She Treads Softly: A Perfectly Nice Family

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

A Perfectly Nice Family

A Perfectly Nice Family by Nicole Trope
3/6/26; 314 pages
Bookouture

A Perfectly Nice Family by Nicole Trope is a highly recommended psychological thriller. Troupe always very reliably writes a compelling thriller full of twists.

Stephanie Gordon is recently divorced from her physician husband, Christopher, who was having an affair with his office manager, Vanessa. Stephanie and their children, Luke, sixteen, and Avery, twelve, based on the divorce settlement, are living in the family home until the children are out of school, but money can be a struggle. It doesn't help that Christopher always makes Stephanie ask for him to pay support. When her bestfriend Gail mentions a nice family who lost their home in a fire is looking for somewhere to live while they wait for the insurance settlement, Gail suggests Stephanie rent the granny flat in her backyard to them. It would add income for Stephanie while helping someone in need.

The family, Cecilia and Jason Kemp along with their daughter Polly, fifteen move in. and seem perfectly nice, but perhaps a little odd. Quickly, Stephanie begins to think renting to them was a mistake. They are constantly asking for something. Celia seems strange. Polly is rude and flirting with Luke. Jason is always there, watching. When things start to break and require expensive repairs, Stephanie has had enough and asks Gail for more information about them.

This is a well-written psychological thriller where the atmospheric tension slowly simmers for much of the novel, right up until everything boils over. You will be suspicious about what is really going on for much of the novel, because there are plenty of hints that something isn't right, but once it is all uncovered and the twists begin, it becomes a nail-biter right up to the end. The intense ending will hold your complete attention.

Stephanie is a fully-realized character with both strengths and weaknesses. Her patience is amazing through much of the novel. Anyone who has experienced the life circumstances she is going through will understand how great she really is as a character and you will be on her side. Honestly, having things break in your house when you can't afford repairs is always a nightmare. Most readers will feel the uneasiness of being watched while reading and will also be questioning Gail's reliability as a freind w-a-y before Stephanie does.

A Perfectly Nice Family is a great choice for those who enjoy psychological thrillers. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.