Published By: Macmillan
Pages: 400
Released On: 15/01/2026
Los Angeles, 1964.
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favourite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now the Sixties are in full swing, and the Newmans’ perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch.
Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and rock ‘n’ roll idol Shep may finally be in real trouble.
When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964 America.
Can Dinah Newman bring her family together to change television history? Or will she be cancelled before she ever had the chance?
Maybe it’s time for perfection to fall out of style . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is the first of Jennifer’s books I have read. The blurb gave me a Lessons in Chemistry vibe, but that vibe remains with the cover sadly.
It is written in a backwards kind of way, at least to start, which I found weird and confusing. Like, you have your opening chapters, and then the next chapter is, say, 24 hours earlier and you’re like, okay fine. And then the next chapter is say, 9 hours earlier. But is that 9 hours earlier than the opening chapter, or is it 9 hours earlier than the 24 hours earlier chapter? And this goes on and on, and so it got very confusing for me as I wasn’t sure where I was meant to be. It does change into more of a normal narrative later on which I much preferred.
It definitely gets better as it goes on and so I found it more entertaining and grabbing, but because I found the first part so slow, I wasn’t invested in the characters and so even though the story got better, I found I didn’t really care what happened.
I didn’t dislike the characters as such, but I can’t say I liked them either. I didn’t really feel anything toward them and so I wasn’t invested in them as much as I wanted to be.
Not much actually happens. I don’t mind that generally, as long as the characters are good enough to carry a plotless story. But they weren’t. So really I got no plot and no characterisation.
I did like the multiple POVs though – I know some people struggle with them but I enjoy them, and it works in this because there’s not too many. They’re easy to keep on top of.
Being set in the 60s, it does touch on some controversial (at the time) topics like birth control, feminism, civil rights, inequality, homophobia etc. which was interesting, and it’s not too pushy or over the top.
Is it a contemporary novel? Literary? Historical? Romance? I’m not sure it quite knew what it wanted to be and felt a bit directionless at times.
The cover promises something light and fluffy but it’s actually a dark, serious look at humanity, which felt a bit of a juxtaposition.
The actual ending was fine, but then it has an added bit, an epilogue if you will set a few years later, and I didn’t like it. It was like Jennifer had finished writing it, but then had another idea so carried on and threw everything in it and it’s at odds with the rest of it. The book, whilst not my favourite, is well written and has an experienced voice, but this added bit felt quite juvenile and it just felt awkward and I wish it had ended a chapter earlier.
I did enjoy bits of it. It was interesting and entertaining, and it is clear she’s a good storyteller and I will keep an eye out for her other books. But I felt she was trying a bit too hard to make this something it’s not, and in the process it loses its heart.
Books By Your Bedside 