#OnePerfectCouple – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews – September Recap – Four #Audiobooks You’ll Love!

Rosepoint Reviews - September Recap

We got lucky with September weather, pretty temporate, comfortable, and enough heat to harken back lazy summer days. I really love September now, as after the kiddies go back to school and we are past Labor Day here in the US, families are home and prices on the road drop.

After we had all the cucumber juices (with cantaloupe juice) I could manage from our handy dandy juicer, and the yearly trial with dried or dehydrated cherry tomatoes (dried tomato candy), we started in on tomato juice from our neighbors garden. SOOO delish!

Then we had the opportunity to link up with our old Navy buddies and met them in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri (Osage Beach) at a lovely Airbnb along with our daughter who will shortly be celebrating a big birthday. Perfect location, the middle of everything, handy, beautifully decorated and the best screened in porch I’ve ever seen making for some delightful evenings of happy hour, chatting, and watching the sun go down.

Osage Beach MO, Airbnb boat dock — The pic of the sunset taken by our daughter, Shannon.

We checked out HAHA Tonka State Park, Stark Caverns, Bignell Dam, and rented a tritoon to do some fishing. The boat was fun—but there were no bites.

Last year came home with lots of trout—but that was in Arkansas. In Lake of the Ozarks—it’s bass.

Well, so I have a good reason why I flaked on posts in September. The tablet I bought to take with me so I could work on vacation is less than useless. Still, it was a great trip, got to be with our friends again and celebrate our daughter’s birthday.

We reviewed ten books in September—four of those in audiobook form, the CE contributing two and a half (?) He gave up half way into Mark Twain, an almost 1200 page biography. The source of the books is our library, NetGalley, author and publisher requests. As always, the links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase information.

#RosepointReviews,#SeptemberRecap,

Solid Gold Murder by Ellen Byron (audiobook)
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (CE review-DNF)
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin Harmel
News of the World by Paulette Jiles (audiobook-Book Club)
A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci (audiobook)
Peter Pulaski Must Pay by Jen Lancaster
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware (audiobook)
Ain’t Nobody’s Fool by Martha Ackmann (CE review-5 stars -biography)
The Tenth Trail Mark by Joe Looby (CE review-5 stars-NG)
Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

Favorite Book of the Month

Perhaps predictably, except for the Mark Twain book, the CE favored his two September reads with five stars. When asked which he’d choose for a September favorite, he said, “no question, The Tenth Trail Mark.” So there you have it:

Favorite for September – The Tenth Trail Mark

My Reading Challenges page…Vacation month. What can I say? Definitely more talking and sight-seeing than reading.

The Goodreads landing page shows 143 of a goal of 150 or 95%. I have three yet to post for books read in September. I suspect I’m doing okay in the audiobook challenge as well, not so sure about NetGalley.

I always appreciate your visits and comments. Keeps those likes and comments coming—and thank you for all of them!

Goodbye September — Graphic design courtesy Canva

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Book Blurb:

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.

A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

My Review:

Well, not exactly a new idea for a plot, one that’s been done more than a few times before. This one starts with five couples.

Lyla is in a pickle with her contract for her research and at loose ends, and against her better judgment, agrees to go with boyfriend Nico to participate in a reality TV show called One Perfect Couple.

Something is immediately wrong when the deserted island that was supposed to be a paradise isn’t really ready. The two crew who delivered them have set rules which surprise a few of those so thrilled to be chosen that they neglected to read the fine print.

Unfortunately, the first round eliminated Nico who is sent back and Lyla is left without her partner supposedly waiting for further eliminations to see who will end up the one perfect couple.

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware - UK cover — One Perfect Couple – UK cover

To add to the debacle, there is a ferocious storm (hurricane?) that rips through the island almost immediately and leaves those on the island essentially without power or communication to the mainland. Taking inventory of stores, they devise a plan to survive until rescue arrives and one guy appears to take control.

Uh oh…predictably, things begin to happen and not in a good way. They begin the fight for food and water. As the drama ramps up, the group begins to lose a survivor at a time and the tension turns desperate, then deadly.

It starts a bit slow, introducing the characters and the plot device, but once on the island and the storm hits, it becomes engaging and entertaining. There are twists and a surprise in the denouement you didn’t expect. Who will survive to be rescued?

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense Thrillers
Publisher:
ASIN: B0CLHL3J44
Listening Length: 14 hrs 25 mins
Narrator: Imogen Church
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Ruth Ware is an international number one bestseller. Her thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, The Death of Mrs Westaway, The Turn of the Key, One by One and The It Girl have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the Sunday Times and New York Times, and she is published in more than 40 languages. She lives on the south coast of England, with her family.