Wow. I have to say that this was probably the best McFadden book I have read since “The Housemaid.” Also, this is the first of her books that the main character we follow is a male character. It gave a different perspective as they were the protagonist. Usually male characters pop up as a side character and we may or may not get their point of view towards the end of the book or they are the antagonist of the book. I honestly didn’t know what was true or not true while reading and honestly thought the first twist was well done. And then we got twist three which I thought was great too. I also loved the ending. McFadden didn’t go for what I think most romantic suspense authors would have and that was great.
“The Tenant” follows Blake Porter. He’s an up and coming VP at his job until one day he’s accused of selling trade secrets and is promptly fired. He is is stressed out about potentially losing his fiancee (Krista), not being able to find a job, and losing his brownstone since he is running out of money to pay the mortgage. Krista recommends they see about getting a tenant for the third bedroom in their place. Blake doesn’t want to, but realizes he’s all out of options. After several disastrous (and hilarious) interviews for a potential tenant, Blake and Krista find a normal seeming young woman named Whitney who works at a diner a few blocks away. Things seem fine at first, before it seems that Whitney has an ax to grind against Blake. Blake has no idea why Whitney hates him, but he keeps getting the sense he knows her from somewhere…
I thought this was great. Blake like many of McFadden’s characters isn’t super clean. But he really loves his fiancée and is upset about any thought of losing her. There is something that Blake is hiding from us readers, but we don’t know what it is. I thought that McFadden did a great job with her first time of writing “a guy” as the lead. Blake felt very real to me throughout.
I thought that McFadden did a good job of developing Krista too. We do see why she and Blake make a great couple, but you also get why after a while she was like, what is wrong with you as Blake becomes increasingly focused on Whitney and thinking she’s doing things to drive him crazy.
We don’t get much information about Whitney for the first half of the book. She’s just there, smirking and making fun of Blake (according to him).
The flow of the book actually was really good and the overall plot of Blake realizing that he rented to someone unhinged was great. The setting of New York City really helped set the stage for the whole book I think. I honestly think McFadden’s books work better in New York City. But that may just because I really enjoyed for the most part, her Housemaid series which was set in or near New York City.
The ending as I said was a great twist and I loved that I didn’t see it coming.
I read this for Halloween Book Bingo 2025 “Punk’d” square.