Author: Tasmina Perry
ISBN: 978-0-7553-5849-6
RRP: $29.99
Tasmina Perry’s latest novel is a gripping page turner that held me in thrall start to finish. There is something for everyone with elements of crime, suspense, romance and travel.
In an ideal world this is one book that I would have devoured in a single sitting, I found it extremely difficult to put down and was always itching to get back into it. In part I can attribute this to the various strands of storyline playing out simultaneously, the chapters focus on different characters so at the end of every chapter you want to continue until you can get back to those characters to see what they’re up to.
The story is told in the third person which keeps the story flowing fluidly through chapters as it focuses on different characters. There are straightforward links between some of the characters from the beginning so you know how they fit together. As the story progresses the twists begin and we start to see that often things are not what they seem.
Yet again Tasmina Perry has set her story in the midst of the wealthy, leading lives of privilege. Gorgeous houses, everything money can buy and shallow characters concerned more about bank balances and appearances than actual people.
Sophie Ellis is a spoilt, materialistic young lady drifting through life on Daddy’s bank balance until he loses all the family money in a Ponzi scheme, and then 12 months later passes away from a heart attack. Chapter One opens with Sophie at her father’s funeral trying not to let the other attendees see how much she’s hurting. After the family lost all their money it seems they lost most of their friends as well. She is forced to reassess her life and start standing on her own two feet, which is how she ends up working in a gym and then starting her own personal training business.
Before long Sophie is house-sitting for a client, which is how she meets Nick Cooper and quickly becomes involved with him. Within a week Nick is murdered in his hotel suite and Sophie is a suspect. From this point Sophie’s life rapidly spirals out of control, it is also where our other leading lady and gents enter the picture.
Ruth Boden is a committed newspaper journalist out to catch a story big enough to land her the promotion she is desperate for, which lands her in Nick’s hotel suite ready to give her all in the pursuit of this story.
Inspector Fox is a detective on the Nick Cooper case chasing every lead he can get his hands on to track down Nick’s killer.
And then there’s Josh, an apparent friend of Nick’s and the only person Sophie could think to contact trying to find answers of her own.
Tasmina Perry doesn’t just write her characters, she creates them, and these ones are very 3-dimensional and in focus. There is not a great deal of background on Inspector Fox because we only really see him when he is totally immersed in the case and he is on duty almost 24/7 so even though we only see Inspector Fox and not the man he is off duty it still seems like a complete picture because he seems to live and breathe the job.
Josh is another character who remains shrouded in mystery throughout the novel and I think this works well because we need that slight sense of vagueness to keep us guessing.
Ruth Boden is a character we do get to know inside and out, on duty and off. She is a cut-throat journalist willing to do pretty much anything to get her story. Yes, over the years she has learned to play the game so to speak and her integrity isn’t neccessarily what it once was and she is a journalist who is always on duty but we still see Ruth Boden the woman as well as the journalist.
Sophie, well Sophie is on a roller coaster ride of discovery, much of it self discovery and that brings us closer to her as the pages turn. A young woman who started the book a spoilt little princess grows into a strong and assertive character who is more than capable of standing up for herself.
I loved this book. I love the characters, I love Perry’s writing style and I love the never-ending twists. Looking back I can see that there were clues to head us in the right direction but never enough to completely join the dots because things are often not what they seem and this plot is layered much more intricately than I was expecting.
I can’t wait to hear what our book club readers have to say about it.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Yes I totally agree with Michelle -This book was exciting, well written and held my interest from page one. I enjoyed the characters and was impressed by the developing depth of Sophie’s nature, especially her courage and assertiveness. Ruth too was a character I could admire as she persevered with her investigations to find the truth. The only glitch for me personally was the author’s description of the first sex scene, in which the use of certain language I found to be out of keeping with the rest of the professional standard of the book. I must admit ,although not a prudish person, this did hold me back from reading for a couple of days.Nevertheless I am pleased I completed the novel as it was well worth reading.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to enjoy and review this book. I’m a “whodunnit?” addict from way back, and I usually get my man/woman before the last page … but not this time. About 50 pages from the end (before the trip to Scotland) I swore with complete conviction that Josh was a two-timing culprit, but I was misled and mistaken. Well done Tasmina Perry!
