The epitome of suburban, domestic suspense! This was such a fun, exciting, dark. twisted, shocking read. If you want all the neighborhood drama, definitely recommend this one! TW: abuse

This book was amazing and I couldn’t put it down. A mix of domestic drama, chaotic neighborhood thriller, and secrets from the past coming back to haunt you, the plot was so well written from start to finish. The characters really grew on me as I read and some of the twists I never saw coming because of how smooth they were introduced before the truth explodes towards the end of the book. There are so many things happening with all of the characters from affairs to abuse. The way everybody’s stories intertwine was so well done. One of my favorite books this year!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Review will be posted on Instagram and Amazon on pub day and links added to NetGalley.

The Wives of Hawthorne Lane follow a group of wives who live in an affluent cul de sac. From the beginning we know there is a murder on Halloween but don’t know who or why. We rewind a few months back to lead up to that nights. I enjoyed the book. As usual, it shows how terrible men can be. I would recommend this book.

This was a great psychological drama. It was twisted, full of drama and suspense. It is a must read.
This book centers around 4 women that live in a nice neighborhood, all who are coming to terms with various domestic dramas as well as hiding secrets. The story begins with the community’s annual Halloween Fall Festival—an event that ends in murder. As the investigation unfolds, the dark truths behind the neighborhood’s polished façade begin to surface. The four women that the book is centered on are Georgina, Audrey, LIbby and Hannah. I enjoyed the dynamics between the women and following their stories. The book kept me engaged and guessing until the end. It pulled me in and really delivered. I was sad when it ended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced copy.

I will recommend it to family and friends. It was an excellent read.

I found this book a little confusing at first, just to figure out the characters, but after a few chapters I really got into the book. It was cool how it has almost 4 separate stories but all intertwined together with a bunch of turns and twists that tied them all together in the best way. I would recommend this book.

NOTE: Review on Blog will not post until 9/16, per publisher request

- take the setting of Desperate Housewives, add in the intrigue of Grosse Point Garden Society, and just a dash of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires -

Title: The Wives of Hawthorne Lane
Author: Stephanie DeCarolis
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: September 16, 2025
Pages: 320
Format read: ARC eBook

I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts, opinions, and quirky takes are entirely my own—because no one else can read between the spines quite like I do. Big thanks to NetGalley and Bantam/Random House for the ARC—and for fueling my TBR problem.

⏩ Read if you love:

a secret past catches up with you trope - one of the character's has a secret...and now someone has found her. Can she keep the secret? Will she lose her new happy life? This trope is slow to unravel, but DeCarolis carefully weaves this vital, yet seemingly tangential, plot point into the story almost as a backdrop to everything else going on.

suburban/neighborhood settings - the backdrop for the story is a small upper crust cul-de-sac where everyone knows everyone, there's a neighborhood fall festival the whole town attends, and an online community forum/chat to keep everyone apprised of what's going on

women supporting other women stories - which the world needs now more than ever. If there is a young (or old) woman in your life who would benefit from seeing how women can and should help each other, this is a great piece of fiction to do so.
Get involved: https://www.thehotline.org/get-involved/

spoiler - click to read

a villainous victim trope - do you remember when Perry got got on Big Little Lies? Then the ending will not be so surprising to you. DeCarolis' writing hints at the victim from the very beginning of the story and it's not until almost the end you really begin to piece together the identity.

❌ Skip if you hate:

reading about abuse and violence against women - men abusing women is an integral part of the book. National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1 (800) 799 7233

suburban/neighborhood settings - while some love this setting, others aren't pulled in by the quaint, everyone-knows-everyone books

🏅 Best Character Award Goes To:

DeCarolis creates easy-to-identify with characters. Characters with full lives, dreams, and flaws. If I can only choose one (why do I do this to myself?!?), I have to go with Georgina. Her life is picture perfect at first glance and DeCarolis does a masterful job of painting her life as perfect, only shining light on the flaws when necessary.

🎭 Scene-Stealer Moment:

The moment you begin to uncover the secret past haunting one of the characters. Warning lights began sounding off in my mind shortly before the connection is revealed.

🎯 Final Take:

A glass of wine, a cozy throw over the legs, next to a rain streaked window is the perfect setting to read this one. The pace keeps you wanting to turn the page.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 – Unputdownable

 📚 Stack Placement: (W

Vibes: 🔥 Plot: 🧩 Ending: 🎁 Reaction: 👀 (legend)

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

because it’s addictive, well-written, emotionally charged, and full of suspense. DeCarolis expertly teases out each character’s secrets, all leading to a climax that truly pays off.

A tight-knit suburban street prides itself on perfection, but that image shatters when a murder occurs during the neighborhood’s big Halloween celebration. Four different women, each with private struggles and secrets, find themselves tangled in the aftermath. As suspicion shifts from one to another, the truth threatens to expose the lies holding their carefully curated lives together.

The thing I love most about this book is that it builds the story around the monsters you know, and that makes it truly a thriller. Neighbors, romantic partners, friends …. I find that scarier than any horror novel with made up monsters! I also was not able to predict the ending. This is a must read for domestic and psychological thriller readers. It will be a great book club pick, too!

