A very readable book even though the story-line turned into a disturbing one. I did think it ended quite abruptly but still an excellent story. Highly recommended

One of the fastest books I’ve ever read!!!

Shelly finds The One after losing all hope that she will ever love or will be loved again. Eric is the perfect match for her, caring, sweet and attentive and their relationship takes a fast course and gets serious pretty quickly. When you know, you know, right?

But what if someone you love and trust uses your insecurities and weaknesses to manipulate you and control you? How do you begin to trust in yourself again, how do you get up from rock bottom and fight to escape?

Exhilarating relate-able story will make you feel so close to the main character. You want to help her, you want to warn her, advice her but you know you can’t, so you just watch as she’s heading to the dark future in hands of tyrant.

I found this book a very easy read with a very tough topic. I flew through it in matter of hours and at the end felt like part of me was missing. It was over much sooner than I would like and I think the story would really benefit from more pages and a bit more volume to it. However I would still recommend it as I really enjoyed it and it would make a great fast read for people who don’t like to spend days or months reading a book.

This is the first book I've read by Buffy Andrews . Although I found the story to be interesting and it held my attention, I could tell you from the first 50 pages what was going to happen. So a bit more predictable than I would like.

The Perfect Husband is a psychological thriller. Reminds me so much of the movie "Sleeping with the Enemy" with Julia Roberts. Red flags are going off all over the place but Shelly just shrugs them off. Then it gets a little too "Fifty Shades of Gray" for me and I found myself skimming through parts. This one kept me interested but don't think I would recommend it due to the content of the book (lots of abuse). Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I would actually rate this a 3.5 star read if I’m being honest. I am a huge fan of this author and love reading her books, but this is something totally different from her. I have read a lot of similar stories recently and as much as I wanted to love this story it fell a little short for me.

This isn’t a book for those who are easily shocked, nor is it for anyone who may have suffered abusive relationships before as there are many triggers throughout. The red flags are all there, unfortunately Shelly doesn’t see them or, when she does get a hint of something, she dismisses it too quickly. The story is predictable but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

The writing is good, the characters believable and the story, once it gets into the nitty gritty, goes at a good pace. I just feel that there are so many similar type books around right now that this didn’t have any stand out moments for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy.

Ok for starters I am totally going to admit I requested this due to the authors name.
Huge Buffy fan even after all these years. Now onto the review :)

I actually really enjoyed this book.

There were GIANT red flags throughout this story. But from everything I have read and know about abusive relationships, is that there generally are always big red flags that tend to get ignored or swept under the rug. Lost in the throes of blossoming romance. This was certainly true in this book. I almost wanted to shake the main character Shelley. She was extremely naive for a lady in her forties I thought.
Her best friend was pretty much the same way. I feel as her best friend she should have noticed how her friend had changed etc but she pretty much thought the man was perfect too.

Certain parts of this book was obvious. The tracker on the phone being a HUGE flag but I was also fairly sure the phone wasn’t the only tracker.
Eric was a scary character. I am sure for people who have been in type of relationship he would have been a character that people would have found relatable to their abusive spouse/partner..

However, if you are affected by triggering subjects such as a rape etc you might want to give this a miss.
This book is pretty much a big warning on relationships like this.

I enjoyed this because it was a good addictive read.
I was impressed with her writing style and I would definitely look out for more books from her in the future.

This book totally screamed 'Sleeping with the Enemy', so many red flags I was practically yelling at my kindle when Shelly tells her best friend, Jackie that she's met someone special....Eric showers her with expensive gifts, takes her to posh restaurants, tells her she's beautiful, but wouldn't it be lovely if she had a boob job to make her boobs bigger and Shelly, who wants to please her 'White Knight' after a disastrous marriage break up, will do anything to please Eric.

In Shelly's defence, Eric fools everyone except the reader and I suppose that's how these narcissistic men work, they charm you, disarm you and then harm you...ultimately all Shelly wanted was to be loved and there is nothing wrong with that.

The only issue I had with this book was the sometimes the dialogue was a bit repetitive, there were lots of 'You didn't have to buy me this', 'I'd do anything to make you happy.' I suppose it was the writers way of re-enforcing Eric's neediness.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Wow. This is a unique book. Its fast paced but fairly well detailed. It does have some triggers in the book that are hard to deal with (abuse, rape, and verbal abuse). If these are things that may trigger you be aware this may not be the book for you.

I liked Eric (the main 'hero') at first. The author made him likeable. It's actually extremely scary.

When I read the first page of the book, I almost never continued to read anymore. I suffer from anxiety and the things on the first page were hard to read (the book in general was hard to read). I won't spoil the book but it was worth it to read as there was a survivor. The book ended on a hopeful end. I only read these types of books every once in awhile so I don't see me rereading this book. However, I will recommend it to others to read.

Brilliant book!! Like Sleeping With The Enemy .... kept me hooked til the last page !!! Very current around meeting a new love interest online and thinking everything is amazing but sometimes things are not what they seem !!!!

I see a pattern with books featuring awful husbands and boyfriends and the women who stand up and say, ENOUGH. I think this might be the case with The Perfect Husband by Buffy Andrews. Without knowing anything about this book, you can probably guess the perfect husband doesn’t exist! Or does he?

Here’s the premise:

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?



Honestly, I think about this often. How do you know when you meet someone if they are who and what they say? It could all go bad very quickly. I’m eager to dig into this one!

Thanks Netgalley for an ARC to read and give my honest opinion.



