**Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC of this title!**

I was super intrigued by the idea of following the stars of a home improvement show while they tumbled through a domestic drama situation. While I do wish there had been more on the "show" aspect of things and a deeper dive into the influencer aspect, I did enjoy the story and found this to be a stressful read in the best way. The Perfect Home is a fast-paced read and worked perfectly for me as a cleanser between horror books.

I recommend this book for fans of domestic thrillers, family drama, and action!

Wyatt and Dawn Decker are husband and wife cohosts of The Perfect Home, a Tennessee based home renovation reality television show. For Wyatt, "the handsome charmer", it's all about getting ahead - he's obsessed with becoming an A-list celebrity. Dawn, "the every woman" whose salt and vinegar remarks on the show boosted their ratings, has her priorities set on her marriage, family and friends.

Their battle with infertility sends Wyatt searching for answers overseas and he begins taking a fertility enhancement not approved by the FDA. Dawn is soon pregnant with twins, and Wyatt's personality begins to grow darker and darker.

After the birth of the twins, Dawn finds evidence that Wyatt is planning a tragedy to increase their ratings. Horrified, she takes the children and runs. Soon the charming Wyatt has it all over the news that Dawn, suffering from post-partum depression, has kidnapped the twins and he enlists America's help in finding her before she does something unspeakable. He is so convincing that even her best friends believe him. Where can she turn, who can she trust, how can she keep her children safe???

Lest you think that I've just spoiled the book for you, all of the above information is available in the publisher's synopsis.

This is a quick-paced, suspenseful, engaging and fascinating look at gaslighting, what some people are willing to do for fame, and whether it's possible to overcome a heavily biased misperception of who you really are. I highly recommend the read. It rates 4 stars from me.

My thanks to Scribner for allowing me to access a DRC of this book via NetGalley. Publication is 1/7/25. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

"Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl"? Hardly. A good angle with home renovations in a domestic thriller but hardly anything shocking or scandalous here.

I thought the beginning of this book was really good. I love HGTV home renovation shows so this book appealed to me. About midway through the twist seemed really far fetched to me. I picked this book up several times after that but I lost interest and just could not finish it. This book didn’t work for me but you won’t like every single bit book you pick up. I hope it works better for the other readers.

Thank you to netgalley for a copy of this book.

Book Title: The Perfect Home
Author: Daniel Kenitz
Publisher: Scribner
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pub Date: January 7, 2025
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 327

Story it told from the POV of husband and wife-Wyatt and Dawn
Dawn and Wyatt Decker are the married couple stars of a Tennessee-based home renovation reality TV show, The Perfect Home. They have been wanted to start a family are super happy when Dawn finds out she is pregnant with twins.

Wyatt, already a horrible human being, took illegal fertility drugs in order to successfully produce the twins and the medication caused him to become even more dangerous than he already was. He has the ability to mask his true self via his charming TV host personality and everyone loves him.

When Dawn discovers that Watt has a plan to manufacture a tragedy in order to skyrocket their ratings, she takes the twins Junior and Harlene Mae and goes on the run.
Wyatt appears on national television as the sad father and husband and tries to turn the public against Dawn using post-partum depression as her reason for leaving with the babies.

Story plays up the idea that Wyatt is handsome and Dawn well not the attractive female one would guess Watt would find desirable. There is no doubt that everything we see on TV and Social Media is the truth.

Story was different that my usually thrillers and have to admit I did struggle a bit but hung in there.

Want to thank NetGalley and Scribner for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 7, 2025.

I was a little hesitant to read since it was being touted as the next "Gone Girl" but I absolutely devoured it on a recent flight! Wyatt - what a character! The plot twists had be on the edge of my seat until the ending

A delicious thriller about a home renovation reality couple gone wildly wrong, The Perfect Home is one of those books you sit down to read and whip through. I'll look forward to whatever Kenitz has up his sleeve next.

3.5 Stars
A good popcorn thriller! I stayed up until 1am to finish this book. A very quick and engaging plot. I really enjoyed the backdrop of a home renovation TV show. It was a unique and fun premise for the book.
The few issues I had were due to my own personal taste. I thought the emphasis on an illegal fertility drug was unnecessary. The story would have been more effective without trying to explain away behavior.

Additionally, a few characters' actions made zero sense. I was disappointed with the easy resolution for some relationships.

There were a few subplots I felt ultimately took away from the story and fell in no man's land - they weren't explored enough but they also were referenced too much.

While not the most likeable characters, this book kept me turning pages, mildly entertained me, made me roll my eyes more than once, moderately satisfied me. Granted, I am not a fan of reality tv so perhaps if you are, this book might hit stronger for you.

While I didn’t find all of it realistic, I did appreciate the general thriller aspect of the book. I could see this one being a major beach reach next summer and a book club pick.

A bit of a slow start for me, but about halfway through I was hooked. Many layers to explore! I'm glad I stuck around and was satisfied with the ending !

