This was an easy to read thriller thaylt kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend!

Louise seems to be lucky, with her handsome, wealthy husband, two children etc, the sort of person who “has it all”, but has she? Patrick, the man she fell for at first sight died suddenly and now there’s a deranged policewoman delving into her life. Told from Louise’s point of view both now and earlier and Bev who seems to have been made into an over the top caricature of a policewoman. The first part could have been much shorter because it just drifted along till Louise got her man - lots of repetition. I enjoyed the story but not how the arc was formatted as it made it seem unnecessarily bitty and disjointed. It was a good yarn and I liked Louise!

The Perfect Widow, by A.M. Castle, is Louise Bridges who doesn’t have a breakdown when PC Becca Holt makes her first notification of next of kin upon Patrick Bridges’ death in a fire. Instead, Louise tidies up, returns to preparing dinner for her children, fails to offer the police a cup of tea—just not the reaction Holt anticipates.

Louise Bridges is perfect. Perfect hair, perfect body, perfect house, perfect children, with a perfectly dead husband. On the other hand, Becca Holt is a bit dumpy, knowing she eats too many doughnuts and candy bars and disregards exercise. Holt’s partner attributes her suspicions about Mrs. Bridges to envy.

Patrick, however, is not perfect, having his first affair shortly after the birth of their first child. Over the course of the story, readers learn Patrick has many affairs, but Louise decides she will look the other way for her children’s sake.

PC Holt continues to follow her suspicions, digging up Louise’s back story and searching through Patrick’s emails as well as suggesting to the insurance company that Patrick’s death might not have been accidental. Is she right? Is Louise a murderer or simply a perfect widow?

A.M. (Alice) Castle, formerly a newspaper feature writer, lives in London. Besides this first psychological thriller, she also writes novels, cozy crime mysteries, and whodunnits.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting May 4, 2020.

I’d like to thank HarperCollins Publishers, HQ Digital, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

My thoughts

Would I recommend it? Yes

Would I read more by this author?yes

WOW I can't believe it took me this long to read this read this. Because once I started I knew that I was going to be in for a ride of my life and it didn't let me down. It even made me question who should I believe or even trust in this story, should it be the Louise ( the widow) or Becca ( the cop) both have so much to gain or even lose. Plus there was times I kept asking myself should I even trust either one of them. As well as reminding myself that people deal with death in different ways and that was perfectly fine. Then there was the times that I kept asking myself what if Patrick's death wasn't accident and if that's the case who would want him dead or maybe it was suicide. As for the the two main characters while I didn't like them at times and while they both had flaws ,they did play off of each other really well ( think Sherlock Homes and his arch enemy Professor James Moriarty).An thing I should say is that its a slow burning which some case works and some cases doesn't but in this one the author was able to pull it off really well that it worked in away that it made you want to set back and just read and watch as the story came to life. But it does make it an interesting type of read as you find at more about the characters and what led up to this two different characters meeting like they did .So all I can say now is set back and enjoy the ride as your cleverly led me in one direction and then another, with the many twists keeping me guessing until the end. With that said I want to thank NetGalley as well as the publisher for letting read and review it .

This is the first book by A.M. Castle that I've read and it was certainly one twist after another when PC Becca Holt tells Louise her husband has died in an accident. Louise grew up poor and when she married Patrick she chose well for wealth and prestige . She is determined her children will never want for anything. As the book progresses you see how twisted and crazy Louise is. It Certainly surprised me. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Doesn’t the title just scream “Read Me”?! Such a good read that I did not want it to end. I think y’all are going to absolutely love this storyline and the characters.

Well written with a nice twist,Enjoyable psychological suspense. The characters were likeable and made you want the good and the bad to win. Enjoyed the book from the start and it kept me up as I had to find out what happened in the end.
#netgalley

The Perfect Window by A.M. Castle

4/5 Stars

Wowza! Fantastic thriller!

Is Louise a loving wife or a cold-hearted killer?
That's the question you'll be asking yourself throughout this whole book. I lived it.
It had me on the edge of my seat! This is a MUST READ list book for sure!

Thank you #NetGalley and # HQDigital for this book in exchange for my honest review.

Loise’s husband is killed and Becca is one of the officers sent to give her the news. Becca is a bit obsessive because she doesn’t feel Louise acts right when told off her husbands death. The story is told from both Louise and Becca’a viewpoints (Louise in both past and present tense). Chapters are short, but don’t always flow smoothly

Thank you NetGalley A.M. Castle and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

I wanted to like The Perfect Widow by A.M. Castle. The description sounds intriguing, the cover is lovely... But unfortunately I couldn't connect with the characters. I found both Louise (the bad guy) and Becca (the good guy) unlikeable.

