This domestic drama was very engaging. It was great for showing the power of media - for good and ill. The nightmare that Dawn has to go through is so believable. This is not a mystery/thriller in the sense that you are wondering what is happening, as you know the whole time. The strength of this book is in the way you are right there with Dawn and just want to see it through. 4 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for this advance copy for review purposes.

The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz was not the typical suspense novel's plot. There were many twists and turns that left me wondering what direction the story would go. It was difficult to put down. Kenitz planned a thoughtful thriller that left the reader guessing what the husband and wife do, especially in the limelight of reality television. There were many realistic elements to it as far as how people can wear so many masks that you never truly know the real, true self. The different plot dealing with reality tv grabbed my attention and made me think about other real life television stars and how they only want certain angles of themselves on display. Great read!

The Perfect Home is one of those books that makes you want to throw it across the room while reading it because the characters are just that despicable. I loved Dawn and later Kelly and Tim, but that was about as far as it went on the likeable spectrum. My mouth dropped open at some of the things these characters did, and I was so angry for poor Dawn. This is Daniel Kenitz’s debut apparently but it didn’t feel like one, and I loved the way he got my emotions all fiery while I was reading this. The viewpoints alternate between Dawn and her mess of a husband Wyatt, and it gives new meaning to the phrase things are not always what they seem. Especially when you are dealing with Reality TV versus real life.

I would recommend listening to The Perfect Home over reading it, simply because Michael Crouch & Amanda Stribling made this book everything it could be plus more. They both fit exactly what I was expecting for Wyatt and Dawn in my head and their narration throughout was solid as they expertly captured the feeling and voice of the book. My advice to you is to go into this book as blindly as possible as it is my opinion that the synopsis gives away TOO much. I’m glad I didn’t read it prior to starting and all you really need to know is that this a thriller set against the backdrop of a home reno show.

Read this if you love over-the-top narratives, popcorn thrillers, and frustrating characters.

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Audiobook Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm a big fan of HGTV but I've always thought Chip and Joanna Gaines had weird vibes. Like, how do they keep getting on the cover of magazines? Why do I know their names but I don't even watch their show? I'd recognize these guys in the street! I know they had marital issues at one point -- that kind of culture-integrated fame is so creepy. And malleable. Kenitz takes those vibes and turns them into a gaslighty, high-profile, celebrity domestic thriller built around that rabid addiction to attention.

This story had a loooong setup. A good chunk of the book was Dawn and Wyatt trying to get pregnant and just constantly talking, thinking, writing, journaling, and rearranging their lives around becoming parents. As both a parent and a thriller fan, I thought that was a bit much. There were many times I thought, "Okay, I GOT it, I GOT it." But as I went on, I saw that building up so much trust and love was necessary to make the lies work.

Once the beat dropped, I was hooked. Dawn was SO cornered I had NO idea how she was going to disentangle herself. Wyatt was omnipresent and oppresive. The way this ramped up really paid off. And it made me want to watch reality TV.

Looking forward to what's next from Kenitz.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a speak peek.

The summary for this one intrigued me since it featured a couple that worked on a home improvement type reality show. It quickly became clear that the fame part of this situation would have the most impact on the story. The public sees one side of this couple, but in private the situation was a whole different story. There was gaslighting and knee jerk reactions and I just couldn’t help rolling my eyes through a lot of it. The evidence was easy come, easy go, and one of the characters just never seemed to learn anything. I guess this was a case of just not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for a copy provided for an honest review.

This book is a quintessential three-star read for me—solidly balanced with both strengths and weaknesses. It’s a quick, engaging read that keeps you turning pages, even as you anticipate the inevitable. In other words, it’s highly predictable, but in a way that still holds your attention.

That said, it leans into some overused tropes I’d love to see retired—namely, women pitted against each other and men gaslighting their wives to dodge accountability for their own mess. But then again, isn’t that just a little too reflective of real life?

Thank you NetGalley & Scribner for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz!

First off, I loved the dual point of views. At times it really made you wonder who you could believe. We live in such a social media world, it was so east to get sucked in. I do wish there was more at the end, because I was like thats all! It was a great easy read.

Daniel Kenitz wrote his first novel in seventh grade.

“It was on looseleaf paper, when I had extra time in class,” said Kenitz, who grew up in Hartford and, after spending some time working in Milwaukee, lives there still.

