The Perfect Couple

In our next installment of back-to-back Elin Hilderbrand, we have The Perfect Couple.

Goodreads Stats

Why I Read This Book/How I Heard About It

This is a continuation of my newfound, sister-influenced obsession with current viral book club chick lit. So far, I've managed to identify two queens of beach reads: Taylor Jenkins Reid and Elin Hilderbrand. I give a slight edge to Hilderbrand, but they are pretty equal in my eyes so far. I've read a lot of them and each of these authors has some great books and some flops. It is what it is.

Basic Summary

As all Hilderband's romance books are, this one is set in Nantucket, this time during the summer wedding season. The focus of this story is the Otis-Winbury wedding. The groom's mega wealthy parents are hosting at their oceanfront summer home and the pressure is on to make it the most memorable event the island has ever seen.

But, of course, things can't just go smoothly. A body washes up on shore hours before the wedding and the entire wedding party become persons of interest in the possible murder. The Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, and the groom's famous mystery novel author mother. As he investigates, it becomes more clear that no couple is perfect.

First Impressions

This story is less a beach read and more a straight up mystery to solve. I am not usually a big mystery novel reader, so I was pretty excited to see if I could solve this. My sister and I read it at the same time and we were texting our guesses to one another constantly. We actually were not able to solve it, but we got very close.

Final Thoughts

This book was fun and engaging, but coming straight off of The Hotel Nantucket, I had a hard time not comparing the two. And I really liked The Hotel Nantucket. So, in some ways, this one was a letdown for me. But, in other ways, it was different enough that I still wanted to see where the story was leading. That said, I did have a difficult time slogging through the middle section of this book. And there was a love triangle type storyline that I just didn't quite buy, even though I really wanted to be able to believe it. It just didn't seem likely to me. Some of the scenes felt a bit over the top.

I got vibes of other popular works as I was reading. It felt, to me, like a mixture of Taylor Swift's song, "The Last Great American Dynasty" and the television drama, Revenge, with a touch of HBO Max's Big Little Lies sprinkled in. Because it felt a little derivative of all of these cultural phenoms, I rated it a bit lower than the others I've read by Hilderbrand.

Rating on Goodreads

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars.

My rating method:

• I rarely rate books 5 stars. I save this for the absolute best books I've read. You know the ones...the ones that you can't get out of your head, even after you've finished them. The ones you think about for weeks afterwards.

• If a book is really, really good, I'll give it 4 stars. If you see a 4-star rating from me, I'd definitely recommend it to you to read.

• If it's just OK, it gets 3 stars. Basically, it means I could take it or leave it. I'd probably read it again because it wasn't terrible. But not like a favorite or anything.

• If I rate it 1 or 2 stars, I would not recommend anyone read it. It either didn't hold my interest or I couldn't relate to the characters/plot.