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Blog Tour Review, The Secret Couple

437 pages One More Chapter published May 12, 2022

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads

Someone knows what they did…

A laugh. A touch. A lingering look.

A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making.

Alison knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem…

As I was reading this, there was something about Alice that I didn’t like.  Probably her attitude, which stems from her past that is always alluded to but not actually described at the start of the book.  And I knew Luke was too good to be true.  But luckily, I wanted to know her story and why Luke had contacted her. As the story progresses both Alice and Luke end up being more complex than they seem.  The more you read, the more intense and quickly things progressed.  It’s twisty and you won’t guess their secrets.

If you like secrets, lust and lies, this is your book.

Jane is a coffee, chocolate and red wine lover, and a late-night writer of compelling, passionate, and emotionally charged fiction.  Jane’s books may contain love, hate, violence, death, passion, a little swearing, and an ending you are never going to forget.

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The Secret Couple: A new absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist

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The Secret Couple

‘Dark, deceptive and utterly delicious!’ Louise Douglas, author of the Richard and Judy Book Club pick The Secrets Between Us

‘secrets, lust, lies and murder – a heady combination which kept me reading this book late into the night, and a twist which made me gasp’ jackie kabler.

Someone knows what they did…

A laugh. A touch. A lingering look.

A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making.

Alice knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem…

‘An engrossing, riveting, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that will leave you stunned and satisfied. Lark spins a superb, twisty, compelling tale that you won’t want to miss!’ Lisa Regan, USA Today -bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series

Praise for J.S. Lark:

‘A very different, enthralling read that I really didn’t want to put down’ Eleine, Goodreads

‘I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen … a unique story’ Jennifer, Netgalley

‘Wow, just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page ’ Kimberley, Goodreads

‘The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read ’ Nikki’s Book Blog

‘Wow. Mind Blown . J.S. Lark is a wily wordsmith and not to be trusted’ DJ, NetGalley

‘My goodness, I don’t even know where to start with this one! … At times shocking , this book is an absolute must-read for anyone who likes a psychological thriller’ Emma, NetGalley

‘An original , gripping page turner and it had me guessing and shocked throughout’ Ceri, NetGalley

‘Started reading this Wednesday night and finished it by Friday morning … If you like physiological thrillers then you will love this ’ Leanne, NetGalley

‘ So many twists and turns that literally left me with my mouth hanging open’ Randi, NetGalley

‘ Lots of twists and turns and I just had to read “one more chapter”’ Abbi, NetGalley

‘ Wonderful well written plot that had me engaged from the start … Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had’ Billie, NetGalley

• About the Author

Readers can’t get enough of After You Fell… -

”'A very different, enthralling read that I really didn't want to put down” - Eleine Brent, Goodreads

”'I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen…a unique story” - Jennifer Motz, Netgalley

”'Wow, just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page” - Kimberley Bigelow, Goodreads

”'The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read” - Nikki’s Book Blog

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The secret couple.

On Sale: May 13, 2022

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‘Dark, deceptive and utterly delicious!’ Louise Douglas, author of the Richard and Judy Book Club pick The Secrets Between Us

‘Secrets, lust, lies and murder – a heady combination which kept me reading this book late into the night, and a twist which made me gasp!’ Jackie Kabler

Someone knows what they did…

A laugh. A touch. A lingering look.

A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making.

Alice knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem…

‘An engrossing, riveting, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that will leave you stunned and satisfied. Lark spins a superb, twisty, compelling tale that you won’t want to miss!’ Lisa Regan, USA Today -bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series

Praise for J.S. Lark:

‘A very different, enthralling read that I really didn't want to put down’ Eleine, Goodreads

‘I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen … a unique story’ Jennifer, Netgalley

‘Wow, just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page ’ Kimberley, Goodreads

‘The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read ’ Nikki’s Book Blog

‘Wow. Mind Blown . J.S. Lark is a wily wordsmith and not to be trusted’ DJ, NetGalley

‘My goodness, I don’t even know where to start with this one! … At times shocking , this book is an absolute must-read for anyone who likes a psychological thriller’ Emma, NetGalley

‘An original , gripping page turner and it had me guessing and shocked throughout’ Ceri, NetGalley

‘Started reading this Wednesday night and finished it by Friday morning … If you like physiological thrillers then you will love this ’ Leanne, NetGalley

‘ So many twists and turns that literally left me with my mouth hanging open’ Randi, NetGalley

‘ Lots of twists and turns and I just had to read “one more chapter”’ Abbi, NetGalley

‘ Wonderful well written plot that had me engaged from the start … Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had’ Billie, NetGalley

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The Secret Couple

By j. s. lark, this title was previously available on netgalley and is now archived., send netgalley books directly to your kindle or kindle app, to read on a kindle or kindle app, please add [email protected] as an approved email address to receive files in your amazon account. click here for step-by-step instructions., also find your kindle email address within your amazon account, and enter it here., pub date may 13 2022 | archive date may 16 2022, harpercollins uk, one more chapter | one more chapter, general fiction (adult), description.

Someone knows what they did…

A laugh. A touch. A lingering look.

A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making.

Alice knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem…

‘An engrossing, riveting, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that will leave you stunned and satisfied. Lark spins a superb, twisty, compelling tale that you won’t want to miss!’ Lisa Regan, USA Today -bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series

‘A very different, enthralling read that I really didn't want to put down’ Eleine, Goodreads

‘I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen … a unique story’ Jennifer, Netgalley

‘Wow, just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page ’ Kimberley, Goodreads

‘The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read ’ Nikki’s Book Blog

‘Wow. Mind Blown . J.S. Lark is a wily wordsmith and not to be trusted’ DJ, NetGalley

‘My goodness, I don’t even know where to start with this one! … At times shocking , this book is an absolute must-read for anyone who likes a psychological thriller’ Emma, NetGalley

‘An original , gripping page turner and it had me guessing and shocked throughout’ Ceri, NetGalley

‘Started reading this Wednesday night and finished it by Friday morning … If you like physiological thrillers then you will love this ’ Leanne, NetGalley

‘ So many twists and turns that literally left me with my mouth hanging open’ Randi, NetGalley

‘ Lots of twists and turns and I just had to read “one more chapter”’ Abbi, NetGalley

‘ Wonderful well written plot that had me engaged from the start … Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had’ Billie, NetGalley

‘Dark, deceptive and utterly delicious!’ Louise Douglas, author of the Richard and Judy Book Club pick The Secrets Between Us ‘Secrets, lust, lies and murder – a heady combination which...

