A Rapid Unravelling…
This family is unravelling. Victoria is a perfectionist. Or rather, she wants to be seen to have the perfect life. The big house, the perfect husband and the perfect children. Behind the scenes, however, all is not well. The unravelling is rapid and Victoria has to make it stop. Just how far will this woman go to make everything right. To make everything just perfect. It may well be a step too far. A picture of disturbing disintegration with a well crafted cast.

Victoria’s whole world revolves around her family and their reputation. She’d do anything to give her family the life she didn’t have growing up.
Then there is her husband Kit, rebellious daughter Anna and gifted son Joey.
When something happens Victoria will go to any and all lengths to protect her family.
Story is told in three current time pov’s from Victoria, Anna and Joey’s diary entries.
The ending didn’t feel the match the climax of the story. Something I feel weren’t needed to be added and were just odd fillers to the story. Overall was pretty fast paced and kept a me wanting to know more.

While I felt this book could have gone more in depth, it was a quick read about the unraveling of a family. Because the mom (Victoria) tries so desperately to keep up appearances, the lies and heinous things she does just keep snowballing. The father (Kit) is portrayed as weak, and when he's injured he is no match for his wife's demands. Their daughter, Anna, is just enough of a teenager that her rebelliousness comes out in ways that could hurt her family. And brilliant son Joey is autistic and struggling with what he knows.

Overall, the story was a bit over the top, and none of the characters was likeable. But it was a quick read, with an interesting storyline, and I was interested to see how the author dealt with the unreliable narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for an advanced reader's copy.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for opportunity to read and provide honest feedback on this ARC.

Overall I enjoyed the read. The characters were.... well, I was invested in them and entertained by them. The story was intriguing enough to continue though I did take a break midway through. I would recommend this book to others (and I loved the cover).

Wow. The Perfect Family was a wild ride! Victoria was a complete lunatic…in the best possible way. The lengths that she went to, to keep her family looking perfect, were insane. I liked how some of it was told from Anna’s point of view, along with little entries from Joeys diary.
Some of the book was over the top, but it was a good, fun read. Really enjoyed it and will be looking out for what’s to come next from Lorna Dounaeva!

I think the plot could use more work. So could the characters as not one of them was in anyway relatable or even likeable. This was not all what I was expecting but if you're like me and enjoy nasty people doing nasty things you'll enjoy this.

This surprised me, in a good way though and kept me wanting to read it to see what would happen. All the characters are awful and have no morals but that adds to the story and makes you keep reading, lots of twists and turns and would recommend if you want good thriller with nasty people as main characters.

The Perfect Family
by Lorna Dounaeva

Victoria has a perfect life. And she’ll do whatever it takes to keep it.
Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for an early copy of The Perfect Family. Sadly there seem to be redeeming qualities of the family. I thought it should or could be more. It just never picked up, just got odder in each chapter. The song? I have no clue.

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for an early copy of The Perfect Family

~~A Family that you don't want to be born into.~~

Victoria is the soul of their family,she lives with her caring husband and two kids in a big house. She never speak highly of her childhood and wanted to rectify everything through them.she is the type of women who is extra conscious about what others speak of them and who is very hard to please.Hence she always choose the best for her family and is willing to go any extend to be on the top.
However things began to change when a catastrophe befall on their family.Following that Victoria is not sure whether her perfect family can stay perfect anymore.Her daughter is not like before and seems to have secret friends.. Will she protect the family that she had built over years??Can she tolerate watching each of them collapse from the burden of the secret that they are carrying around???

My thoughts:

This book is very fast paced and will draw you from the very beginning.I loved the mystery setting of the book where we are on the blindside.I was invested in it and loved reading about their family dynamics.The ending wrapped everything but felt like last straw .However i was not a fan of the plot twist in this book ,it didn't really impact the plot and felt no point.Also there is no characters that we can actually justify and be on their side. At some point I felt pity for Victoria and felt a soft side for her after all she is doing everything for her family.

Overall a very quick read for beginners of the genre.

With Victoria, looks are everything . Image is the upmost importance, such as, her home must be the best. She wants her children to be popular and everyone to invite her to every social event. Victoria will do anything to keep her perfect life. But She and her husband are keeping a dark secret that if anyone would to find out; their perfect lives would be ruined. How far will Victoria go to keep their secret? I thouroughly enjoyed this book, and the ending was a shocking twist. The book has multiple point of views from Victoria, Anna and Joey. I felt the story of Victoria didnt give a why she wanted a perfect image for everyone to see and it was very repetitive. I wish the book gave more of a thriller aspect instead of just how she wanted perfection. I was left wanting more.

Book: The Perfect Family
Author: Lorna Dounaeva
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Pub Date: April 24, 2022

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I didn’t enjoy the characters at all yet I couldn’t look away. This woman was awful! I couldn’t get past the part when Victoria tells Anna she hit and killed that guy like it was no big deal and she just wanted to get it off her chest. And then she just proceeded to go around killing people and attempting to kill people to hide her secret. You were suppose to think she was doing all of this for her family but yet she would have sacrificed them to save herself. It just wasn’t a believable plot. But like I said once I started reading it I had to see how it ended.