He didn’t get serious about writing until the last decade, when he left a full-time job in online marketing to devote more time to freelance writing and pursue his dream. His debut novel, “The Perfect Home,” is set for publication by Scribner on Jan. 7.

The novel is a gripping domestic thriller. Wyatt and Dawn Decker, a married couple, host a hit home renovation reality show, “The Perfect Home.” Their on-screen chemistry masks the strain of personal challenges, like the stress of trying to conceive. A chain of increasingly shocking events dismantles the stories they tell themselves as their relationship begins to unravel.

Read the interview here: https://captimes.com/entertainment/books/daniel-kenitz-s-debut-novel-explores-the-dark-side-of-reality-tv/article_c81baee0-c79c-11ef-ad5b-63c5d8b30928.html

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was less a suspense novel and more of a domestic "thriller," which is something I'm seeing a lot of these days. There is no murder, just lots of gaslighting and discovering your loved one has gone off the rails and *might* commit murder.

Dawn is a fairly relatable character; I cared about what happened to her and felt sad she had such shitty friends. If I needed a lesson about punching out of one's weight class in marriage, this would work for that. That said, she was a little TSTL in terms of her complete blindness to her situation until it was too late. When your spouse continuously lies to you, why would you ever believe them again? And they were not little fibs.

Writing was not bad, just repetitive and didn't draw me in. Dawn's escape situation required huge suspension of disbelief and seemed to inordinately focus on the personality differences between the twin babies (like, what?). Also she left them to cry A LOT (who does this when you don't have to?). It was stressful, more so than her situation, almost.

This was not for me, YMMV. 2.5 stars rounded up

3.5 stars
Perfect tv couple who fixes home is trying to get pregnant. The husband starts taking a medication to help with fertility and it does give them twins. On this medicine he starts acting off and it seems like he doesn’t want his children anymore. He has many lies in this story and makes Dawn out ti be crazy when Wyatt is the one who isn’t who he appears to be.

⭐️⭐️⭐️☆ (3/5) – The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz is an intriguing thriller, but it didn’t quite hit all the marks for me. The suspense builds nicely, and the characters have a lot of depth, but the pacing felt a bit uneven at times. I loved the psychological twists, especially around the idea of perfection in a marriage, but some parts felt a little predictable. Still, if you're into a tense family drama with dark secrets, it's definitely worth checking out.

I enjoyed most of this....i just don't care for books about being on a reality show. But this author did a really good job about getting me to forget that i hate that trope. I've never read anything by this author before this book but i enjoyed this so much, I'll be looking for his next one. Great twists that i did not see coming.

There was no shock and I think that stemmed in part to the dual points of view. If we excluded Wyatt, and allowed Dawn to be an unreliable narrator it may have had more twists and turns but every twist and every turn could be seen from chapters away.

If you need an easy read, this may be a book for you. If you want something thrilling, I'd sit this one out.

The story was engaging and kept me interested to see what was going to happen next. Overall, though, it fell flat. It felt like more should have happened. Yes, there were things happening in the story but it didn’t feel as intense as I thought it would. I was also expecting some sort of twist ending and I was surprised that there wasn’t really one. Loved the writing style and really liked to get Wyatt’s perspective but was expecting more from the actual story.

The Perfect Home is utterly delicious domestic thriller drama that keeps you sucked in from the very first page to the very last.

I love a book that is well paced and that moves perspectives in a way that reveals secrets of the story while keeping all the twists intact. This book does a fantastic job of that, and I devoured the entire book in one afternoon. The added layer of it being a perfect couple from an HGTV style home reno show was all the more fun - think ripped from the headlines gossip.

Definitely a perfect pick to pass the long winter days! Many thanks to the publisher for the copy!

Dawn and Wyatt Decker look like they have the perfect marriage to go along with their successful Tennessee-based home improvement reality TV show, The Perfect Home. Wyatt is the charismatic handyman with big ideas, whereas Dawn is the worrywart decorator constantly trying to rein him in. Their chemistry makes for excellent television and, until recently, a harmonious home life.

