Wasp's Nest

by Kat Stoddard, Major Curda (Narrator), Mia Wurgaft (Narrator)

A modern retelling of The Philadelphia Story, Wasp’s Nest is a witty, gripping love triangle unfolding over the course of seven chaotic days at a Cape Cod wedding

Tess wants nothing more than for her upcoming society wedding to overshadow the failure of her first marriage. Her fiancé Warren, a steady soon-to-be state senator, is nothing like her first husband. Tess’s relationship with working-class artist Peter was a passionate crash-and-burn, and a chapter of her life that she's ready to forget.

Peter hasn’t seen Tess in five years, so he’s shocked to receive an invitation to her wedding. But he’s moved on too, and it wouldn’t hurt to prove it by showing up with a handsome younger man as his plus-one. Mitch, an aspiring writer, is intrigued by Peter and jumps at the chance to pry into the lives of his Waspy ex-in-laws. What he’s not bargained for is developing serious feelings for both Peter and Peter’s ex—Tess, the bride. But Peter and Tess have complex desires of their own, and Mitch is dangerously close to uncovering them.

Wasp's Nest is a fast-paced, humorous, and heartfelt exploration of the shape of our affections that proves real love triangles connect on all sides.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Retellings, Adult, Contemporary

10 pages, Audiobook

Expected publication June 30, 2026

About the author

Kat Stoddard lives with her daughter in Baltimore. Wasp’s Nest is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Meagan (Meagansbookclub) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. I love dysfunctional families, but the writing never got the depth and emotion that I was hoping for.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to work on this book!!! yay!!! <33

[dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

oh this was so wonderful and such a fun ride. the characters were so so messy and reading this truly felt like watching a show where my eyes are glued to the screen.

i loved the way this progressed. in the beginning i wasn’t sure what would happen and towards the second half the plot just continued to thicken & left me on the edge of my seat. but nonetheless, i loved it. i loved the three of them and the dynamic they all had with one another and as a group. i was so glad for that ending & it made me very happy, especially for peter and tess.

totally recommend if you love flawed characters, messy relationships & drama worth sitting for

[Kristina Bulovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

Give me a story about dysfunctional families and/or marriages and I'm happy! The unexpected humor kept drawing me in... it's like when you're talking to someone you've known forever and don't mean to be funny, it's even better.

The only character I truly always enjoyed was Sebastian, though the others had their moments. It felt a little forced at times and a little flat at others. Some of the triangle dynamics I just couldn't understand the purpose of, but I've never read The Philadelphia Story so that might be why.

This story jumps right in and makes no apologies, which I appreciate. Love the cover and LOVE the title!

[Molly Lavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

favorite book of the year!!!!!!

[Ellie Kinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down! The characters were very nuanced, and each layer of their entwined relationships that was slowly revealed had me completely hooked.

The descriptions of the stunning Cape Cod scenery took me back to the days of visiting my grandparents in Orleans every summer as a child (and witnessing all the WASP-y displays of wealth infiltrating the Cape). It would’ve been interesting to see the Lowell’s lifestyle juxtaposed against some of the less lavish realities that full-time residents of the Cape deal with, like the opioid epidemic (but perhaps would be too much to delve into on top of all the complex character journeys).

Absolutely loved this depiction of a true love triangle – I’m of the belief that it doesn’t count unless there’s romantic attraction on all three sides! It was a wonderful queer summer read, and a very impressive debut novel.

[Andria Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comparing this to The Philadelphia Story was a big miss to me. I expected a lot more wit and fun, and much less regret, bad behavior, and angst.

[Jenna Velardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay first of all I cannot wait until this book comes out so I can talk with anyone I see about it!!!! Thank you for this ALC🎧🎧

Wow okay now let’s dive in. I saw “Cape Cod” and “love triangle” and said hell yeah and just went for it.

How many love triangles are in this book you ask??? An infinite number!!!!!!! This must be the hottest group of people on the planet because everyone is hot for everyone.

Tess- damn girl get your shit together. You make big life decisions without blinking an eye and get yourself into a ton of shit. You deserve love tho seriously.

Peter- everyone loved him, I loved him. Had his life shit but was so (almost crazy) calm about everything. I cannot relate to being so calm and unbothered. I would have fought everyone in this book if I were him.

Mitch- cut it out

Warren and Georgia- figure it out

I did feel like I needed a bit more info on why Tess left Peter in the first place like it seemed like her friend was just like leave him and she listened without even thinking twice?? (Goes back to impulsiveness but maybe there was more to it???)