Thank you Inkubator Books and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is April 24, 2022.

Excellent story!!! I absolutely loved this book, I could not put it down. Do people really know their neighbors or do people just portray what they want others to see? Is it all about image? These questions among others get answered in this story. This book will keep you enthralled to the very end, or is it the end? I am sure many people will be able to identify with the characters in this story, both in a negative light as well as a positive one. This book will be recommended to people who like all types of genres of books.

To Victoria, looks are absolutely everything. Her home must look perfect, she must be invited to every event, her children must be popular (even though her son is struggling). One dark night forces Victoria to ask: just how far are you willing to go to keep up appearances?

This story was crazy! I know appearances are everything to some people, but the levels Victoria went to were borderline insane. It was as if reality no longer mattered to her, only what people thought of her and her family. She was so blinded by what she wanted to failed to see just what it was doing to her family. I enjoyed how dark and twisted this got and definitely didn’t see the twists coming.

Thank you to Netgalley, Lorna Dounarva and Inkubater for the ARC!

The Perfect Family releases April 24th. This review will be shared to my Instagram blog books_by_the_bottle shortly.

<b>Note:</b> I received an advanced copy of this book from Inkubator Books via NetGalley.

Victoria has the perfect life. And she’ll do whatever it takes to keep it. For Victoria, image is everything. And on the surface, she has it all - a big house, a successful husband and two beautiful children. But behind the scenes, things are very different. Because Victoria and her husband have a dark secret and she lives in terror of it being discovered, of her perfect facade being shattered forever.

Under massive stress, but still desperately trying to keep up appearances, this is a family that is falling apart. Husband Kit is unable to work. Teenage daughter Anna grows ever more rebellious. And nine-year-old Joey seems increasingly different from other kids. Victoria realizes she has to act now or she will lose everything. And that’s when she has to ask herself - how far is she willing to go, how much is she willing to do, to preserve her perfect family? The answer is beyond shocking and will plunge them all into a nightmare from which they may never wake.

I was very intrigued about how this book started off but really what was that ending? I liked getting each of the different perspectives from Victoria, Anna, and Richie and the way that each was processing the stress of what was going on around them. I thought the beginning of the book was very good and definitely pulled me in as a reader.

Bicycle accident. Secrets. Lies.

THE PERFECT FAMILY combines all of these into an exciting psychological thriller. When a bicyclist is violently run off the road, a hit and run. This is where the story begins, as well as the secrets and lies. The surprising spiral of the characters is a twist I did not anticipate.

THE PERFECT FAMILY is a great read and will have you hooked from the beginning.

CWs: car accident, murder, death

A psychological thriller perfect for readers who enjoy multiple points of view with a big dose of murder. Told from the point of views from Victoria, Anna, and Joey’s Diary, “The Perfect Family” focuses on the importance of family, and just how far a mother will go to save them.

The main character, Victoria, is a mother who tries to do what’s best for her family. Sadly, this is all Victoria’s character did throughout the whole story. Claiming to be a psychological thriller, I wish we had seen more into the psyche of Victoria’s character and why she acts the way she does. It felt like Victoria’s character had no development, and her chapters were incredibly repetitive. Anna, however, was a better written character. The daughter of Victoria, Anna sticks to her grey area thought process and sticks by her mother throughout all of her choices. As the story progresses, we see Anna’s debate with her own moral compass. We also see Joey, the youngest child, through his diary entries that he writes throughout the book. Joey’s character was well written, and I wish we had gotten to see more of his point of view throughout the story.

The novel has a fantastic mystery buildup from the beginning: what happens during “The Song”? Why does Victoria become friends with certain side characters? Unfortunately, the buildup ends halfway through the story. The thriller aspect fizzled out, and the book felt repetitive towards the second half. The ending of the book felt like it didn’t fit with the rest of the story, and I wish we could have kept up the “thriller” vibe the story was giving in the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For Victoria, image is everything. And on the surface, she has it all - a big house, a successful husband and two beautiful children.
But behind the scenes, things are very different. Because Victoria and her husband have a dark secret and she lives in terror of it being discovered, of her perfect facade being shattered forever.
Terrific!… one heck of a rollercoaster ride… Dark, eerie, spooky and creepy! Wow… Everything about this story give me the shivers!

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for early access to this book.
Although the characters and storyline did capture my attention and kept me engaged with reading, I was not entirely impressed with the outcome of the novel. While there were some twists throughout the story, the ending was rather bland, in my opinion.

I'm a but mixed with this one. It's not got the suspense and tension that I usually pike In my domestic noir thrillers but this is more of a story about toxic families. If you don't overthink and just want a surface level read then this would fit the bill. I didn't find it particularly captivating or shocking and the characters all felt a bit shallow and not really fully formed. You really do have to just take what you're given and not wonder why or what motivates the characters. An easy wee read to pass a few hrs tho

I absolutely loved The Perfect Family. I was hooked from the first chapter and did not put it down. The twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat and I would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for my ARC.