Fans are still witnessing the twists and turns of Netflix’s new mystery drama, A perfect couplebut many are interested in learning more about the Book of the same name on which the miniseries is based.
The show follows a young couple preparing for their wedding when everything turns upside down after the entrance of one stranger A perfect couple turns up dead.
Elin Hilderbrand’s book was released on June 19, 2018, and the Netflix adaptation was released much later on September 5, 2024.
Summary of the Perfect Couple book
I lived Hilderbrand A perfect couple and the Netflix series of the same name follow the same basic story, but with some notable differences.
For example, the main characters getting married in the show are Amelia and Benji, while in the book the bride-to-be is Celeste.
Just like in the show, Celeste finds her maid of honor, Merritt, dead on the beach. To make matters worse, the best man, Shooter, has mysteriously disappeared.
After a few flashbacks, it is revealed that Shooter is missing because he and Celeste are very attracted to each other. Celeste is ready to elope with him on the morning of the wedding.
Shooter and Amelia had some chemistry in the series and clearly liked each other, but their relationship was greatly downplayed compared to the book.
Another major plot point of the show that even affected the ending when it was revealed why Abby killed Merritt was that Merritt had an affair with Benjy’s father, Tag, and was pregnant with his child.
In the book, Tag and Merritt’s relationship started out strong, but eventually Tag lost interest in Merritt when the wedding started. However, she revealed to him that she was pregnant and wanted nothing to do with him, the child, or pregnancy in general.
In the book, Tag offers Merritt as much money as he wants to keep her quiet and out of his life. In the show, they still seemed to be in love until she was killed, so their relationship in the adaptation and source material was slightly different.
However, the biggest plot point of both the book and the show is the ending, specifically how Merritt died and who killed him.
How does the Perfect Couple book end?
It is revealed that Abby killed Merritt A perfect couple TV show by drugging her and then drowning her in the ocean so that Abby and her family can get an inheritance from Abby’s husband’s father, Tag.
However, Merritt’s death in the book and Abby’s intentions differ greatly.
In the book, it is revealed that Abby’s husband Tom had an affair with Featherleigh, who is named Isabelle in the series.
In the book, Abby found out about her husband’s affair with Featherleigh and wanted to do something about it. He didn’t want to kill her though, so he called for a glass of water and gave it to Featherleigh, hoping to knock her out for a while.
However, Featherleigh unknowingly gave the drugged glass of water to Merritt the night before the wedding, causing Merritt’s senses to fade.
When Merritt descends into the ocean and begins searching the water for the ring that Tag gave him, he can’t resist the power of the drugs, eventually slipping under the water and drowning.
So in the book, Merritt’s death was a complete accident and no one wanted to kill her in any way.
Abby showed no ill will towards Merritt and never went into the ocean with her to drown her, and Featherleigh certainly didn’t know that the glass of water she gave Merritt was drugged.
The book and the show had the same outcome – Merritt’s death – but the motive and reasoning behind her death couldn’t be more different.
A perfect couple stream on Netflix.
