Reviews with content warning for Violence - One Perfect Couple: Der New-York-Times-Bestseller | »Köstlich düster und absolut fesselnd.« LUCY FOLEY

Lyla Santiago is usually a virologist working on a research project and her boyfriend Nico is a struggling actor. When he gets invited to film a new reality tv show “One Perfect Couple” on a remote tropical island, he convinces her that it’ll be a nice break together which might get him his big break. 4 other couples arrive to the island but as the first contestant is eliminated and the boat sails away to take them back to the mainland, a storm rolls in and the remaining contestants are left stranded with dwindling supplies and no way to contact the outside world. Bad enough, but someone seems to also be intent on being the last person standing. Literally.

Such a gripping thriller with lots of twists and turns, a real feeling of peril and a sense of creeping dread that they might actually not survive by the end. I loved it!

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brujaofbooks's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As a long time fan of Ruth Ware I was excited to pick up her latest release.

“One Perfect Couple” follows Lyla and her boyfriend Nico as they venture to a remote island, Ever After Island, to participate in a new game show a lot like “Love Island”. Along with four other couples, Lyla and Nico think they are about to enjoy a few weeks in paradise, and the chance to win a massive prize. Unfortunately, nature has other plans, and the island is hit with a massive storm. Lyla was not initially interested in partaking in this endeavor, but she wanted to support Nico. Now, she has to fight for her life, because there might just be a killer on the island.

The premise of this book did not initially catch my eye, and I 100% picked it up because I am a fan of Ruth Ware. I am not a fan of dating reality shows, so I was apprehensive going into this story. I also am not super interested in reading stories that follow a group of characters in a high stakes competition. Nonetheless, I had a fun, okay time reading this story. The game show element is definitely a big part of the story, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes that I was able to put more of my focus on.

This very much felt like a new age “Lord of the Flies”. A storm comes in and completely decimates the island, and the surviving characters have to work together to try and figure out a way off of the island. They have no means of transportation, and they have no way of communicating with the rest of the world. They also have to ration the remaining food and water. This aspect of the story was interesting to me because in high stress situations, people’s true colors start to come out. I really enjoyed watching the group dynamics shift and see just how far certain characters would go to survive.

Lyla was an interesting point of view to read from because she was not even interested in participating in this show. She is a scientist, but her career has seemed to stagnate. She does love Nico, so when he asks her to come, do this show with him to help him, and his acting career, she agrees. This initial resistance really becomes evident, while she is interacting with the other characters, because she has every intention of trying to leave and does not want to win.

Unfortunately, the overall story fell a little flat for me. The characters and their behavior were highly predictable, because they acted exactly as you would expect people to behave in this scenario. Although I did not see the overall mystery of who the true puppet master was, and what their sinister intentions were, I did not think it was a super unique plot line. Additionally, there is a twist, because the remaining characters take it upon themselves to shape the narrative in a different way, so this drastically changes, the impact of the big twist of the story. I really did not like that the author added this element. I felt like the characters had been through enough, and their rationale for making this decision that changed the course of the story, felt very unnecessary. The entire conversation between the characters at this point in the story made the novel feel very amateur.

I will definitely continue to keep Ruth Ware on my TBR, and I do recommend this story to someone who enjoys competition based thrillers.

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cjdawn236's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I love Ruth Ware's novels. They're always gripping and hard to put down. While this one was no different, I also felt like in some ways this one was a little more straight forward in it's plot than some of her others. I confess, I was anticipating one more twist at the end that never came. But even so, I was still on the edge of my seat until the very end.

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morethanmylupus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I usually love Ruth Ware novels, but this one was disappointing for me. The story isn't really a thriller - we know who the villain is, the twists are largely predictable, and it felt more adventure survival overall. Our characters are ... fine? The MC was frustratingly one dimensional. We get it, you're an academic and you're not into reality TV dating shows. Nothign at all wrong with either of those things. But that doesn't need to mean that you're utterly clueless. For example, why would that mean you don't know what a socialite is? C'mon. And the middle school french throughout was annoying me, but that might just be because I was bored and disappointed.

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xenlinde's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.75

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mrsmishler's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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