CANR
WORK TITLE: HOME IS WHERE THE BODIES ARE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.jenevarose.com
CITY: Chicago
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married: Drew.
ADDRESS
CAREER
WRITINGS
Author’s works have been translated into more than two dozen languages.
SIDELIGHTS
[OPEN NEW]
Jeneva Rose is a novelist who took an unusual route to publishing her first novel. She has written about how she was rejected by dozens of publishers. A writer on the website CrimeReads stated that Rose contacted two hundred agents before she found a publisher, and when she did find one she had already fired the agent she had. That meant The Perfect Marriage was published by a small UK press with little in the way of a marketing budget, so Rose started marketing the book herself, posting promotional videos on TikTok. Those and word of mouth launched the book onto the bestseller lists, eventually selling more than 1.5 million copies and securing a film rights deal.
Since then, Rose has gone a more conventional route, hiring an agent and signing a multi-book deal. One of Us Is Dead is a thriller with a twist. It features women living in the opulence of Buckhead, with huge houses and expensive cars. When Shannon is dumped by her politician husband for a much younger woman, that sets in motion a series of conflicts. Shannon wants to get revenge, Olivia wants to displace Shannon as the queen bee of Buckhead, younger Crystal joins Olivia’s circle without realizing what is involved, and salon owner Jenny knows everyone’s secrets.
“Deftly crafted” and “riveting and entertaining” are how a reviewer in Internet Bookwatch described this outing. They predicted it would be a popular title in library Mystery/Suspense sections. A reviewer in Kirkus Reviews compared the story to Clare Boothe Luce’s play The Women, only more “juiced-up.” They wrote that the suspense “focuses mainly on why only one of these eminently deserving ladies ends up dead.” A writer in Publishers Weekly came up with their own title for the book: “The Real Karens of Buckhead.” They noted that the novel has “amusing moments,” but they were concerned that the themes of domestic violence and human trafficking are poorly handled.
You Shouldn’t Have Come Here features a woman named Grace who has escaped from her busy life in New York for a vacation at an Airbnb on a Wyoming ranch. She does not mind when the ranch owner, Calvin, is handsome, and the two start to fall for each other. Not everything is right on the ranch, however. Without cell phone or internet service, Grace is cut off from the outside world, and then her car starts giving her problems. When the police show up inquiring about a missing woman, Grace has to decide whether she can believe Calvin. The book uses a dual narrator to reveal the thoughts of both protagonists, but surprises and suspense still await.
“Rose should win new fans with this one,” wrote a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. They noted that a “sinister undercurrent runs throughout” the story. “Will-they, won’t-they turns into something altogether darker” is how a writer in Kirkus Reviews put it.
Rose’s next thriller, Home Is Where the Bodies Are, focuses on three siblings who have come home to resolve their mother’s estate after she dies. The three have not seen each other in years. The oldest, Beth, stayed home and cared for her mother, Nicole has struggled with an ongoing drug addiction, and Michael, the youngest, left seven years ago and has not been back until now. As the three go through their mother’s belongings, they come upon a videotape that they think will be of happy family memories, so they are horrified when it shows their father covered in blood and talking to their mother of how to dispose of a dead body. The three siblings have to decide whether they should or can keep the family secret. The novel lets all three siblings have a chance to narrate.
Writing in Booklist, Karen Clements called the book a “breathless stand-alone thriller” that builds to a “stunning revelation.” A writer in Publishers Weekly described the story as an “enjoyable ride.” They acknowledged that “a few of the plot twists stain credulity,” but they argued that Rose “demonstrates a formidable command of character.” “Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight,” wrote a reviewer in Kirkus Reviews.
[CLOSE NEW]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2023, Karen Clements, review of Home Is Where the Bodies Are, p. 46.
Internet Bookwatch, May, 2022, review of One of Us Is Dead.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2022, review of One of Us Is Dead; March 1, 2023, review of You Shouldn’t Have Come Here; March 1, 2024, review of Home Is Where the Bodies Are.
Publishers Weekly, February 14, 2022, review of One of Us Is Dead, p. 42; February 20, 2023, review of You Shouldn’t Have Come Here, p. 171; February 5, 2024, review of Home Is Where the Bodies Are, p. 155.
ONLINE
CrimeReads, https://crimereads.com (September 12, 2023), Rick Pullen, author interview.
Jeneva Rose website, https://www.jenevarose.com/ (April 18, 2024).
