruth Ware’s books. My favorite to this date is Death of Mrs. Westaway, Turn of the Key and The Woman in Cabin 10 which made me read almost all Ruth Ware’s books. I hope her next book will be better than this one.

Overall worth three stars.