Robyn Harding has a string of successes: The Party, The Swap. The Arrangement…now she is back with The Perfect Family. Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley, I received a copy in exchange for this honest review. The “perfect family” is the Adlers: Realtor Tom, his interior designer wife Viv, and their kids, Eli and Tarryn. From the outside, they really do look like the perfect family, which is great since the parents’ goal is to LOOK perfect. They have the perfect house, yard, cars, etc. — but each one of them has a secret. Maybe that is why their house suddenly becomes the target for vandals, with escalating actions that start with eggs being thrown, and progresses to more serious acts including slashed tires, rocks through windows, etc. But whose secret is the key to this mess?

Thomas went to a bachelor party, got drunk, and is being blackmailed by (supposedly) a stripper who emails him compromising photos that she will send to pretty much everyone he knows unless she is paid $50,000. Vivian has a klepto problem that she can’t seem to stop, despite the escalating danger her actions are causing to her family. Son Eli, home from college for a break, has decided to drop out of school after his role in an incident of hazing (ok, it was really torture) threatens to ruin him. And Tarryn, the one everyone else is assuming may be the cause of the problem (she IS a high school girl, after all), is making good money in her room at night, “camming” with strangers for money. TBH I hadn’t heard taking off your clothes and indulging male fantasies via the webcam on your computer called camming, but it makes perfect sense. And really, I need to get out more…or read more.

Anyway, things escalate, secrets threaten to ruin lives, and the perfect family may not be so perfect after all — and worse, the neighbors might find out! It’s well done. Four stars.