This book was so good it kept me on the edge of my SEAT. If they make a movie Hudson Williams better be Peter.

[Phoebe C · Rating 5 out of 5]

so fun!!!!!!! so messy!!!!!!!!! perfect book for any fans of weird dynamics

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wedding That Couldn’t Outrun the Portrait
How Kat Stoddard’s “Wasp’s Nest” turns a Cape Cod remarriage plot into a sharp, yearning study of love, class, art, and the selves we fail to discard.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | May 18th, 2026


The empty poolside becomes the book’s first confession: a stage of wealth, sunlight, and absence where the old life waits just off the deck.

A second wedding, in Tess Lowell’s mind, should prove that the first one did not count. It should show her friends, her family, her future voters-by-marriage, and perhaps most importantly herself, that the old version of Tess – the one Peter Hyun painted, loved, wounded, and left wounded in return – has been folded away. Not destroyed. Tess is rarely so wasteful. Just stored somewhere tasteful, out of sight.

In Kat Stoddard’s “Wasp’s Nest,” Tess has planned her Cape Cod wedding with the zeal of a woman determined to look convincingly mended. The hydrangeas will do what hydrangeas are paid, in atmosphere, to do. The dress will fit. The steady fiancé, Warren Ashley, will stand in the proper place. The old guesthouse, the old portrait, the old watch, the old appetite for the wrong kind of man – all of it can remain in exile.

Naturally, the past arrives with luggage.

“Wasp’s Nest” borrows the old machinery of Philip Barry’s “The Philadelphia Story” and loosens the screws: an old-money bride, a second marriage, an ex-husband, an outsider with writerly designs, and a weeklong boil in which manners begin to sweat through their shirts. But Stoddard’s best mischief is not in modernizing the setup. It is in disturbing the old romantic contract. In the remarriage plot, recognition is supposed to sort people into their approved pairs. Here, recognition ruins the seating chart. The more clearly Tess, Peter, and Mitch see one another, the less possible it becomes to pretend that longing accepts assigned tables.

Tess is preparing to marry Warren, an old family friend and soon-to-be state senator whose social papers seem to have been embossed before birth. He is steady, educated, diplomatic, politically useful, and exactly the sort of man a woman might choose after surviving a beautiful error. Peter, that error with a face, a watch, and paint under his nails, is a working-class Korean American painter and adjunct professor. His marriage to Tess began as patronage, collaboration, argument, lust, and a mutual rescue, mutually botched. It ended in addiction, rehab, and divorce.

Peter has been sober for five years when he receives an invitation to Tess’s wedding, which Tess did not send. The culprit is Sebastian, Tess’s gay younger brother, an affable saboteur with a vape pen, tender damage, and a better instinct for plot than anyone gives him credit for. Peter accepts anyway. He brings Mitch Mitchell, a handsome, restless, bisexual aspiring writer who has not yet written much but is magnificently ready to make life submit to notes. Mitch is meant to serve as Peter’s alibi: proof that the ex-husband has not arrived merely to haunt the floral arrangements. Instead, Mitch becomes the live wire. He wants Peter, is fascinated by Tess, and mistakes access for immunity until the week begins to draw blood.

The book lasts seven days, but it moves by pressure: breakfast plans, dinner traps, storm warnings, rehearsal etiquette, and the tick of a ceremony that begins to sound less like romance than a countdown. Stoddard rotates among Tess, Peter, and Mitch, and the shifts in point of view keep the book from hardening into anyone’s preferred version of events.


Before the storm, the gazebo holds Tess and Peter at a distance – close enough for recognition, far enough for the wedding to remain temporarily standing.

Tess curates. Peter retreats. Mitch takes notes before he understands.

Each believes he or she has the story by the throat. Tess tells herself Warren is the adult choice and Peter the youthful disaster. Peter tells himself he has come for closure, with a little vanity folded discreetly into the luggage. Mitch tells himself he is gathering research. By the end, the tent is wrecked, the ring is off, the engagement is over, and nearly everyone has learned that “moved on” often means “unprocessed” in better clothes.