The author has an engaging, descriptive style that carried me without pause from the first word to the last. I read the book through with only one break … I had to get some sleep some time, after all! In Tasmina Perry’s hands we are all putty. Snippets of information are fed to the reader like tiny hors d’oeuvres before a main meal, never revealing more than the author wants us to know, but just enough to stimulate our curiosity.
The characters of Sophie Ellis and Ruth Boden are presented to us patiently and sympathetically, allowing enough detail for the reader to feel for them and want them to succeed. I watched with satisfaction as both ultimately found a happier place in their lives. The other characters are more two dimensional, but this is necessary to maintain the suspense.
I loved the vivid, almost poetic descriptions of foreign destinations. My main disappointment was that I could not read more of this. However, to labour the context would have, again, detracted from the suspense, so I may just have to indulge in my own travels to alleviate the hunger stimulated by the book.
As for the sex scenes, I didn’t find them offensive. I’m no romantic, and I actually hate romantic novels, but in this case the scenes fit with the context. They simply helped to paint the characters as more real and human. The scenes were brief anyway and did not interfere with the pace of the novel.
Overall, a very enjoyable book which I happily recommend to any fan of crime novels.
Thank you Beauty & Lace for giving me the opportunity to read and review this wonderful novel.
I agree with Michelle that it was very well written and had something for everyone in it.
I found it very difficult to put down and couldn’t wait to get back to it every time I did leave it.
I did however find that it took a while to find out where the Prologue fitted in with the story.
I admired Sophie for her courage and strength and Ruth for her determination and perseverence in not giving up on her quest for a good story and what a story she eventually did get.
Josh was a mystery right until the finish as was Lana.
Thoroughly enjoyable book and one I would definietly recommend to everyone who enjoy romance, crime, suspense and travel.
Sophie’s privileged life has come to an end after her father dies not long after losing all his money in a ponzie scheme. Her downsized life seems to be coming together when she stumbles on a career as a personal trainer and being asked to house sit for one of her wealthy clients. Then she meets and enters a relationship with Nick Cooper, a wealthy American businessman. Her life seems to be coming together. Not so. Josie finds Nick murdered in his hotel suite and discovers Nick Cooper was not his real name. She turns to Josh, the only person she knows who also knew Nick, to try to find some answers. Leaving Josh’s houseboat Sophie is attacked and shot at and soon she and Josh are on the run trying to evade both their attackers and the police. Who was Nick Cooper and why was he killed and who are the shady characters that attacked them? Are the two events related? The search for answers takes Sophie and Josh to France, America and finally to Scotland.
Running parallel to Sophie’s story is Ruth’s story. Ruth is an American foreign correspondent trying to salvage her job in London by getting a scoop for her newspaper. She becomes aware of Nick’s murder from her police sources and decides to investigate. Meeting Sophie she is convinced of her innocence and after finding that both Sophie’s flat and her mother’s home have been trashed and searched she is convinced that there is more to Sophie and to Nick’s murder than meets the eye. Sensing that this is the story that might save her career Ruth begins her own investigation.
This book contains it all. Murder, mystery, con men, Russian mafia, a frantic chase through three countries and romance. It is not a bad read but not one I found totally compelling or convincing. I never got a real sense of who Josh was and found some of the things he was able to do while he and Sophie were on the run rather unbelievable. Nor did I find the professional and personal relationship between Ruth and Inspector Fox convincing.
Unlike The Company of Strangers which I loved and resulted in me devouring four more of Liz Byrski’s books Perfect Strangers did not impress me enough for me want to seek out more books by Tasmina Perry.
I finished reading Perfect Strangers last night; three days after receiving it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
From the prologue, I was hooked!
I immediately liked the character of Sophie Ellis. And I was equally taken by other characters throughout the story, including Ruth and Josh.
