The Perfect Present

By: Karen Swan

Narrated by: Imogen Church

The Perfect Present is glamorous and festive read from Karen Swan, author of Christmas at Tiffany's.

Haunted by a past she can't escape, Laura Cunningham desires nothing more than to keep her world small and precise - her quiet relationship and growing jewellery business are all she needs to get by. Until the day when Rob Blake walks into her studio and commissions a necklace that will tell his enigmatic wife Cat's life in charms.

As Laura interviews Cat's family, friends and former lovers, she steps out of her world and into theirs - a charmed world where weekends are spent in Verbier and the air is lavender-scented, where friends are wild, extravagant and jealous, and a big love has to compete with grand passions.

Hearts are opened, secrets revealed and as the necklace begins to fill up with trinkets, Cat's intoxicating life envelops Laura's own. By the time she has to identify the final charm, Laura's metamorphosis is almost complete. But the last story left to tell has the power to change all of their lives forever, and Laura is forced to choose between who she really is and who it is she wants to be.

©2017 Karen Swan (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio

Twists and Turns Keep You Guessing

This was such a fun listen. I was never bored but always guessing. Great slow burn all the way to the end! Loved it!

Enjoyable listen

I really enjoyed this book. Lots of ups and downs. Interesting story with an ending that is happy.

Engaging listen

I enjoyed this book. It was not straightforward. It kept you guessing with a lot of twists and turns. Sad but a happy ending.

Perfecto

Loved the story and it had a surprise twist that Inwans expecting. Imogene Church was fantastic as she always is.

Laura and Lily

I almost didn’t read this as someone said it was sad!! Not sad to me! Great Story with a glorious ending!! Thank you Karen Swan for such a interesting story once again! Thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters ❣️
Imogene Church well done❣️

Excellent concept

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I don't think the blurb does this story justice. The h is a jeweller with lots of secrets and pain. She is approached to make a necklace with charms as a birthday present to Rob's wife, Cat. Each charm is to represent Cat's relationship with the individual that Rob considers important to Cat. This involves the h interviewing each of them. The h meanwhile lives a very safe life with a good man but we are aware that she is very troubled. When Rob and the h meet, she ends up throwing him out of her studio because he's so arrogant. When the h decides to buy her partner a beach hut for Christmas, she goes cap in hand to Rob because he will pay her a small fortune for Cat's necklace. As the h begins the interviews, she is drawn into Cat's world. In order to finalise a number of the interviews, the h goes to Verbier for a skiing weekend. That changes the h's life in many ways and not all of them are good. The secondary characters are very interesting and mainly Cat's friends and former lovers. The h's best friend and her partner are also great characters. I loved this book and didn't want it to end.

Always a pleasant surprise

I love her plot twists. You can’t guess in advance what the issues are with the main character. Also love that her characters are such strong females.

Not this author’s best

I recently started reading this author’s books .... I believe this is one of her earlier books. I would definitely recommend her later books, and to probably give this one a pass. I found it superficial and not reasonably believable.

Really painful ...

That was really really painful, to say the least. Even Imogen couldn’t make it worth your time ....

A real negative atmosphere

Not a book to read if you wanna be in a good Not a book to read if you wanna be in a good moodmood.