I really enjoy this author’s books and The Perfect Boyfriend definitely hit the mark. It’s a fast paced psychological thriller that will have you hooked from the start. The plot moves at pace and you are completely immersed and kept enthralled until the end. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

I love a thriller that I do not see the twist coming at all!!

This was not on the edge of your seat thriller the entire time. We mostly have Kristy who is an amateur sleuth who also feels like a unreliable narrator because she is 8 months pregnant and no one believes.

I don’t know what it was about this book. It might have been the authors writing but I was engaged with the storyline the whole time. I did not understand why the chapters started out like it was transcripts because that was never explained.

The twist at the end!!!! My jaw was on the literal floor! Well I should say twists because when one started they just kept going!! That turned this book from a 3⭐️ to a 4⭐️

Genre: Thriller
APK: Ebook
Pages: 376
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

Thank you Bookoture for sending me a copy of The Perfect Boyfriend for an honest review. 💜

I was hooked right from the very start and couldn't put it down, reading it in one sitting. Absolutely fantastic book full of tension and had me completely gripped

This was totally enjoyable and left me gobsmacked. This writing is so easy to sink into. Fantastic characters that kept the story clipping along way past my bedtime. Like a roller coaster ride that left me no idea who to trust. Don’t let this one pass you by. Highly recommend.

Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

It’s probably slightly unfair of me to be reviewing this book since I’m not the biggest thriller reader. And when I do fancy a thriller it tends to be in slightly aberrant situations—like being on a long journey—where capacity to engage me is the only thing I’m seeking from my entertainment.

To give The Perfect Boyfriend credit, it did indeed engage me, even if it didn’t completely blow my mind, and I suspect will not linger in it. Then again, my mind is basically Swiss cheese so very little lingers in it.

The premise here is that the heroine, Kirsty, is working as a midwife up in somewhere Scotlandy—I think I want to say Aberdeen. She’s also heavily pregnant, and about to go on parental leave, when she suddenly sees a former ex-boyfriend, apparently working as an anaesthesiologist at the same hospital. This particular boyfriend left her in a notably unpleasant way, vanishing without a trace after, and when she attempts to talk to him in the hospital, he acts as though he doesn’t know her.

Cue the usual thriller type happenings, which I won’t go into detail on, because it would spoil literally the entire thing. But it definitely has all the elements you want from this sort of book: mysteries, revelations and twists oh my, a handful of murders, a narrator presumed unreliable by those around her, messing around with timelines, kidnappings, peril and the POV of the villain interspersed with those of the heroine/narrator.

I think my strongest impression of this book was that it … how can I put this. It read the assignment. It is a thoughtful, brisky written, very well-constructed thriller that hits all the right notes at exactly the right times. And sometimes that’s kind of all you need?

Can I quibble? I mean, yeah. I’m me. Of course I can. I honestly found the heroine a bit of a non-person: she’s just a nice woman, with a nice life, from a nice background, who is nice to people. As a certified feral basket, by about the midway point I was starting to maybe think the villain was broadly had a point in his frustration with her. Also, while it’s clear the villain is a horrible person who does horrible things, at least he’s got more going on than being nice—which ended up making his sections read as disproportionately charismatic. And there’s always going to be part of me that’s going to relate to people from fucked up backgrounds who do fucked up things for fucked up reasons (although I definitely draw the line at fraud, abuse and murder). I think what also makes the villain complicated, especially compared to Kirsty Who Is Nice, is that his ambitions are fairly modest? He wants to escape his deprived and abusive background and, err, be an anaesthesiologist? At which—despite his lack of formal qualifications (sorry, mild spoiler there)—he seems to be genuinely talented, and causing no harm? I realise that we’d all prefer our medical practitioners to be qualified and fully vetted before doing their thing, especially given the consequences of doing it wrong are so very dire, but like … it’s not like being qualified magically insulates you ever making a mistake or being bad at your job. And, yes, I get that part of what qualifications are doing when it comes to high stakes professions are serving as a barrier to entry, so someone can’t just walk in off the street and operate on you, but, in abstract terms, between two people performing their jobs in a functionally identical way … what does it matter? I guess I’m just saying that if the villain hadn’t run into Kirsty, he’d probably have just continued his life of mild shitfuckery.

And most of us live lives of mild shitfuckery anyway?

