I’ve waited so long to read this book and I finally have, so you know, I had to review it. Unfortunately for me, as I am not an ebook fan I have had to do my most recent haul on ebook format due to Covid-19. I literally ran out of books to read. Not a good thing. So when I did this haul and I saw this book on there, I had to get it. I couldn’t wait to get it in physical format. It is The Perfect Wife by J P Delaney. I am a big fan of J P Delaney’s previous works. Most of them, I’ve read in just one sitting, they caught my attention that much. So it is safe to say I have high hopes.
So The Perfect Wife is a thriller. We love a good thriller on this blog. It was published in August 2019 (I only shop at one specific book store and I couldn’t find it in there every time I went in) by Ballantine Books. It’s set in Silicon Valley, California and has aspects of Science Fiction within the book also. As I usually do, here is the synopsis:
The perfect life. The perfect love.
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 a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. 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?
Beware the man who calls you . . .
I just copied that in from the books Goodreads page. So this book, was actually surprising to me with the direction it took. I wasn’t expecting the sci-fi aspect of it. It follows the story of Abbie who wakes up one day in the hospital and as she wakes she recognises being in a hospital but cannot fathom why she’s there. She goes through the possibilities in her mind, a crash etc and them Tim her husband appears reassuring her everything and everyone is fine. Little does Abbie realise that she isn’t Abbie, at least not in the traditional sense. It is five years after, her husband Tim has brought her back to him as an AI robot that has Abbie’s mind, personality and even her memories. Throughout the story we watch Abbie try and find out what really happened back then and also struggle with who she can trust as well as being treated like a mere machine with no feelings, but she has feelings. Tim made sure of that.
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t get as caught up in this book as I did in J P Delaney’s other works. However, I still couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the storyline and how it really touched upon questions of morality that could well one day be a real worry. The impact of robots and artificial intelligence on society when used in the way they are in this book. Because one day conscious machines could be a possibility, AI machines could be found in workplace as something more common. With the way science is moving and our growing dependance on computers you never know. So that really did bring a very interesting factor to this read for me.
I also found that I really got sucked in emotionally for Abbie, I had a great sense of empathy towards her. While reading the book she didn’t read as a robot but as a real person. The character development was nice, there was a great depth to each individual that was in the book, no matter how briefly. I also appreciated greatly how the perspectives changed in different chapters. Some perspectives were now, telling us what happened after Abbie was created and then there was a very subtle shift it wasn’t labelled NOW and THEN, but you instantly felt the differences of characters in the writing. This second perspective told us about then, about how it all started and why. This second perspective really rounded out the whole book. It brought everything together really nicely and filled in any gaps.
It definitely keeps you guessing as a book too. The ending wasn’t the obvious choice and that twist really was shocking and brought a really sinister feel to the overall story, as well as tragedy.
Over all, I did enjoy this book. It didn’t grab me in a way that the other books that J P Delaney has written, yet it still managed to pull me in and it didn’t disappoint. I would recommend this for people that want a nice easy read that is entertaining and twisty. It isn’t as faced paced as some other thrillers but it isn’t agonisingly slow, it is a nice balance. A great all round piece and a pleasure to read.
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve waited so long to read this book and I finally have, so you know, I had to review it. Unfortunately for me, as I am not an ebook fan I have had to do my most recent haul on ebook format due to Covid-19. I literally ran out of books to read. Not a good thing. So when I did this haul and I saw this book on there, I had to get it. I couldn’t wait to get it in physical format. It is The Perfect Wife by J P Delaney. I am a big fan of J P Delaney’s previous works. Most of them, I’ve read in just one sitting, they caught my attention that much. So it is safe to say I have high hopes.
So The Perfect Wife is a thriller. We love a good thriller on this blog. It was published in August 2019 (I only shop at one specific book store and I couldn’t find it in there every time I went in) by Ballantine Books. It’s set in Silicon Valley, California and has aspects of Science Fiction within the book also. As I usually do, here is the synopsis:
I just copied that in from the books Goodreads page. So this book, was actually surprising to me with the direction it took. I wasn’t expecting the sci-fi aspect of it. It follows the story of Abbie who wakes up one day in the hospital and as she wakes she recognises being in a hospital but cannot fathom why she’s there. She goes through the possibilities in her mind, a crash etc and them Tim her husband appears reassuring her everything and everyone is fine. Little does Abbie realise that she isn’t Abbie, at least not in the traditional sense. It is five years after, her husband Tim has brought her back to him as an AI robot that has Abbie’s mind, personality and even her memories. Throughout the story we watch Abbie try and find out what really happened back then and also struggle with who she can trust as well as being treated like a mere machine with no feelings, but she has feelings. Tim made sure of that.
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t get as caught up in this book as I did in J P Delaney’s other works. However, I still couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the storyline and how it really touched upon questions of morality that could well one day be a real worry. The impact of robots and artificial intelligence on society when used in the way they are in this book. Because one day conscious machines could be a possibility, AI machines could be found in workplace as something more common. With the way science is moving and our growing dependance on computers you never know. So that really did bring a very interesting factor to this read for me.
I also found that I really got sucked in emotionally for Abbie, I had a great sense of empathy towards her. While reading the book she didn’t read as a robot but as a real person. The character development was nice, there was a great depth to each individual that was in the book, no matter how briefly. I also appreciated greatly how the perspectives changed in different chapters. Some perspectives were now, telling us what happened after Abbie was created and then there was a very subtle shift it wasn’t labelled NOW and THEN, but you instantly felt the differences of characters in the writing. This second perspective told us about then, about how it all started and why. This second perspective really rounded out the whole book. It brought everything together really nicely and filled in any gaps.
It definitely keeps you guessing as a book too. The ending wasn’t the obvious choice and that twist really was shocking and brought a really sinister feel to the overall story, as well as tragedy.
Over all, I did enjoy this book. It didn’t grab me in a way that the other books that J P Delaney has written, yet it still managed to pull me in and it didn’t disappoint. I would recommend this for people that want a nice easy read that is entertaining and twisty. It isn’t as faced paced as some other thrillers but it isn’t agonisingly slow, it is a nice balance. A great all round piece and a pleasure to read.
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️