Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and Dart Frogg Communcations / Scribner Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Perfect Home in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Scribner Books / Simon & Schuster ALC
Published: January 7, 2025
Summary:
Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl in this suspenseful and witty domestic thriller set in the world of home renovation TV—featuring a woman who becomes public enemy #1 after a horrifying discovery prompts her to flee her celebrity husband with their twin babies.
Dawn Decker is an American everywoman and the salt to her husband Wyatt’s sweet, media-friendly charm on their Tennessee-based home renovation reality TV show, The Perfect Home. While Dawn bristles at the trappings of their D-list celebrity status, Wyatt hungers for greater fame. The couple also faces infertility issues stemming from Wyatt’s low sperm count. He secretly orders experimental fertility drugs, and they conceive, but his personality takes a dark turn—he becomes moody, withdrawn, and even cruel.
When Dawn discovers his horrifying plot to manufacture a tragedy in order to skyrocket their celebrity status, she takes their infant twins and goes on the run. Wyatt appears on national television to turn the public against her, painting Dawn as an unstable kidnapper suffering from postpartum psychosis. His charm is so compelling that even Dawn’s closest friends doubt her. She will have to dig deep into the past—both hers and Wyatt’s—to find allies, protect her children, and beat this beloved all-American celebrity at his own game.
Told in dual perspectives from both husband and wife, this smart, captivating, and twisty thriller is a fun, addictive read from the very first page.
My thoughts:
I have been really loving all these twisty, addicting popcorn thrillers lately and this one really kept me fully engaged and guessing what would come next! I loved the inside look into celebrity life as well as a marriage hit by fertility issues. It’s not too often you see the male character come up with a fix for this, and yet I found this part of the story to be so original & compelling. The dual POV really allowed the emotions & tension to come across stronger than if it had just been told from a singular POV.
Once I started this one, I had a hard time putting it down. It’s full of surprising twists and went in directions I didn’t expect. This is one debut novel you don’t want to miss!
Audio thoughts:
I loved that there were two narrators for this, a male and female narrator. Both narrators, Michael Crouch and Amanda Stribling, did an amazing job with their parts, bringing their characters to life.
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