Slow burn thriller while you get to know the characters and backstory and then the plot starts to accelerate just when I thought I had the answers the next page out that to wrong . The ending was unexpecte and a major twist. This book is a an adictive and nail biting and has had me sitting on the edge. a cliff hanger at everyone chapter ending and wow wow o wow I was not expecting what happened in the end . You never know if u can’t trust the people you know you should be safe to.

3.5 stars
thank you to netgalley for giving me an e-arc! 'the perfect nurse' releases on 01/07/24
in this book, we follow darcy. darcy is a nurse that goes to peoples homes to care for them. with her crisp, white nursing uniform & good law abiding citizen characteristics, on the outside, she looks like the perfect nurse. but what went wrong that lead her to be covered in blood that doesn't belong to her & lead her to frantically burn her nursing uniform?
this book took me a little while to get into properly. i would say the first half was more slow & building up to the plot twists that occurred in the second half of the book. the second half was more much more interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat!
there isn't much i can say without giving away any spoilers but i would definitely recommend going into this blind! i personally think it's much more enjoyable and unpredictable that way!
while the twist in this book was completely unexpected and i didn't see it coming at all, it didn't seem to have that mind blowing element that daniel hurst's other books have? it felt slightly underwhelming! that could very well be because i'm used to his books now. for new hurst readers, i can see how this would be an incredible book to start off with!

I know beach read to some means a summery love story, but I love a good thriller as part of my summer reading.  You know like how the blockbuster movies are always released in the summer.  This one fits the bill for me.

It starts out a little slow as the story is set and then jumps to full speed as it all unravels.  A popcorn thriller at the top of its game.  Is it the most believable book I've ever read? No.  But did it pull me in and entertain me until the very end.  Definitely.  

I didn't really connect with Darcy as an adult who cannot seem to set an alarm and get up.  Then she ends up overly paranoid at just about everything.  But I still wanted to know more about her and the mysterious couple she is charged with helping.  As a reader I knew something didn't add up, but I didn't know what the solution could be.

It is full of twists, which most I did not see coming.  Hurst always writes smart thrillers that take the reader on a ride by pulling me in and then giving me enough to "solve" things.  He then goes in the opposite direction to pull off the switch.  The facts are always right there in front of me yet, I go down the path following the wrong clues.

And it looks like this is the start of a new series and I can't wait to see where this one heads next.

Daniel Hurst returns following The Family Trip and the Doctor's Wife series with THE PERFECT NURSE (#1), the first installment in a new series that promises to deliver the same suspense and mystery that fans have come to love.

Set in Chicago, Darcy, a troubled nurse, seems in a daze with no clue about her past. The plot thickens as she gets glimpses and flashbacks of a frightening past, certain people, a traumatic event, and secrets she possibly needs to keep buried. This twisty new series is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat, craving for more.

Who wants to keep her quiet? Does she know too much?

About...

Darcy, the perfect nurse craves sleep, but she is afraid of the nightmares. She is not sure why she has to rely on sleeping pills every night, which leaves her groggy the next day.

Her co-worker Pippin is lovely, energetic, and always there to help. She arrives at Darcy's house to make her coffee and makes sure she has on her scrubs and is ready for the day.

Darcy and Pippin, two friends and nurses, have a new assignment. They are to provide in-home health care for a woman, Scarlett, who was injured in a fall at her home and left with some brain damage. Her husband, Adrian, cares for her, but he needs a break and thus hires the in-home care nurses.

However, soon, Darcy feels something is off about the couple. Did her husband push the woman? Is the woman scared of her husband? Did she really have an accident? Can she trust her husband? She can never get the patient alone without the husband being around to question the woman. Pippa thinks she is worrying uselessly.

Then Adrian asks her if she would be interested in overnight shifts for extra money. She thinks this might be a way to investigate further and see what is happening behind closed doors. She really gets suspicious when Scarlett tells her to lock her door at night. Then she starts sleuthing. Things are strange? What is going on with this couple? Who are they?

NOTHING OR NO ONE IS AS IT APPEARS.

Just when you think you have it figured out, the author takes a 180-degree turn, and the storyline takes a different direction. This unpredictability gives readers a jaw-dropping twist leading down a secret past that becomes even more sinister. You'll be left in awe, eagerly turning the pages to uncover the next twist.

