This is the story of Jessica and her manipulative mother. Abigail literally has to approve everything. This on times has made me feel a little suffocated and completely curious about where this was going.

This is an intriguing and thought provoking novel which contains coercive control and manipulation. Stone has laced the pages with tension and suspense, this is a well written plot which really will keep you guessing.

This is fast paced and completely gripping. I have been unable and unwilling to put this down. This is my first read by this author but it definitely won’t be the last. I cannot wait to read more.

This is a must for the TBR.

Sadly predictable from the very beginning. I stayed with it just to see. Yes. It was all true. Kind of a cliche of a mother/daughter relationship. I wish my own had been this straight forward.

Perhaps because I picked up the book's conclusion from the start, or because I couldn't relate to the main character, but this one didn't settle in for me as I had hoped. Because the blurb is vague, I don't want to write anything that will spoil the book for others. While I know people caught in such cycles will continue on those cycles, and it isn't their fault, my brain can't help but scream at me otherwise. I've read quite a few reviews before writing my own, and the book is getting very favorable reviews. Please don't let my lukewarm feelings impact your decision to grab what could be your next favorite read.

The Perfect Daughter
by: Alex Stone
Boldwood Books

The Perfect Daughter is a very well written psychological thriller by Alex Stone. The mother-daughter story line will keep readers glued to the pages to follow the twists and turns. It's a story of a complex relationship and will not disappoint those who love a suspenseful book with a unique and intriguing plot.
Thank you to Net Galley and Boldwood Books for the advance reader's copy and opportunity to provide my unbiased review.
#ThePerfectDaughter #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller, I was gripped from the first page. I was so eager to find out what happened to Adam and how Jess coped with her mum during this difficult time. I was hooked to this story and each chapter left me wanting more.

I thought Jess was such a wonderful character. I felt so much sympathy for her and I wanted the best for her at the end. Like Jess, I was left wondering what was real and what was imaginary. I thought her situation with her controlling mum was terrible, as I read on I learnt more and more about it. Their relationship was so strange and so toxic. I wondered how Jess coped with having some one in her life like that. I also thought Adam was an interesting character, I was eager to read more about his impact on Jess’ life.

This book was written in the perspective of Jess and alternated in between past and present day chapters. I loved this layout as it gave the reader more information which would make you constantly thinking about what happened. I thought this layout held the suspense because only getting small pieces of information at a time makes it so gripping. Of course there is a massive plot twist at the end which made everything come together at the end.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book and I loved reading this book. I thought the author gave the characters great voices and they were very unique. I am so excited to see what is to come for this author! I also love the cover of this book, it is so simple and original.

First, I want to thank Alex Stone, Boldwood Books, NetGalley and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

OMG! WOW!! Mind Blown!!! I just totally fell head over heels in love with Alex Stone and The Perfect Daughter. I am a huge fan of missing person stories and The Perfect Daughter literally left me speechless!! This was such a wickedly twisted book that will make your head spin!

I totally agree that this book is perfect for psychological thriller fans of my fave authors Shalini Balond, Sue Watson and SE Lyons! To be compared to these three ladies is an honor!

Alex would like to dedicate this book to anyone that encouraged her to follow her dreams.

Hooked line and sinker I was sucked into the storyline from the prologue! I just needed to know what happened to Adam! Why did Jessica’s Mom not like Adam? So many questions I needed to know the answers to.

The bond between Jess and her Mother is unlike any other relationship I have read about. It was sad, disturbing, controlling, and something rubbed me the wrong way about her. It is one storyline I can’t get out of my head.

One thing that is constant in this book is that Jessica seems to have low self esteem and it affects her relationships.

Alex threw all the jaw dropping revelations one right after the other at the climax of the book.

The Perfect Daughter I would love to see on Netflix as a movie or series! I know it would be a hit!

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I enjoyed this book but did find it to be very predictable. Quick, easy read!