The other plot note that mildly bugged me was that, at one point, Kirsty’s elderly neighbour (Kirsty is nice to her elderly neighbour because, of course, she is) disappears. And she remains disappeared for over a week, with nobody around taking Kirsty’s concerns seriously because, apparently, sometimes old women do be that vanishing way. Across the run of the book, Kirsty does make various attempts to contact the police about the various things that are going, and is disregarded, but … like … why on earth didn’t she just report her neighbour as a missing person (which you can do at any time you believe someone is missing, and will be taken especially seriously if they’re vulnerable, i.e. young, old, in mental distress).? And, yes, okay she’s getting texts from said neighbour, telling her to stay away, but they’re clearly not *from* her neighbour, and she doesn’t believe them—even going so far as to creep around her neighbour’s blatantly empty house.

I know it’s kind of a … limitation of the format. If people behaved wholly rationally at all times in a thriller, it wouldn’t be a thriller it would be a … a …quotidianer? A boringer? I don’t know. And I get that everyone suspends their disbelief in different ways, at different times, in different places, but, for me, I need at least lip service paid to the rudiments of sensible behaviour. Oh, and I also got slightly in my head about the fact that the dual narration is framed as a series of audio-interviews for a documentary. This is another suspension of disbelief thing: obviously I know a book written the way people genuinely talk would be unreadable and that the audio-interview aspect here is essentially equivalent to the letters in an epistolary novel i.e. it’s not meant to be a literal representation of the form, so much a way of conveying a fictional narrative that heightens intimacy and immediacy. But, for me personally, I would have liked a tiny nod, now and again, to the fact that the book-as-written is actually a series of audio-interviews. Because I don’t quite see why you’d employ a device like that and still present the book almost entirely in standard prose. Though I will add, since I’m talking about language, that the book does have a really nice ear for Scottish rhythms and dialect, that I felt was really well-judged, and was lovely to see on the page without it ever feeling cartoonish or overdone.

Finally … and this is … technically a spoiler, though it shouldn’t be a spoiler. Basically, at the very end of the novel, slightly out of nowhere, we learn that the heroine is in a queer relationship. Her partner, the ambiguously-named Dougie, is actually—OHEMGEE—her wife. I guess fair play to the book for playing the pronoun game for the entire duration of the text sufficiently subtlety that I didn’t notice, but also … why is the fact that the heroine is in a long-term relationship with another woman deliberately, I don’t know if withheld is even the right word, presented evasively in that way? Like, was it meant to reflect in some way upon Kirsty’s relationship with the relationship with the villain? He left her so traumatised she turned gay? What? No. Or was it more that the book kind of fucking with the reader, like “ahh, you made a gendered assumption, what does that say about you, ahhhh”. Or is it meant to be the final twist? In which case, also no, because queer people aren’t a twist. We’re just … here? And frankly the only way it can possibly work as a twist or a surprised if the queerness and queer identity play literally zero part in the heroine’s life or thinking up to the point she’s suddenly like AND THE CHARACTER CALLED DOUGIE IS ACTUALLY MY WIIIIIFE. I don’t know. It was all hella weird to me.

Even so, I still enjoyed the book. Based on the other reviews, which are very “omg, blew my mind, amazing twists” I think it would probably appeal to more to a thriller aficionado. But it delivered what I was hoping for, in terms of the quintessential thriller experience, and got me through a long, slightly emotionally tough, journey. For which I’m super grateful.

I think every girl meets someone, usually during their late teens, who they think is "The One". The perfect boyfriend - the one who can do no wrong in their eyes. Then the inevitable split happens, girl is devastated, boy disappears into the ether, and life carries on. This book epitomises this scenario - only this time the boy comes back to his old stomping ground. Or so Kirsty thinks. But she's 8 months pregnant, hormones raging...could she be mistaken? Especially as he denies knowing her.

This book is written in a style that I love: two different points of view, one knowing the answers to everything the other is desperately seeking. Early on it's not clear whether the man working at the hospital where Kirsty is a midwife actually is Hughie, the love of Kirsty's teenage life. Then we gradually hear more from Dr Sefton and all becomes clear.

The majority of the book is taken up with Kirsty's battle to convince her friends, colleagues and family that this guy is not who he appears to be. He's been very clever at building his shiny, new professional life but Kirsty is determined to work out how he's managed to be so convincing. However when her investigations start to have deadly consequences the pressure is on for her to find that vital evidence.

I felt the writing reflected the way Kirsty's mind must have been going round in circles, proving then disproving her ever-more crazy theories. The way her friends and family dismissed her, just putting things down to her raging hormones, had me frustrated let alone her! The tension builds steadily towards the end of the book and I was on the edge of my seat (and screaming at Kirsty not to put herself and her unborn baby at risk) in the final few chapters.