I really liked the premise of this novel. There was lots of tension and foreboding all set against the backdrop of shiny reality TV. What the public see and feel they know about a reality star is sometimes very different from the person they are. Wyatt may be a reality TV icon who is loved by thousands of adoring fans but it is his prickly wife Dawn who is the better person behind the scenes.
Unfortunately all the characters were very one dimensional to me. Wyatt’s POV didn’t evolve into mania and confusion, yet we were expected to see that was happening. Dawn was annoying and clueless. Not enough back story and character development. We needed to know more about Dawn to understand her friend’s actions. There was no depth. That is why I have given this 3 stars.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for a chance to read “The Perfect Home” as an advanced readers copy.
This one started out slow for me. At one point, I almost considered not finishing it but decided to push on. I am so glad I did. By the end of part one, I was properly intrigued. Parts two through four just kept getting more intense to where I couldn’t put it down. Then part five came and wrapped everything up just a little too neatly for me, but I did enjoy this book very much.
I will be ordering a copy of this book for my library. I have quite a few patrons that will enjoy it too!

The Perfect Home was anything but! Instead it was true house of horrors as featured in this surprising and very scary story. Layers peel back in surprising detail as the reader is swept into the madness. Could not put it down!

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I'm not a huge fan of reality TV and consider my actual experience of working with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to be one of the worst professional experiences of my life, but the premise of the story (Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl) was a good enough hook to bring me in.

Dawn is a reluctant reality TV star--her husband, Wyatt, is the star. She's the wry, sarcastic eye rolling woman and he's the charming, aw shucks kinda man. He gets the fans, she gets his fans calling her a bitch. When they start trying to conceive, they find out that Wyatt has low sperm count and after a lot of persuasion, he convinces Dawn to let him use a fertility drug from Germany that is guaranteed results. She agrees, as long as he promises to carefully wean himself off it.

Well, he doesn't wean himself off, his behavior changes. While they have a successful pregnancy (twins!), he's not quite himself. When she reads something alarming that he wrote, she takes the kids and bugs off. From there, we find out just how depraved Wyatt is and how much he pretended to be the charming aw shucks kind of man Dawn and their fans fell in love with.

Dawn makes mistake after mistake, though. And Wyatt is the star so is able to use media coverage to make himself look like the damaged one. And the fact that Dawn has no one in her corner until a mystery man from her past show up is ridiculous. Alice's behavior doesn't track--any woman would tell you that. And the end result with Victoria is frankly preposterous. I also wish we had gotten more detail about the mystery drug and the side effects that made it so important for Wyatt to wean himself off it. I'd also like to hear more about Wyatt's strange behavior because while disturbing, it felt like the two instances came out of left field. We needed more backstory there.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner Books for the ARC.

This is the first book that I have read in a long time that did a great job at maintaining a steady level of tension throughout. My heart was pounding in parts. It’s about a couple that are on a reality home repair show. The husband starts to become obsessed with gaining popularity and things take a turn. Highly, highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the advanced reader copy.

Any book that uses Gone Girl as a comp has some big shoes to fill and unfortunately, The Perfect Home didn't quite live up to them. The premise--that a woman who is the other half of a reality TV show couple finds that her husband has become potentially murderous after she gives birth to their twins and goes on the run to keep them all safe--felt fresh enough with the addition of being part of an HGTV type reality show. Some of the "twists" felt a bit forced for me, which made the ending lose its punch.

This book didn’t appeal to me in the least. Talk about a bunch of whiny characters in a trite plot. I read about a third and didn’t finish. I’m sure it’s the book for many other.

The description of this book sounded great, but it really fell short for me. the characters were hard to like, and I couldn't stay invested in the story. There were many times the book would give you everything you wanted from a thriller but then other times it seemed boring and not realistic. If you enjoy popcorn thrillers that have goofy characters and not much back story, I do think you would like this book. It wasn't horrible but just not my cup of tea. Thaks you netgally for the ARC.

I loved this book and devoured it in two days. It has so much to say about the world we live in right now and what some people will do to become famous and stay there or grow even more famous.

Dawn is a young woman who is swept up in the life of Wyatt Decker, a home improvement guy on cable TV. She is happy behind the scene but when she goes on camera and rolls her eyes at something Wyatt said, the chemistry blossomed on and off the screen. They marry and have this big beautiful home but are unable to conceive so Wyatt turns to a drug he can only get from overseas.

When things go sour in their marriage (I won't give away story) they are both struggling to know who are really their friends and who are just hangers-on. Using the media in this day and age is a talent and we see it played out by both Dawn and Wyatt. I definitely sided with Dawn throughout the book but I could see how Wyatt was able to charm others and convince them that he was just the best.

There are twist and turns and some surprises. I can't say enough good things about the book but I will say I don't think I would have the forgiveness in me that one of the characters had! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.