Joanna Elm, Author, Journalist, Attorney, https://www.joannaelm.com (March 27, 2023), Joanna Elm, blog post.
Women Writers, Women’s Books, https://booksbywomen.org (July 13, 2020), author blog.
Jeneva Rose is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including the million-copy bestselling thriller, The Perfect Marriage. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages and optioned for film/tv. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston.
Jeneva Rose
USA flag
aka J R Adler
Jeneva Rose is originally from Wisconsin. She spent a couple of years in Ithaca, New York and now calls Charlotte, North Carolina home. She lives with her husband and English bulldog, Sir Winston. A lover of reading, cooking, board games, and wine,
Jeneva also loves watching The Office on repeat and traveling every chance she gets. The Perfect Marriage is her debut novel. She also writes under the pen name J.R. Adler and Dead Woman Crossing, the first in a gripping crime thriller series will release September 23rd, 2020. You can connect with her on Twitter @jenevarosebooks, Facebook Jeneva Rose, Instagram @jenevaroseauthor or via her website.
Genres: Mystery, Romance
New and upcoming books
April 2024
thumb
Home Is Where the Bodies Are
Series
Detective Kimberley King
1. Dead Woman Crossing (2020)
2. Last Day Alive (2021)
thumbthumb
Novels
The Perfect Marriage (2020)
The Girl I Was (2021)
One of us is Dead (2022)
#CrimeTime (2023) (with Drew Pyne)
You Shouldn't Have Come Here (2023)
It's a Date (Again) (2023)
Home Is Where the Bodies Are (2024)
Jeneva Rose is the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage, The Girl I Was, One of Us is Dead, You Shouldn't Have Come Here, and the Kimberley King series. Her work has been optioned for film/tv and translated into more than two dozen languages. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband and her stubborn English bulldog. You can connect with her on Instagram @jenevaroseauthor, Tiktok @jenevaroseauthor, Twitter @jenevarosebooks, Facebook Jeneva Rose, or via her website.
March 27, 2023
Does Jeneva Rose Care About Her Thousands Of 1-star ratings for The Perfect Marriage?
I’ve been grappling with this question about book reviews: How would I feel if I got ten thousand horrible 1-star ratings BUT my thriller was a bestseller on multiple lists, was optioned by Hollywood and I’d just landed a 5-book deal with a major publisher?
Author Jeneva Rose: Photo from author’s website. Photo credit: Katharine Hannah
That’s essentially where author, Jeneva Rose finds herself these days. Her psychological thriller, The Perfect Marriage, has sold 700,000+ copies (across all formats) since it was published in July 2020 by Bloodhound Books, a tiny British publishing house.
It exploded onto the bestseller lists –including Amazon, USA Today, Apple and Barnes & Noble –two years later and stayed there for most of 2022. She signed a deal with a Hollywood production company last Fall. She also signed a five-book contract with Blackstone Publishing for five books over five years.
Laughing All The Way To The Bank?
On the way to those dizzying heights, however, the book also garnered a dizzying number of really, truly horrible reviews. As of last weekend, The Perfect Marriage, had the following number of 1-star ratings and reviews: On Amazon, it had 2,040 such ratings with 602 (1-star) reviews. On Goodreads, it had 7,491 (1-star) ratings with 1,845 such reviews.
The 1-star ratings and reviews (ratings are a simple allocation of stars; reviews include text along with the stars) amounted to 2% of the total ratings and reviews for this book. Jeneva took a couple of those reviewers to task (more on that next week) on Tik Tok, and seemed to enjoy making fun of them. And, why not when she’s sitting pretty, raking in the dollars?
“The Worst Book I’ve Ever Read”
Yet, in my opinion, these 1-star reviews are not of the type an author should just shrug off because she has thousands of 4 and 5-star ratings. The 1-star reviewers of The Perfect Marriage reflect a rarely-seen vitriolic intensity as if the reader/reviewer was writing about someone who had scammed them of their life savings instead of just selling them a bad book.
Readers felt cheated of their time and money especially in those cases where they’d actually paid for the book and not received it through Kindle Unlimited or from the library.
I lost track of the number of reviewers who described it as “the worst book I’ve ever read in my life.”
But A Great Premise?
Personally, I thought the premise was brilliant: A top, hotshot criminal defense attorney, Sarah Morgan, decides to represent her husband, Adam, after he is charged with killing his mistress. Unlike many reviewers who voiced their opinion that a wife wouldn’t be allowed to do that, I had no problem with it.
