The Perfect Couple Book Summary & Ending Breakdown - Explained

Fans are still witnessing the twists and turns of Netflix's new mystery drama, The Perfect Couple, but many are interested in learning more about the book of the same name that the mini-series is based on.

The show follows a young couple preparing for their wedding when everything turns upside down after one of the guests in The Perfect Couple turns up dead.

The book, by Elin Hilderbrand, was released on June 19, 2018, with the Netflix adaptation being released much later on September 5, 2024.

The Perfect Couple Book Summary

Elin Hilderbrand's The Perfect Couple and the Netflix series of the same name follow the same basic story, but there are some significant differences.

For example, in the show, the main characters who are about to be married are Amelia and Benji, whereas 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, is mysteriously missing.

After some flashbacks, it is revealed that Shooter is missing because he and Celeste are extremely attracted to one another. Celeste is ready to run away with him on the morning of the wedding to elope.

Shooter and Amelia had some chemistry in the show and clearly liked one another, but their relationship was severely downplayed compared to the book.

Another central plot point of the show, which even influenced the ending when it was revealed why Abby killed Merritt, was the fact that Merritt had an affair with Benji's father, Tag, and was pregnant with his child.

In the book, Tag and Merritt's affair started strong, but Tag eventually lost interest in Merritt when the wedding rolled around. However, she revealed to him that she was pregnant, and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, the child, or the pregnancy in general.

In the book, Tag offers Merritt as much money as she wants to keep her quiet and keep her out of his life. In the show, they still seemed in love until she was killed, so their relationship in the adaptation and the source material was somewhat different.

The biggest plot point of both the book and the show, however, is the ending, specifically regarding how Merritt died and who killed her.

How Does The Perfect Couple Book End?

It is revealed that Abby killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple TV show by drugging her and then drowning her in the ocean so that Abby and her family can receive 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, was having an affair with Featherleigh, who is named Isabelle in the show.

Abby learned of her husband's affair with Featherleigh in the book and wanted to do something about it. However, she did not want to kill her, so she drugged a glass of water and gave it to Featherleigh, hoping to knock her out for a little while.

However, Featherleigh unknowingly gave the drugged glass of water to Merritt the night before the wedding, leaving Merritt's senses impaired.

After Merritt goes down to the ocean and begins to look for a ring in the water that Tag gave her, she can't resist the power of the drugs, ultimately causing her to slip underwater and drown.

So, in the book, Merritt's death was a complete accident, and no one wanted to kill her whatsoever.

Abby did not harbor any ill will toward Merritt and never went out to the ocean with her to drown her, and Featherleigh certainly did not know that the glass of water she gave to Merritt was drugged.

The book and the show featured the same result - Merritt's death - but the motive and reasoning behind her death could not be more different.

The Perfect Couple is streaming on Netflix.