Actually, I would love if Tasmina Perry wrote another story using Ruth’s character in it again.
But getting back to Perfect Strangers, this book was one that I didn’t want to put down. I found the storyline really engaging, and leaving me on the edge of my seat. It held my attention and was really exciting; I haven’t read a book this good in a while.
I would happily recommend this book, and for me, it is a book that I would enjoy reading again and again as there are so many elements to the story that I am sure I would find new things to be impressed by each and every time I read it.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to allow me to take part in this review; I loved this book.
Thanks Beauty and Lace for an absolutely brilliant book Perfect Strangers by Tasmina Perry.
I have been enthralled by this book from the moment I started reading . If you like a good book that keeps you guessing right to the end then Perfect Strangers is for you.
Revolving around several characters mainly Sophie , Ruth and Josh , this story has it all murder , mystery , engaging characters and enough twists and turns in their lives to satisfy any reader.
Starting with Sophie finding her new man in her life Nick Cooper dead in his hotel suite , only to find out that wasnt even his real name.
What follows is an intriguing jaunt across several countries as Sophie’s life becomes intertwined with that of journalist Ruth who is living in London and Ruth becomes convinced that there is more to the story of Nicks murder .Hoping this story may revive her career it becomes much more personal as she delves further.
For lovers of crime/mystery novels you will definitely enjoy the twists and turns of Perfect Strangers . A hugely enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone .
Thanks Beauty and Lace for an absolutely brilliant book Perfect Strangers by Tasmina Perry.
I have been enthralled by this book from the moment I started reading . If you like a good book that keeps you guessing right to the end then Perfect Strangers is for you.
Revolving around several characters mainly Sophie , Ruth and Josh , this story has it all murder , mystery , engaging characters and enough twists and turns in their lives to satisfy any reader.
Starting with Sophie finding her new man in her life Nick Cooper dead in his hotel suite , only to find out that wasnt even his real name.
What follows is an intriguing jaunt across several countries as Sophie’s life becomes intertwined with that of journalist Ruth who is living in London and Ruth becomes convinced that there is more to the story of Nicks murder .Hoping this story may revive her career it becomes much more personal as she delves further.
For lovers of crime/mystery novels you will definitely enjoy the twists and turns of Perfect Strangers . A hugely enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone .
Perfect Strangers is just the sort of book I enjoy and Im with the rest of the reviews, very hard to put down. With just the right amount of suspense, plenty of details about the characters and places they went, twists and turns,and romance as well with being over the top, it held me until I finished. I think I might have to reread!
I loved the main character, Sophie. Someone even tho events were not similar to my own, but I could really relate to. Josh on the other hand was quite hard to pick, you never were sure if he was the good guy or the bad guy. At the end, I thought I would have liked to know a bit more about his background. I kept thinking he would turn out to be a super rich playboy type.Perhaps he is, perhaps not. Ruth , I still havent made up my mind yet if she stayed true to herself/character but I guess everyone deserves a happy ending.
All in all, I would recommend this book to my friends and I will look at other books written by Tasmina Perry and look hopefully for another one soon.
I have long been a fan of Tasmina Perry and this book certainly does not dissappoint. I was hooked from the first chapter and spent most of the week-end enthralled in the story.Well written believable plot lines and wonderfully descriptive passages and I loved Sophie as a character, and Josh certainly had me intrigued. This is a tale that really keeps you guessing till the end which is great as I hate anything too predictable. Anyone who enjoys a good read will love this book and I look forward to reading more from this author. All in all I LOVED it!!
Thanks beauty & lace for this great opportunity to read this great book, “Perfect Strangers” by Tasmina Perry. I really enjoyed the book from the start to the end. Loved the characters especially Sophie, such an interesting personality as also Josh had me intrigued in many ways.
The story had everything, travels, romance, suspense, murder and slowly you end up falling in love with some of the characters. A novel worth reading and telling others of this novel and its author. No doubt will look for more of Tasmina Perry stories. Enjoyed it. Thank you for this opportunity.