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EDITION	Ebook
ISBN	9780008535254
PRICE	$0.99 (USD)
PAGES	384

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Average rating from 81 members, see all member reviews, featured reviews.

The Secret Couple is a tense, dark and atmospheric. The author draws you in with her deft description and compelling characters. This was an excellent thriller, and I loved the pacing. The whole concept was interesting and twisty. A delicious guilty pleasure from the very beginning. J. S. Lark did an outstanding job with this novel. This one kept me on my toes, was fast-paced and unforgettable and binge-worthy from start to finish. A brilliant book that keeps you turning the pages. Thrilling and tense, with a good set of characters and story. The ending is great! Highly Recommended! “I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.” One More Chapter, Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC! I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

#TheSecretCouple #NetGalley Awesome. Someone knows what they did… A laugh. A touch. A lingering look. A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making. Alison knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem… Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK One More Chapter for giving me an advance copy.

I loved everything about this book. It’s clever, well written and intriguing. It’s a fabulous thriller and the plot and characters are memorable. It’s definitely one of my favourite books this year and one that I would highly recommend.

This book was amazing! I enjoyed every single chapter, and it kept me hooked the entire time, which I loved!

I absolutely loved this thriller. It’s a slow burn story it takes a little while to get ramped up but you won’t be sorry. Absolutely fascinating characters and loved the book.

Excellent quality gripping read. I was immersed from the first page until the end. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

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The secret couple.

On Sale: March 1, 2022

Spend £25 and get FREE shipping on Harpercollins.co.uk !

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England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales shipping only

‘Dark, deceptive and utterly delicious!’ Louise Douglas, author of the Richard and Judy Book Club pick The Secrets Between Us

‘Secrets, lust, lies and murder – a heady combination which kept me reading this book late into the night, and a twist which made me gasp!’ Jackie Kabler

Someone knows what they did…

A laugh. A touch. A lingering look.

A dead body. An affair. A crime years in the making.

Alice knows she’s in too deep. But behind closed doors, no one is who they seem…

‘An engrossing, riveting, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that will leave you stunned and satisfied. Lark spins a superb, twisty, compelling tale that you won’t want to miss!’ Lisa Regan, USA Today -bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series

Praise for J.S. Lark:

‘A very different, enthralling read that I really didn't want to put down’ Eleine, Goodreads

‘I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen … a unique story’ Jennifer, Netgalley

‘Wow, just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page ’ Kimberley, Goodreads

‘The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read ’ Nikki’s Book Blog

‘Wow. Mind Blown . J.S. Lark is a wily wordsmith and not to be trusted’ DJ, NetGalley

‘My goodness, I don’t even know where to start with this one! … At times shocking , this book is an absolute must-read for anyone who likes a psychological thriller’ Emma, NetGalley

‘An original , gripping page turner and it had me guessing and shocked throughout’ Ceri, NetGalley

‘Started reading this Wednesday night and finished it by Friday morning … If you like physiological thrillers then you will love this ’ Leanne, NetGalley

‘ So many twists and turns that literally left me with my mouth hanging open’ Randi, NetGalley

‘ Lots of twists and turns and I just had to read “one more chapter”’ Abbi, NetGalley

‘ Wonderful well written plot that had me engaged from the start … Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had’ Billie, NetGalley

Goodreads reviews for The Secret Couple

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The Secret Couple: A new absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist Paperback – Import, 7 July 2022

Save extra with 2 offers, 10 days replacement.

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• Print length 416 pages
• Language English
• Publisher One More Chapter
• Publication date 7 July 2022
• Dimensions 12.9 x 2.64 x 19.8 cm
• ISBN-10 0008535264
• ISBN-13 978-0008535261
• See all details

Product description

Readers can’t get enough of after you fell ….

‘A very different, enthralling read that I really didn't want to put down ’ Eleine Brent, Goodreads

‘I found myself turning pages late into the night to see what would happen…a unique story’ Jennifer Motz, Netgalley

‘ Wow , just as I thought I was right about the ending, I am proven wrong on the very last page’ Kimberley Bigelow, Goodreads

‘The blurb describes this as creepy, disturbing and genuinely chilling which is spot on… A clever premise, a brilliant read’ Nikki’s Book Blog

Book Description

A new absolutely gripping psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist

About the Author

Jane is a coffee, chocolate and red wine lover, and a late-night writer of compelling, passionate, and emotionally charged fiction.

The kindle bestselling author of The Illicit Love of a Courtsan , with books shortlisted for several industry awards.

Jane's books may contain love, hate, violence, death, passion, a little swearing, and an ending you are never going to forget.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ One More Chapter (7 July 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008535264
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008535261
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 kg 50 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.64 x 19.8 cm

About the authors

The kindle bestselling author of The Twins, The Secret Couple and The Illicit Love of a Courtesan, with books shortlisted for the UK's Romantic Historical Fiction and the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller awards.

Jane's books may contain love, hate, violence, death, passion, a little swearing, and an ending you are never going to forget.

Jane is a coffee, chocolate and red wine lover, and a late-night writer of compelling, passionate, and emotionally charged fiction, filled with diverse characters.

The kindle bestselling author of The Twins and The Secret Couple, with books shortlisted for the UK's Jackie Collins Thriller award.

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Mike flanagan mourns bryan fuller’s ‘crystal lake’ series after brad caleb kane takes over, breaking news.

‘The Perfect Couple’ Show Vs. Book: What’s Different?

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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Perfect Couple .

Everything is not what it seems in the wealthy Winbury family of Netflix’s The Perfect Couple .

Their Nantucket home is pretty much the only idyllic thing about them, viewers will learn in the six episodes of the series, directed by Susanne Bier and adapted from Elin Hilderbrand ’s novel by Jenna Lamia. Several key changes — big and small — take the show in a different direction than Hilderbrand’s book.