Thanks for the opportunity to read!

3.75 stars

Maybe because I grew up in a "picture-perfect community," I'm even more drawn to these kinds of books not because I always believed in that facade of perfection but because I am so well acquainted with how false that mask truly is. The grass may be literally green on every large lawn on Hawthorne Lane, but what lies beneath is sinister indeed.

Like all good thrillers and mysteries, this one reflects a scary reality, which is that your romantic partner is also one of the most likely threats to your safety and even your life, especially if you are a cishet woman. The women of Hawthorne Lane (and their pasts and their tangential relationships) face all kinds of challenges with the men in their orbits, and intriguingly, though they have a lot in common, they are mostly keeping these challenges to themselves. A book like this, while entertaining, also has the secondary didactic role of reminding readers of what is and is not acceptable and what our roles as upstanders might be.

There are a lot of characters to manage here, but as I've typically found to be the case in DeCarolis's works, they're developed enough to keep track of without an aggressive effort, and they all have intriguing storylines of their own. The ways in which their lives converge is also interesting.

Prospective readers should know that women face abuse in this book. It comes in all forms, and it may be challenging for readers who are sensitive to this subject. Children are present for some of this, which is also realistic but still unsettling.

I enjoyed this read, as I have various other books by this author, and I look forward to more.

Here at the @TheBerryBookReport we LIVE for a domestic suspense/drama and DeCarolis delivered!
I loved the ritzy element of the NY suberbs and the cast of characters that fully aligned with this ritzy theme. I didnt get the twists and love being fooled in a book.

I found this book to be very enjoyable and entertaining. I love books about neighborhoods and what really happens with each family behind closed doors. It had plenty of plot twists- some that I suspected but many I did not. I had a hard time figuring out what the chapters from Maggie’s point of view were about. She did not live on Hawthorne Lane but everything ties in at the end. Well developed characters and the story unfolded at a good pace. Great book! Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine/Bantam books, and Stephanie DeCarolis for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks NetGalley & Random House Publishing for the eARC

4⭐️

This was a fun and twisty domestic thriller set in the ritzy suburbs in NY. The story follows several wives (and a daughter) that reside on Hawthorne Lane. Each wife has a secret of their own; from DV, to an extramarital affair, to murder.

I enjoyed reading about the lives of the privileged and getting to know all the characters. I thought I knew what twist awaited the wives, but it was something completed unexpected to me.

Overall, a really entertaining & quick read! If you enjoy domestic thrillers that aren’t too graphic, this one is for you.

Pub date: 9/16/25

Very desperate housewives gone bad. Excellent!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Stephanie DeCarolis crafts a gripping, glamorous mystery in The Wives of Hawthorne Lane—a suburban suspense novel with sharp claws and even sharper secrets. The seemingly perfect neighborhood conceals a web of lies, betrayals, and power plays, explored through the perspectives of women who are far more complex than they first appear. DeCarolis masterfully peels back layers of deception, revealing the darkness beneath the polished façades. With propulsive pacing and juicy drama, it’s a compulsively readable tale of status, scandal, and survival. Think Big Little Lies with even more bite. You won’t want to put this down.

This is right up there with Big Little Lies in terms of neighborhood drama. We'll written, and empathetic.
thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Holy cow!!! Talk about a book that has a 100 different puzzle pieces to put together. Slowly but surely they all fall into piece and this wonderful but suspenseful story turns out!! The character and their back story were great!! Amazing book by a great author!

If you love a book with tons of drama this is the one for you!! It follows five women all with their own problems in their marriages. All of them have secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the book. This book did take some time for me to get into because of how many characters there were and how much was going on with each one. This book was messy but in a good way and I will go back and read it once it published because I'm sure there are little things I may have missed in my first reading. Overall, this was a good book for drama lovers. Thank you NetGalley.

Hawthorne Lane is a picture-perfect address for the very wealthy. The book is focused around four of the women who call Hawthorne Lane home. No one ever knows what goes on behind the door of any house, but the author takes us behind these doors and opens all the secrets. The neighborhood is preparing for Halloween night which is always a big event for the families. When a body is found in the woods each family comes under scrutiny. I found this to be somewhat slow in reading and as there are so many characters involved. All have deep secrets they are hiding from everyone. The back stories include violence, alcoholism, affairs and more. I found there was a little too much in the back stories for me. I feel less would have been better. If you are a fan of Desperate Housewives, then this book will be one you will like. For that reason, I give it 4 stars. I am glad I do not live on Hawthorne Lane.

I wish to thank Net Galley and Ballantine Books - Bantam Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you love a book with tons of drama this is the one for you!! It follows five women all with their own problems in their marriages. All of them have secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the book. This book did take some time for me to get into because of how many characters there were and how much was going on with each one. This book was messy but in a good way and I will go back and read it once it published because I'm sure there are little things I may have missed in my first reading. Overall, this was a good book for drama lovers. Thank you NetGalley.