Domestic thrillers have quickly become a genre that I devour, and The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz lived up to those expectations!

First and foremost: this book is being compared to Gone Girl (my OG favourite thriller, the one I've read at least four times, the one I compare all other thrillers to), so know that this comparison was in the back of my head as I read.

The Perfect Home, broken down into its five parts:

Part One lured me in with a false sense of security and that hook was all I needed! I was utterly addicted to where the story was heading next. Gone Girl comparison, indeed!

Part Two had the wheels falling off! Could I trust what I believed in Part One, or were my emotions being toyed with again? Who do I side with? All I know is that I'm beyond addicted!

Part Three messed with my thoughts and emotions even further; mixed up is an understatement! Every side is believable, every side is completely wrong! Still absolutely addicted!

Part Four ramped up the action and my perceived perception pivoted once more! I finally know what team I'm on, and I need to stay up to finish this book!

Part Five ended this game of cat and mouse in the perfect way!

Overall: yes, I can see the similarities between The Perfect Home and Gone Girl (and know I would have come to that conclusion even if it wasn't being presented to me)!

If you love emotional manipulation, questioning the truth (though not forced by unreliable narrators), and succinct endings that leave no doubt - this one is for you!

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the complimentary copy to read and review.

This was another early 2025 read that I couldn’t put down. I didn’t really read the synopsis other than “Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl” so I had no idea what to expect. Now, I don’t think either of those is a true comparison but I enjoyed this nonetheless. This was twisty, suspenseful and There was one part that made my jaw drop (if you’ve read this it’s when a certain computer file is found!) This was a fun debut and I’ll be interested to see what Kenitz writes next.

The Perfect Home is one of the top home renovation shows on HLTV. It stars husband and wife Wyatt and Dawn Decker. Wyatt is the muscle, and Dawn is the decorator. He comes up with crazy ideas, like taking down a load-bearing wall, and she rolls her eyes at him and tries to bring him back down to earth. Originally, the show was just Wyatt, but once he started dating Dawn, he brought her on the show, and the fans immediately loved her. Their relationship, their wedding, their honeymoon trip were televised, and their fans went crazy.

Wyatt and Dawn have built their dream house in Nashville, and next they want to add kids. But they’re struggling to get pregnant. A visit to a fertility specialist informs them that the struggle to get pregnant is on Wyatt’s end. He decides to try a fertility drug that is not legal in America, ordering it from Germany through a dark part of the internet. And it works. Dawn gets pregnant with twins in months. But Wyatt isn’t quite himself on the drugs. Dawn wants him to wean himself off it, and he tells her that he will. Instead, he throws them out.

It’s not until after their babies are born, a boy and a girl, both healthy, that Dawn starts to worry about Wyatt’s behavior. He threatens her on the set, but in a way only she could hear. He stands in the twins’ room for hours, not moving, in the dark. But when she finds his secret plans for her and the twins, Dawn knows that her children are in genuine danger. She does the only thing she can think of. She packs up her children and leaves. But she doesn’t have anywhere to go. And it doesn’t take long before Wyatt is all over the news, telling everyone that his wife is suffering from postpartum depression and has taken off with their kids.

Can Dawn figure out a way to save her children, and herself, from one of the most beloved, charming men in the home renovation reality tv space? Or will she just get cancelled, pushed out of her marriage, pushed off of the show, homeless, and having to watch other people raise her children?

The Perfect Home is a debut novel that blends the best of reality home and garden television with an edge-of-your-seat domestic thriller. Told in alternating perspectives between husband and wife, this suspenseful story accelerates as the character voices become more strained. The more pressure these reality stars come up against, the more desperate their decisions. Which makes it all a win for the reader.

I devoured this book. I have watched my fair share of home renovation shows, so I knew what I was getting into with their reality show. But for everything else, I was taken on quite the ride until the end. This book goes in directions I was not expecting, but I loved it all. This is a smart thriller with genuine surprises along the way and well-defined characters that drive the story off a cliff. If you’re a fan of those HGTV shows and love a good thriller, you will want to dive right into this one.

Egalleys for The Perfect Home were provided by Scribner through NetGalley, with many thanks.

The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz was a compelling domestic suspense novel.
A very well-written story and quite twisty. The storyline itself was extremely compelling and gripping.
The characters are engaging and interesting.
So many twists and turns that I was literally holding my breath.
A tense thriller that will take you up and down like a wild roller coaster ride. You are constantly questioning, and you continually trying to understand what the hell is going on.

