My Review of The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand is in honor of the NEW Netflix adaptation of this 2018 book. I read the book in August 2024 and am reviewing it before I watch the show. What did I think of the book? I’ll tell you below. What do I think of the Netflix series of The Perfect Couple? I’m watching and giving my take in this post.
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand: Overview
- Published in 2018 by Little, Brown
- Number three in Hilderbrand’s four book Nantucket series (of which books two, three and four have mystery elements)
- Swan Song, the final book in the series, came out in 2024.
- I also reviewed Five Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand, which is not a mystery.
- Looking for similar books? My full post on Wedding Mysteries is here. I think the closest match for this book is Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner.
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand: Jen’s Quick Take
- Not really a conventional mystery.
- Has the small town feel and chatty vibe of a cozy.
- The Perfect Couple also has women’s fiction elements
- With a solid 3.9 rating, the readers who didn’t like the book disliked all the name and brand dropping, discussed below.
- These books remind me a lot of Liane Moriarty’s work and also this book by a popular women’s fiction author.
Review of The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand
Very similar to Liane Moriarty’s 2014 Big Little Lies, The Perfect Couple begins with a murder at a high society wedding in Nantucket. The purpose of the book is to explore who killed a member of the wedding party, and why.
Is this book a mystery or just mystery-adjacent? Like Big Little Lies, it falls between a cozy and a classic with a touch of women’s fiction.
The story takes a while to get going, spending a LOT of time moving in a fairly omniscient way around the island, peeping into various characters’ lives while (as many Elin Hilderbrand novels do).
At times the narrative started to seem like an advertisement for the Nantucket Tourism board, complete with namedropping every restaurant in town. Is this love for Nantucket (same!) or just product placement. It’s hard to say.
But the end of the story has some really nice twists. In the end this book also reminded me a fair bit of this other Liane Moriarty book too, which was also recently adapted as a series.
If you’re watching the Netflix series, I have a helpful character guide, a plot summary of the book, and I’ll be discussing book vs series! Check out The Perfect Couple Spoilers and more!