An imperfect yet entertaining debut from a promising writer.
When the married hosts of a home-renovation show struggle with infertility, it threatens to destroy their lives both on and off camera.
From the outside, Dawn and Wyatt Decker—hosts of The Perfect Home, the “crown jewel in the Home & Lawn TV lineup”—have a life that seems as flawless as the “after” footage of the houses they remodel. However, their picture-perfect appearance hides their growing insecurities around their marriage and struggles with infertility: Wyatt feels like the “meatless burger” version of a real man, while Dawn—who never really wanted fame anyway—worries that she’s not quite the match for her dashing husband. Amid their struggle to have a child, Dawn finds a mysterious package that arrives for Wyatt from Germany; containing experimental fertility drugs, it promises to make their dreams come true while also harboring a sinister threat. This discovery is not the last. Author Kenitz peels away the layers of the Deckers’ seemingly perfect life, revealing a series of dark realities that fuel betrayal, desperation, and possibly murder—challenging the loyalties of the people closest to Dawn and Wyatt while also resurfacing unlikely allies from the distant past. Like many thrillers in the wake of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the novel alternates between Dawn and Wyatt’s perspectives, probing the power dynamics of gender and family and the illusions of the American dream. Dawn’s interior life and motivations are more developed than Wyatt’s, leaving the narrative tension lacking in places; astute readers will be able to guess the ending midway through the book. While the pages fly by, the novel lacks the psychological depth and narrative ingenuity that would lift it from good to great.
An imperfect yet entertaining debut from a promising writer.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781668063873
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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