The premise invites farce; Stoddard keeps handing the farce a bill. Her comedy has teeth because objects remember what people deny. Hermès mules slide on damp planks. A watch from a failed marriage rubs against Peter’s wrist. Champagne flutes remain packed in tissue. A grocery-store cake arrives iced with an apology. A phone is kicked into a swimming pool. A wedding tent swells and collapses in the storm like a creature with opinions about matrimony. Stoddard writes in clean, flexible sentences that know how to carry a joke to the exact place where it becomes an x-ray. People betray themselves by what they notice, what they own, what they assume someone else will clean, and what they cannot bear to throw away.

Class, here, wears its best clothes and insists they are merely practical. Tess’s world never says money when it can say quality, never says class when it can say standards, never says inheritance when it can say family tradition and then order better linens. The Lowell property is not just a setting; it is a machine for turning privilege into atmosphere. Peter, who once lived partly inside that machine and partly as its decorative rebellion, understands how refinement can conceal appetite. Mitch, arriving from Missouri by way of precarious New York service work, is both dazzled and suspicious. He is right to be fascinated by the Lowells. He is wrong to think curiosity can protect him from harm.

The three central voices are distinct without becoming tricks. Tess’s sections are controlled, evaluative, funny in a way that often leaves a bruise. Peter’s are visual, dry, and watchful, trained by portraiture and sobriety. Mitch’s are hungry, associative, self-dramatizing, full of bright improvisations and sudden exposure. Stoddard does not paste labels on these voices. She lets pressure tug the seams loose. Together, they make looking the book’s first form of desire: Peter paints, Mitch watches, Tess arranges herself to be seen and then resents the exposure.

The book is sharpest when it treats art not as expression but as evidence – especially when the subject is still nearby, pretending not to look. Peter paints Tess, and in painting her gives her a version of herself she cannot discard. Tess manages Peter’s career, turning love into advocacy, advocacy into control, and control into something she can mistake for devotion. Mitch writes from the raw material of the week, borrowing pain before he has earned the right to understand it. Everyone wants to be seen. Everyone fears being made useful.

The portrait of Tess is the object the book keeps returning to like a guilty witness. Peter assumes she destroyed it after the divorce. She did not. She left it at her aunt Julia’s house, where Mitch eventually finds it: a younger Tess alive with paint, hair unsettled, gaze bright, not yet sealed into the woman who can organize a wedding but not bear the feeling inside it. The revelation matters because it disproves Tess’s preferred story about herself. She did not erase Peter. She preserved what he saw. The painting is not a romantic souvenir. It is evidence.

Stoddard handles longing with a fine instinct for cross-contamination. Tess and Peter were real. Peter and Mitch are real. Tess and Mitch, in their disastrous way, are real too, though their encounter is volatile, ethically bruised, and soaked in panic. The book does not ask the reader to approve of everyone. It asks for the harder response of understanding how each person becomes briefly intelligible. When Tess sleeps with Mitch, it is not a mere betrayal twist. It is grief routed through another body, jealousy disguised as experiment, and want tangled with the wish to occupy the place someone else holds. Mitch is not seduced like a helpless lamb led toward a very expensive slaughter. He participates, partly out of longing for Tess, partly out of longing for Peter, partly out of the terrible knowledge that Tess once stood at the center of Peter’s life in a way Mitch fears he never can.


The locked pool room turns privacy into exposure, with storm glass, blue-green water, and small objects carrying more danger than any confession.

Mitch’s queerness matters because Stoddard does not give him a neat label-and-liberation story. His bisexuality is awkward, embodied, hopeful, embarrassing, charged with class longing and artistic hunger. He does not simply “find himself” through Peter; he finds several versions of himself, not all of them noble. The same generosity of complication extends to Tess, who could easily have become a brittle rich-woman obstacle. Instead, she is the book’s most dazzling weather system: snobbish, anxious, cruel, magnetic, wounded, intelligent, ridiculous, and much funnier than she intends to be. Tess can ruin the day and still be the most interesting thing happening under the sky.

Peter is drawn with equal care, though his danger is quieter. His self-control can look like grace until it begins to resemble evasion. His sobriety is treated seriously without turning the book into a lesson. After discovering Tess and Mitch together, he does not drink the beer in the guesthouse fridge. He opens the cans one by one and pours them down the drain. It is an act of discipline, yes, but not virtue. Soon after, he reads Mitch’s unfinished manuscript without permission. Stoddard is too alert to let restraint become sainthood. Peter can save himself in one moment and betray someone else’s trust in the next.


In the hospital waiting room, the week’s polished arrangements flatten into fluorescent stillness, where injury and secrecy sit among the empty chairs.

