The Perfect Family Man by M.M DeLuca

The Perfect Family Man by M. M. DeLuca is a gripping psychological thriller centered on Olivia, whose world unravels when her husband Nate mysteriously disappears—or so she thinks. When she calls his workplace, she learns a shocking truth: Nate hasn’t worked there for six months, and this revelation reopens the heart-wrenching wound of her son Jack’s disappearance five years earlier .

As Olivia digs deeper, she becomes ensnared in a web of lies. A new neighbor—a woman with a young son uncannily reminiscent of Jack—raises suspicions. Did Nate know her? What secrets is he hiding? Within days, Olivia’s quest for the truth about her husband and her missing child takes her on a rollercoaster of twists, each more shocking than the last.

I will start off by saying that while this review will have more ‘negative’ opinions, that is all they are opinions. The Goodreads average for this novel is 3.99. Practically 4 stars.

The book itself has a great build up, but a lackluster ending in my opinion. I followed the FMC throughout the book, felt her feelings, only for the book to end in one chapter with what I felt was little explanation and to me it didn’t make much sense. Which maybe the author was going for.

As a new mom, I can appreciate how the FMC is feeling after losing her child, even if it was so long ago. I don’t know how I would react knowing that my child had disappeared and I didn’t know how or why.

Even if I didn’t like the ending very much, I did not see it coming (except for one part.) And maybe it was just a way for the MMC to save his family, but I just couldn’t seem to wrap my head around how we got there and how it all ended so quickly.

Some psychological thriller books can have a scary aspect, but I didn’t find that this one had much, if any, scary moments and the parts that I think the author was trying to create tense moments were… lacking… they moved to quickly again, didn’t leave anytime for the momentum to build and create that tension.

I rated this book a three star on goodreads. I did incredibly enjoy the FMC and I enjoyed the build up throughout the beginning and middle of this book, the ending was too fast with little tension in my none professional opinion.

-Fallon