There is no actual rule or law I know of that would prohibit such representation (no need to get into the weeds here to look at instances where the wife might be removed as counsel) –although it is usually considered unwise to represent spouses in litigation because of the inevitable emotional involvement.
However, there were giant errors elsewhere as to legal procedure — which, in my view, is outrageous in a book that falls into the Amazon category of “legal thriller.”
Google, anybody?
According to the above Amazon bestseller list, Jeneva Rose’s paucity of research didn’t hurt her sales. But it sure did irk thousands of readers after they picked up a copy .
One reader/reviewer summed up most of the blatant legal errors, that many others touched upon, like this:
“Who in the world did the author seek for advice on the Virginia legal system? So much was so wrong yet could have been easily corrected with a tiny bit of research or consultation. Criminal cases aren’t “The People of the State of Virginia v. Morgan” but Commonwealth v. Morgan. Prosecutors are Commonwealth’s Attorneys not DAs.
Trial courts are Circuit Courts not Superior Courts. DNA doesn’t get tested in one day. Capital Murder cases aren’t tried a few weeks from arrest. A Department of Corrections facility on the other side of the state can’t hold a local jail prisoner not yet convicted. . . .
If the author isn’t going take the time and effort to get it right in her setting, she should make her setting make believe where it doesn’t matter.”
Last week, I blogged about how an author could often find positive nuggets in his/her negative reviews. If I were Jeneva Rose, however, I think I’d be hard-pressed to find anything heartening in any single one of the 1-star reviews.
So Wrong In So Many Ways
Readers critiqued every aspect of the book: the characters ( apparently not one character had any redeeming qualities); the prose, the sophomoric dialog, syntax and spelling errors ; the clear lack of research into geographic locations as well as into legal procedures and homicide investigations; and they pointed to plot holes galore.
Here’s a selection of excerpted 1-star reviews from GR:
“The whole thing is a dumpster fire train wreck from start to finish.. Also, has this person even watched, like, half an episode of literally ANY crime show…? Because she clearly didn’t do any real research into how trials, police investigations, dare I say life, works.”
“…Overall, this book had me realizing that it might not be as hard as I thought to write a book and have it become successful.”
“The fact that it has a huge number of 4 and 5 star reviews has me further suspecting that GR and Amazon reviews are infiltrated with bots… I just couldn’t keep [reading]- not even for a free Kindle Unlimited book.”
“I laughed out loud multiple times at the utter Scooby Doo-ness of the plot lines and dialogue… The dialogue felt lifted from a teenager’s first attempt at fiction writing. The back and forth between the spouses felt like what I came up with playing Barbies in the 6th grade.”
“… There must be a Russian bot farm dishing out 5 stars because no one who has read this – and any other book in their entire life – would think that it even approximates to something like a decent book.”
“The most legally inaccurate book I’ve ever read. I kept saying to myself, “That’s not how this works… If you’re a lawyer or are in any way familiar with law, this book will make you want to gouge your eyes out.”
“It’s like the writer is an alien and just made up how she thought humans behaved and interacted with each other. Also the authors understanding of the law is laughable and I’m wondering what kind of research she did?”
“Why was everyone just slapping each other and calling each other bitch? Did this book ever see an editors desk?”
“The last 2 pages are a monologue where the villain reveals how they committed the crime. Good thrillers weave hints and clues into the story, not explain everything at the end.”
“Every person in this book was an insane caricature and almost every event was a genuinely baffling and distressing misunderstanding of the basic functions of the american legal system”
Caution: Giant Spoiler Below
The ending was universally criticized because the revelation that the wife/hotshot attorney was the killer of her husband’s mistress made no sense whatsoever. Mainly because the wife’s chapters were written throughout the book in the first person, present tense.
Hence, to completely erase the fact –or any hint whatsoever– that she was the killer from all her inner thoughts and reflections was thoroughly bad writing, and a big craft error. It was cheating the reader in the worst way.
“...The big twist was terribly sullied by the fact that the inner dialog of the guilty character completely contradicts the ending of the book.”
“This author clearly thinks a good mystery has an ending that comes out of nowhere with no clues whatsoever..”
“All of those 5-star reviews that gush, ‘I didn’t see the end coming!’ Yeah, that’s because [it] came out of left field… The ending was the author’s deus ex machina.”