The relatives do what relatives in such novels must: arrive with luggage, grievances, private weather, and at least one match too close to the curtains. Sebastian is the finest comic invention, a wastrel with a pulse and better timing than anyone deserves. Georgia, Tess’s older sister, deepens beautifully in the final third, when her buried history with Warren reframes the supposed safety of Tess’s second choice. Julia, Tess’s aunt, appears late but lands cleanly, telling Tess that it is not too late with the blunt mercy of a woman who knows what a wedding can conceal. Nia, Tess’s best friend and maid of honor, brings polish, fatigue, and loyalty under strain, though her romantic subplot with a senior colleague remains more echo than fully opened chamber. Warren is the thinnest of the major figures. He must be good enough for Tess to choose and divided enough for her to leave; he fulfills the role, but he never acquires the density of Tess, Peter, Mitch, Georgia, or even Sebastian.

The rotating structure lets misreadings accumulate with elegant patience. We know Peter arrives before we know why he truly came. We know Tess insists she has moved on before we know how carefully she has arranged her life around not looking back. We know Mitch is writing before we understand that his fiction is less exposé than confession by other means. We see Warren and Georgia’s awkwardness before we know its history. What follows is not a chain of cheap surprises, but a series of altered readings. Earlier scenes keep changing their clothes.

The pacing is strongest in the first two-thirds, where dinner parties become interrogations, flirtations become data-gathering, and every seating arrangement feels faintly dangerous. Stoddard understands that in a comedy of manners, a meal is never simply a meal.

It is a trial with silverware.

The last act occasionally tries to seat too many emergencies at the same table. The storm logic is theatrically satisfying – blood, rain, blocked roads, a broken pool door, a collapsed tent, exposed secrets, stranded guests – but the final movement requires consequence to sprint. Mitch’s injury, Peter and Mitch’s intimacy, Tess and Mitch’s night together, Peter’s discovery, the punch, the canceled wedding, and the open final gesture arrive in tight succession. The book remains exciting, but a few of its revelations could have used more air. One senses Stoddard wanting every charged line to spark at once. Most do. A few could have burned longer.


The collapsed wedding tent becomes the book’s most civil ruin: cream canvas, bent poles, and good manners undone by weather.

Still, it is difficult to begrudge a debut this much nerve. “Wasp’s Nest” is alert to the absurdity of social performance, the unequal risks of spontaneity, the private brutality of sensible choices, and the way money with manners can make even collapse look well catered. The book never turns sideways to lecture. Its social bite arrives under the napkin: the curated wedding, the political optics, the old money pretending to be mere comfort, the artist trying not to be owned, the writer trying not to steal, the bride trying to prove that a beautiful life is the same as a true one.

The final pages refuse to turn cancellation into cleanliness. Tess ends the marriage before it begins because she sees, finally, that Warren loves Georgia in the way Tess wants to be loved, and that she cannot accept being anyone’s beautifully dressed second choice. Peter and Mitch are leaving, bruised but not finished. Tess walks toward the guesthouse, where the men stand with their luggage. Peter sees her. The shock on his face softens. He smiles. She smiles too.


At the guesthouse threshold, the faded red Honda holds the book’s unfinished goodbye – less resolution than a new way of seeing.

That smile is not closure, not absolution, not quite invitation. I’d rate “Wasp’s Nest” 87/100, which maps to 4/5 Goodreads stars: a sharply made, emotionally perceptive, socially alert debut whose crowded finale slightly overstrains its otherwise elegant design. The wedding fails, the tent comes down, the ring is left behind, and the old arrangement loses its authority. What remains is more precarious and more truthful: three people at the edge of the lawn, all scripts ruined, looking at one another as if the first real ceremony may be the one no one planned.


Early thumbnail studies test how little the image needs to say: pool, hedge, chaise, sky, and the pressure of absence.


The pencil underdrawing fixes the poolside’s emotional architecture before color arrives, leaving the empty chair to do the first work.


The first wash lets the scene begin to breathe, with pale pool blues, hedge greens, and unfinished paper finding the book’s uneasy calm.


The swatch sheet translates the cover’s weather into working pigment – pool water, hedge shadow, stone, cream, and a wasp-yellow pulse.


The border study searches for the right frame: honeycomb, hedge, pool coping, and the faint geometry of enclosure.