When their attempts to expand their family in the usual way prove unsuccessful, they soon learn from the doctors that Wyatt has a low sperm count that would make even IVF an unlikely solution. Dawn would be happy to adopt or even use a sperm donor, both of which are suggestions Wyatt finds absolutely crushing:

QUOTE
If Dawn had married someone else, anyone else, maybe she’d be vetting elementary schools instead of spending her mornings in fertility clinics, listening to our specialist verbally spelunk her way through my seminal vesicles and ductus deferens. For most people, children are just the beginning. Mile One in the marathon of having a family. They forget the thousand little miracles that have to take place before the starting line.

I’d do anything to get there with Dawn. To step across the starting line together.
END QUOTE

And so Wyatt decides to start looking for solutions online, eventually ordering experimental fertility drugs with varying side effects. Though Dawn reluctantly supports him in this, she’s adamant that he follows all the prescribed directions to a tee, in hopes of minimizing any potential fallout. The Deckers are thrilled when they do manage to conceive, but Dawn can’t help but worry about the new edge she’s been seeing in Wyatt recently. He’s become moody and weird, in ways that he either laughs off or just refuses to explain. Worse, he’s becoming downright cruel to her.

The birth of their twins should be a joyous occasion, and for a while, it helps paper over the growing cracks in the Deckers’ marriage. But when Dawn stumbles across a plan Wyatt has for catapulting them from minor celebrities to national stars – a plan that involves an unspeakable and entirely manufactured tragedy – she knows that she has to leave and take the twins with her.

Wyatt won’t let her go without a fight though, and directs all his charm and media-savvy to win over the public and make her look like the villain of the piece. Will she be able to keep her children safe, or will they be ripped from her and given to a man seemingly more obsessed with fame than with family?

This intriguing twist on Gone Girl features both Wyatt and Dawn’s viewpoints as they engage in a cat-and-mouse game that highlights the almost uniquely American ways in which our society consumes celebrity culture, and how we moralize over family roles and expectations, especially in regard to gender. Reality TV is a particularly excellent vehicle for the dissection of this, as a jaded Wyatt muses on the ways he’s changed his show in order to gain greater and greater success:

QUOTE
Every reality show understands you never go to a commercial break without a twist–uh-oh, is this a load-bearing wall? The dopamine spikes and the carrot dangles. For season two, I ditched the helpful tips, switching to comedy and cliff-hangers. The audience doubled. You started noticing. Then I ditched the comedy and added Dawn, who became our target audience’s perfect avatar: a plain-Jane mold so female viewers could insert themselves into our little American Dream fantasy. I now consider us a form of pornography. There is very little information on home renovation because people are happier as idiots. We are happier with the tricks. There is a place inside every human being, somewhere hidden and primeval, that is disappointed when the magician reveals the invisible thread at his thumb.

We get three million viewers an episode now.
END QUOTE

Daniel Kenitz does a terrific job using both Dawn’s and Wyatt’s voices to explore the increasing pressures each faces to behave in ways that the public expects. Wyatt has a habit of caving to expectations in undeniably self-destructive fashion, whereas Dawn fights furiously against the negativity. The suspense ramps up as betrayals mount and allies appear from unexpected places, leading to a final, shocking confrontation. This absolute page-turner of a novel will ensure that you never watch a home improvement reality TV show in quite the same way again.

Great premise and i enjoyed the dual POV. Got a little confused by the road trip aspect but overall, a fun read.

A solid thriller good for those who appreciate the genre! This was a quick read that pulled me in. I enjoyed the alternating POVs. That said, this wasn't the twistiet thriller, which is totally fine. I did expect one last twist at the end that never came. I did enjoy the plot!

The Perfect Home was the perfect book for me and I loved it! It’s being touted as Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl and I thought that was a very accurate comparison.

Wyatt and Dawn are the perfect couple and star on a very popular home improvement reality TV show called The Perfect Home.

First of all, reality shows are my guilty pleasures and being able to go behind the scenes of one was so much fun for me. I know that reality shows aren’t really unscripted, but I didn’t realize how much of it was staged beforehand. Or at least it was in The Perfect Home.

Told from two POV’s, Wyatt the handsome charmer, and his wife Dawn, who is the wise cracking sidekick. We get both sides of the story when everything seems to fall apart and Dawn flees with her newborn twins.

Not wanting to get too spoilery, I’ll just say I was up late late late turning the pages as fast as I could!

*Thanks so much to partner Scribner Books and to NetGalley for the gifted eARC!*