“The way the plot twist unfolded was absolute trash. You can’t write a character that thinks one way throughout an entire book — sad her husband is framed, shocked he cheated, wondering who the killer is, wondering if maybe her husband did it, wondering maybe this or that person did it, determined to find the culprit… then come out at the end and say she is the killer.”
Next: How Jeneva Rose got The Perfect Marriage published and onto the bestseller charts — after 500 rejections from agents and publishers.
My Rocky and Twisted Path to Publication By Jeneva Rose
July 13, 2020 | By Jeneva Rose | 1 Reply
My path to publication was not traditional nor easy by any means, but it was on-brand for me. I’ve always been a person that has to learn things the hard way, outwork luck, and take the path less traveled. I’ve been a writer since I was a child, but I didn’t attempt to truly write a novel until 2016. It was women’s fiction, and it was close to my heart, the book I had to write to prove I could and the one I wrote for myself. In early 2017, I sent out my first queries, hoping it would find a home, but feeling like I was fine if it didn’t, because its home was with me.
After eighty plus rejections, I was okay to shelve it and not really disappointed because I was more proud than anything that I had finished it. That book had already done what I needed it to do for me, it made me believe in myself as a writer.
Later that year, I decided to try writing a new book in a new genre, a psychological thriller, for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It was born from an idea I had been holding in my head for over eight years, one that begged to be written. I wrote fifty thousand words in November, took a small break, finished it in January, edited it in February and by April, I had several offers of representation. I thought I had made it. Finally, after one-hundred rejections, I had someone in my corner that would take my writing career to the next level.
Eighteen months later, I decided to part ways with my agent due to differences in communication and working styles. I had gone on two small submission rounds, which came back with rejections or no responses at all. In that year and a half, I had done two major rewrites and wrote two more books, one of which was ready for submission. Before it went out on sub, I made the difficult decision to part ways with my agent.
With my new book in hand, I was ready to query again for representation a week later. I felt so confident in this book. Feedback had been glowing from first readers and from friends and family. After receiving fourteen full requests, that confidence soared. Every day I woke up and thought, today’s the day I get an offer. Half of those full requests came back as rejections, half never replied. Over one-hundred rejections, most with no reply at all came pouring into my inbox and were quickly moved to my most heavily populated email folder, ‘Rejections.’ However, some of the feedback I received is what fueled me and took me in another direction. “I love this, but I don’t know how to sell it.”
With a dash of angst and an overload of drive, I decided to submit my first psychological thriller, the one that had gone out on sub twice and had been rewritten twice, directly to publishers that accept un-agented manuscripts. “I’m going to sell this myself,” was what went through my head over and over as I researched editors and put together my pitch letter.
I told you I was fueled by angst and ambition. Two days after submitting to editors, I had an offer of publication from Bloodhound Books. Two weeks after that, I had an offer from Bookouture for a two-book series. Finally, I felt validated, like someone saw in me what I thought I had seen in myself. After working with a lawyer, I accepted both offers, officially, securing my rocky and twisted path to publication.
My journey was unique. My path was lined with letters of rejections and a series of ‘almosts’ and ‘not quites’ but there was a thread that ran through it all – determination. Even if I had to hear ‘NO’ hundreds of times, and I did (did I mention that already?), I told myself early on, ‘NO’ was just another two-letter word, that was essentially the same as ‘NOt right now’ or ‘NOt today’ or ‘NOble attempt.’ I am still pursuing representation with another completed project because I do want someone in my corner, but as of now, I’m thrilled and I’m happy with where I’ve gotten and how far I’ve come on my own. The path to publication is different for everyone and there’s not a “right” way to do it. There’s just the right way and the right time for YOU.
_
Jeneva Rose writes women’s mysteries and thrillers. Her debut novel The Perfect Marriage is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a top criminal defense attorney who faces her most challenging case when she vows to defend her husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress. It publishes July 13th, 2020. Jeneva also writes under the pen name J.R. Adler and has recently signed a two-book series deal with Bookouture. The first in the series, Dead Woman Crossing is out September 23rd and the second in the series, Black Heart Lane is out April 2021. She currently lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, Andrew, and her English bulldog, Winston.