The gesture sheet studies the figures removed from the final image, proving that absence can be more revealing than a body.


The value study tests the quiet opposition at the image’s core: pale water against dark hedge, leisure against watchfulness.


The chaise study asks one empty object to carry the body, the secret, and the afterimage of someone who has just left.


The author portrait imagines Kat Stoddard inside the book’s visual weather: poised, witty, slightly strange, and framed by the quiet hazards of “Wasp’s Nest.”

All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.
Watercolors are done on 140lb vellum and then scanned into the computer using an Epson scanner. From there, they are finalized in Procreate. All art and opinions are my own.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for this gifted audiobook.

📝 Short Summary
Wasp’s Nest is a tense family centered story filled with complicated relationships, emotional dysfunction, buried tension, and characters struggling to navigate the messiness of family dynamics and personal connection.

💭 Review
The audiobook narration was honestly the strongest part of this experience for me. The narrator did a really solid job bringing the emotional tension and uncomfortable family dynamics to life, which helped keep me engaged even during moments where the story itself felt slower or harder for me to emotionally connect with.

I usually really enjoy books centered around dysfunctional families because I love messy relationships, emotional tension, layered characters, and complicated family dynamics. Those kinds of stories are usually exactly my thing. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t fully click for me the way I hoped it would.

For me personally, the biggest issue was feeling emotionally disconnected from parts of the story and characters. The tension was definitely there, and I could appreciate what the book was trying to do emotionally, but I struggled to fully invest in everyone the way I wanted to. Sometimes with family centered stories, I need at least one character or relationship to emotionally hook me, and I never completely found that connection here.

That being said, I still think the audiobook itself was well done. The narration helped carry the atmosphere and emotional discomfort in a way that worked really well for the story. There were moments where the family dynamics felt painfully realistic, awkward, and emotionally messy, which I think a lot of readers who enjoy slower character driven stories may appreciate more than I did.

This ended up being more of a middle ground read for me overall. I didn’t dislike it, but it also wasn’t one that emotionally grabbed me the entire way through.

✅ Would I Recommend It?
I would recommend it to readers who enjoy emotionally messy family dramas, character driven stories, and uncomfortable dysfunctional family dynamics, especially in audiobook format.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the ARC! I don't agree that this book has a fast pace. I would describe the pace as medium. Initially, the story moved slowly because we were learning the complexities of the relationships between the main characters. However, once I reached the 50% mark, I needed to know how this ended, and the pace moved really fast.

I think this book is perfect for an entertaining summer read. It's difficult to discuss this book without embarking on spoiler territory, so the spoilers will start now! QUIT READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS SPOILED.

Initially, the premise for this story seemed overly simplistic. However, I want to give credit to the author because the drama was present right off the bat when we learn that Sebastian invited Peter to the wedding. I did not expect the dynamic between Warren and Georgia, and there was so much suspense leading up to Tess learning the true reason for them seeming so disheveled at the hospital. Thus, kudos to Stoddard for building the momentum.

I appreciated how this wasn't a typical coming-out story for Peter. I'm glad that Tess and Peter didn't break up solely because of his sexuality, but for other personal reasons. This made their relationship feel more layered.

I felt that some of the side characters (e.g. Nia and Sebastian) seemed underdeveloped, but I think that's because our three main leads received the most on-page time. Although Mitch was insecure in a winceworthy way, he was relatable. I'm not sure if I completely believe the romance between him and Peter, but I'm not sure Peter does either. To be determined.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you don't mind a slower pace slice-of-life type of story.

[Bourbon_bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

A modern retelling of The Philadelphia Story, Wasp's Nest follows a cast of characters leading up to an extravagant Cape Cod wedding. The story is broken down between three POVs. There is Tess, the bride-to-be. Peter, Tess's ex-husband, and Mitch, a man Peter just met and has chosen to bring as his plus one to Tess's upcoming nuptials. Tess is determined to make the next marriage be everything Peter and her's wasn't. Peter is surprised by the invite but his curiousity is peaked and he can't pass on the chance to show Tess he has bettered himself and moved on too. Mitch, an aspiring writer, jumps at a chance to watch how everything is going to play out with Peter and his ex's waspy family. Maybe he can get a story out of it. What can go wrong?

This was a 5 star read and had me hooked in the first 75% and lost me a bit in the last 25%. I understand the latter progression of the story but I just wasn't a huge fan of how it all played out.