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Eve Hewson ’s bride-to-be, Amelia Sacks in the show, is named Celeste Otis in the books. Isabelle Adjani’s French family friend Isabel Nallet also goes by a different name in the novel — Featherleigh Dale, and she is from London in the book, not France. Gosia, the Winbury’s housekeeper, is named Elida. Shooter Dival is also Shooter Uxley in the book, and “Shooter” is just his nickname.

The third Winbury brother

Will Winbury (Sam Nivola) does not exist in Hilderbrand’s book. While there are three Winbury brothers in the show, there are only two in the novel — Thomas and Benji. Will’s plotline incorporates more of Chloe Carter (Mia Isaac) into the show. In the book, she still catered at the rehearsal dinner, and she caused some broken glass. She also knew that Merritt was pregnant with Tag’s baby.

Detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin)

Donna Lynne Champlin’s no-nonsense detective was originally Nicholas Diamantopoulos, aka the Greek, in Hilderbrand’s novel. In the book, Nick tries to “catch more flies with honey” as Chief Dan Carter says in the show while Nikki Henry cuts right past the entitlement of the Winbury family.

Benji and Amelia’s Dynamic

For starters, he likes to paint. He also gets caught with photographs of Merritt, but that was because she asked him to paint her. These details make Benji slightly more shady in the show.

Amelia’s dynamic with Shooter is also a bit different in the show, as Benji walks in on them kissing, but in the book, their affair is a secret until the wedding.

Merrit’s jewelry from Tag

In Hilderbrand’s book, Tag bought Merritt a ring, but in the show, it was a very expensive bracelet. It wasn’t a wedding ring, but a thumb ring. There was more confusion because the jeweler in the book knew that the ring was for a pregnant woman, which Greer confused for Abby (Dakota Fanning in the show). Greer also thought of wedding bands for Celeste and Benji.

In the show, the jeweler straight up asks about a bracelet because she sees Greer isn’t wearing one, and Greer plays it off like she understands the situation. She then finds the receipt in Tag’s desk drawer.

Broderick Graham

There is no Broderick Graha (Tommy Flanagan) in the book. Not only is he Greer’s long-lost brother in the show but he also is connected to a key part of her background that, until the finale, she had kept secret from her children. His entanglement in the murder case with Shooter’s money also does not exist in the book.

The Book Party

Greer is working on a new novel in Hilderbrand’s book, but she doesn’t have a chaotic launch party for it where her husband begins to unravel their perfect image.

Greer’s past

Greer’s true identity, which is unveiled in the finale of the show, is not part of the book. In the show, she reveals that she used to work as a high-profile escort, and that her brother Broderick organized the clientele. Tag was one of her clients, who paid three times for her services before he stopped.

The killer combination & motive

The whodunnit aspect of the story results in a different combination of events than what happened in Hilderbrand’s book.

In the book, Abby put one of Greer’s sleeping pills into a drink that she thought was going to Featherliegh (Isabel’s equivalent in the show), but the drink was instead served to Merritt. Merritt did go on a kayak ride with Tag in the book, but her drowning was accidental because she had drifted into the water to get back the ring Tag bought her, which she had thrown into the ocean in frustration. The sleeping pill took effect as she waded into the sea, and she drowned trying to reclaim the ring.

In the show, Thomas does still catalyze the events with his confession to the police, like in the book, but Dakota Fanning’s Abby deliberately drugs Merritt. She crushes up a pill that she took from Amelia’s (Celeste) mother’s secret stash of euthanasia because Karen Otis/Sacks (Dendrie Taylor) has cancer in both stories. Thomas in the show plays prescription roulette where he takes random pills from people and pops them by chance. Abby took a pentobarbitol pill that Thomas had thought was oxycontin. Putting the pill in a glass of orange juice, Abby waits for it to take hold before she smothers Merritt underwater and kills her.

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Book Review – The Secret

The Secret is a phenomenon. Since the book debuted late in 2006 it has sold over four million copies with some thirty other translations now available or underway. It is likely to become one of the best-selling self-help books of all time and is being constantly praised and endorsed by celebrities. Venture into your local bookstore or look around you while waiting at an airport, and you’re bound to see people reading it and absorbing it. They will not just be people who consult astrologers and who listen to Tony Robbins tapes, but normal, average people like the ones who live next door to you. There are almost 1400 reviews of the book printed at Amazon with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5. The breakdown of those scores is interesting: fifty-two percent of them are 5-star, thirteen percent are 4-star and twenty-one percent are 1-star (Amazon does not allow a 0 rating). This means that the majority of people, the great majority even, believe in at least some aspects of the book’s premise and teaching. They believe in the law of attraction.

The Secret began as a DVD. Rhonda Byrne had faced a particularly difficult time in life and came out of it only after she learned The Secret, which is her term for what is commonly known as the law of attraction. In gratitude she created a DVD presentation to share this knowledge and, having seen the remarkable success of this DVD (which has sold in excess of 1.5 million copies), she created a book by the same name. The claims are lofty: “There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, The Secret can give you whatever you want.” Imagine that: the power to get absolutely anything. Who can resist that claim?

The law of attraction, which Byrne says is the most powerful law in the universe, states that people experience the logical manifestations of their predominant thoughts, feelings, and words. This gives people direct control over their lives. A person’s thoughts (whether conscious or unconscious) and feelings bring about corresponding positive or negative manifestations. Positive thoughts bring about positive manifestations while negative thoughts bring about negative manifestations. The theory is very simple. Because it is an absolute law, the law of attraction will always respond to your thoughts no matter what they are. Thus your thoughts become things. You are the most powerful power in the universe simply because whatever you think about will come to be. You shape the world that exists around you. You shape your own life and destiny through the power of your mind.

The steps to utilizing this law in life are simple and supposedly founded upon the wisdom of Jesus as we read it in Matthew 21:22. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” The law of attraction demands only this:

• Know what you want and ask the universe for it.
• Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
• Be open to receiving it.

There are aspects of this law that are clearly attractive to the human heart. We all like to think that we have ultimate control over our lives and that we can have anything we want. We all want to control our destinies and to feel that the universe is at our beck and call–that it is a friendly force working with and not against us. This is, I am convinced, what draws people to the law of attraction.