Some of the twists are far more subtle than the main focus of the story, which I found made the whole thing a much more wholesome experience. I personally found this to be a gripping page turner of a book and would definitely recommend it especially to read on a cold, dark winter's evening for added atmosphere.

When you are “fraught, frightened and frustrated” it becomes easier to do things that we wouldn’t usually do. Easier to take risks that might put us in danger; or go against everything that made any kind of logical sense. This is certainly true for Kirsty who is eight months pregnant, having flashbacks from a complicated history with an old boyfriend and is troubled by a neighbours situation.

An added challenge that the author presents is how hard it can be when you believe something is true, only those around you don’t and won’t believe. Often it is this lack of belief that can also assist in pushing people into actions or situations that may end up deadly.

How often do you see what you expect to see, rather than what is there? This is one of the chief things to consider when reading “The perfect boyfriend” as S. E. Lynes winds the story through countless twists and turns and addresses the question of what the boyfriend Kirsty once thought was perfect. With plenty of suspense and a gradual unwinding of the truth, this is sure to keep readers guessing. The story did drag a little bit in places, and at other times it was hard keeping up!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a review. Due to be released on 6th January 2025.

Wow! What a crazy, twisted ride! This thriller is layered with lies, deception, and countless unanswered questions. Did Kirsty’s first boyfriend resurface from the distant past, or is it an ordinary case of mistaken identity? Just when I thought the story was going in one direction, a twist would occur and take the plot down an unexpected path. This thriller is entertaining, suspenseful, and unputdownable. It was a roller coaster ride from start to finish. Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

What did I just read????? Holy Moly, S.E. Lynes has taken me on a riveting, wild, and shocking roller coaster of a ride once again! I mean, seriously this book knocked my socks off leaving me with cold feet and my jaw hanging open! This book had me in its clutches from the very beginning and never let go! Whew!

Kirsty is at the hospital where she works as a midwife. She has just delivered a baby and is walking down the hallway when she sees a man who stops her in her tracks! Could it be? Is it him? Is the handsome man walking toward her high school boyfriend (Hughie Reynolds) who vanished all those years ago?????? The man tells her she must be mistaken but she knows it is him! The eyes, it's all in the eyes!! But is she correct???? Everyone in her life from her husband to her friends, believe she is mistaken, perhaps a bit hormonal as she is very pregnant.


Well, well, well, hang on to your hats folks because this book is about to become a wild, fast paced, and thrilling ride. I enjoyed how the book is told through the perspective of both Kirsty and Hughie. I found this to be a nice clever touch! Plus, readers are also given glimpses into the past. S. E. Lynes brilliantly captures the emotions of being a teen experiencing a myriad of emotions. She also captured Kirsty's unwavering drive and determination to get to the truth!

I enjoyed the mystery in this book as well as the mounting tension and sense of unease. I could not stop turning the pages as the twists and turns kept coming! There was one part where my mouth fell open in shock because I did not see that reveal coming at all!!! Total shocker! S.E. Lynes never disappoints!

Gripping, shocking, wonderfully written, and well thought out!

When I pick up a thriller by SE Lynes, I know that I have to clear my schedule until I’ve finished and The Perfect Boyfriend is no exception.
As always, the characters in the novel are so well depicted – authentic, relatable and fully fleshed out - that they become real on the page. I loved Kirsty, a pregnant midwife, from the very opening scene and was rooting for her to get to the bottom of the mysterious reappearance of Hughie Reynolds, her teenage boyfriend who disappeared overnight years ago.

In true Lynes style, not everything is as it seems and there were times that I – like the other characters in the book – wondered if Kirsty was seeing things correctly. With each succeeding chapter, another layer of the story is peeled back until you think you know where it’s going – and then it doesn’t.

As well as being a page-turning thriller, Lynes’ writing style is a thing of beauty and I felt myself totally transported to Aberdeen. The supporting cast of characters are also a real treat – and some of them have their own surprises in store!

I love S E Lynes books so had high expectations for this book and it certainly does not disappoint

What a read

Thanks for the opportunity to review

Oh, I was so conflicted by this book. Having read many of the author's previous works and loved them, the bar was set high. But it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
Firstly, the title jarred. I didn't see Hughie as anywhere near perfection. I felt things took a while to get going, and there was one reveal — late on in the story — that I felt was shoe-horned in for not particular reason.
Having got the negatives out of the way, I cannot fault the author for delivering her trademark blend of whip-smart lines, dark humour and 'wow' moments.
Honestly, if memories were water, it was like someone had turned on the tap.
Glitches in his assumed identity, tree roots breaking through the tarmac.
Going back to the itchy acrylic of survival is hard once you've got used to the cashmere of living.
I dithered over whether it was a three or four-star read, but the quality of the writing nudged it over the line. Not my favourite, but I will always look forward to anything produced by S.E. Lynes.

