3.5 stars ⭐️

Wyatt Decker is a media friendly charmer with looks to match. But despite that, his home renovation TV show-“The Perfect Home” doesn’t really take off until he marries Dawn. Her eye rolling, snark is just what the show needed to attract female viewers.

Together, they have reached D level celebrity status but Wyatt longs for greater fame. Children might help but Wyatt has a low sperm count so he orders experimental fertility drugs from Germany which did not earn FDA approval in the U.S..

YES-he will risk ANYTHING to have children including taking this controversial drug, which warns of some serious side effects,

But, having twins is still not enough to get the coveted interview that he feels will propel them to the NEXT level.

So, he devises a horrifying new plan to earn fame and fortune- one that, once discovered by Dawn, prompts her to flee with her two babies.

She is quickly reminded that Wyatt is the beloved star of their show, as he turns HER into public enemy #1.

It will be difficult to beat Wyatt at his own game but Dawn Decker will do ANYTHING for her twins.

The book synopsis shares too much so I will stop here and just say “PROPS” to the author for the ORIGINAL PREMISE set in the ALWAYS choreographed world of home renovation TV!

The story is told from the dual perspectives of both Dawn and Wyatt, and made for an entertaining, domestic popcorn 🍿 thriller, which definitely offered up more than one surprise (if you don’t read the synopsis!!)

If I had felt a bit more TENSION, it might have rated a solid four stars, but it did keep me engaged, so 3.5 stars ⭐️!

This promising debut will be available on January 7, 2025.

Thank You to Scribner for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts!

Thank you to NetGalley, author Daniel Kenitz, and Scribner for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I enjoyed The Perfect Home! Was it a perfect thriller? No, but was it juicy and fast-paced? Yes! The premise of Gone Girl meets HGTV was so intriguing to me, and that is definitely the vibe of the book. I was hooked from the beginning to see how things were going to turn out for the Deckers. My biggest downfall for the book was that besides for one reveal about halfway through, there was no major twists. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did, which made the end kind of anti-climactic. I did think the pacing definitely helped with this overall because I was anxious the entire novel to see what was going to happen. I also think there was some great (minor) commentary here on the pitfalls of celebrity and how society refuses to believe women, especially women in the spotlight. While this might not have been a thriller that will stick with me, it was still perfectly enjoyable and fun to read!

I enjoyed this book. While I read it, I pictured Chip and Joanne from Fixer Upper in place of Wyatt and Dawn Decker. I definitely wondered who would be believed in the end. Highly recommended.

Wyatt and Dawn are a married couple with a successful home improvement reality tv show but their life is more complicated then it seems. When Wyatt takes an illegal medication to help with infertility, his personality changes and Dawn goes on the run with their infant twins.

The reality TV and home improvement aspect of the story was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the beginning. Once the action started, I was a little lost. The plot with the medication and note too much for me and not something that I was very invested in. I did like the different point of views and how not everyone was what they seemed.

“You’d lie. I’d lie. The greater good makes liars of us all.”

I have to start this by saying I’m really grateful that the synopsis for this book gives us a lot, so I am able to say a lot without ruining the MANY surprises in store for readers. If you’ve read the synopsis, you know what I mean! If you haven’t, read on…

Dawn and Wyatt Decker are B-list reality stars on HLTV’s “The Perfect Home”, a show where he does the construction and she does the decorating while providing some snark. It’s not totally for Dawn, as she is more shy, but Wyatt brought her into it and they make good money doing it. Still, Wyatt isn’t happy with what they have. He 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.

After not being able to conceive, he orders shady German fertility drugs online and the reviews were true - they really work! Dawn gets pregnant (with twins) very quickly, and Wyatt promises to stop taking the ASB. But also, the reviews were true - they can make you mentally ill! After awhile, he becomes withdrawn, acting strangely and sometimes being downright nasty. It’s not until Dawn finds a document on Wyatt’s tablet that is SO unhinged, terrifying and disordered that she takes their twins and runs. Soon, Wyatt is on the national news saying Dawn is an alcoholic having postpartum issues and he’s worried for her, begging her to please bring the babies back, etc. She’s trying to hide, but she’s a television personality on the run with twins, and it’s hard to hide that.

This book is written from the dual perspectives of the couple, and that worked perfectly for this story. It was fun to see the workings of how an HGTV-like show may be produced, and how some people are willing to fake it for the money and fame. The characters were great, the writing was great and the idea for the book was unique. This was funny and quirky at times, while still being a very thrilling and suspenseful book; not easy to do. I can’t think of a thing I’d change - five stars!