But there are many areas in which The Secret has nothing to offer–in which the law of attraction as the most powerful law in the universe is simply an incomplete, irrational and even depressing answer. Allow me to suggest a few.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face. Byrne admits that people’s first thoughts, when they hear of the law, is to think of times where masses of people lost their lives. According to the law of attraction, these people were necessarily on the same frequency as the event that took their lives. They may not have had thoughts of the event, but somehow their negative thoughts drew them into it. But this simply does not prove a satisfying answer to the world’s problems. Does this not mean that the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust were ultimately responsible for thinking negative thoughts that summoned this even to them? Does it not force us to believe that the people who died when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11 were responsible for calling this negative situation to themselves? Does it not mean that a young girl is ultimately responsible for the years of sexual abuse her father imposed upon her? The Secret offers nothing to these people but the understanding that their suffering is somehow their own fault. When we look at The Secret as the law that can bring you anything you want it has a clear attraction; when we look at it from the perspective of one who has suffered, it is clearly flawed.

The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

Second, the law works itself out in ways that are breathtaking for their selfishness. For example, Byrne warns against listening to people speak about their illnesses or problems lest you begin to think negative thoughts and begin to manifest the negative consequences in your own life. She warns against sacrifice, either financial or personal, saying that sacrifice makes you prove your belief in lack rather than in abundance. She tells you to always place yourself first and to always look out for your own interests ahead of anyone else’s. She puts you in the place of God, as the one who stands at the center of the universe. The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.

She goes on: “You are God in physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet.” The law offers no higher power than yourself. This makes me wonder: what would the world look like if everyone followed The Secret and devoted themselves primarily to their own interests, forsaking compassion and sacrifice and other “negative” elements of life?

Third, the law, at least insofar as it is described in this book, makes no allowance for what happens when desires clash. What happens when two people set their thoughts on the same thing? While I understand that the universe offers infinite opportunities, can two people equally have the same thing? What happens when what one person wants is harmful to another person? What if one person’s pleasure is another person’s pain? If the law of attraction is the highest law in the universe, it must be that there is nothing to govern such cases.

Finally, the law also works in ways that defy both common sense and human experience. For example, when considering weight loss Byrne makes the unbelievable claim that food can only make you fat if you think it can make you fat. If you determine that food is unable to make you gain weight, you can eat as much as you want and never gain wait or suffer any ill effects. When considering health she suggests that we can heal ourselves of any affliction simply through the power of our minds. Interestingly, The Secret has been championed by Oprah Winfrey who offers her own life as testimony to the power of the law of attraction. The week after Oprah’s endorsement sales of The Secret jumped from 18,000 to 101,000. The week after a second endorsement sales rose to 190,000. Winfrey has since had to soften her enthusiasm as people were following the book’s advice to the extent that they were forgoing medical treatment, believing in the power of their thoughts to heal themselves. Doctors were unimpressed, as were the diseases and disorders which did not respond to the mind’s attempts to destroy them. Byrne even says that the law of attraction can grant immortality. Yet the people who teach this law seem to be aging at the same rate as the rest of us.

As I read The Secret it occurred to me that if the Bible were a product of human minds it would undoubtedly resemble something like this: a celebration of humanity, a portrayal of humans as divine, and probably the most idolatrous thing I’ve ever read. Within the Bible, in the first chapter of the book of Romans, God addresses this desperate desire to rid ourselves of God’s claim to our lives. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” And amen. The Secret claims to be able to give us everything we could ever want. Yet it can’t even address the fundamental problems of human nature. It represents only the latest in a long line of attempts to revoke God that has continued since the first man turned his back on His Creator. There’s nothing new here but the fancy, twenty-first century packaging.

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6 major differences between Netflix's 'The Perfect Couple' and the book it's based on — including a dramatically altered ending

• Warning: Spoilers ahead for Netflix's adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand's "The Perfect Couple."
• Elin Hilderbrand's book and the Netflix series have some key differences, including the ending.
• In the novel, Merritt's death is an accident. In the series, it's a calculated crime.

" The Perfect Couple ," Netflix's hit new murder-mystery series, follows Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) and her fiancé Benji Winbury (Billy Howle) ahead of their plush Nantucket wedding, which is called off after the dead body of the maid of honor, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), is found on the morning of the big day.

Benji's wealthy family immediately becomes fodder for tabloids and nosey neighbors as the police investigate every member of the wedding party, including Benji's famous crime writer mother, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), and his father, Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber).

The series is based on Elin Hilderbrand's 2018 novel of the same name.

While the adaptation has kept the story largely the same, it may still surprise book readers, as showrunner Jenna Lamia and director Susanne Bier have tweaked a number of key details, including the story's ending.

Here are some of the ways the show differs from the book.

1. Merritt's death is accidental in the book

Perhaps the most notable change that Lamia made when adapting the story for the screen involved Merritt's death.

In the book, the maid of honor's demise is very much accidental, even though it is Abby (Dakota Fanning) who is responsible.

After growing tired of her husband Thomas (Jack Reynor) carrying on his affair with a family friend, Abby crushes up a sleeping pill and mixes it into a drink meant for her rival, hoping it will mean she'll fall asleep before she can fool around with Thomas the night before the wedding.

However, Thomas's mistress ends up giving the beverage to Merritt, who drinks it before accidentally cutting her foot on some glass on the beach.

As she heads to the water to wash the blood off, she spots a piece of jewelry that Tag gave her at the bottom.

She dives in to retrieve it just as the sedative takes effect and ends up drowning.

In the show, things play out a little bit differently.

It's Amelia's terminally ill mother's euthanasia pills that Merritt unknowingly ingests, and Abby very much wants her dead.

Her motive is financial, not personal; Merritt is pregnant with Tag's baby, and if she were to give birth, it would reset the conditions of the Winbury trust fund — which stipulates that it won't be released until Tag's youngest child reaches the age of 18.

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After crushing up one of the pills into a drink and giving it to Merritt, Abby lures her into the water under the pretense of taking a late-night swim together before holding her head under the water.

2. Justice is not served in the book

In the series, Abby is arrested for the murder.

In Hilderbrand's novel, however, Merritt's death is ruled an accidental drowning.

But that's not to say the murder remains undiscovered. Through her years of writing her own convoluted crime novels, Greer is able to piece the clues together and work out that Abby was responsible for Merritt's death.

However, to protect the family, the secret stays with her.

3. The bride-to-be is called Celeste, not Amelia

In the book, a woman named Celeste Otis is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families on Nantucket.