My thoughts...

Daniel is the king of revenge plots, and in THE PERFECT NURSE, a suspenseful, twisty kickoff to a new series, where you have unreliable narrators, nurses, an estranged best friend, a doctor, a neurosurgeon, a patient, an unknown family, memory issues, flashbacks of a haunted past, secrets, and an accident?

What happened in the past that haunts Darcy? She cannot remember, but she gets glimpses, and she is afraid she has broken her duty as a nurse. Or maybe she simply knows the truth, which may be more frightening than death. She is worried this is not over when things begin to surface. She must escape.

Who is Pippin, Adrian, Scarlett, Eden, Melissa, and Laurence?

Is Darcy innocent? Does she know things? Did she witness something terrible? Is forgetting a gift? Instead, she is desperately trying to remember every single detail of her life before the accident.

Who was she trying to run from? Had she left the hospital to work for private in-home care? Getting back her memory may be worse than not knowing. These characters are so intricately woven into the plot that you'll be deeply invested in their stories.

Who is the villain, and who is the victim? Was she a witness and a co-conspirator? Did she participate in a murder? She only knows she is a nurse, an everyday woman, not some evil, callous witch. Is she a perfect nurse?

What is Darcy's dark secret? She needs to run, but she cannot remember half of it. Is she a murderer?

Read to find out, get the cliffhanger, and continue the mystery in this fun and twisty maze of questions in book #2, The Nurse's Lie, coming August 1, 2024. I will be anxiously awaiting to learn more about Darcy and Pippa!

Recs...

THE PERFECT NURSE is recommended for fans of Daniel Hurst and authors Valerie Keogh, Teri Terry, Leslie Wolf, K.L. Slater, and Freida McFadden.

Thanks to Bookouture for an advanced reading review digital copy via NetGalley for an honest opinion.

blog review posted @
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@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 1, 2024
My Rating: 4 Stars
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The book starts a bit erratic. We meet Darcy, a nurse treating a wealthy family that hired two nurses to support the wife after an accident. The wife, Scarlett, had suffered a fall inside the house and now had memory lapses. Darcy suspects the husband had something to do, but we get little evidence supporting this theory. Initially, it was hard to follow due to her behavior and the lack of evidence to support Darcy's theory; however, in the middle of the book, we get a plot twist. The reveal opens a sea of possibilities, and it gains some momentum.

While I enjoyed the plot twist and where the story went after it, it left me wondering how Darcy would remember certain things. This action by Darcy drove the story, and simultaneously, it was juxtaposed with the plot twist reveal. It is easy to see a second part of this book since we are left with many areas that could be explored.

The book is good, and I would recommend it. Just know that it starts slow but builds midway, and you will only be able to put it down once you figure out how it ends.

The Perfect Nurse is a quick suspenseful read, full of twists and turns. The suspense is slowly built, which adds a lot to the story itself.
In this book, we follow Darcy, who seems to suffer from paranoia and is also dependant on sleep aids and sedatives in her everyday life. Darcy is a nurse and is passionate about her job, but lately she has been feeling like she might need a change. One day, she is called to care for an elderly couple, with the wife suffering from the early stages of dementia. All is going well, until Darcy gets suspicions that the couple may be faking the whole thing. She is determined to find out what is really going on, and when she finally does, the truth is quite shocking!
As entertaining as it was, this book was a 3 star read for me. The first half seemed to drag on a bit, whereas the second half was where the action started. I guess you could consider the first half a slow build-up. At some point, it did start to feel like a different story, which caused me to have mixed feelings. I would have also preferred Darcy's truths being revealed more towards the end of the book as opposed to midway. Aside from that, the story itself was great! After reading the blurb, I admittedly had something completely different in mind, but the plot was still great. My jaw dropped at the big revelation, and by the end of the book, I was ready for the next one!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and Daniel Hurst for this riveting ARC!

I really enjoy Daniel Hurst books, and this one is no exception. The Perfect Nurse is a fast, suspenseful, twisty read. 4 stars!

