Audiobook Review: One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware
One Perfect Couple
Author: Ruth Ware
Narrator: Imogene Church
Published: May 21, 2024
Audiobook:14 hours 25 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: May 30, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A high-tension and ingenious thriller following five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.
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, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find 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.
Jessica’s Review:
If you have enjoyed reality show competitions, then this will be a book for you! It’s like a mix of Survivor and Lord of the Flies. We have a large cast, 5 couples competing and one narrator: Lyla. Luckily, I was able to keep everyone straight. Lyla is a virologist and her partner Nico is an aspiring actor…So you know who wanted to go on the show! Each couple is unique, which is what helped to differentiate the characters.
We get a lot of buildup in regards to the reality show, and I really enjoyed the ‘behind the scenes’ on how the show was going to be put together. Our five couples are on an island in the Indian Ocean and after the first competition they all realize how things are actually going to go… Until a storm hits overnight and they are left stranded. Then people start dying.
I really enjoyed this one and how it all came together with the villain worked for me.
As always with Ruth Ware novels, Imogene Church is the narrator! Ruth Ware’s books are ones I always have to listen to as Church is just brilliant in her narration!
Audiobook Review: The It Girl by Ruth Ware
The It Girl
Author: Ruth Ware
Narrator: Imogene Church
Published: July 12, 2022
Audiobook: 17 hours 09 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: April 24- May 5, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.
Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.
Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide… including a murder.
Jessica’s Review:
Ruth Ware and Imogene Church did it again! I enjoyed this one. This was a book club selection for May otherwise I would have listened to it before now. Her books are not perfect for me, but I enjoy them and she is a must listen to with an always fabulous narrator: Imogene Church!
It’s time to go back to college with this one and Hannah is our narrator. We get ‘Before’ and ‘After’ timelines, before and after April’s murder. April and Hannah were roommates and became best friends. College at Oxford was something: Oh, to have a bedroom suite like Hannah and April had! Each had their own fire place. We get a feel of the college life as our cast of characters all experience strip poker on their first night at Oxford.
There is the creepy porter John Neville who is stalkerish and there is also a professor who doesn’t seem squeaky clean. We go back to the past and current day with Hannah. It’s been 10 years since April’s death and her killer has died in prison. A reporter stirs things up for Hannah and she has her doubts now on who actually killed April.
As with all of Ware’s novels, its is a moving mystery that is not super speedy. I did figure out who the killer was just before Hannah did, but the why motive, I did not. April was not likeable at all to me and it didn’t really seem like she thought of herself and Hannah as best friends. You can be friends and roommates and not besties, but Hannah felt that they were best friends.
I enjoyed it and would listen to it again! At one point in the audiobook where we get to a twist I was driving and I had to rewind the track because I was shocked and had to make sure I heard it right! I did and OMG! Imogene Church was wonderful and this time ‘effects’ were used when Hannah was on the phone with other characters. It was different and brought a more realistic feel to the story for me.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
A Re-Read of The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
Author: Ruth Ware
Narrator: Imogene Church
Published: May 29, 2018
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 23-October 3, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.
Jessica’s Review:
This one was a re-read because one of my book club’s was reading it for the month of October and our meeting was this past Saturday. This one was just a three-star read for me the first time and it was a three-star read again the second time. I just didn’t connect with Hal, which I think was the book’s downfall for me.
My review from my first time read is here as all my thoughts that are still the same.
Ruth Ware is an “auto-listen’ for me as her narrator is always Imogene Church who always brilliantly narrates! This book club will be reading another of Church’s novels in a few months The It Girl, which I have not listened to yet, I’m saving it for when it is time!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK