This was a really interesting novel, and unexpected in many ways, but a very enjoyable read.

I think I was initially thrown by the title: Imperfect Women. Publishing hot on the heels of Tadeo's Three Women, I was expecting something more preachy and feminist (not a bad thing), and I was pleasantly surprised to find something else: Imperfect Women touches upon a lot of incredibly important feminist themes: expectation, guilt, motherhood, family, relationships all through a very feminist lens, but it's weaved subtly into the plot, which is a robust and entertaining psychological thriller.

Highly recommended.

Imperfect Women is about three university friends, and the story that follows when one of them is murdered at the very start of the story.

I enjoyed the story and the fact it was told from all three perspectives; it shows that no one's life is perfect.

I found it hard to stay engaged at some points, perhaps expecting more from the murder storyline, as I found it a bit predictable, but overall, I thought it a good read.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The story revolves around three friends and how life changed the dynamics in their friendship as time went on. I think the characters were quite engaging and the plot kept me engaged right to the end.

Having read and loved Our Kind of Cruelties, this book wasn't quite what I expected, but was nonetheless brilliant. While it is a thriller which starts with a death and has dome unexpected twists, it is just as much about female friendships, loyalty and betrayal. Loved the ending, and also thought Howard was a brilliantly monstrous character.

Imperfect Women is the story of three middle aged women who met at university and how the mysterious violent death of one of them affects the others.
The book opens with the death of Nancy, a glamorous and wealthy woman with a loving husband and academically successful daughter.
Over three sections, each voiced by one of the group, we find out how they came to be friends, why the murder happened and the effect on Eleanor and Mary, the surviving friends.
Imperfect Women is not a thriller as such, it is more the story of how women sometimes chose to sacrifice their hopes and desires to please their families or continue their careers. It is refreshing to read a book voiced by older women that is honest about how difficult it is to have everything and make everyone else happy - the perfect life as it were. There is an understanding by the end that happiness can come from being “Imperfect Women” and taking what you need from life not what everyone else wants you to have.

This was nearly a DNF, as the story didn’t capture my interest and I struggled to keep reading on. The only reason I kept going was to find out who did it, but even then I saw a couple of the twists coming.

The story was told from three perspectives, which I enjoyed, however there were various flashbacks and it wasn’t always clear what was happening and how much time had passed between events; I found the timelines confusing.

I give this book 2 stars.

4 Stars from me

I loved Imperfect Women and felt like it was the perfect embodiment of the darker side of long term female friendships.

The author, fabulous and talented scene setter that she is, described the three lead characters and their families and lives in exquisite detail. This really helps the reader to understand the characters.

Oh, the characters, imperfect women they were indeed. But then aren't we all? As for their deeply disappointing husbands...

Poor beautiful Nancy, my heart went out to her. Seemingly she had it all but was deeply insecure underneath her beautiful trappings.

Mary was an interesting one and no doubt an oh so painfully true example of how easy it is to become trapped in a life that you didn't intend.

Eleanor, again was interesting, and the motivations for all three woman to have remained lifelong friends were questionable. Yet I suspect all groups of friends have similarly tenuous lasting connections; sometimes it is just that feeling of being truly 'known' that is intoxicating, and enough.

Overall, I thought this was a beautiful take on a crime thriller and I loved the continual release of information and unveiling layer by layer of what really happened to Nancy...

Eleanor, Nancy and Mary are friends who met at university and continued their friendship into adult life.

When Nancy doesn’t return home after a meal out with Eleanor, her husband calls her and they are informed of her death.

This is a novel told from all three women’s point of view and shows that nobody is perfect.

I enjoyed the different view points this was written from and how they showed each woman’s strengths and weaknesses. They each had their flaws and dealt with their issues in different ways.

A well written novel with a compelling theme running throughout.

Thank you to @netgalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It is the story of 3 middle aged women who have been friends since university. It explores their friendship and their family lives over the years. One of the women is murdered but I wouldn't class this as a murder mystery, it is more an examination of dysfunctional complex family relationships. Lots of angst and self absorbed middle class people, if the women are imperfect, the men are just horrific! A very enjoyable read!

This was a really good read. I loved how the main characters who met at university had stayed friends, even though their lives had gone down different paths.
It opens with a missing woman & quickly becomes a murder and so the intrigue begins.
The story is told by each character in turn which i thought worked really well, better than chapter hopping one to another.. It meant that the reader got a better insight into the characters and their motivation.
Will look out for this author again

Sorry book, you were not the one for me. Told in three parts, from each of the women's perspectives, there was never enough time to connect with any of them. Almost every character in this story is unlikable, never mind imperfect. The three women, their partners. Basically everybody but Irena was a garbage person with little to no redeeming features.

I feel this thriller was trying its hand at being an in-depth character study, as well as a domestic thriller, and unfortunately missed the mark. It wrapped up fairly well, but the twist/s felt obvious to me from a long way off.

The pacing was off, it was boring, but ultimately it was just kinda fine and overambitious. If you go into this expecting a generic domestic thriller you'll probably have an okay time but I don't see it being the next big thing.

Ultimately this might have been three stars for general "this was fine I guess"-ness, but Hall's shocking decision to highlight one of the characters lack of agency in her own life by calling her complicit in her own (almost) sexual assault, right after explicitly stating another character had been assaulted multiple times, really left a shitty feeling with me.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Orion Publishing Group for the eARC. Out now!