Darcy Miller is a home healthcare nurse. At her newest assignment, something seems off ... has she met these people before? She senses that the people around her aren't telling the complete truth. But what exactly is going on? And then at home and in her neighborhood, she feels that she is being followed and that someone has been in her house. Is she in danger? Who can she trust? The Perfect Nurse is a fun, yet tense and tragic book. There is a big twist in the middle with even more to follow. Hurst does a great job of building the excitement and pressure as I often felt like something scary was about to happen. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the digital ARC.

The Perfect Nurse is the second book I've read by Daniel Hurst and I was so excited going in, but ended up disappointed.

The writing felt very mechanical and didn't flow naturally, so it was hard for me to relate to the main character. Although I love a twisty thriller, I felt the twist started a completely new book than the beginning. It made it seem like some of the things certain characters had previously said/done were minor plot holes and weren't addressed in later chapters.

Overall, I would give this book 2.5 stars because I did enjoy parts of it. But if you've never read Daniel Hurst before, I would start with another title of his.

The first half of the book dragged on for me. The Perfect Nurse is written in first person from the viewpoint of Darcy who is portrayed as extremely paranoid, sleep deprived and possibly drug addled. Around the halfway point the reader starts to be provided with some answers and the pace of the plot starts to pick up. I found the second half of the book much more engaging than the second half. Unfortunately this just didn't turn out to be the thriller that it was intended to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you Netgalley, Daniel Hurst, and Bookouture for the ebook! I don't know what I was expecting but this book definitely gave me some shocks and twists!! Even though I guessed the plot, I still enjoyed the story thoroughly! It was unique and had me turning the pages in the late hours!

Daniel Hurst is King of the twist! Seriously, I did not see several of the twists coming at all! Either he is very devious or very clever, I'm still deciding. But what I do know is that he absolutely pulled the wool over my eyes in this addictive, jaw dropping, and twist filled read! The Perfect Nurse kept me on my toes, turning the pages, and glued to the pages!

Darcy is a nurse who has been hired to take care of a woman who suffered an injury in her home. As Darcy and her co-worker, Pippa begin their nursing duties at the woman's home, Darcy can't help but think something isn't quite right. She is not sure what that might be, but she is determined to figure things out!

Oh baby! I had no idea where this book was going when I picked it up. I came up with a theory and then *BAM* I was left reeling after a completely shocking twist. My mind was reeling, and I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. That was the first twist but will not be the last. Hurst had quite a few up his sleeve and I enjoyed every one of them.

The Perfect Nurse is the first book in a new series by Daniel Hurst. It is off to a great start, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series!!

Dramatic, shocking, jaw dropping and riveting.

Daniel Hurst is back with a new series - The Perfect Nurse - and it promises to be a ripping read! It is very suspenseful getting to the point where the reader knows what is really going on but then it picks up speed and runs away as only this author can do! Looking forward to #2 in the series!

Manu thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

I have liked some of this author's previous books but this one didn't quite work for me. It starts out with Darcy, a nurse, groggy after taking several sleeping pills and stumbling out of bed when someone is pounding on her door. The person at the door is Pippa, a nurse that Darcy is partnered with on. job to be a home health care nurse for a wealthy woman. We find out the woman has sustained a head injury after a fall and has shown signs of brain damage. Her husband, a retired health care administrator has hired the nurses to help out with the daily care of his wife. Only Darcy suspects something else is going on and she thinks this couple are not what they seem.

There are some huge plot twists in this book and usually they are fun and unexpected but they just don't work for me. Introducing Darcy as addicted to pills and unable to take care of herself gives it away that something is wrong with her. The story is set in Chicago but it is obvious the author is British as the conversations and details don't seem American beginning with Darcy starting almost every sentence with "erm". I was intrigued enough to see where this was going but the story never made sense to me and I doubt if I would read further installments in this series.