Thank You NetGalley and Scribner for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I am a huge fan of Fixer Upper and Gone Girl, so I decided to read this little gem.
I really was hoping it would be fun. It wasn't your normal thriller. More of a domestic disturbance but nothing really jumped out as Thriller. With that being said once I changed my expectations I fell in love with the book and Dawn. (Well, Tim, too)

The premise of the book was great. I always was told that once a person reaches fame they always want more and I think that is what happened to Wyatt. <spoiler> I don't buy the bit about the illegal, Germany fertility drugs and felt that was just an excuse. The man was absolutely NUTS. I don't believe for one bit he was the way he was because of these psychotic drugs </spoiler>. I hated the way people turned against Dawn and thought she was a Little too nice letting the ones who let her down back in her life but in the end the story was great and I want to read more from this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dawn and Wyatt Decker are home improvement television stars who seemingly are living the perfect life. Living in a large beautiful home and hosting their show "The Perfect Home," the trials of their marriage can't be seen from the outside. Dawn desperately wants to become a mom, but when fertility tests show that Wyatt has a low sperm count, he resorts to an authorized foreign medication to help boost his sperm. The medicine helps them become pregnant, but also causes Wyatt to be come moody and cruel. The hits don't stop there and the "perfect home" Dawn and Wyatt have been living in really begins to crumble all around them. Told from a dual perspective of both Wyatt and Dawn this was a fun thriller and easy enough to read, but nothing that I will remember in a few weeks from now.

The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz follows Dawn and Wyatt, the married couple stars of a popular home renovation reality show. I was really intrigued by the premise of the book: Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl. Unfortunately i didnt like any of characters. I still can recommend this book for fans of HGTV.
Thank you, NetGalley, for the advanced copy of this book.

Thank you Simon Audio, Scribner and Daniel Kenitz for the ARC/ALC!

”The thing about liars is they lie to themselves too…”

Wyatt and Dawn seem to have it all - fame, fortune and a good relationship. They just are missing one thing - a baby they desperately want. Wyatt, our MMC, is willing to go to any lengths to make that dream reality, even if it includes buying medication from another country that's not legal in the US. I could relate to his desperation but boy was he not very likeable! His smug, entitled attitude was the complete opposite of his wife, Dawn, our FMC. I enjoy home renovation type shows so the fact that a good portion of this book was centered around a husband and wife who flip houses was fun for me to read about.

As Wyatt got deeper into his medication, seeing the side effects change his personality, it reminded me a bit of symptoms of PPD in mothers. Although I’m not sure how intentional that was, I really appreciated this unique portrayal.
In Wyatt’s case though, I think it just was harder for him to hide his true personality. Though you kind of need to suspend belief a bit towards the end, the author pulled it off beautifully and this book had me on the edge of my seat!
Part domestic suspense, part psychological thriller, this book was hard to put down! I was grateful for the audio so I could keep listening.

“There is a place inside every human being, somewhere hidden and prime evil that is disappointed when the magician reveals the invisible thread in his thumb…”

”The Perfect Home” is out now. This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my gifted copy.

This book sounded so good and I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately it just was not the book for me. I was actually confused, so maybe it was just me. I would definitely read more from this author in the future.

I love home improvement and real estate reality shows so much that I became a real estate agent. The profession isn’t nearly as glamorous as the shows make it out to be—no one dresses like the women of Selling Sunset—but I still find myself obsessed with the behind-the-scenes gossip. Chrishelle and Jason? Tarek’s cancer and the gun incident? Tarek and Christina splitting up, and his marrying Heather from Selling Sunset? The best drama sometimes happens off camera.

Daniel Kenitz captures these vibes perfectly in his debut thriller, The Perfect Home. Wyatt and Dawn Decker are the Chip and Joanna Gaines of Nashville. He’s the hunky, eager contractor; she’s the voice-of-reason decorator. Their relationship began when she was a producer on his show, The Perfect Home, and she has never hungered for fame the way he has. Shy in her dealings with fans, Dawn also has to deal with looking like a normal woman and having people openly wonder how she snagged a guy like Wyatt. Now Wyatt and Dawn live in their own perfect home, and the only thing missing is children. When Wyatt’s sperm count comes back low, he decides to take an illegal supplement to boost his supply. Although Dawn is worried about the known personality side effects, she reluctantly agrees, and soon becomes pregnant with twins.