We've probably all read books with unlikeable characters, and that doesn't make the book unworthy; in fact, sometimes that is the appeal. My larger issue with The Perfect Widow was the pacing, really. I didn't enjoy the pace; it was too slow, and parts felt repetitive. It's also possible that I went in to this book expecting excitement and action, but instead got a lot of words about the characters and their backgrounds, and that's why I felt let down. Ultimately, I finished the book feeling dissatisfied.

What the author does well is the narration, which skillfully alternates between Louise and Becca and from past to present. I followed these transitions with ease.

This book will be the right sort of story and pacing for some readers. I hope it makes its way into their hands. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this book was not for me - I have tried to read it and can't get into it - I even waited and bought the audiobook from Audible but I still can't get into it. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review it.

What is the Perfect Widow? Is the woman who sobs uncontrollably, can’t put one foot in front of the other or is it the woman who seems controlled, void of emotion?

Castle challenged the reader to think about what made a perfect widow, our preconceptions, the life behind the public seemingly happy facade. She Ali questioned our views of the haves and the have nots, how far we might personally go to gain both financial and personal stability, security.

Both of the main characters lacked something in their lives both in the past and the present. Louise, The Perfect Widow was the most complex, a woman who brought herself up as she watched her mum drown in drugs, alcohol and the wrong men. Did I like her? You had to admire her determination and tenacity to hide her past, to push herself out of poverty to get the life she felt she deserved. The other part of me found her cold, even callous as she used those around her, those who taught her how to behave, how to dress, how to be a parent. There was one thing I was certain of and that was the love she had for her children, the need to protect and nurture and give them everything she never had. You did wonder if a different upbringing would have brought about an alternative outcome, and if the perfection she strove towards was just too perfect.

Becca, on the other hand, had a mum who cared and nurtured, but put her down, left her feeling inadequate, less confident. I loved that she was the polar opposite of Louise, a comfort eater, a less than slim body, but both shared that feisty determination and tenacity to achieve. Her obsession to uncover Louise’s supposed crime drove her on, and you could see her gain confidence, fight off the self doubt that had so plagued her.

Their alternating voices gave the novel a wonderful balance, the pursuer versus the perused, who would be victorious, or was that really the point? To some extent yes, after all this was a crime novel and we all wanted to know if Louise was guilty, but it was also about what you would do to protect your children, to fight for the life that you had and did not want to lose. I loved reading the way in which Louise and in particular, Becca’s characters developed, the confidence Becca found, the respect she craved from her peers within her grasp.

The plot was intricate, what you read never superficial, always another layer to be peeled back as the truth or what you thought to be the truth slowly emerged. It definitely wasn’t driven by action, but by a glorious cast of characters driven by their need to succeed and I loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher HQ Digital for a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

The Perfect Widow follows the story of Louise Bridges and her two children, when her husband is killed the police officer on duty that gives Louise the news feels like something isn’t quite right and that Louise didn’t act like the usual widows given the news that their husband has been killed in an unfortunate accident. The police officer Becca is unable to let it go and selves into her own investigation to find out what had happened.

This isn’t like other thrillers in the fact that it isn’t very thrilling. There are bits throughout that kept you intrigued enough to finish but it wasn’t an edge of your seat story like I am used to reading. I really enjoyed the premise I must say, it was an interesting take on a mystery book when you find out pretty early on that she did in fact kill her husband but the mystery element is why.

There was quite a few mistakes in the arc copy which I found a bit distracting and the ending really annoyed me, it didn’t feel satisfying at all.

Well written thriller drew me in kept me turning the pages late into the night,An author I will be recommending.#netgalley#hqdigital,

I enjoyed this page turning book. It was well written. Glad that I read it. Will be checking other books by this author.

The Perfect Widow was one of those books you just keep reading because you hope it will get better. Well written but, honestly, not a favorite.

Don’t Dig Too Deeply.....
Enjoyable psychological suspense. When Louise doesn’t react in the ‘expected’ manner to the news of her husband’s death PC Becca Holt becomes suspicious and begins digging deeper into the life of this seemingly ‘perfect widow’. A slow burn but compelling and cleverly constructed.

While the story line is not original, A M Castle gave it a nudge into a memorable book. The tension between the two main characters builds slowly as the past unravels the present. Start with a policeman notifying a wife that her husband has been killed in an accident and it opens all sorts of opportunities for the story to turn. Told in alternating views and timelines, readers should pay close attention or you will miss the clues. A good read for me.

The premise of this book sounded so exciting! Exactly what I look for in my domestic thrillers. Unfortunately I struggled throughout. I disliked the characters and the storyline failed to grab me. It moved at a pace that was too slow to be ‘thrilling’.
I was left very disappointed. Perhaps a I am not the right reader for this book. As there are many positive reviews.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Perfect Widow is quite a slow paced read. Enjoyed the fact the story is built and told around two people. But the pace was just that too slow and dragged. Not quite enough to keep me hooked.