Some lingering questions: Why was Darcy told to lock her bedroom door from the inside? That just doesn't make sense. Why wasn't she under some kind of guardianship? She obviously could not take care of herself. How could she support herself if she just drove off? She would likely be putting herself in harm's way again with the pills and drinking. Pippa was supposed to have a husband and son but spent all her time with Darcy. Why wouldn't she want to see her child? How was Darcy paying for taxis and online purchases? Was she getting fake checks from the nursing agency? If she couldn't remember any details from her past, why wasn't she on medication and in therapy? It seems like it would be difficult to live on your own in that condition. Thank you from NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

This book was really gripping and kept me at the edge of my seat! It had me questioning if the lies and deceit were going to keep coming. These twists went places I would’ve never expected. The only thing I wish was different was that we found out a tad more throughout the middle of the book and not just the end. Otherwise, great thriller that makes you think!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

I love this authors work. So when I seen this book I was so excited to read it. I thought it was very twisty and kept me hooked from the beginning. Loved this book and cant wait to read more by this author.

What can I say about this book? First off, it was my first time reading this author, and I loved it! Once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down. The unexpected twists kept me engaged, and I found myself reading until 3:00 am. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Am I tired? Definitely.

The writing style was fast-paced, and the thriller aspect was spot-on. I felt genuine concern and fear for the characters, which is a rare reaction for me when reading thrillers. Kudos to the author! Additionally, the dialogue out weighed the description a bit which worked well; I appreciate stories where dialogue drives the flow.

However, the slow start at the beginning served a purpose—it helped build anticipation for the climax. Trust me. It was worth pushing through!

The characters were both interesting and enjoyable. I appreciated the contrast between Pippa and Darcy’s personalities—it added depth to their interactions. As a former CNA on the path to becoming a nurse, I connected with their profession. The portrayal of both the joys and burnout resonated with me. However, Darcy’s impulsive actions raised questions; she often put herself in risky and hasty situations.

Overall, the story, characters, and unexpected twists held my attention throughout. Staying up until 3:00 am was worth it—I needed to know how it would end! While there were lingering questions due to the cliffhanger, I eagerly await the next book in the series by Daniel Hurst. Many thanks to him and Bookouture for providing the ARC in exchange for my opinion.

"The Perfect Nurse" by Daniel Hurst is a solid 3-star read and the first book in The Perfect Nurse series. The story follows Darcy, who is starting her first day on a new assignment alongside her partner, Pippa. Their task is to care for Scarlett, who has suffered memory loss after a fall in her home. Scarlett's husband, Adrian, immediately raises Darcy's suspicions. As Darcy delves deeper, she begins to suspect that things are not as they seem and becomes determined to uncover the truth.

As a big fan of Daniel Hurst, I've enjoyed everything I've read by him so far. However, this one didn't work as well for me. The beginning was quite slow and didn't really capture my interest. The pace picked up in the second half after the first twist was revealed, but it slowed down again afterwards. Additionally, if the book hadn't mentioned Chicago, I wouldn't have believed it was set in the US based on the writing style. Despite this, I'm looking forward to the second book to see where the story goes.

Thanks to Bookouture, Daniel Hurst, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the Arc of The Perfect Nurse by Daniel Hurst

5 stars 🌟
Such a thrilling gut wrenching book from start to finish so addictive and compelling made me want more and more I loved the plot twists and the twists unexpected!! Highly recommend I loved this book!! I binged in one day! So shocking and the cliffhanger twist at the END!!!! You need to read this!!!!

Another excellent story from Daniel Hurst. The style is a little different from previous stories but again it is a compelling, consuming story which has you guessing right up until the end. The characters leap out from the page and you are quickly caught up in their world. Not all is as it seems in the world of the Perfect Nurse. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good psychological thriller. With thanks to the author Bookouture and Netgally for this advanced copy for an unbiased review.

Thank you to Bookouture, Daniel Hurst and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in the series. We are met with Darcy who lives alone and is a home health nurse. Darcy & Pippa, her coworker, has a new client to go and look after for, Scarlett, who has brain injury due to an accident in her kitchen. His husband has been looking after her but it’s got to a point where he needs extra help for her.

I just found some of the things that Darcy did quite questionable considering her job like hugging your client a few days in? It jusy wasn’t making sense for me

I did find the start of the book to be really slow for the first half of the book, the second half was a little bit more interesting but with figuring out the twists so early on, it just fell a bit flat for me. I won’t lie when the first twist happened I literally guessed at the beginning of the book and with the second twist it was just so predictable which then made me just read for the sake of it after knowing for so long.

This books comes out July 1st and will be available on Kindle Unlimited.