Book Description
Book Blurb
Victoria has the perfect life. And she’ll do whatever it takes to keep it.
For Victoria, image is everything. And on the surface, she has it all - a big house, a successful husband and two beautiful children.
But behind the scenes, things are very different. Because Victoria and her husband have a dark secret and she lives in terror of it being discovered, of her perfect facade being shattered forever.
Under massive stress, but still desperately trying to keep up appearances, this is a family that is falling apart.
Husband Kit is unable to work. Teenage daughter Anna grows ever more rebellious. And nine-year-old Joey seems increasingly different from other kids.
Victoria realises she has to act now or she will lose everything. And that’s when she has to ask herself - how far is she willing to go, how much is she willing to do, to preserve her perfect family?
The answer is beyond shocking and will plunge them all into a nightmare from which they may never wake.
BLOG TOUR REVIEW
Review for 'The Perfect Family' by Lorna Dounaeva.
Read and reviewed for ZooLoos Book Tours, Lorna Dounaeva and Inkubator Books.
Publication date 24th April 2022.
This is the first book I have read by this author.
I was originally drawn to this book by its eye catching gorgeous cover and intriguing sounding synopsis and title. The synopsis stated 'The Perfect Family – the gripping psychological thriller ideal for fans of K. L. Slater, Mark Edwards, Daniel Hurst.' I am a huge fan of Mark Edwards and K.L Slater so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Inkubator Books. I have yet to read a book published by Inkubator Books that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).
This novel consists of a prologue, 48 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!
This book is based in Surrey, England 🏴 , UK 🇬🇧 . The bonus for me of books that are partly or fully based in the UK is that I live in the UK and have sometimes visited places mentioned in the book which makes it easier to picture.
This book is written in third person perspective and the main protagonists are Victoria Hill, Joey Hill and Anna Hill. The benefits of third person perspective with multiple protagonists are that it let's you see the bigger picture of what's going on and you get to know more characters more, what they are thinking and what they are doing. It feels like you get to see the whole picture and not miss out in anything.
This book is well written with vivid descriptions that really set the scene and put you in the storyline. The cover and synopsis suit the book perfectly.
This book is an intriguing slow burner filled with secrets, lies, deceit and more. It is an interesting family drama that questions how far a mother would go to protect her children or is it to protect the Perfect Family image? It leaves the reader questioning which is more important to Victoria. I enjoyed the fact that we get to see the storyline through the eyes of each of the main protagonists and each of them have very different view points of what the events felt like. The school scenes were very realistic with the different cliques of mums and as a mum myself I felt Lorna portrayed it perfectly along with how hard it can be to get in with certain gangs and how catty certain gangs can be. One of the last chapters from Anna's perspective leaves you questioning if she had a part in what happened to. Victoria, I won't say more than that as I don't want to spoil it for future readers.
The characters each and their own personalities and they were all very different to each other. I wasn't a fan of Victoria's character at all and found her to be very stuck up and cared more about her image than her family. The fact that she denied her son Joey the help he certainly needed really annoyed me after seeing it myself so many times. I was more invested in Anna than her mum which is unusual for me. However, Anna seemed much more mature than her age, at times but at others much younger. When she was acting more grown up it was sweet to see the bond that she had with her brother Joey and Dad Kit. My heart went out to poor Kit and Joey. Joey for not getting the support he badly needed and Kit for the way his wife Victoria cared more about how much money he was earning thay how it was affecting his health. Regardless of whether you loved or hated the characters they each worked perfectly well together to form this intriguing family drama.
Overall an intriguing family drama filled with lies, deceit and secrets.
Genres covered in this book include Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Suspense, Women's Psychological Fiction, Mystery and Psychological Fiction amongst others.
I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of Mark Edwards, Daniel Hurst, K. L. Slater, Mark Edwards.
313 pages.
This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle or free on kindle unlimited (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!
Rated 5/5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.
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Author Bio
Lorna Dounaeva has a Masters in European Studies and used to work at the Home Office before turning to crime fiction. She lives in Godalming, Surrey with her husband, three children and a crafty cat.
The Perfect Family is her second psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
Follow her at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorna_dounaeva/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LornaDounaeva
Website: https://www.lornadounaeva.com
Buy Links
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Family-gripping-psychological-thriller-ebook/dp/B09Y1W92VZ
ebook/dp/B09Y1W92VZ