After the babies are born, Wyatt’s personality changes, and he becomes cruel and demanding. But Dawn has no idea of everything he’s hiding from her until she stumbles across Wyatt’s written plan to ensure bigger fame. When she takes the babies and flees, Wyatt uses his camera skills to paint Dawn as suffering from post-partum psychosis, and as a danger to their children. On the run and not knowing whom to trust, Dawn knows she’ll have to beat Wyatt at his own game to ensure her children’s safety.

Written from both characters’ first-person perspectives, The Perfect Home is a nice addition to the domestic suspense genre, providing a quick, fun read. Kenitz doesn’t color inside the lines in his writing—there are some humorous characters and a funny plot twist that drew me out of the tension. I’m a stickler for tone, though, and other readers may appreciate the diversions. Dawn comes across as real and authentic, and with postpartum depression becoming a popular trope in domestic suspense, it was a good twist to have the diagnosis used against her. I found Wyatt to be less believable, though, and the side effects of the supplement didn’t come across in his narrative voice. I also found Dawn’s best friend unbelievable, as well as the denouement between them.

I wonder what the book might have been if Kenitz had opted for more of a slow burn. He hints at toxic masculinity and Instagram culture but doesn’t really explore what it feels like for a man to come up short in a personal way like Wyatt did. Since the audience for domestic thrillers is primarily female, it’s an understandable choice. But women are also victims of toxic masculinity, and an in-depth examination would have been interesting.

Still, The Perfect Home will please fans of the genre, especially if they’re also fans of those home improvement shows, like I am. It’s a fast read with a fun setting. And a good reminder that those folks on reality shows are performing a role, and renovations and real estate are never as easy as they look.

The Perfect Home
by Daniel Kenitz
Pub Date: Jan 07 2025

"The Perfect Home" is told from the dual perspectives of both Dawn and Wyatt who are B-list reality stars on HLTV’s “The Perfect Home”, a show where he does the construction and she does the decorating. Wyatt wants to be A-list. He wants to be a household name. He wants more and more things…including children. The problem? He’s infertile. Dawn is very shy and the B-list reality show really isn't for her. This is a very entertaining story and definitely a domestic thriller you won't want to miss!

Synopsis: 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.

Many thanks to #NetGalley, #ThePerfectHome, #Scribner for providing me with an E-ARC of this book!

Dawn and Wyatt are the stars of The Perfect Home. In real life, they are the perfect couple, but due to Wyatt's low sperm count they have trouble becoming the "perfect family." When Wyatt starts taking an illegal, unregulated supplement from Germany, Dawn is able to get pregnant. But excitement is short-lived when Wyatt starts to become more and more unhinged. And when Dawn discovers Wyatt's plans to manufacture tragedy to get the starhood she dreams of, she takes the twins and flees. But Dawn soon learns how manipulative Wyatt can really be when he goes on a PR spree and turns the world (and even her closest friends) against her. She will need to clear her name in order to keep her family safe- but how can she do that when Wyatt has convinced the world she is a harmful alcoholic suffering from postpartum psychosis and she has no proof of his wrongdoings?

I loved the writing here and the alternating POVs. Wyatt was perfectly unlikable and getting a glimpse into his mind and how it changed on ASB was so interesting. I also thought Dawn was great- she made a few silly mistakes, but they can all be chalked up to her state of mind at the time. She seemed very relatable, but I could have done with less "reminders" what a "plain jane" she was.

In terms of the marketing, I am sick of books of being marketed as "the next Gone Girl" when really it is just a twisty thriller with alternating POVs.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Reading challenge category - 2024 Hoffbensen: Courtney - about/involving children

"Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl" is not a great description for this. "Chip and Joanna Gaines, if Chip takes a made up drug and loses his sh*t and Joanna has to run away with their twins" would be better. The twists aren't really twisty. It's fairly predictable. It was a quick and easy read, but nothing new in this genre. Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

THE PERFECT HOME by Daniel Kenitz stars Dawn and Wyatt Decker, hosts of a middling successful house renovation reality television program. All seems beautiful and idyllic from the surface, but quickly the price of fame, the rapidly growing divide between Wyatt's ambitions and Dawn's love for their hard-won twin children, and the tensions of his affair with her friend blow up the happy picture. Dawn flees with their children to escape from his madness and ambitions that will stop at nothing. With the public seeming to believe his version of her disappearance, Dawn relies upon her heart, common sense, and creativity to survive unthinkable disaster. For myself, an avid home renovation fan, the real-world lives of the supposedly happy couples has long been a fascination -- so this story worked so well on so many levels, including well-crafted plot and well-told story. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