It was decent enough but not anything spectacular. The characters were awful, I think the only ones I actually liked where the policeman and the friend, even the character of Jess was just really annoying (I know she had been manipulated but it doesn't excuse all of her behaviour, particularly when the mother's behaviour was so obvious but she kept excusing her). The twist near the end was good but the actual end was far too open-ended for my liking, it just left you hanging and I don't like that.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Alex Stone for the copy of this book. All views are my own.*

The Perfect Daughter is a solid story that had me hooked from the description. There were a few predictable moments in it but that did not spoil my interest in the story and I enjoyed the twisty ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for my ARC.

I found this book pretty good. The plot was well thought out and all the clues were there to help the reader to work out the villain . The only negative thing is that it tended to go on a bit in the middle. It seemed to dip and be a bit repetitive . Well to me anyway!. Other than that ,it was a really good story and will be really popular.
Thanks to Netalley for the free ARC book for an honest review.
#Boldwoodbooks

A good read although parts were a bit repetitive and ‘guessable’,this book is all about control,a mothers over her daughters,and hiw she reacts when a boyfriend appears on the scene,a good twisty ending

The Perfect Daughter is a story about how much a family can influence you. Jess grew up without her father and has always been close with her mother. Some may say too close. When Jess gets a new boyfriend she is torn between him and her mother.

This twisted book kept me guessing. Jess’s mother has a lot of power over Jess and is not willing to give it up. I learned later in the book why that is. Jess spends most of the book trying to figure out what is real in her mind and what is real in life. My favorite part of the book is the ending, but I won’t spoil it.

Now here’s a novel to get your teeth into!

Jess has spent her whole life trying to please her mother, and Abigail is not an easy woman to please. She expects her daughter to seek her rarely given approval on all matters, be it the job she does, the clothes she wears, where she lives and anyone she dates. Her latest boyfriend, Adam, is a plumber – certainly not good enough where her mum is concerned – and when he disappears, the police have Jess is in the frame and with no body it’s hard to prove she is innocent.

This is a well-written novel which drew me in from the very start and kept me there. At times I wanted Jess to stand up to her mother but, as I know from experience, it’s not always that easy. Little by little, we discover Jess’s history and there is a drip of information which any amateur detective will jump upon as I did and come to conclusions – and not always the right ones. This is a very smartly crafted novel which keeps it’s secrets right up until the very end. You may think you have it all worked out but, trust me, there are more surprises to come. A perplexing novel, and one which kept my attention until the very last. 4.5*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Rachel Gilbey for my spot on this tour; this is – as always – my honest, original and unbiased review.

Oh this is so cleverly written, looking at the psychology of close relationships, digging deep into the interplay and subtle manipulations that inevitably occur. Between Abigail and Jess, perhaps not quite so subtle. The relationship between mother and daughter is suffocating to the point of claustrophobic, disturbing and totally believable. Abigail just wants to protect Jess. Doesn’t she? Jess loves her mother and knows that, in steering her life, choosing her clothes, her career path, her boyfriends, she’s only trying to do her best for her. Isn’t she? And then along comes Adam, a plumber, someone Abigail can’t possibly approve of. Someone she aims to remove from her daughter’s life. But he’s not a plumber. He’s Jess’s plumber. He loves her. He sees her, a side of Jess she’s never seen in herself. In his company, she’s a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis, breaking free. He’s perfect, until he’s not. What happened on the day Adam disappeared, now presumed dead. Why, when he never touched it, was he drinking whisky? What secrets was he hiding? Is Jess’s recollection skewed – her memory has failed her in the past, her friend reminds her. She doesn’t recall things accurately, her mother reinforces it. What secrets might Jess be hiding. What secrets is her mother hiding regarding the disappearance of Jess’s father from her life?

The intrigue is ramped up throughout the story with short, sharp sentences, stuffed full of intrigue and delivered like the icy drip of a tap, every single one guaranteed to leave you hanging and make you want to read on until you reach the final shocking twist. The Perfect Daughter really is beautifully, powerfully written from first point of view in a style that leaves me in admiration of the author. I highly recommend it. I promise you will not be disappointed.