—
Pre-order The Perfect Marriage here: https://amzn.to/2VQeO8d
Pre-order Dead Woman Crossing here: https://amzn.to/2Dip3Mh
Find out more about Jeneva Rose:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jenevarose__
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jenevaroseauthor
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jenevaroseauthor/
Website – https://www.jenevarose.com/
MY FIRST THRILLER: JENEVA ROSE IS IN HER OWN WORLD
How the bestselling author spurned the traditional publishing world and found her own way to writing success.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 BY RICK PULLEN
Jeneva Rose is a whirlwind. When the publishing world didn’t work for her, she created her own.
Like most aspiring authors, she first took the conventional route to hoped-for literary success. For her efforts, agents and publishers turned her down a combined 500 times. After she finally connected, she fired her agent before she found a publisher.
“At the time it sucked, but it makes it so much sweeter to appreciate now,” she says.
Rose wanted to write from an early age, but she could never finish a book. In her gap year of college Rose wrote comedic screenplays, but nothing hit. Her first attempt at a novel began in 2009. She was impatient, maybe a bit unfocused because “the idea of writing one was daunting,” and she could never get beyond writing the first eighty pages of a manuscript.
After college she worked in digital marketing. But teetering on the rim of her bucket list was that novel. When her mother died suddenly, Rose worked through her grief by completing a manuscript of women’s fiction—her first. She realized she loved the process. That said, she still thought she was “one and done.” Back to the corporate world. Fortunately for everyone, she decided to keep writing, which would eventually lead to her debut novel.
“I decided to try writing a new book in a new genre, a psychological thriller, for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo),” she says. “It was born from an idea I had been holding in my head for more than eight years, one that begged to be written. I wrote fifty thousand words in November, took a small break, finished it in January, edited it in February.”
Her psychological thriller, The Perfect Marriage, follows a top criminal defense attorney who faces her most challenging case ever: she defends her husband, who is accused of murdering his mistress.
“By April I had several offers of representation. I thought I had made it. Finally, after one hundred rejections, I had someone in my corner that would take my writing career to the next level.”
Her agent shopped The Perfect Marriage for nearly eighteen months with no luck, when Rose attended her first ThrillerFest, the annual writers conference put on by the International Thriller Writers. During the conference she began to realize she needed to fend for herself in the publishing world. Others weren’t going to do it for her. The publishing world as she originally envisioned didn’t exist for her. So, a few months later she fired her agent and on her own landed a British publisher who accepted un-agented submissions.
When The Perfect Marriage, was finally published in 2020, she still had no agent. And like most smaller publishers, hers had a limited marketing budget to launch The Perfect Marriage. So, she created a promotional video and posted it in January 2021 on TikTok. She got more than five million views and The Perfect Marriage shot to number three on Amazon. She sold 8,000 copies in three days.
She posted another promotional video and got 900,000 views followed by another bump in sales. By then she was on a roll and understanding her own power. The more online video ideas she came up with, the more they went viral.
“I credit my success to social media,” she says. “We’re in the entertainment industry. The biggest hurdle is to get your point across very quick.” And she’s learned from trial and error.
“I’ve always been a person that has to learn things the hard way…and take the path less traveled.”
A film producer on Instagram expressed interest in optioning the film and TV rights to The Perfect Marriage. “With a contract in hand, I needed someone to handle it, so I started cold querying film agents with no luck. However, an author friend of mine offered to introduce me to her film agent who ended up handling the contract.”
The film agent asked if Rose had any other books she could option. “Yes, but I don’t have a literary agent,” Rose admitted. Looking back at what happened to her writing career the next few years, you’d question why she’d bother with one. Between 2020 and 2023 she sold more than 1.5 million copies of her novel The Perfect Marriage and other works and garnered 780,000+ social media followers. She became a publishing dynamo.
After she published two more books with small publishers, the Big Five started wooing her and wanted to poach her work from her small publishers. That’s right, publishers. As in plural. When one of the Big Five offered her an exclusive contract, she turned it down. Jeneva Rose refuses to work with a single publisher.
“You don’t have to be exclusive,” she says. In the first years of her alternative publishing universe, she worked with five publishers and flipped a polite pinky to many of the sluggish behemoths.
“This career is extremely difficult as it is,” she says, “so I never want to put all my eggs in one basket, and that’s been my mindset from the beginning when I signed with two publishers in a span of one month. Every publisher has their strengths and weaknesses and being able to work with more than one, means multiple teams are putting their best foot forward to grow my career. It’s also been an incredible learning experience, and now some of my publishers are even working together to cross promote my titles, which is truly amazing.”