However, in the show, the character has been renamed as Amelia Sacks.

Explaining the reason behind changing the protagonist's name, Lamia told Netflix's Tudum that it was because Kidman previously played an "iconic" character named Celeste in the HBO series "Big Little Lies."

Although "the bride was named Celeste through many, many drafts of the script," the showrunner said the team didn't want to confuse audiences, so they changed it.

That's not the only name change from the book; Isabel Nallet, the French family friend of the Winburys, is British socialite Featherleigh Dale in Hilderbrand's novel, while Shooter Dival is Shooter Uxley.

The charming male detective known as "The Greek" in the book is also replaced by no-nonsense detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) in the series.

4. Greer's scandalous past has been invented for the show

In the final episode of the show, Greer comes clean about her life before she was a fixture of the Nantucket social scene.

After being forced to admit to the police that Broderick Graham (Tommy Flanagan), the man who crashed her book party, is her estranged brother, she shares the full truth with her family.

Not only did she used to work as a high-profile escort, but Tag was one of her clients, who paid to have sex with her until they decided to pursue a relationship together.

Furthermore, there is no Broderick Graham in the novel at all.

The character and the plotline around Shooter wiring him money to help him pay off debtors have been created entirely for the show.

5. Will, the youngest brother, doesn't exist in the book

Will Winbury (Sam Nivola) is another new addition.

It appears that the teenager was brought in as a character after Lamia fleshed out Abby's motive.

Without the existence of Will, who is on the cusp of turning 18, Abby wouldn't have a reason to eliminate Merritt and her unborn baby.

Since Tag was the father of the child, its birth would delay Abby getting her hands on Thomas' share of the Winbury money.

6. The final scene of the series and the book are dramatically different

The very final pages of the book version of "The Perfect Couple" describe Merritt's accidental drowning, told from her perspective, and reveal to readers how she died since no one was actually with her in her final moments.

In the show, after Abby is arrested for the murder, things flash forward to six months later when Amelia has left the world of the Winburys and Nantucket behind her.

She is shown to be working at London Zoo when Greer surprises her with a visit.

Greer explains that she has written a book about Amelia and will not publish it unless she has Amelia's permission.

Speaking candidly about what happened in the summer, Greer admits that she used to hate Amelia but has come to admire her. Finally, Greer asks if Amelia would like to be friends with her.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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‘The Perfect Couple’: What Changed from the Book

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Editor’s note: This post contains spoilers for “ The Perfect Couple ,” including the ending.

Netflix ‘s six-part adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 book “The Perfect Couple” is a loyal adaptation of the beloved, bestselling murder mystery that stars Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Meghann Fahy, Dakota Fanning, and more.

The book switches up timelines as well as perspectives, with several characters all getting their narrator moment. In IndieWire’s review of the Netflix series , Ben Travers wrote that it “invites you to guess the killer, without ever providing enough information to make any such guess an educated one. Instead, it doles out plenty of red herrings and petty disputes to keep the melodrama nice and sudsy. The main location (Winbury Mansion) provides the requisite house (and beach) porn. The actors add their own flourishes of entertainment … and all that is entertaining, to an extent. But nothing lasts, in the short- or long-term. Intriguing side plots get cut off. Curious character arcs stop short. Any kind of class commentary is negated by the show’s obvious devotion to making sure you  like  this family.”

Beyond small differences that don’t really matter (Tag and Greer have two sons in the novel, three on the show; Shooter’s name and backstory are changed; the detective characters are changed up a bit), there are also a few major switches between the book and TV show — particularly when it comes to the murderer.

Below, some of the biggest changes in “The Perfect Couple” between the book and the TV adaptation.

Greer’s Backstory

Because that whole background is new, Greer’s brother is also just a TV invention and most likely designed as another red herring.

The Main Character

In the book, the bride-to-be de facto main character is Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), a woman marrying into one of Nantucket’s wealthiest families. In the book, this character is named Celeste. The creator said the name changed because they didn’t want to confuse audiences, given that Nicole Kidman has famously previously played a woman named Celeste (in “Big Little Lies”).

In the book, Amelia and the best man, Benji’s friend Shooter (Ishaan Khattar), plan to elope on the day of her planned wedding to Benji (brutal!). On the show, they just kiss, likely because it is pretty hard to root for someone who would do something like that, no matter how terrible his family may be.

In the book, there is also a major plot point where Amelia has a stutter, one that disappears when she’s with Shooter. She’s stutter-free on the show.

The biggest change in the adaptation is the ending.

Greer vows to take this secret to the grave (gotta protect the family!), and the final pages of the novel show readers Merritt, woozy from the pill-filled drink, cutting her foot on the beach. She then goes into the water because she thinks she sees the ring Tag gave her earlier and knows it’ll be the only thing he ever provides for her and the baby, so she wants it to give to her daughter one day. She then becomes sleepy, so she lies down to float. “Where is the ring?” Merritt on the final page of the book wonders. “There it is. She sees it. Like love , she thinks, it is just beyond her reach. “

The TV show ending is a lot less ambiguous. Abby did it, and she gets a big showy arrest at the house in front of her whole family. (Tag is hitting golf balls, but he eventually notices the police.) Abby’s motivation is that her family needs the money from the trust and with Merritt’s baby about to be the new youngest sibling, they now won’t get the trust money for 18 years. So baby (and Merritt) gotta go. (The trust situation isn’t a plot point in the book.) Abby goes out to the beach, gives her the drink with the mashed-up pills, and then invites her, pregnant lady to pregnant lady, to go for a quick nighttime swim. Once in the water, Abby holds Merritt under until she drowns, then goes back to the house, confident that she’ll get away with it.

“The Perfect Couple” is streaming now on Netflix.

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SPOILER ALERT:   This article contains spoilers for all episodes of “ The Perfect Couple .”

On a quiet summer morning, a body washes up on a Nantucket beach. A scream splits the air — and a prominent family is immediately plunged into chaos.

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Hilderbrand told Variety that her “only concern” in the adaptation process was that the Nantucket aesthetic be done properly. “Jenna understood that the aesthetic of Nantucket is understatement. People are not flashy. We drive around in battered Jeep Cherokees with a row of beach stickers on the back. The more beach stickers you have on the back and the crappier your car looks, the more authentically and genuinely Nantucket it is.”

