One Perfect Couple
-
-
4.0 • 1K Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).
Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.
A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.
But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Ware (Zero Days) fumbles a promising premise in this clever but slack closed-circle mystery. Biologist Lyla Santiago's postdoc research on mosquito-borne illnesses hits a wall when inconsistencies in her colleague's work threaten their grant funding. Rudderless, Lyla agrees to join her boyfriend, out-of-work actor Nico Reese, to film a reality TV competition called Ever After Island. On the Survivor-esque show, five couples complete in challenges on a remote island in the Indian Ocean and then vote to send one contestant home each week. Lyla plans to get eliminated quickly so she can return to London and sort out her future, leaving Nico behind to improve his career prospects. Her plan gets complicated, however, when a powerful storm sweeps across the island, isolating the contestants from the show's production crew. When people start turning up dead, Lyla has to decide whom to trust, taking the traditional stakes of reality TV alliances to nerve-shredding new heights. Ware has plenty of fun with her Agatha Christie–esque setup, but she fails too whip up sufficient suspense—the plot's resolution is simply too easy to crack. Readers will hope Ware returns to form next time out.
Customer Reviews
Another gripper from Ruth!
Could not put this down!
Some holes
I wanted to know what happened to Nico.
Too many holes
I’m sorry, but sometimes there are such gaping holes in a work that it mares the story, and this is the case here. The author builds her plot around the need for water, water being hoarded and controlled, and the like, when no one thinks to boil seawater and collet the steam, because that is very drinkable water. And 1 character is a former Girl Guide, which I believe is the equivalent of a Girl Scout, and someone else is a scientist? Seriously? This is common knowledge stuff, yet it escapes 10 characters? Just no. Also, no one even experimented with possible solutions for solving their water shortage when they are on an island surrounded by seawater. No one tried to fix the desalinization treatment facility or rig up something from spare parts? People don’t behave this way. Usually this author does well with her character development, but she loses stars this time. I want to enjoy books that have a ring of truth to them. Not what I was looking for here. This is a simplistic beach read at best.