The Perfect Husband by Iain Maitland

3.2 AVERAGE

andreahorton's review

5.0
dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
I was given a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review 

The perfect husband is a great book that had me hooked from the start, there are several twists in the story which I was unable to predict the outcome of but the ending was the biggest twist that I wasn’t expecting. I really enjoyed this book and it was the first one I have read by this author. I will definitely be reading more of their work in the future. 
kr_gr's profile picture

kr_gr's review

3.75
dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
I got to read this as an ARC on NetGalley. Thanks, NetGalley! This is my very honest review. 

I didn’t enjoy this book from the start. It took me a while. But enjoy it I most definitely did. 
When I tell you I devoured it, I’m not kidding. I leapt through the pages like some sort of a deranged squirrel, wanting to know what happens to poor Laura and her baby next. 

First things first though, some notes to the official book description: 
  1. Laura didn’t marry a total stranger. ‘Cause they’re not married. Rob’s not her husband. He’s just an abusive dickhead who took advantage of her trusting nature and invaded her life.
  2. Robert’s mask didn’t slip the moment Laura fell pregnant. He’d been a controlling, disgusting and abusive dickhead all along, except for a brief honeymoon period when he was “wooing” her. Laura falling pregnant was merely what persuaded the poor woman to “give him another change” because “fatherhood might change him”. Which, I hear, is kind of the norm for people in abusive relationships.

I'm not sure why the book description claims these things, they are not accurate, and they sound kind of cliche?
 
Now, onto my thoughts and feelings about the book:

Just like with the story, I didn’t fall in love with Laura Curtis at first sight. In fact, I found her too much of a pitiful wet-blanket. I thought the author was writing a pathetic, too-precious-for-this-world, battered-woman poster child. But then Part I ended, I found just “how far Laura is willing to go to protect her baby” and I was invested.

Laura is not the most dynamic of protagonists, she’s not the sort to go running through a meadow, belting out “there must be more than this provincial life”. She wants this provincial life. She’s a kind woman who yearns for love, affection and a happy family life. She seeks to recreate the simple family harmony that she grew up with and that was lost to her once her parents passed away. And just when she thought any chance of that has long since passed her by, Robert appears.
 
And he’s just what a man should be.
 
Until he isn’t and by that time, Laura is too bewildered, ashamed and afraid that she doesn’t know how to extricate herself from the relationship. And then she finds out she’s pregnant.
 
I suspect that most people will guess just how far Laura is willing to go to protect her baby.
 
All of this is pretty textbook, isn’t it.
 
And that’s just what’s so abso-fucking-lutely terrifying. Because it is textbook, it could easily happen to you or me. As much as we’d all like to scoff at Laura in the first part because she’s too much this or not enough that, in our deepest heart of hearts, we can see ourselves in her. That's what makes the book work.
 
The panic, the anxiety, the delusions, that deep bone-shaking fear. You’ll experience all that vicariously and more. Guaranteed. This is a psychological thriller and it does exactly what’s on the box. 
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