Today, after several novels, she found an agent, honed her skills, and has no issue blasting through eighty pages of manuscript. Rose describes herself as both a plotter and a pantser. “I know the beginning and I know where I want to go…I will not write a book if I can’t describe it in two sentences…This is because I come at writing from a marketing standpoint first and foremost, probably due to my background in social media and digital marketing, which I worked in for ten years before becoming a full-time author.”
Could we be looking at the next generation’s James Patterson?
When she’s ready to write, she often goes through writing sprints that are timed, and then takes a break in between. But, she explains, “When I start writing, I don’t stop.” She loves writing multiple points of view in first person. Only two of her manuscripts have been written in third.
Just talking to her could exhaust you as she mentions all of the things she’s doing to build her career—and her publishing world. Now her husband is helping fulltime. She readily admits she’s a Type-A author—meaning she’s not only a writer but publicist, marketer, and brand builder.
“I’m all or nothing, which isn’t good for some things,” she says. And what might those some things be? She conquered it all in fewer than four years.
Everything appears to be coming together. Her nonstop, tornado-style work ethic combined with every aspect of her alternative publishing world has achieved much of Rose’s early publishing ambitions. For her, this is a perfect marriage.
___________________________________
THE PERFECT MARRIAGE
___________________________________
Writing Time 5 months, 2 rewrites
Agents Contacted: 200, fired her first agent before found publisher
Agent Responses: 2
Agent Search: 2-3 weeks
Time to Sell Novel: 2 days after she started submitting to small publishers
First Novel Agent: none
First Novel Editor: none
First Novel Publisher: Bloodhound
Inspiration: My mother, Debra
Advice to Writers: Write through everything, the rejections. Just keep writing. Don’t be the first person to stand in your way. I was thinking I couldn’t do it.
Website: JenevaRose.com
One of Us Is Dead
Jeneva Rose
https://www.jenevarose.com
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Road, Ashland, OR 97520
www.BlackstoneAudio.com
9798200706846, $28.99, HC, 318pp
https://www.amazon.com/One-Us-Dead-Jeneva-Rose/dp/B09BDRZR42
Synopsis: With the publication of her latest novel, author Jeneva Rose would like you to eet the women of Buckhead--a community of expensive cars, huge houses, and competitive friendships.
Shannon was once the queen bee of Buckhead. But she's been unceremoniously dumped by Bryce, her politician husband. When Bryce replaces her with a much younger woman, Shannon sets out to take revenge ...
Crystal has stepped into Shannon's old shoes. A young, innocent Texan girl, she simply has no idea what she's up against ...
Olivia has waited years to take Shannon's crown as the unofficial queen of Buckhead. Finally, her moment has come. But to take her rightful place, she will need to use every backstabbing, manipulative, underhand trick in the book ...
Jenny owns Glow, the most exclusive salon in town. Jenny knows all her clients' secrets and darkest desires. But will she ever tell?
Who amongst these women will be clever enough to survive Buckhead--and who will wind up dead? They say that friendships can be complex, but no one said it could ever be this deadly.
Critique: A deftly crafted blend of women's friendships, rivalries, ambitions, and suspense, "One of Us is Dead" is a riveting and entertaining read from first page to last. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.69) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (9798200705955, $31.95, MP3-CD), "One of Us is Dead" will prove to be a welcome and popular addition to community library Contemprorary Mystery/Suspense collections.
Editorial Note: Jeneva Rose is also the author of The Perfect Marriage, which has been published in nearly a dozen languages and optioned for film. She maintains a website at https://www.jenevarose.com
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"One of Us Is Dead." Internet Bookwatch, May 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A706735517/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e8cdf6aa. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Rose, Jeneva ONE OF US IS DEAD Blackstone (Fiction None) $28.99 4, 26 ISBN: 979-8-20070-684-6
A salon owner who serves the upper-crust women of Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood recalls the events that led up to the death of one of them.