“I really had a blanket theory, or philosophy, that [the novel] was hers to change,” she added. “The storyline, adding characters, taking them away — none of that matters to me. People can go read the book. I watch so much prestige television myself that I just wanted to make sure that Jenna wrote the most compelling television, and she basically had blanket license to do that.”

In their interview, Lamia and Hilderbrand broke down the biggest differences between the book and the on-screen version of “The Perfect Couple” — including that killer ending.

Amelia’s name in the original novel is actually Celeste

Hilderbrand said that her process for naming characters is a bit nebulous — “They sort of come from the ether” — but that everyone is named with a great deal of intention. Amelia Sacks in the show was originally called Celeste in the novel, though the name was changed for a practical reason: Nicole Kidman played a character named Celeste in 2019 HBO series “Big Little Lies,” and they wanted to avoid confusion.

Featherleigh Dale, meet Isabelle Adjani

In the series, renowned French actor and two-time Oscar nominee Isabelle Adjani plays the wily, seductive Isabel Nallet, a family friend of the Winburys and, perhaps more significantly, paramour of Thomas (Jack Reynor), the eldest son.

Isabel, however, doesn’t exist in the book — though perhaps the model for her personality, however marginally, can be found in the character of one Featherleigh Dale. In Hilderbrand’s novel, Featherleigh is a British interloper whose financial troubles and profligate selfishness cast a significant damper on the weekend’s festivities. Like Isabel, Featherleigh is carrying on an affair with Thomas; unlike Isabel, Featherleigh is somewhat of a basket case, though she plays a crucial role in the way the book reveals who killed Merritt (more on that later).

“The Featherleigh to Isabel name change was also pretty much practical once we knew Isabelle Adjani was coming on board,” Lamia said. “I was a huge fan of hers. I lived in France when ‘La Reine Margot’ came out, which is this iconic film.

“The fact that she was willing to come over to little old Cape Cod and do this role meant that we changed her character from a British society dame to a French one.”

Greer’s lore runs deep

Lamia described the process of crafting TV-Greer, and her big revelation, as a “high wire act.”

“We wanted everyone to have a core wound, everyone to have something driving their projected persona,” she said. “Greer is the most concerned with her public image, and with appearing perfect and unsullied. And I knew that I needed her to have something that she was hiding that was dark and dirty, for lack of a better word.”

Amelia’s parents have a much smaller role in the series

Though we get a glimpse of the bride’s relationship with her parents in the series, Celeste’s parents, Karen (Dendrie Taylor) and Bruce (Michael McGrady), are given much more space in the novel. A salesman who’s worked in a department store his whole life, Bruce drunkenly confides in Tag that while he’s never cheated on Karen, he briefly had intense feelings for a former colleague, Robin. Karen overhears and is stunned: though Bruce characterizes Robin as a woman to Tag, she knows that Robin, in fact, is a man. The scene has no real bearing on the murder mystery itself, as it serves mostly to deepen the relational dynamic between Karen and Bruce.

“It was in several, several drafts,” Lamia said. “Many, many, many, many drafts. But there’s only so much room.”

Tag is a stoner

In the series, Tag keeps lighting up. In the book, it’s unclear whether he knows what weed is.

The ending, explained

In the final episode of “The Perfect Couple,” it’s revealed that Thomas’ pregnant wife Abigail (Dakota Fanning) intentionally slips one of Karen’s barbiturate pills into a glass of orange juice, and delivers it to a heartbroken Merritt, who is sitting on the beach. After Merritt drinks the juice, Abigail suggests that the two go into the water, where she holds the maid of honor’s head underwater until she drowns. Abigail’s motive is money: She and Thomas are in debt, and he would have had access to his trust once the youngest son, Will (Sam Nivola), turned 18. Merritt’s affair with Tag, and her subsequent pregnancy, threw a wrench in that plan: if she’d given birth, the clock on Thomas’ trust fund would start over when the baby was born, and they’d have to wait until that kid was 18 until they gained access to the money. Too long, Abigail decided. Hence: murder.

Lamia said that her goal in adapting the book for television was to “lead to a denouement that would feel utterly fair but also utterly surprising.”

“The best kind of murder mystery leaves you with a feeling that the filmmakers have played fair with you, that you feel satisfied, that maybe you didn’t guess whodunit, but maybe you could have or should have, and maybe if you watch it again you’ll see little clues that were there that maybe you didn’t know were important the first time,” she said.

The novel allows readers to see multiple characters’ perspectives and understand the nuances of their motivations and reasoning, whereas “in a television show you don’t have that luxury,” she explained. “So I wanted a more overt and active motive, and I wanted someone to have meant to kill the person they kill.”

Flash forward

At the very end of the final episode, “The Perfect Couple” flashes forward six months, revealing that Amelia now works at a zoo in London. As she shows some penguins to a couple of children, Greer sidles up to her.

“I’ve written something. Something new,” she says, handing over a manuscript to a new book that she says is about Amelia. The two have a heartfelt conversation in the middle of the penguin enclosure, during which Greer admits that she used to hate Amelia but now doesn’t; in fact, she now hopes that the two of them can be friends. The title of the new book? “Your Move.”

This scene isn’t in the book — which ends with Merritt’s drowning, told from her perspective — and it’s perhaps an attempt at adding a metafictional element to the series: the full-circle serendipity of a murder mystery writer writing about her own real-life murder mystery. Though we’re unsure whether Amelia accepts the olive branch, perhaps the jubilance of  the show’s concluding dance sequence  — which features  the director, Susanne Bier , spinning with the characters — indicates that viewers can come away with a sense of resolution that exists, if not on the shores of Nantucket, at least in the glory of another realm.

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The Twisty Ending of Netflix's The Perfect Couple , Explained

The murder mystery unveils its surprising killer in the chaotic final moments.

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The following story contains spoilers for the ending of The Perfect Couple on Netflix.

THESE DAYS, IT'S becoming rarer and rarer for a show to be both "really fun" and also "good." Let me be clear: there are tons of great shows on TV, and those great shows can be really enjoyable to watch. Stuff like Shōgun , The Sympathizer , and Ripley —just to name a few examples from 2024—are really good. But they also take themselves really seriously.