Everyone is maladjusted and emotionally stunted but it's like a car crash, you can't help but look at.

I ate this book up and found it to be deeply human and honest in several parts. I recommend if you like stories about messy emotions, complicated desire, and the need to reconcile the past version of yourself.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a hot mess in the best way. Everyone is still in love with someone they shouldn’t be, no one is being honest about it, and it just spirals from there.

I went into this thinking Tess was kind of cold, but the more I read, the more she felt guarded and honestly a little trapped in everything around her. Mitch, on the other hand, just kept getting more chaotic and immature…like he had no real understanding of the consequences of what he was doing, especially by the end.

The dynamics between Tess and Peter were probably my favorite part because it’s so obvious they’re not over each other, even when they try to act like they are. And then adding Mitch into that mix just made everything more messy and reactive. Shocker that Warren and Georgia may still love each too…

My only real issue was the third-person writing style. It felt a little too distant at times, especially for a story that’s so emotionally charged. I kept wanting to feel more connected to the characters instead of just observing them. It was like being told the story but that I couldn’t make my own opinions about it…

Overall, I really enjoyed it and would give it 4 stars…I just wish the writing style pulled me in a little more….

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.75.

Wasp’s Nest was such an unexpected read.
Told through a triple POV, the story follows three main characters who are all flawed, messy, and a little dysfunctional—but at their core, they all want the same thing: to be truly loved, wanted, and seen.
When Tess’s ex-husband shows up to her wedding with his new boyfriend, it stirs up questions that can’t be ignored. Is Tess really over Peter—and is he over her? And is Mitch truly in love with Peter, or just the idea of him?
As boundaries blur, mistakes are made, and emotions rise to the surface, each character is forced to confront what they really want—and whether they’re brave enough to go after it.
I was hooked from page one and found the story incredibly engaging. The dry humor added a subtle charm, and I appreciated how raw and imperfect these characters were.
A great pick if you enjoy character-driven stories about complicated people who don’t quite fit the mold.

[Jade S. (JustJade.Books) · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 45%- incredibly slow-moving despite there being 3 POVs. part of synopsis claims this is "fast-paced, humorous and heartfelt..." I would highly beg to differ. This is also written in a way that it feels like I am reading a movie script. It's all "telling" alongside zero emotion or connection to any of the three main characters.

I was intrigued by this being a retelling of an old 1940s movie, as I'd never heard of it before (The Philadelphia Story). Unfortunately, this was missing the mark big time for me, and I couldn't go on any further. Maybe it picks up after this, but by almost half, and nothing at all has happened but literal stage directions and unnecessary backstory... yeah. 2 stars because I liked Mitch the most.

Thank you to the Macmillan early listener program for the free copy of this ALC.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the pubisher for the Kindle ARC. Wasp's Nest vaguely reminded me of another book I read last year - The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Wasp's Nest takes itself a little more seriously but is humorous and dramatic in its own way. Tess and Warren are scheduled to be married at her family's oceanfront home in Cape Cod. Five years prior, Tess was divorced from Peter, after an informal and impulsive decision to marry. Tess's brother thinks it would be a great idea to invite Peter to the wedding, with the guise of helping Tess and Peter gain closure from their brief marriage. This story has a lot of the atmosphere that I would imagine the wealthy live in every day - the casual money, the way that everything is perfect, even if just for show. I'm interested to read more of Kat Stoddard's work.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Wasp’s Nest. Told from the points of view of Tess, Peter, and Mitch, it’s so satisfying to hear everyone’s side of the story in this complicated drama.

It’s wedding week for Tess, and she’s nestled in her parent’s Cape Cod home preparing to marry political candidate Warren. Guests are arriving, everything is going according to plan. Tess feels ready to finally get married to someone who makes sense and fits in with her life and wealthy family. Enter Peter, Tess’s artist ex-husband, and his boyfriend Mitch. Everything is thrown into chaos and Tess and Peter have to confront their past in order to move forward.

Wasp’s Nest swept me in immediately. The setting was perfect, the characters were messy and flawed but I cared so deeply about them. I can’t believe this is Kat Stoddard’s debut. This book truly feels timeless.