He was the perfect husband until he turned into a man you don't even want to look at when he is throwing a childish fit. Warning signs were all over the place when Shelley was dating this man, and she chose to ignore them. When he turns violent she fights back. I wasn't terribly impressed with the beginning in this book and felt it went too fast where as the ending kind of dragged out. I gave it three stars for entertainment! Thanks Netgalley!
The author doesn't romanticize the first part which gives you the feeling where the book is going to go before it even goes there. Which makes it feel false. Most men in these situations are great at covering who they really are, and I don't think the author quite captures it.

Finally, a synopsis that lived up to my expectations. This isn't some great peace of literary fiction but it is very entertaining and fast paced. I literally finished this in one sitting.


The characters are all believable. Most thrillers have some pretty unrealistic characters that can take away from the plot but the characters felt like people that could live on your street or work with you. The writing was straight forward. Not overly flowery, just right to get the story across. The plot was great, it was very clear. Even though we are told the husband becomes bad at some point in the book it is interesting to see how it evolves and how the main character works through it. It is also logical, this could and probably has happened in real life. I was very intrigued from beginning to end. I took away a star because it a five star book has to blow me away and this was just a satisfying read and I still highly recommend it.

Shelly is recently divorced and doesn’t think she will ever find love and happiness again. Then she meets Eric on an online dating app and can’t believe how lucky she is. He’s everything she's always wanted in a man—handsome, caring, romantic… After awhile, though, Shelly begins to realize that he isn’t what he seems to be.

This was a reasonably good book. It seemed similar to a number of other books about the same topic and wasn’t really anything new or shocking. Shelly misses all the signs that Eric isn’t what he seems to be, and the “nice guy” turns out to be a sociopath instead of the perfect husband. It was relatively fast paced and not a bad book at all. It was just not different enough to stand out.

Oh Shelley you were a little gullible thinking Eric was your knight in shining armour how wrong you were but don’t we all look for this?

The Perfect Husband,  Buffy Andrews

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Women's Fiction, Romance

Writer K.J. Charles wrote a blog post recently about what is and isn't a romance novel. She says romance needs to have that happy ending, a HEA or at least a HFN between the two (or more) main characters and that's exactly how I feel. This ISN'T romance, its a great read, I really enjoyed it but romance it is not. I'll skip my usual moan about women's fiction :-) For me this book is better categorised as General Fiction, Drama/Dark fiction.

It starts well, that careful meeting when adults are thrown back into the dating field, after death, divorce, break-ups. Shelley meets Eric and her best friend Jackie and her workmates all agree he's the perfect man. Even at this early stage we can see one of two red flags but Shelley, blissfully immersed in Love Land misses them.
How easy that is, how we make excuses, tell ourselves “he/she didn't mean it that way./its understandable, I shouldn't have.../well he/she had past issues that make that reaction normal for them.

Eric's like a whirlwind, and Shelley is so in love, feels so treasured, so taken care of, even though she is perfectly OK at taking care of herself. Everyone loves a bit of pampering, a little special treatment and I could see so much why Eric appealed, such a contrast to her ex.
And before she knows it they're moving in together, and of course it doesn't make sense to keep her stuff when Eric's is so nice, and he says he'd rather not have things from her life with Scott. Some of the things were hers alone though, and he's all “well, of course if you really want to keep them we can change things round, make room somewhere...” sounding like he's doing her a favour almost. She knows he doesn't really want anything of her past in their new home, and she loves him, she wants what he wants.
Suddenly she's married, and the cracks start to appear. Sadly this is real life for so many people, men and women, and it's so easy to say “just leave” but by the tome things are that bad all confidence in the victim, in Shelley, has been lost. Life becomes just a constant struggle to watch out for anything that might make Eric angry, and then after pretending she accepts his remorse, his words of “you need to try harder Shelley, I don't like having to get angry at you” That's a classic, turn the blame around, and something abusers are so good at.

The real kicker is can she escape, will she find the strength, will he let go? The drama parts of this novel were superb, so carefully done its easy to see how outgoing, attractive, confident Shelley becomes a shadow of that person, and yet all the while presenting a front of the perfect marriage. I was so rooting for her.

I moaned about genre classification, and if I was a solely romance reader I'd have been so disappointed. Happily though I'm an eclectic reader. Its a fabulous read, not romance by a long shot but an incredible dark, ( not as in horror dark thankfully) psychological suspense, mirroring what is real life for many people, sucking us in to Eric and Shelley's world, wondering how it can all end.

Stars: Five, a wonderful read, breathtaking in places with superb pacing, slowly revealing the real Eric.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

Thank you Net Galley and HQ Digital for an early copy of The Perfect Husband. I was Very excited to start reading this book, it was written as for young adults but the story kept me interested. The characters were likeable, it was a fast read.

Thank you Net Galley and HQ Digital for an early copy of The Perfect Husband. I was riveted by this book, I kept waiting to find out how Eric was going to change to not be the perfect husband. It was well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When you seriously dislike or get upset at a character that does not mean the book is bad, it just means the author did a great job invoking feelings from you. I hated Eric the perfect example of a controlling jerk of a husband. The naive Shelley is the typical battered wife. This book was not unique enough to remember and there was nothing left to wow or surprise me as things are revealed to early.

This one telegraphs everything right up front- Eric is a loathsome controlling horrible abuser. Shelley, well I don't know what to do about her except to say that I felt (oddly) both angry at and sorry for her. There are no surprises here. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I am sorry to say that I did not really enjoy the reading of this story. My gut just felt that it was weighed down by a stone as Shelly became more and more controlled by Eric, her supposed white knight. From the moment that I started reading it was very evident exactly what was going to happen and so I felt no suprise or any other type of element found in this genre. That being said, I would still give this author a second chance.