After her last release I was extremely hesitant to pick up another book by this author after feeling pretty bamboozled by its premise and marketing. But I am delighted to say the fun, popcorn thriller-ness that is Jeneva Rose is back with this little gem.

I enjoyed the domestic sibling tension and loved getting each of their POV’s which really helped to develop each of their characters. While the ending didn’t necessarily blow my mind, this was a fun and fast read that I finished in just a few sittings. If you’re looking for your next domestic popcorn thriller, this is for you.

Thank you so much to Blackstone for my early review copy!

📜Home Is Where The Bodies Are
✍️Jeneva Rose
📠Blackstone Publishing
📚Mystery/Thriller, Fiction
🗓️Pub date: April 30, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @blackstonepublishing for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to @jenevaroseauthor for keeping me up all night reading!

✨Three estranged siblings, Beth, Nicole, and Michael, gather at their childhood home after their mother passes from a battle with cancer.

✨A father who went missing years ago, and a cryptic warning from her mother just before she passes, Beth is trying to piece the puzzle together. Where is her father and why did he leave them?

✨Dealing with their own inner turmoil and the issues they’ve faced as a family, the three siblings decide to reminisce on the good ol’ days by watching old family videos.

✨When they come across a 1999 video of their father coming out of the woods covered in blood, this makes them question everything they ever thought they knew about their parents.

✨Dueling timelines (a time capsule back to the 90s) and perfectly-paced, this is a psych thriller that’ll keep you guessing till the very end! I loved it!

✨QOTD: Do you ever really know the ones you love?

#netgalley #homeiswherethebodiesare #jenevarose #blackstonepublishing #springreleases #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #ivegotbooks #killmewithwords #idratherbereading #qotd #thrillersandkillersofig #familysecrets #doyouknowtheonesyoulove

I’m on the fence between 3 and 4 stars for this one. On one hand, it’s easy to slip into, has good pacing, and kept me invested the whole time. But on the other, I clocked the plot twist from almost the very beginning and therefore, it felt very predictable to me. I wasn’t shocked when all was revealed and it didn’t have the high stakes feel that I think thrillers need to be truly great. If I hadn’t have figured it out so early, I would have enjoyed it more but it is what it is.

A solid domestic thriller following three children returning home when their mother passes, and the family's hidden secrets.

The premise was intriguing and made for a good mystery - however, the ending was pretty clear about halfway through.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

A fast-paced domestic thriller about a dark secret found out only after three siblings’ mother passes. A solid read. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

This one was hard for me to get into but I'm glad I picked it back up. I really enjoyed the tension and the eventual progress of the characters.

This was a tight domestic thriller with four different narrators. When Beth's mother passes away in their living room after an illness, her last words are a cryptic warning. Beth's two estranged siblings arrive after the death to settle the estate, and they find an old VHS tape in the attic that changes everything they remember about their childhoods. This one kept me guessing right until the end!

▪️𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺
▪️𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪 𝘗𝘖𝘝
▪️𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦
▪️𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴

in a wtf did i just read moment with this completely unique, fcked up thriller that delivered everything. jeneva’s newest book brings us estranged siblings together again due to the passing of their mother, with their own messy lives and battles, the three of them discover a secret buried in an old family video and now have to put together this puzzle. this book was bingeworthy, addicting, and completely fcked up which is my favorite kind of book☠️
thank you netgalley & blackstonepublishing for the eARC in exchange of my review🖤

How fun to read about each family member as the plot boggles your mind. Bad things happened years ago in the small town where they lived. It was exciting to follow the clues to find out what actually happened. The novel kept my attention and left this reader satisfied that all the loose ends had been tied up neatly by the end.

Three estranged adult siblings are forced back together after the death of their mother. Their complicated relationships with each other become even more strained when they find an old VHS tape with footage that potentially implicates their parents in the decades-old disappearance of a neighborhood child.

This was heavy on family drama, which was a good direction to take--the mystery was simple but compelling, and Rose doesn't rely on overwrought twists for the sake of it. That being said, I didn't totally buy the string of horrible tragedies being used as a plot device to heal old familial wounds, especially since it happened so quickly, but it was fine.

I'd never heard of this author before and am looking forward to checking out more.

Thanks to the publisher and to NG!

Thank you to BlackStone Publishing for my arc!

Holy crap this was good. albeit did bring up a lot of personal things for me but also showed me that I can work through them. I was so caught off guard by everything that happened in this book. I didn’t know what was going to happen. But let me just say Jeneva Rose has a way of gaslighting you and making you second guess everything you’re reading in her books and I can’t get enough of it.

It took me about two days to get through this book. I was certainly hooked by the story and found it to be well-paced. The multiple POVs were a bit much but after a while it was easier to follow four different characters.

I found a little extra entertainment in this one, though. Right around the 27% mark, you learn where the book is set. It's set very close to where I live and work and mentions places I've certainly visited. I could see and smell the Boar's Head. 🤣

That alone kept me interested. It's always nice to see a little bit of home in what you're reading.