4.5 stars rounded up. Dawn and Wyatt Decker have their own home improvement show, The Perfect Home, which is loved by fans all over the US. The Deckers want their own home to be perfect too, but are having a hard time achieving their missing piece - having children. Wyatt solicits an illegal supplement to help them conceive, altering his behaviors in a concerning way. It’s not long before Dawn feels the need to flee her home for the safety of her and her children. It only gets messier from here.

I was not sure what to expect from this one, but it had me on the edge of my seat! My anxiety was in shambles as I was rooting for Dawn along her journey to safety and clearing her name. Wyatt’s letter gave me a hint of Verity vibes, and I appreciated how it highlighted how people are so willing to believe a man over a woman, especially in the media. The ending went off with a bang, quite literally, in the final act. This was a fun, unexpected read and I found it hard to put down!

The review linked below! Thank you again Net Galley and schribner for allowing me to read this book in advance in exchange for an honest review! I gave this 3.25 stars rounded down to three on good reads

The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz was a great book to kick off my reading year. This book was an ARC from Net Galley and my first read by this particular author. Kenitz's "The Perfect Home" is a gripping tale that masterfully weaves together themes of trust, betrayal, and resilience. Dawn Decker trusted her handsome ambitious husband, Wyatt who clearly showed signs of narcissism. The character development between the two main characters is of the novel's strongest points, with each other character being meticulously crafted and evolving significantly throughout the story. The relationship between Dawn and Wyatt is initially portrayed as idyllic, but as the story unfolds, the cracks begin to show. The husband's cold and calculating nature becomes apparent, contrasting sharply with the protagonist's warmth and vulnerability. This dynamic keeps the readers on edge, wondering how their relationship will evolve. The betrayal by her friend, who is revealed to be having an affair with her husband, adds a layer of complexity and emotional depth to the narrative. This twist not only shocks Dawn but also the readers, making it a pivotal moment in the story. The audience's perception of Dawn's relationship with her husband shifts dramatically, from envy to sympathy, as the true nature of their marriage is exposed. Dawn's discovery of her husband's sinister plans to kill their twins is a heart-stopping moment that propels the story into high gear. Her decision to go on the run, despite the public believing her husband's lies, showcases her strength and determination. This part of the story is particularly engaging, as it highlights her resourcefulness and the lengths she will go to protect her children. Kenitz has crafted a compelling narrative that keeps readers hooked from start to finish, making "The Perfect Home" a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers. #NETGALLEY #THEPERFECTHOME

This one is a cross between Fixer Upper and how to murder your spouse. You have the charismatic husband on a reality tv show - a living and caring husband by all accounts - and a somewhat frumpy wife that is often the butt of jokes. I mean who can blame the husband when things don’t go exactly as planned, until you realize that nothing is going as planned. Thanks to NetGalley for the read!

Thank you @scribnerbooks & @netgalley for my complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Married couple Dawn and Wyatt are the stars of a successful home renovation show, seemingly living a picture-perfect life. However, their struggles with conceiving a child lead Wyatt to an experimental medication that alters his personality. After the birth of their twins, Dawn uncovers a horrifying truth, forcing her to flee with the children.

MY THOUGHTS: From the moment I opened this book, I embarked on a journey that initially felt more like a lighthearted romance than the suspenseful thriller I had expected. At one point, I even paused to check the synopsis, wondering if I had picked up the right book. Yet, as I continued reading, the suspense began to emerge around the 30% mark, and I found myself reading on to uncover the twists that lay ahead.

While the book starts slowly, demanding a little patience, the dual viewpoints of Dawn and Wyatt enhance the storytelling, providing depth and insight into the characters’ motivations. Each character is well-defined, though can’t say I liked either one. Wyatt is just unbelievable; and Dawn is content to let everyone run her over. The suspense part of the plot unfolds in a more engaging manner, drawing readers into its intricacies. Though I found the conclusion somewhat disappointing, it effectively ties up loose ends and brings closure to the various threads woven throughout the story.

Not a thriller but unique domestic suspense. Narcissistic abuse and ivf i want to say are the key words to this book. No twist and turns. Unique though. Definitely a different kind of read.