Once Congressman Bryce Madison has divorced Shannon Madison, who still insists on using his last name, and marries trophy wife Crystal, the first order of business for Olivia Petrov, the monstrous vice chairwoman of the Buckhead Women's Foundation, is to get Shannon voted out as the organization's chairwoman--a decision she announces to Shannon in the middle of a gala Shannon organized. Olivia's second order of business is to get Shannon nixed as a client by Jenny at the Glow Beauty Bar and unfriended by upscale realtor Karen Richardson, whose husband, plastic surgeon Mark Richardson, Olivia has called on repeatedly for services both professional and unprofessional. But Shannon's not about to go gently into that good night; Karen is busy falling for Keisha, Jenny's friend and employee; and Crystal, who's hiding secrets of her own, may not be the ideal new member of the frenemies group Olivia has gathered around her. As she's questioned by Detective Frank Sanford, Jenny is joined by four other narrators--Olivia, Karen, Shannon, and Crystal--who take turns dishing on each other and heartlessly detailing all the offensive and defensive moves each of them made. As Rose sends her juiced-up take on Clare Boothe Luce's classic play The Women hurtling toward a conclusion whose only clearly preordained feature is that one of them will end up killing one of the others, suspense focuses mainly on why only one of these eminently deserving ladies ends up dead.
Sublimely bitchy. What else is there to know?
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Rose, Jeneva: ONE OF US IS DEAD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A690892265/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=804cd7f3. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Jeneva Rose. Blackstone, $28.99 (272p) ISBN 979-8-20070684-6
This decently plotted but pedestrian page-turner from Rose (The Perfect Marriage) centers on a posse of viperous trophy wives vying for social status in the posh Atlanta enclave of Buckhead. Employing the exclusive Glow salon as their unofficial clubhouse, these ladies who do not lunch (preferring to use the calories on booze instead) multitask beauty treatments and backstabbing. Among them is ruthless Olivia Petrov, who successfully strips frenemy Shannon Madison--recently dumped by her politician husband for a much younger female bartender and therefore expendable--of her nonprofit committee chair post. From here tensions between the two Mrs. Madisons start to simmer, roiling the rest of the group; Glow gets broken into, and at least one of them winds up murdered. Despite cartoonish characters and often clunky prose, the novel does have its amusing moments, but these end up being overshadowed by the exploitative use of two serious issues-domestic violence and human trafficking-as little more than plot points to help set up the surprising denouement. This one's vibe might best be encapsulated in "The Real Karens of Buckhead." Agent: Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"One of Us Is Dead." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 7, 14 Feb. 2022, p. 42. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A695588394/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2edfd2ee. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
You Shouldn't Have Come
Jeneva Rose. Blackstone, $26.99 (344p) ISBN 979-8-212-18280-5
New Yorker Grace Evans, one narrator of this intriguing thriller from Rose (One of Us Is Dead), books a getaway at a remote ranch near Dubois, Wyo., to escape her high-powered banking career and relax. The other narrator is the ranch's proprietor, Calvin Wells, who promises to keep her safe after she tells him on arrival that she had a run-in with a creepy gas station attendant en route. The good news: plenty of outdoor activities and breathtaking scenery; the bad news: little to no phone reception and no internet. Though Grace is a bit apprehensive, she shrugs it off, determined to disconnect from Technology. But then her car starts acting up, folks in Dubois aren'r exactly friendly (including Calvin's friends and family), and then the police show up looking for a young woman who was supposed to be the ranch's most recent guest. Calvin says she never showed, and Grace believes him; the two become increasingly entangled as things go awry. A sinister undercurrent runs throughout, and while the reader is privy to each narrator's thoughts, there are a few land mines buried along the way to the surprise ending. Rose should win new fans with this one. Agent: Sandy Lu, Book Wyrm Literary. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"You Shouldn't Have Come." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 8, 20 Feb. 2023, p. 171. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A739490518/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f306f380. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Rose, Jeneva YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE Blackstone (Fiction None) $26.99 4, 25 ISBN: 9798212182805
Will-they, won't-they turns into something altogether darker: Who is after whom?
Grace Evans is a bit of a mystery, even to herself. She's never been able to explain her annual tradition of throwing a dart at a U.S. map and traveling wherever it lands. Maybe her goal is to escape from her life in New York, where she's in control too much of the time. This year, her tradition sends her to a ranch in Wyoming with an Airbnb and, she discovers on her arrival, hot host Calvin Wells. It all seems like good luck. Calvin thinks having Grace as his guest is pretty lucky too, as his alternating point-of-view chapters show him getting stuck on his guest as her time with him passes. Grace and Calvin spend bucolic days together riding horses, grocery shopping, and getting to know each other in what turns out to be their own little slice of paradise. But how well can you really know someone? wonders Grace, particularly as a local police officer keeps coming to the door asking about a girl who had booked Calvin's Airbnb and then vanished without a trace. She never showed up, Calvin claims, and Grace wants to believe him even as she grows suspicious. Mysterious animal deaths, haunting dreams, and vague warnings from local townsfolk have Grace wondering if she's safe staying with Calvin, but checking her car shows that it needs repairs, so she may not be able to get away even if she tries. In the face of Grace's growing concern, Calvin promises that everything's fine, and it is for a long time, until it isn't.