I loved this book! It held me captive from the first page and I devoured it in one sitting. Even though Jess was a little frustratingly naive, I thought I had figured out the ending 5x before the end came and I realized I was wrong. 5 stars! Looking for more books by Alex Stone now :)

Psychological thriller with plenty of gasp moments

Jess tries to be the perfect daughter, but when she meets a new boyfriend her mother is not impressed. Soon after the boyfriend disappears.
Jess’s story is told in two timelines – “Then” from when Jess met Adam, and “Now” after Adam has gone. This compelling psychological thriller is told from Jess’s perspective, and draws the reader into her relationships. Is the mother as controlling and manipulative as she seems? Was Adam as perfect as he seemed? What is real and what is in Jess’ imagination?
This psychological thriller kept me fully involved, with plenty of gasp moments as events in Jess’ past were revealed, all leading to an excellent ending. What a great debut thriller from Alex Stone!

What struck me of this book was how frustrating it is, not the book per se, but the relationship between mother and daughter. Sometimes I just wanted to jump inside the story and shout into Jess's face to wake up and see how sick and manipulative her relation with her mother was.

Another peculiarity is the complete unreliability of the narrator (Jess, the "perfect daughter"). We only have her POV in this story and we always doubt her, just like she doubts herself, we never can be sure of how much her recollection of events is true and we even doubt her mental stability.

It's a well written psychological thriller, that will frustrate you, but also lead you through some twists and to a satisfying ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for sending me a widget in exchange for an honest review.

I kinda knew where the story would take me but I wanted to see how it would get there.

And I have to say that the first part of the book was frustrating because you can clearly see the toxicity of the relationships. But that's the thing, I'm on the "outside, looking in" so, of course I have a better perspective, and of course the main character can't see it because she's the one on the inside being manipulated. It's been that way almost her whole life so how can she be expected to see how toxic it was? I did need to take a few breaks from reading because the way her thought process works is just sad and toxic.

The story was told in Jess' POV and done in alternating timeline: then and now. And it worked to flesh out the story. Also, there is a lot of Jess' inner monologue compared to actual conversations, in my opinion. However, things did speed up about more than halfway through.

As for the characters, it took a while for Jess to find strength, but in the end I believe that she arrived at a good place. For the mom, she really was manipulative, and right from the start you can see that she has her own agenda and does things not for Jess' sake as she claims. As for Adam, I'm glad that he was the catalyst in changing Jess' thought process but nothing and no one really is perfect.

However frustrated I got in reading this story, in the end, I'm glad that it took the turn it did. And the end was fitting to the book.

Jess is very close to her mother, almost too close. Her mother is involved in every aspect of her life and if she isn’t then she makes Jess feel guilty about it. Jess has no real friends and every relationship she has had seems to fail for one reason or another. Her mother would have her believe that it’s because of her…that she is unlovable. When Jess meets Adam she has a hard time believing that he likes her for who she is, but it doesn’t take long for her mother to get involved and her relationship with Adam gets complicated. Does he really care about her or is he trying to change her? Is he being true to her or is there someone else he is seeing behind her back?

This is a gripping thriller that examines the complicated relationship between a daughter and mother. Who of the two to them isn’t quite mentally stable? And what is Adam’s role in all of this? It’s a crazy ride and I really enjoyed it!!

★★★ 3.5 stars

THE PERFECT DAUGHTER by Alex Stone is the debut psychological suspense thriller by the author. It's a no holds barred peek into the lives of mother and daughter duo, Abigail and Jess Harper. And boy, will it drive you mad! The relationship between what I have termed "the toxic two" is just that - toxic - detailing the lengths to which a mother will go to just to keep her daughter co-dependent on her. It's not healthy, nor is it normal. I have to say that I am so please my mother is nothing like this at all!

