Welcome to Perfectville

by Yvonne Eve Walus

“Thrums with tension that ratchets up with every new revelation.” Bev Robitai, author of Sunstrike

A perfect world is a controlled one.

Thirty years ago, a group of idealists built Perfectville—an isolated town with no crime, no competition, and no chaos. A generation was raised in safety, free to play before “paying their debt.”

Tisha Moore is the flaw in the system. A single mother of twins, she broke the rules—and now lives under constant scrutiny in a world designed to have none.

She dreams of escape. But Perfectville offers her children something the Outside never could: safety.

When a violent gang targets her family and forces her into a criminal network operating inside the town, Tisha becomes a threat to the very system keeping her children safe. Undercover agent Rafe Portman is sent to stop her—by gaining her trust, exposing her secrets, and bringing her down.

As pressure builds and a new generation begins to push back against the rules, Tisha faces an impossible choice: protect the system that keeps thousands safe, or destroy it and risk losing her children to the chaos beyond its walls.

328 pages, Paperback

Published July 26, 2026

About the author

Yvonne Walus writes crime fiction set in South Africa because she believes it’s a misunderstood country. South Africa means a lot of things to a lot of people: lions in long yellow grass, diamond mines, apartheid, Nelson Mandela, rugby. All of those images are right, yet none of them - according to Yvonne - are representative of the country or its people. None of them describe what it’s like to live in South Africa, both in the 1980s and today.
Yvonne would like her readers to smell the red dust of the continent and to fall in love with Africa the way she did when she first set foot there as a teenager. Through her books, Yvonne shows that South African people, despite the recent history of discrimination, are no different to any other people. Not worse, not better. Just people.

Reviews

[Annotations&Air · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving Perfectville 4 stars for a few reasons. First, it’s intriguing concept that timely and engaged me from the beginning. Second, the troubles that plague the characters are both believable and understandable. Third, the twins and the cats were great characters which maintained an air of comic relief throughout the more tense moments of the book. Last, but not at all least, the author is a solid, competent writer.

None of this is a surprise coming from Vine Leaves Press. Some of my favorite books have issued from Jessica Bell’s editorial team this year.

I did get a little lost in the sauce with some of the behind the scenes Machiavellian maneuvers happening from time to time. The changing POV’s contributed to this a tad, but mostly I think it was due to being unclear on who the “baddies” were from the get go. Otherwise, I really enjoyed seeing scenes morph from Tisha to Rafe’s perspectives. I also expected a bit more spicy of a scene between the love interests based on the buildup. So, a lot of tolerance for slow burn 🔥 is needed here.

Overall an interesting and unique take on dystopian life that has real possibilities for fruition given our current climate and technological crises.

Thank you so much to Jessica’s entire team at Vine Leaves for the early copy for review. Please check them out if you haven’t, samplers are available of past work and all the current and upcoming projects are available to order on their site (to best support this indie press and the authors directly), as well as general retailers.

[William Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable romp through an "action-fantasy-comedy" world with deeper implications for all of us looking for the ideal place to live. I understood my personal reaction after reading the author's acknowledgement: "...my husband and I moved to New Zealand to raise our children in what felt like paradise on earth... But when our children grew up, they found the country too small, too quiet, too contained."

I commend Walus for keeping the narrative light-hearted. Makes for accessible young adult as well as adult entertainment. Beyond the intrigue, however, there are insights into our desire for control that have stayed with me.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done to the author for writing this. I have always admired her ability to write across several genres, and I have now added this to my growing list of favourite books. It will definitely warrant multiple re-readings.