(Thank you to Scribner, Daniel Kenitz and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on January 7, 2024.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. The Perfect Home follows Dawn and Wyatt, reality tv stars, as they struggle to start a family. This leads to Wyatt taking an illegal reproductive drug, ASB. Unfortunately ASB can cause severe side effects, such as personality changes. These changes lead to Dawn fleeing from Wyatt with her newborn twins. The Perfect Home is a domestic thriller that was hard to put down. I liked the switching perspectives between Dawn and Wyatt. I think this helped the reader get the whole story. I do feel like the flow was a bit off. I truly didn’t relate to any of the characters.

Wyatt and Dawn are a married couple with a successful home improvement reality tv show but their life is more complicated then it seems. When Wyatt takes an illegal medication to help with infertility, his personality changes and Dawn goes on the run with their infant twins.

The reality TV and home improvement aspect of the story was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the beginning. Once the action started, I was a little lost. The plot with the medication and note too much for me and not something that I was very invested in. I did like the different point of views and how not everyone was what they seemed.

“You’d lie. I’d lie. The greater good makes liars of us all.”

The Perfect Home comes out 1/7.

Definitely a lot of unexpected twists and turns to this story! Once I started reading it, I could not put it down! I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author!

Welp…seems like I’ve been hitting all the wannabe thrillers in a row and this one was no exception. Idk if it was just that the author tried to hard to make it serious, but it came off more as a popcorn thriller, which it didn’t really work as either. The characters are more like caricatures and none of them had any likability so it was hard to root for them to be ok. I did like the authors way of making people being in the media can alter their personality and what you see on tv definitely isn’t reality no matter how they try and tell you otherwise.
I don’t have a lot of positive thoughts on this so I’m going to keep my thoughts to a minimum. Many may enjoy it, I was just not one of them.

The beginning of the book left me wondering why I picked it to begin with. I didn't particularly care for the characters and had no interested in their shared tv show.

However, big surprise! The book took off around the 20% point of the story on my kindle, and I began to appreciate what was happening with the two main people. While there wasn't an extreme moment when I was shocked by the turn the story took, the events did keep me on the edge of my seat hoping it all would work out for a character who took a lot of chances.

5 stars for the remaining 80% of the book; I took off one of them for that draggy beginning.

This book had so many twist and turns, I loved it. The fact that the two main characters have their own POV’s in this book is amazing… we get to both sides, what’s going on in the mind of each character, as the story starts unfold. I was waiting for the shoe to drop, and it dropped quickly. I loved Dawn, but as everything started to unfold I was getting so aggravated with how she did certain things, and I felt so bad for her with everything going on. But I loved how at the end, she had people that came through for her….. a lot of people aren’t what they seem, sadly.

3.5 stars, actually.

Admittedly, this book had me on the edge of my seat psychologically most of the way through; the twists, turns and reveals just kept coming. That is, until they didn't. Despite my almost salivating in hopes of that final curve ball that would shoot the book over the fence, it never happened.

Early on, though, the story hit quite a few timely hot buttons, including a home improvement reality TV show with husband-and-wife stars who have the perfect combination of a solid marriage and skykrocketing ratings. But for both themselves and the homes they're renovating, the foundations are crumbling. Aha, I said - this plot will thicken.

As well it did. The renovators are Wyatt and Dawn Decker, a somewhat unlikely pair. He's handsome, charming, witty and outgoing; she's on the shy side and in no danger of being wooed away by Project Runway. But together, their onscreen chemistry works; the show is climbing in the ratings - in large part to their lively back-and-forths. On the home front, though, trouble is brewing. Both are intent on having a child, but since Wyatt is adamantly opposed to a donor or adoption, they head for a fertility clinic to be tested. There, the egocentric Wyatt learns he's the problem - and he's not a happy camper to say the least.

Then he learns about a controversial fertility drug - one that's illegal in the States; secretly, because Dawn isn't in favor of it, he takes the drug. Yep, you guessed it - shortly afterward, Dawn gets pregnant - with twins, no less. How she managed to get through the hammering and pounding of refurbishing for nine months while carrying such a heavy load was never explained - nor for that matter even mentioned - but apparently she somehow managed to carry on. Wyatt got through it as well, but his personality started on a downward slide. That did not escape his wife's attention to detail; in fact, she finds evidence that things are getting much darker right before the Dawn (sorry, couldn't resist).

The revelations prompt Dawn to do the unthinkable - take the twins and run. Wyatt, needless to say, is happy to play the wronged husband, and even happier to go to his adoring public with claims that his wife, who is suffering from serious post-partum depression, has fallen over the edge. From that point on, it's a race to see who wins, with the future of a TV deal and the very lives of a couple of innocent babies hanging in the balance. As I alluded to previously, the track is far from straight and narrow, and readers are in for a wild ride along with Wyatt and Dawn.

