VBT# Our Dream Home - Jessica Huntley

 

Review: Our Dream Home - Jessica Huntley - February 2026

You know those books you pick up on a quiet evening, maybe with a cup of tea in hand, and before you know it the tea has gone stone cold and you've missed your bedtime by two hours? "Our Dream Home" by Jessica Huntley is absolutely one of those books, and I am not even a little bit sorry about the lost sleep.

At the heart of this story is Fiona, and I have to say from the very first chapter, I felt her. She is stuck in one of those ruts that creeps up on you slowly, the kind where your husband has somehow become more of a "world's greatest dad" performer than your actual partner, and your teenagers look at you like you're a mildly irritating piece of furniture. What makes Fiona's situation cut even deeper is the shadow of her past , having survived breast cancer and chosen a mastectomy for the sake of her family, she now finds herself quietly wondering whether any of it was even worth it. That is a raw, painful place to write from, and Huntley handles it with a gentleness that felt genuinely respectful rather than exploitative.

Then  in the most brilliantly bonkers plot twist  Fiona enters a radio competition on a whim and wins a country mansion and a hundred thousand dollars cash. I actually laughed out loud. Sometimes life does that, doesn't it? Just throws open a door you weren't even looking for. Her family reluctantly pack up and agree to go, and you just know from that word "reluctantly" that nothing about this fresh start is going to be straightforward.

And oh, is it not. Because Fiona's new next-door neighbour turns out to be the biological father of her daughter , a one-night stand from college days when names were never exchanged and the encounter was filed away as a distant memory. The layers in this book just keep building, one on top of the other, like a house that looks beautiful from the outside but has something deeply wrong with its foundations.

Because that is exactly what begins to happen. Strange things start occurring in and around the house. Then Fiona's husband  instead of being a source of support  turns on her with gaslighting and manipulation that had me gripping the pages in genuine frustration and discomfort. Huntley writes that particular kind of psychological cruelty so convincingly it made my skin crawl. And just when you think things cannot possibly escalate further, someone tries to kill Fiona and her children.

Has their dream home become their nightmare house? You will have to read it to find out  and trust me, you will want to.

"Our Dream Home" is a gripping, emotional rollercoaster that wraps family drama, psychological tension, buried secrets, and genuine suspense all under one (very unsettling) roof. Jessica Huntley has written something that lingers long after the final page. Highly, warmly, enthusiastically recommended.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4rI7KHK