Thanks so much to Net Galley and Celadon Books for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undertaking a retelling of The Philadelphia Story is a tall task, since that movie is such perfection. As contemporary fiction, though, I think this succeeds, mainly because it doesn't try to recapture the screwball comedy of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, but does its own thing. It borrows much of the plot and several of the characters (I'm not sure there's really a Ruth Hussey equivalent here and no Georgia in the movie), so the outline is recognizable, but it's not bound to a script. As a result, the flavor is a bit more dramatic (and much less cavalier about domestic violence and alcoholism) but stays light enough to be a beach read. Overall, quite well done for what it is.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc! (I ended up listening to an alc for Booklist instead.)

[Jacqueline]

3.5 rounded up for Goodreads

This book- for a book club - is hard to rate because it's definitely something I would have never picked up on my own. It's a retelling of The 1930's film "The Philadelphia Story" and just as this film was more scandalous in that day, I can see the scandalous nature of this book brought to modern day.

The characters are gray and messy, the end is open ended. There's a messy love triangle and more. It definitely leaves you thinking. For a debut novel, the writing is very well done: the plot didn't lag, the triple POV kept you reading for more, and I was interested the whole time.

Trigger warnings for:
Alcoholism
Explicit content
Smoking
Marital affairs

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am obsessed with this book! I couldn’t stop reading! The characters are so entertaining and relatable in so many ways. The entire book is a build up which gave an exciting vibe because you just know something’s gonna happen. The love triangle is wild!! I laughed and shrieked and wanted to cry. I miss the characters so much since I finished the book. They were so well developed that I feel like they’re real people I got to know. This is an absolute must read, many times over! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Tracy Sauvageau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated this a 3.5 stars out of 5.0. Thank you to #celadon and #macmillanaudio for this #gifted book and #giftedaudiobook in exchange for my unbiased review. I truly appreciated being sent both versions! I love having the audiobook version so I can listen when I cannot hold a book! With this specific book though, I wasn't a fan of the narrators. I really feel this book would have been benefitted from a different cast. The story started a bit slow, but picked up midway. Then it was a wild ride! Will there be a sequel? I am now wondering what will happen to each of the characters!

[Charlie Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars. This was SO FUN and crazy and wild. Super not my usual genre/subjects, but I started reading and couldn’t stop. Some genuine laugh-out-loud moments throughout and a plot that stayed ahead of me the ENTIRE time. Adored all the characters but especially Mitch who I love to death. I wanted a more satisfying resolution!!! To be quite honest I was rooting for the throuple of the century. Whatever. They are in my mind. Still so much fun.

[Heather Monterosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasp’s Nest pulled me in right away with its tension and small‑town secrets, and overall I really enjoyed the ride. But I’ll be honest — parts of it felt a bit rushed, like a few pieces of the puzzle never fully clicked into place.

Even so, the story kept me turning pages, and the atmosphere Kay Stoddard created was strong enough to carry the momentum. If you like fast‑moving mysteries with a sting of suspense, this one is still worth picking up.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

[Kylee (themoodylibrary) · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is chaotic, messy, and layered. you get a front row seat as we follow wife-to-be: tess, her ex-husband: peter, and peter’s “boyfriend:” mitch on the days leading up to tess’ wedding. an atmospheric story about new beginnings, past mistakes, and never settling. there was never a moment where i knew what was going to happen next (non-derogatory). a truly wild ride. read this if you want to feel like you’re eavesdropping on wealthy people.

thank you to celadon books for the ARC!

[Kathleen Reidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely, atmospheric novel that does a wonderful job with its setting and its characters. The early story is set up nicely and then once the characters are pulled together, the tension builds. I liked that the complexities in the relationships and the characters went deeper than I expected. A satisfying read!

[Amy Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

So messy and delicious! I couldn’t put this down because the characters are so imperfect, real and broken in the best ways. It’s nice to read a character driven book that you can’t predict the ending of. It’s not your normal cookie cutter book and it’s delightfully refreshing! Pick it up and enjoy the chaos. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Anderson McKean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I absolutely devoured WASP’S NEST, a wholly engrossing, messy family drama from Kat Stoddard. Set over the course of a week-long wedding at Cape Cod, this remarkable debut is an insightful, layered exploration of love, loss, disappointment and desire. Sharp, witty and impossible to put down!

[Molly Galler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This writing - wow. I was hooked immediately and would keep following these characters forever. The book is a series of intimate conversations and I could easily see this as a stage play. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys family dramas.

[Tamara Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for an early review copy.

This was…an experience. I found the main character whiney and unlikable. The writing style imitated 3rd person, but definitely wanted to tell you the story more than show it. I finally gave up about half way through.