The story is that Jess, a thirty-something woman whose life has been totally immersed in the manipulative hold her mother had over her her entire life. From consistently interfering in her life through each and ever relationship she's ever had to her choice of clothes, make-up, even food, Jess has never made an independent choice for herself. Everything she does, thinks or says is immediately linked to her mother and what she would think or say. Not only that, but every sentence uttered by her mother is a direct put-down which therefore leaves Jess questioning everything she does thus keeping her completely under her mother's tight control.

For Jess, this behaviour is completely normal. Everyone is close to their mothers...aren't they? That may well be, but not everyone is beholden to their mother for ever hour of every day of their lives. If Jess isn't with her mother she is texting her mother or thinking about what her and what she might say in any given situation...even when she is on a date.

But when Jess meets Adam, her life changes. For the first time she begins to feel free from the constraints of her mother's clutches...but is she really? Because then everything she does she begins to second guess or question knowing that she isn't capable enough of making those decisions herself. Even her apartment was chosen by her mother despite the fact Abigail still referred to her childhood home as "home". In her eyes, that was her home and always would be. But Adam sees something in Jess that she cannot, and she starts to feel good about herself. Until she starts to second guess herself and begins to wonder if her mother was right.

Adam tried showing Jess how good she could be if she just let herself be but her mother was always in the background...her voice constantly in her head, reminding her that she wasn't good enough and that, like all the others, Adam will leave her too. I mean, why wouldn't they? She was unlovable and at the end of the day it was always her fault that they leave. Ever since her father left when she was 7 years old. If he couldn't love her, then what hope did she have? But Adam reminded her constantly that she was special, that she was beautiful and that she was good enough. She just had to believe it.

In between Adam's voice and her mother's, Jess couldn't hear her own in the cacophony. Did she even have a voice? And was she good enough to be heard? Soon, Jess began to wonder if the freedom she gained from her mother's clutches wasn't being replaced by Adam's? Had she simply moved on from being manipulated by her mother to being manipulated by Adam? Or is she just imagining it all?

And then Jess' world falls apart when Adam disappears...feared dead. Both her and her mother are questioned by the police after Adam's van was found having plunged over a cliff with Adam nowhere to be found. Was it suicide, accident or something more sinister? All eyes begin to fall on Jess as she is called in for questioning several times and what with her history, her suspicious behaviour and apparent memory problems, Jess even begins to question herself. Did she do this?

The story unfolds solely through Jess' unreliable narrative in the past and present, with alternating chapters "Then" and "Now", beginning when she met Adam up to his disappearance and its aftermath. We also see through this and her various flashbacks from over the years, the manipulative hold her mother has on through coercive control and the constant negative affirmations that have clearly affected every aspect of her self conscious life. And despite efforts to the contrary, Jess has grown to realise that THE PERFECT DAUGHTER doesn't exist...no matter how hard she tries to appease her mother.

Jess's thought process is very repetitive and somewhat depressing but is it any wonder? I found it difficult to read at times because her mother was so blatantly manipulative but Jess was so conditioned to it that she was blind to the damage she was causing. I was incredibly frustrated and I just wanted to shake some sense into Jess and smack her mother into the middle of somewhere far far away. But then as we see Jess begin to doubt herself, we start to wonder just how much are we being told? How much of what Jess tells us in her narrative can we believe? If, for some reason, she is as mentally challenged as her mother insinuates then just how much of her recollection can we really believe?

THE PERFECT DAUGHTER is engrossing, addictive and incredibly frustrating at times but it has a somewhat surprising ending despite having already figured out the twist early on. The final twist was the surprise and the ending was sweet.

A psychological thriller with a totally unreliable narrator, THE PERFECT DAUGHTER is the perfect read for fans of this genre and will have you guessing and second guessing just what is real and what is imagined.

I would like to thank #AlexStone, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #ThePerfectDaughter in exchange for an honest review.