All The Little Houses

Badly behaving adults indeed. This book is 95% people behaving horribly with the remaining 5% being the suspense read I was expecting. 

Prepare for an unpopular opinion, folks: The first 70% of the book was just people being pompous jerks, one-upping and screwing each other over at every opportunity (figuratively and literally). The entire cast is unlikeable, one-dimensional characters who are only out for themselves and only care about how they appear to those around them. It boggled my mind that everyone just accepts that Nellie and her mom Charleigh are horrible people who behave outrageously (and sometimes dangerously) but still hang out with them because it's 'just what small town people have to do'. Wha?! 

This was like a Housewives episode on overdrive with odd pacing and a trashy soap opera vibe. Just when you think a character can go low, they say 'Hold my Aperol spritz', lower the bar and sail over it. 

The icing on the cake was its ending that screeched to a stop, leaving literary tire marks on the page. This left readers with only a brief nod to the suspense aspect and no closure on most of the characters. It's got a beautiful cover, and a lot of other reviewers enjoyed this book, unfortunately, it was a miss for this reader.

Disclaimer: Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary advanced copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Rating: 2 stars

Author: May Cobb

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

First Published: Jan 20, 2026

Read: Jan 13-17, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: Adults can behave badly too...

It's the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can't get for herself… well, that's what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she'd so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh's entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble. Who will be left standing when the dust settles?

From the author of The Hunting Wives comes a deliciously wicked new thriller about mean girls, mean moms, and the delicious secrets inside all the little houses.