The Perfect Husband, by Buffy Andrews

Publication: HQ Digital; June 4, 2018

perfect

About the book:

He was the perfect husband. Until he wasn’t.

When Shelly’s marriage ends in divorce, she’s left completely devastated and feeling like she’s never going to find love again.

Until she meets Eric.

Shelly can’t believe her luck. The first person she meets after (reluctantly) joining online dating, and he’s handsome, caring, everything she ever wanted and more. From romantic dates to expensive gifts, it’s as if she’s in a dream.

But just when Shelly thinks she’s finally found her happily ever after, she begins to realize that all is not as it seems. As the cracks start to develop, perhaps Eric isn’t the perfect man she thought he was. Will her dream become a nightmare?

A dark women’s fiction novel, perfect for fans of Amanda Prowse and Liane Moriarty.

My Review:

Lord, please help me get through this review without completely offending anyone! The Perfect Husband is the story of 47 year-old divorcee, Shelly and the man she meets online, named Eric. Shelly is initially resistent to the idea of online dating, but then she mets Eric, who appears to be the abolute perfect man. As Eric charms Shelly, as well as, her friends Jackie and Bruce, Shelly is practically gushing over his attention, gifts, and so on. But as things qucikly progress in their relationship, Shelly finally starts to see that Eric is far from perfect.

Shelly was an odd character, as was her best friend Jackie. The way the author characterized them, I would have thought they were in their 20’s or 30’s, definitely not women in their late 40’s. I’m not sure why I got that vibe except maybe that they were somewhat immature and completely blind when it came to Eric and his charms. Very early on, I could already see creepy things about him, so it was somewhat frustrating how Shelly kept moving along with him at a marathon pace and Shelly kept going on and on how she wished her husband was as romantic as Eric.

This was an enjoyable read and certainly had a lot of creepiness within the story to give it that psychological thriller feel, but it was just too predictable for me personally. I just felt as if this was something I had seen on Lifetime movies a million times about this perfect, amazing man that turns out to be an abusive psycho.

Trigger warning: this novel includes the topic of emotional and physical abuse and there are scenes including both.

*Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.