That's part of the glory of Netflix's new series The Perfect Couple, which boasts a star-studded cast led by Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber and is based on the Elin Hilderbrand novel of the same name . The Perfect Couple has a premise along the lines of which you've certainly heard before: just before a wedding at a wealthy family's New England estate, someone gets killed. But while The Perfect Couple follows a familiar premise and features recognizable tropes, it also features an all-star cast, paces itself well, and allows all parties involved to just have fun.

Case in point? Look no further than the way that all six episodes of The Perfect Couple open with a choreographed dance , one ostensibly part of the show for the sole reason of telling people "let's not take any of this too seriously, OK?"

Is The Perfect Couple as well-made or transformative as shows like Shōgun, House of the Dragon, or even Big Little Lies —the show that kicked off Nicole Kidman's entire TV star era? No, probably not. But it's it's own genre of TV, and one that we could probably use more shows in. This is a show that drew us in, held our attention, never made us think too much or too hard, and let some really fantastic actors do some really fantastic work along the way. And that counts for something!

By the end of the show, all the mysteries were wrapped up, and all the fun was had, and things came to a close. Still, it's worth diving deep on and understanding why this show about class, wealth, and the terrible things that people do to keep secrets and make more money, was so good and so fun. And, of course, why things played out the way they did.

Why did Abby kill Merritt on The Perfect Couple ?

The primary mystery and tension of The Perfect Couple —and one that ultimately leads to the discovery of several other mysteries and dramas—is that Meritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), who was set to be Amelia's (Eve Hewson) Maid of Honor at her wedding to Benji (Billy Howle), turns up dead in the water on the morning that would've been Amelia's wedding day. And after a season of twists, turns, and intrigue, it turns out that Merritt was killed by Abby Stokes-Winbury (Dakota Fanning)—the pregnant wife of Thomas ( Jack Reynor ), Benji's asshole brother.

To explain why Abby killed Merritt, we'll need to go back through some of the secrets the show uncovered.

The most important of all is that successful author Greer (Nicole Kidman) and her husband Tag (Liev Schreiber)—the hosts of the wedding and the dubbed "Perfect Couple"—are actually not so perfect after all. Specifically, Tag cannot keep himself under control; through the years, he's had a series of affairs outside of his marriage, and the latest one is with Merritt. And, as we find out throughout the series and through flashbacks, Merritt was pregnant with Tag's child.

This is important because we also learn during the course of the show that the Winburys aren't actually quite as wealthy as they pass themselves off to be—at least, not yet. Tag has family money tied up in investments, and Greer writes a book per year so they can afford anything, but the rest of things are tied up in a family trust, set to be split among the Winbury kids when the final one turns 18—which Will (Sam Nivola) is set to do in just a couple months.

We learn through a series of conversations that Thomas is having tons of financial problems, and so he really needs that money (and Abby's pregnancy isn't going to be a cheap endeavor either). With the revelation that Merritt is pregnant—and that the child would be a Winbury—it impacts the trust in two ways: firstly, it would split four ways instead of three, but more importantly, it would reset the clock, and the Winbury kids wouldn't be able to cash out for another 18 years.

This creates Abby's motive. She has a baby coming, and while she comes from a well-off-but-not-as-well-off-as-Thomas background, she is clearly someone who loves having lots of money, and doesn't seem interested in going back to anything less than the most lush of lives. And so when she learns that Merritt is pregnant with Tag's child, she comes up with a plan to take things into her own hands.

But how? We learn that scumbag Thomas likes to play a game called "prescription roulette," where he scavenges people's stuff around the property and finds pills to take for recreational purposes. Amelia's mom, Karen, (Dendrie Taylor) is terminally ill, and she brought group of three-pills with her as potential euthanasia in case things went south. One of these pills was stolen by Thomas for his game—and, eventually, found by Abby. One of these pills won't kill someone, we found out, but it's definitely enough to make them very drowsy.

Which is exactly what Abby did. When she saw Merritt in a vulnerable moment—emotionally upset after an argument with Tag and cut from glass on the beach—she crushed up the pill, put it into a glass of orange juice, and brought it down to Merritt under disguise of kindness. Once Merritt got drowsy, Abby pushed her into the water, and held her head down underneath until she was no longer breathing; she left her body to be discovered the next morning by Amelia.

There were plenty of clues along the way that Abby was guilty—namely that she was ferociously washing the glass herself in the first episode, something someone so privileged would never be doing without other reason. But it does stand to wonder whether someone like Abby, who we saw be vain and awful throughout the series, would actually go as far as forcibly murdering someone on what seems like a whim. But that's the point of shows like this—there's a mystery, and we get to the bottom of it, and when we get our answer we kind of just have to go with it! And it makes enough sense.

Did The Perfect Couple show end differently from The Perfect Couple book?

Yes! The Perfect Couple Netflix series and The Perfect Couple novel by Elin Hilderbrand have a small but major difference in how the murder was committed—in the show, as we saw, Abby very clearly murders Merritt. But in the book, Merritt's death was an accident.

In the book, Abby finds out about her husband's extramarital affair with older family friend Isabel (Isabelle Adjani, and named Featherleigh in the book) and puts Amelia's mother's pill into her water, in hopes that she'll pass out before sleeping with Thomas. But Merritt accidentally has the drink, and it leads to her accidental death by drowning. The show makes things much more sinister, and much more blatant.

That's a change series director Susanne Bier told Netflix's Tudum was vital. She “wouldn’t have done the series had it not been intentional,” while showrunner Jenna Lamia says that she made the case in her very first meeting on the project that there "needed to be a murderer, and there needed to be a motive for that murder."

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'The Perfect Couple' Is A Highly Bingeable Delight

Guest Writer

Greer Garrison Winbury gets some supposedly sage but implicitly questionable marital advice from her mother on the morning of her wedding in Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 novel, “The Perfect Couple.”

“The most important skill required in marriage was picking one’s battles. Make sure they’re ones you can win ,” her mother tells her.

In a marriage, there’s a tension that exists between the outward facing facade the rest of the world sees and a relationship’s internal and war-like workings. This is the force that drives both Hilderbrand’s novel and the Netflix TV series adaptation of the same name. That and the big-name cast, exclusive setting and luxuries of unimaginable, multi-generational wealth.

