Thank you Sourcebooks Audio for the ALC and Sourcebooks Landmark, #partner, for the advanced copy of All the Little Houses in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Published: January 20, 2026
Summary:
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.
My thoughts:
I’m still relatively new to May Cobb’s books, having only read The Hunting Wives, and to be honest, I actually liked the Netflix adaption better than the book. But I was really curious about this latest one and it delivered a juicy, drama-filled thriller that hooked me right from the start!
With the strong vibes to the 1980s big soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty and the Little House and the Prairie quote that opens the book, I had a feeling this was going to be a fun book and I definitely wasn’t wrong. It’s the type of book that is incredibly addictive, like that car crash you just cannot look away from. There’s a mystery – I mean, when the opening chapter includes something about a body not sinking, you totally have me intrigued! – unhinged characters and secrets galore! I have to admit, I love reading about morally gray characters and we get that here in spades. This would make an excellent book club pick for that reason alone…there is just so much to unpack with just the characters, never mind the mystery and the setting.
Between the short chapters, the nostalgia that is woven into the story, and all the characters you will love to hate on, this is that kind of book you just can’t put down once you start it. It’s incredibly bingeable and the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I enjoyed it!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio with a full-cast narration. Malin Akerman, Allyson Ryan, Alexandra Hunter, and James Fouhey do a fantastic job with the voices, bringing the messiness and drama to life as if it were a movie or TV show.
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