Imperfect Women by Araminta Hall is a character driven study of female friendship. There is a murder, but I wouldn’t describe the book as a crime mystery or thriller.
This book uncovers, and examines how much of women’s lives are consumed with guilt.
The three women are outwardly very different, having been friends since the start of university.
Eleanor, a single career driven woman, happy and fulfilled with her noble charity role.
Mary, a long suffering, full time Mum and wife. Struggling with the loss of who she once was. She bizarrely sees their lives through the lens of her passion for Greek tragedies.
Nancy, the third friend, who seemingly has it all. A happy marriage, both successful in their own fields. Mother of a daughter studying at Oxford.
As you read further through the book, through the story of all three women, we see their flaws, their imperfections growing and multiplying.
The book was filled with the women constantly thinking about their actions. Yet somehow all their introspection and over-thinking doesn’t seem to lead them to better decisions, or the consideration of others.
Their thoughts seem to be consumed with being Greek goddesses, heroines and whether they are perfect enough, or not. What they all seem to have lost sight of is being decent human beings, be they women or men. Seemingly incapable of being honest with others, let alone themselves.
I started this review unsure what I thought of the book. After writing this, I find I really disliked it. The book is thought provoking at times, but I found myself irritated by all three women.
I’ve given 2*, as it was well written.
I judged a book by its cover, I thought it was beautiful and intriguing. I shouldn’t have.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor, Nancy and Mary have been best friends since meeting at university, and their life choices have led them along very different paths. Eleanor is single, has never married, and has no children, working as an aid worker for overseas charities. Nancy is (seemingly) happily married, with a daughter and a devoted, rich husband, and works by doing book translations. Mary is trapped in a desperately unhappy marriage to an older man, with three children, and she hasn’t worked since she got married, with her family just barely scraping by. They all seem to be trapped in this status quo, until a shocking event occurs, which turns everything that they thought they knew on its head, causing them all to review their life choices and reassess the lives they have been living.

This was a good read with interesting characters. None of the characters are particularly “good” or likeable, and in fact, in some cases, are downright horrible and selfish, but they all felt realistic. This book examines the courses that people’s lives can take, which may be in stark contrast to what they believed would be the case originally, and deals with the outcome of those choices. Can you change of the course of your life at a later stage in life? Is a mild dissatisfaction enough of a reason to turn your life on it’s head? And how well do you ever really know anyone, even those that you count among your very closest friends. I did find the middle section a bit slow going, I like how the points of view shifted between the characters to tell the story, but I almost felt that we stayed with Eleanor too long in comparison with the other characters, and I found it a bit slow going towards the end of her section.

I didnt connect to this book at all, i wasnt a fan of the characters and that made me not particularly care about what happened to them, i found the ending predictable and had guessed it very early on, a disappointing 2/5

I have loved Araminta Hall's previous novels and so have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Imperfect Women. It tells the story of Eleanor, Nancy and Mary who have been friends since University. After Nancy is murdered we hear the stories of the 3 women as we move towards the truth of what happened to Nancy.

This is an extremely powerful novel and for me, not so much about the mystery but about the complexities of women's lives and emotions. It portrays so well our uniqueness, our depths, our guilt and the secrets women live with and really gets to the heart of what it is to be a woman. It is a powerful portrayal of grief and what families mean. It is beautifully written with vivid descriptions of the women's feelings. It is an intense and immersive read that really stayed with me after finishing it.
Highly recommended

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

Nancy Hennessey has been murdered and naturally, her two best friends Eleanor and Mary suspect her secret lover, whose true identity she never shared with them, to be behind it. When the investigation turns up nothing, Eleanor and Mary each struggle to deal with their grief amidst questioning how well they really knew Nancy. Imperfect Women features highly frustrating characters and an intensely intriguing mystery with themes of motherhood and lifelong female friendship. A stark reminder that life rarely sticks to our plans for it and that we should learn to love our imperfections gives this dark story a glimmer of light.

This is a very compelling story of friendship and secrets. I couldn’t put it down and would recommend it. It’s quite dark in places and not particularly uplifting but I enjoyed the writing and was interested in the changing relationships of the three main characters, Eleanor, Mary and Nancy, who met at university. They have all taken different paths in life. One of the male characters in the book is one of the most despicable I have ever met! Well-written and gripping!

Imperfect Women is about three women who meet at University -their lived are told in their three separate stories

Eleanor - single career woman
Nancy - pretty - bored housewife
Mary - overwhelmed - down trodden wife & mother

Each section reveals more about their lives - relationships & inner feelings

The thread of the book runs through an affair one of the women is having. The effects of which are slowly & subtly revealed.

Even though in places is does seem to meander a bit - it was a very good read & I would recommend this book

Imperfect Women was a brilliant, thought provoking read.
It starts with Eleanor's narrative, then we read Nancy's and finally Mary's, three different versions of the same story. There are snippets of the past so we understand why their relationship is so strong and realistic. The three women know and love each other, flaws and all. But when Nancy dies things come to light that test their deep and enduring friendship.
The three stories all connect well and create a thoroughly gripping read.

This was written extremely well and parts really resonated with me. The characters were all vivid and authentic, I found Eleanor irritating at times but not enough to ruin the story!

I guessed the reveals but it was a very enjoyable journey getting there!

4.5⭐

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this ARC from NetGalley.

Eleanor, Nancy and Mary have been friends since University. This book is about love, friendship, betrayal, death, loyalty, grief, understanding, justice, feminism, patriarchy and so much more.

My least favourite section was Eleanor's, which is the reason I didn't give 5⭐, but I think that's because it was the first one and we didn't know what had happened to Nancy; it was setting the scene. The book had a wonderful depth that I had not anticipated.

I had many favourite quotes from this book, but the one that really resonated was:
"Maybe death is simply an act of equality."

Kindle and hardback both available now.