The combination of murder mystery meets high society in an exotic coastal location is not a revelation, and the show has elements and cast members from both “Big Little Lies” and “The White Lotus.” However, the six-part series is neither a prestige drama nor a satire. Instead, the show is its own escapist, highly bingeable delight. Its enjoyability and No. 1 spot in Netflix’s Top 10, is also a reminder of how much we all crave a good “beach read” (or its television equivalent), and it’s time to stop pretending that’s a bad thing.

“The Perfect Couple” stars Nicole Kidman as Greer Garrison Winbury, the matriarch of her obscenely wealthy and highly dysfunctional family. The limited series opens with idyllic scenes of summer in Nantucket, the small, exclusive Massachusetts island to the south of Cape Cod, where all of Hilderbrand’s books are set. There is plentiful sunshine, a sandy beach, a whale breaching the blue Atlantic water, and a scrolling script inviting viewers to escape into this dreamy world.

“You are invited to Benji & Amelia’s Rehearsal Dinner,” the text reads before zooming into a white party tent on the beachfront estate (aptly named Summerland) of Greer and Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber).

Within the first few lines of dialogue between Greer and her three sons — Thomas (Jack Reynor), Benji (Billy Howle) and Will (Sam Nivola) — it’s apparent that nothing is what it seems.

“Pretend to be nice,” Greer says to her sons when the oldest makes fun of the youngest while being recorded by the rehearsal dinner videographer. Greer laughs off their behavior as sibling antics, but there’s a clear undercurrent that the cherished memories the videographer is supposed to capture are also giving viewers glimpses of moments that aren’t supposed to be seen.

As the videographer moves into the tent, capturing the rest of the impeccably cast characters, everything, like the housekeeper Gosia (Irina Dubova) taking the underage son’s drink for herself, could be brushed off as funny and normalized behavior, especially in a world so far-removed from the viewer’s, but it’s clear that there’s more going on under the surface. At times, the dynamics feel too forced: from the oldest son brushing a woman’s hand who’s not his wife to the maid of honor Merritt (Meghann Fahy) teasing Amelia (Eve Hewson) and Benji that she is going to move into their guest room. By the time the best man Shooter jumps into the shot, asking where he is going to be left in the future, the moment feels entirely too contrived to be anything but a cover-up for all of the secrets these glamorous people are hiding. The scene belies the celebratory smiles and jokes and clinking glasses.

In other words, in an opening sequence that is less than four minutes and looks beyond picturesque, it’s impossible to miss that something — or everything — is a little off at Summerland.

“I love this woman to death,” middle-son Benji says as he twirls Amelia in a sweet moment. It becomes foreboding when the beachfront party of well-dressed people eating oysters and drinking champagne (or blackberry mojitos) fades into the image of a moon hanging over dark, inky water, and the music is replaced with Amelia’s screams.

“We gotta floater,” Deputy Carl (Nick Searcy) reports to Chief Carter (Michael Beach) early the next morning. The first episode is a who-is-it, flashing back and forth between everything that happened before the rehearsal dinner as the viewer tries to figure out who died, and the investigation is made more fun because of the colorful commentary from Tim Bagley as the wedding planner, Roger Pelton, and snobby sister-in-law-to-be, Abby Winbury (Dakota Fanning).

The five episodes that follow take the form of a traditional whodunnit, flashing back and forth between the past and the present, revealing that no character in this heightened world is who they seem to be, and almost everyone appears guilty of the crime at some point, creating a complicated investigation for the chief and Detective Henry (Donna Lynn Champlin) who is a pure pleasure to watch as the mainland detective working with the chief to solve the crime.

I won’t spoil the show by giving anything away because each episode is too much fun. And it should be. It’s based on a book by Hilderbrand, the veritable “queen of the beach reads,” and I don’t think that’s a bad thing or that A-list actors such as Kidman should be questioned for choosing to act in shows that are creating the “beach-read cinematic universe” so many of us want to consume.

“ Some of Kidman’s TV characters are victims, some of them are villains, but most of them are glamorous, wealthy women with shitty husbands and secrets . If this time she’s playing an author of actual beach reads — that unofficial genre of frothy, easy-to-consume, low-culture romances/mysteries marketed mostly to women — it’s worth asking how and why did Kidman seemingly become the go-to actor for what can only be described as ‘beach TV’?” asks David Mack in Slate.

This is the wrong question. In a country where women drive the publishing industry, both as authors and readers , calling books a “beach read” or TV shows “beach TV,” undermines their cultural and entertainment value. Even though Hilderbrand says the label doesn’t bother her, the term “beach read” is an oversimplification that undervalues the work women choose to make and consume.

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This escapist quality is obviously intentional in Hilderbrand’s book, which is the first of her 27 beach reads to be adapted for the screen, and it holds even greater importance for her since her surgery and treatment for breast cancer. The experience helped her realize “ how desperately people who are sick want to go somewhere else in their minds. Escapism is real! That I have been able to provide a mental vacation to people who are undergoing treatment has given me a different way of thinking about the purpose of a ‘beach read.’”

And the show’s creator, Jenna Lamia was intentional about maintaining that escapist quality. “I told Netflix and the producers that I wanted to do something fun with the show,” she told The Hollywood Reporter . “The script could have gone in either direction — toward the mournfulness of somebody dying or toward something lighter, something that I think elevates it. It does not mean to say that I don’t have huge respect for things that have other ambitions, but this was very consciously made for people to watch.”

Maybe actors like Kidman choosing to bring their weight to shows like “The Perfect Couple” is a way to elevate a genre that people, especially women, want to watch and ensures that more authors primarily read by women — authors like Emily Henry and Carley Fortune — will have a space for their stories to become “beach TV” (the first screen adaptations of their books are in production now).

Maybe, more importantly, it’s time to stop adding caveats to our enjoyment of shows like “The Perfect Couple” as a soapy , highly watchable treat that is “profoundly unserious.”

There’s nothing wrong with audiences, especially women, enjoying what they read or watch. One could argue that this is more important now than ever as women navigate the very real stresses of a post-Dobbs world at a moment when the surgeon general is warning us about the high levels of stress that parents face.

Instead of making “beach reads” or “beach TV” one more thing that people, especially women, feel guilty for liking, let us watch them and enjoy them, too.

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