The Perfect Boyfriend is a psychological thriller that centers around Kirsty, a midwife who is about to have her own child and who believes she just saw her ex-boyfriend who disappeared years ago. After seeing her ex, a series of odd events occur in Kirsty's life, leading her to believe that everything is connected. Due to the traumatizing way that her ex disappeared, Kirsty has had a hard time coping with certain emotions. Even though she is in a happy relationship now, this recent appearance has Kirsty slipping back into her past self. While no one believes that the untimely deaths of her neighbor and friend have anything to do with the weird events in Kirsty's life, she is determined to prove everything is connected.

This book is very slow-paced and not overly exciting. I wasn't intrigued by the mystery, and I just never connected with any of the characters. While there was a twist or two that I didn't totally predict, I still didn't care about them. While I do think that there will be some readers who will enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and interesting but I felt like it was a bit slow in parts and a little repetitive. Although, the last 25% was brilliant! I had guessed some of the twists but not all of them. One in particular there was no way anyone would be able to guess, I do love it when an author manages to do that.
I’ll be recommending this book!

Enjoyable read with lots of twists

I liked this book and looked forward to grabbing it to read a chapter when I could. The story, of a young, pregnant midwife who thinks she sees her first boyfriend at the hospital she works at, was good. When her crotchety but beloved older neighbor suddenly disappears and is found dead, she tries to find out what happened. Some parts were infuriating and not that plausible, like when the police dismiss her concerns or she goes to meet someone she suspects alone and at a deserted place. There were several twists at the end. One, concerning the spouse of the pregnant woman, was intended to be a "wow" moment, one that has us looking at things differently, but to me it just took away from the ending. I would have preferred that "twist" been revealed much sooner in the book when there wasn't so much other stuff going on. But I liked the book and will check out more books by this author.

Thank you for allowing me to receive and read the advanced copy of this book. It is actually my first by this author.
I really enjoyed this book. It kept my mind whirling trying to figure it all out.
The thick Scottish dialect was really hard to comprehend at times but very enlightening.
I felt the story moved a little slow at times but overall very action packed. The last 25% of the book was definitely nonstop bombshell after bombshell. I had to re-read several parts twice to make sure I was understanding exactly what I thought I was reading.
I would definitely read more of this author and I will be recommending it to others.

Just when I thought I'd figured it out.... nope!

Kirsty, a midwife, and her partner Dougie are expecting. But what Kirsty DOESN'T expect is her high school love to resurface at her hospital after having disappeared suddenly and without a trace - with just a rude note upon his departure. But is it really him? There are some similarities, but his name is different and he doesn't seem to know her.

While this started slowly for me, I soon was unable to put it down. Great writing, Kirsty is incredibly likeable, as is her bestie Tasha, and lots of twists to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and S.E. Lynes for the eARC.

A pregnant nurse midwife spots her old high school boyfriend again for the first time in many years, When they broke up he just left a terrible note behind and she never saw or heard from him again. She's married to seemingly the perfect husband and all is looking good for her just as she's about to have her baby. She finishes a difficult case at the hospital and is walking down the hall when she sees someone that looks so much like her past boyfriend that she confronts him. He denies he knows her and he's not that guy. She just can't let it go and suddenly goes from midwife to full on investigator. She reports him to the police several times about different things that go on in the book and they just blow her off. It's a twisty and sometimes repetitive tale but I was hooked in and wanted to see where it went.
The main character took a lot of risks in her heavily pregnant condition and I found that a little hard to believe. I mean, she was literally ready to have this baby! For this reason I lost trust in her character, as did everyone around her.
All in all I liked the book and would be interested to reading more from this author again.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced read of this book

I found this to be a really good read. The story is told in transcripts by two of the main characters. Some of the Scottish dialogue was a little hard to follow which sometimes stopped my flow of reading occasionally.

The story plodded along nicely until we get to the last 25% of the book where things get ramped up and I found myself reading quicker to see where the story was going. I did get a little mixed up near the end but there were a couple of chapters after which tied up all my confusions I think!

Overall, another good read by this author. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing this book, with my honest review below.

This was my first book to read by Lynes, and it has me wanting to read more for sure. I will say that it was a journey to get from, "Is it my old boyfriend Hughie?" to "Aha!", but it was well written and very well thought out. I don't recall ever wondering to myself that something didn't make sense or add it up while I was reading it. There was one part that did have me audibly gasp, and I can't remember that happening in a while. Very enjoyable!