I appreciated the story and development of the characters though I didn't particularly like any of them. I wasn't super surprised by the reveal, but the story was crafted well. I think the author is talented and would definitely read another book by her.

There were a few loose ends that didn't quite get resolved.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Well rounded work of fiction. Experienced murder mystery readers will see the twist coming but there are still some elements that were unpredictable. Perfect for anyone who wants to start reading more mystery. Surprisingly this book hauntingly expressed family relationships, the struggle of coping with loss and addiction..

Thank you to Netgalley for granting me access to the ARC of this book.

This is my second Jeneva Rose book (first was Perfect Marriage), and I like it a lot better. I absolutely dragged Perfect Marriage when I read it, but this one is a huge improvement. Just when I thought I had the twist figured out, I sure did not. There are still a couple of things about the author's writing that I don't vibe with, but I am much more open to reading other works by Jeneva now than I was after Perfect Marriage. A more accurate rating for Home Is Where The Bodies Are would be 3.75 stars.

This story deals heavily with familial loss, grief, and drug addiction, so please be aware of that before diving in. Tough subjects, but they are covered well.

I would recommend this to someone who likes a good mystery, but not necessarily a thriller. Are baby thrillers a thing? This could be a baby thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, the nicest thing I have to say about this book is that it’s readable and fast-paced. I did not care about the characters or the outcome of the mystery, and was pretty certain I knew what the twist was as soon as the characters were introduced. Pretty disappointing read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I finished Home is Where the Bodies Are in one sitting. It was captivating and fast-paced. The ending I did not see coming. Would definitely recommend for someone looking for a good thriller.

The book with the coolest cover of the year so far was a hit for me!

Home is Where the Bodies Are tells the story of three estranged siblings reuniting when their mother dies. Beth has been home taking care of their mother during her illness, and she is full of resentment for Michael and Nicole. Michael is the successful sibling who made it out of the small town, and Nicole is an addict trying to get clean. The siblings watch an old VHS tape and see a horrifying secret in their parents' past, and they must decide what to do with what they now know.

The family drama makes up the bulk of the story- hurt feelings, messy emotions, and attempts to get along. The three main characters felt authentic and well written. It feels more character based than plot based until we get towards the end of the story, when all the craziness breaks loose and a twist pops up to tie things up. I didn't see the ending coming, classic Jeneva Rose!

Short chapters kept me flipping the pages, and this one was a relatively quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Jeneva Rose did it again! Honestly, I think I liked this one a little more than “The perfect marriage”.

A mother dies leaving behind such odd parting words, that it’s hard for her daughter to comprehend them, until evidence surfaces that something horrible happened years ago. The story follows the children of this family and how they cope with what’s being uncovered about the past.
I did figure out who was responsible for one disappearance pretty early on, it was the rest I was unsure of and how it all fit together which kept me on my toes.

The writing itself was good. The characters were definitely relatable. I wish there was more of a story line between Casey and Nicole, but maybe that could come out later in a different book. The short chapters made for a quick read (I read most of it in one day). The story is told from multiple points of view, mostly in real time, but one POV is from the past. The flipping back and forth between people and occasionally time periods wasn’t distracting or hard to follow. Each chapter was labeled with the person so that it was clear who was speaking.

Thanks NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC!

Home is Where the Bodies Are follows three estranged siblings who gather at their childhood home following their mother's death. The siblings have followed very different paths. Beth has stayed in their small town hoping for their father to return after he disappeared nearly a decade ago. Mitchell has moved out west and achieved financial success and no longer speaks to the family, Nicole has wrestled with addiction, alienating her from everyone. When the siblings gather together for the first time in years and watch an old family video they realize that their mother was hiding a lot of secrets.

I really loved this book and thought that the writing elevated it from your standard domestic thriller. There are dueling points of view and each one has its own unique voice. The mystery has a great hook and an even better twist although I wish there had been more to the ending. It felt like it was tied up too neatly.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for my copy of this book.

This was my first Jeneva Rose read (who had previously fallen under my radar) - she is a talented storyteller and knows how to dole out the story in discrete exciting bits.

This is the story of the death of a family matriarch (after the father's disappearance), which summons three adult children to deal with the leavings of family drama and secrets. While they are going through their mother's effects, they find a family VHS recording of a summer event that suddent terminates and then starts to play an odd tableau, possibly suggesting that mother and father may have had their hand in the disappearance of a young girl in the town.

The story switches POVs between the three children (much like in a manner reminicent of Gone Girl), each narrator who is possibly unreliable for their own reasons.

On top of the thriller component, there is also some very touching family drama here. Jeneva finds the ideal balance. I do not want to quote the book here yet before its release, but there is a very touching paragraph where one of the characters likens a writer fussing over a short story that is just not working to wondering if that is how her mother felt about her. (tears)

The only reason this is not getting 5 stars is because me and my book buddy both called the arc of the story early on. The surprises were there, but I was hoping that I was wrong!

I definitely will be keeping my eye open for future Jeneva Rose items in my feeds!