The ending itself wraps up most of the loose ends, and no doubt many readers will be happy with it. For me, though, the story absolutely screamed for a gobsmacker - which in a perverse way is exactly what I got as the lyrics of the old Peggy Lee hit, "Is That All There Is?" ran through my brain. Alas, in this case I guess it is.

Oh well - overall, it was an enjoyable experience - really - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Being in the public eye with celebrity status can sometimes come at a cost. When Wyatt has a home renovation TV host to The Perfect Home, the notch is etched at a higher level. His wife Dawn sees an ugly side to him. After struggling to have a baby, Wyatt decides to try some treatments to help with fertilization. Dawn eventually has twins, but notices his ugly demeanor gets worse. When she finds evidence of his horrendous plan to up their TV status, she takes the twins and leaves.
Wyatt publicly denounces her as a psycho on TV to get his twins back. He convinces her friends that she is a psycho. Now she is on the run and finds more lies and information that he is not as what he seems.
This is a great debut and domestic suspense. Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5/5

The description calls this one Gone Girl meets Fixer Upper and honestly I wish! I can sorta see the comparison, it definitely had the DIY show vibes but GG is a stretch. There was something original here, I think the fertility issues angle was a unique approach but besides that and a few other aspects this felt like books we’ve read before. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it and was invested for the majority of the time and I knew everything would depend on how it ended and I guess I just wasn’t blown away by the direction the author took. I also wasn’t a huge fan of some of the characters behaviors and found them to be frustrating, I’m being purposely vague so as not to spoil things. Overall this had moments that kept me engaged and others that made me roll my eyes a bit but the premise was interesting and the writing strong enough that I would try the author again.

A little too far-fetched for me and I struggled to finish this one. I was hooked on the synopsis, but the story fell flat for me, and I really had a really hard time finishing it. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for this honest opinion.

While the premise was interesting, sadly, the story failed in its execution. I was never able to connect with any of the characters, and I couldn't stay engaged with the plot. The pacing was uneven, and the characters weren't as developed as I expected. Some plot points just made me roll my eyes. Nothing about this book will stick with me now that the final page has been turned.

This is a fun and entertaining novel about a couple--Wyatt and Dawn--who host The Perfect Home, a reality show that shows viewers how to accentuate their homes perfectly. Even better is Dawn owns an antique store where viewers can buy furniture for their own homes. Dawn gives birth to twins, Harlene and Junior and books Hattie as their nanny. But something is "off" with Wyatt and when Dawn discovers a creepy plan on his computer, she takes the twins and tries to disappear. But Wyatt has his own plans and the money to hire people so it's difficult for her to hide with two babies. Things get dicey...and then BLAM! It's a thrill ride to the end!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to the publishers for an early copy of this book. This book was probably one of the oddest things I've ever read. I didn't really know what to expect with this one but I appreciated that it was a short, quick read. I didn't love the characters in this one and wasn't gripped as much as other books in this genre. Overall this was a good read, just wasn't my favorite.

This book was wild - touted as Fixer Upper and Gone Girl, I'd say that's pretty accurate.

In my mind I kept picturing what if, what IF, this were Chip and Joanna Gaines. lol

I thought it was an interesting premise and a look at how reality tv is fake (which we all know) and how parasocial relationships skew people's judgement of their tv idols.

This was just a fun ride. I didn't like something about the ending - IYKYK - I just felt like that character would not have chosen that route.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an e-copy of THE PERFECT HOME to review.

I rate THE PERFECT HOME four out of five stars.

Dawn and Wyatt are HLTV (read: HGTV) famous for their home renovation show. When Wyatt takes their infertility struggle into his own hands with an illegal supplement, Dawn notices his behavior starts to change.
After realizing her children are not safe at home, Dawn leaves with their twins (thanks to the miracle supplement) and a PR/optics war begins when Wyatt paints a picture of Dawn as a struggling mom with postpartum symptoms. Through dual POVs we follow Dawn through her run to safety/away from Wyatt with the twins, as well as Wyatt's perspective of staying "on" for the cameras through press conferences, etc.
We learn who Dawn can trust to help keep her and her children safe with multiple twists and shocking moments along the way.

The writing of this book was easily digestible, and each character was fleshed out in detail; however, I did feel at a couple points this book was a little too long for my taste in what was essentially a domestic thriller. I did love the side of the story that reminds us that when couples/families seem perfect on the screen it is rarely, if ever, the actual case behind the scenes. I would gladly read more by this author, as I personally enjoyed my feeling of shock during some of the reveals and the intense annoyance at some of the characters, which to me always makes for a good time!

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