All buildup with a late-coming release.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Rose, Jeneva: YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A738705406/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5476608c. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Home Is Where the Bodies Are. By Jeneva Rose. Apr. 2024. 270p. Blackstone, $27.99 (9798212182843).
What happens when everything you thought you knew is suddenly turned upside down? This is the question three estranged siblings grapple with when they gather for the mundane job of sifting through their deceased mother's home. Eldest sister Beth (who alone heard their mother's cryptic final words, "Don't trust ..."), erstwhile middle child Nicole (29 days sober), and successful younger brother Michael (reluctantly back in their small town) alternately narrate their uneasy reunion, during which one videotape shatters any calm. The tape revisits the date 23 years ago that irrevocably changed their family. The siblings are shocked to see images of Emma Harper, the girl who vanished that summer night, and their frantic parents with her body. With palpable urgency, they unravel the secrets left by the father who abandoned them and the mother who cooperated with him, their own deceptions straining their tenuous familial trust, building to a stunning revelation. Set in Rose's (You Shouldn't Have Come Here, 2023) own rural Wisconsin hometown, this is a breathless stand-alone thriller.--Karen Clements
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Clements, Karen. "Home Is Where the Bodies Are." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2023, p. 46. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A788124939/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6c214f48. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Home Is Where the Bodies Are
Jeneva Rose. Blackstone, $27.99 (256p) ISBN 979-8-212-18284-3
Secrets await when the late Laura Thomas's adult children return to the rural community of Allen's Grove, Wis., to settle her estate in the taut if occasionally far-fetched latest from bestseller Rose (You Shouldn't Have Come Here). Dutiful eldest sibling Beth feels drained from juggling her factory job with caring for her cancer-stricken mother, whose husband disappeared seven years earlier. Meanwhile, strung-out middle child Nicole is fighting a losing battle with addiction, and Michael, the youngest, is a tech entrepreneur in California who wants as little as possible to do with the rest of his family. As the trio, who take turns narrating, sort through Laura's belongings, they stumble across a smoking gun: a 1999 VHS tape showing their bloodied father, a dead body, and their disrraught mother agreeing to help dispose of it. Unsure what to do about the discovery, the squabbling siblings agree that Beth and Nicole will start sleuthing, and they'll formulate a decision based on their findings. In short order, someone breaks into the house, Laura's diaries reveal a spate of chilling clues, and the siblings begin to see their parents in a new, unflattering light. Though a few of the plot twists strain creduliry, Rose demonstrates a formidable command of character. It's an enjoyable ride. Agent; Sandy Wu, Book Wyrm. (Apr.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Home Is Where the Bodies Are." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 5, 5 Feb. 2024, p. 155. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A782952649/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8e685602. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Rose, Jeneva HOME IS WHERE THE BODIES ARE Blackstone (Fiction None) $27.99 4, 30 ISBN: 9798212182843
Three siblings on very different paths learn that their family home may be haunted by secrets.
Eldest daughter Beth is alone with her fading mother as she takes her final breath and says something about Beth's long-departed brother and sister, who may not have disappeared forever. Beth is still reeling from the loss of her mother when her estranged siblings show up. Michael, the youngest, hasn't been home since their father's disappearance seven years ago. In the meantime, he's outgrown his siblings, trading his share of the family troubles for a high-paying job in San Jose. Nicole, the middle child, has been overpowered by addiction and prioritized tuning out reality over any sense of responsibility, much to Beth's disgust. Though their mother's death marks an ending for the family, it's also a beginning, as the three siblings realize when they find a disturbing videotape among their parents' belongings. The video, from 1999, sheds suspicion on their father's disappearance, linking it to a long-unsolved neighborhood mystery. Was it just a series of unfortunate circumstances that broke the family apart, or does something more sinister underlie the sadness they've all found in life? In chapters that rotate among the family's first-person narratives, the siblings take turns digging up stories and secrets in their search for solace.
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Rose, Jeneva: HOME IS WHERE THE BODIES ARE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A784238529/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ddd0fcdc. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.