Homewrecked: A novel of obsession, desire and the lies that wreck a home

By Ruby Soames

Longlisted for the Somerset (CIBA) Award for Contemporary Literature - Finalist, Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2025

Are you the Jack Mathews I met on Santa Catalina Island twenty-one years ago?

One message. Sent on a whim during lockdown, when the world stopped and there was nothing left to hide behind.

Elizabeth Lambert has everything she was supposed to want - an old-money husband, a daughter, a life that looks right from the outside. What she doesn't have is enough.

Jack Mathews is the boy she loved at fifteen and never forgot. Now he has a wife, three children, and a life already under strain.

What begins as nostalgia becomes something far more dangerous: a virtual affair that feels more real than their actual lives - because the people they become in it are the people they'd rather be.

But they haven't accounted for Jude.

Jude isn't a footnote. She's a mother who built something real - and when she sees what's happening, she has no intention of stepping aside.

As lockdown lifts, Elizabeth makes her move - renting a house overlooking Jack's family, close enough to feel inevitable, too close to be anything but deliberate.

Desire turns to obsession. Fantasy collides with reality. And something is going to break.

Homewrecked is razor-sharp, darkly funny, and quietly devastating - a novel about longing, marriage, and the stories we tell ourselves just before everything falls apart.

For readers who loved 'Big Little Lies' - but wanted it darker, sharper, with more bite.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1068428910
• ISBN13: 9781068428913
• Release Date: May 2025
• Publisher: Zedkin Books
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"