Author: Kaira Rouda
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: February 3, 2026
This author’s books are ones I go to when I’ve just come off a series of hard-hitting thrillers or horror books, or a deeply moving nonfiction book. Her writing is just fun, soap opera, housewives of (locality) material. Not a lot for the reader to think about. Just pure devious fictional characters with secrets and lies.
What made this book even more enjoyable for me was the setting. A recently renovated Palm Springs vacation home that reeks of the hotel these sorority sisters stayed in 25 years ago – with disastrous results. Ostensibly a celebration of two of their children’s future marriage to each other, it’s a showcase…and showtime…for Roxy Gentry, the self-appointed “hostess with the mostest”. But when the secrets start being revealed, not one person will come out of the house the same. Some of them may not even come out!
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for indulging my love of thrillers with an advance reader’s copy.
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