I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel Published by Berkley on November 10 2026
Genres: Adult, Thriller
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An ambitious writer experiences the dark side of publishing in Revenge Plot, a twisty, fast-paced thriller with plenty of unexpected surprises.
“We’re in the storytelling business,” Claudia is saying. “There’s the story inside the book but also the story about the book. Like it or not, they’re of equal importance these days. Every novel needs an origin story. So does every novelist.”
My first experience with Stephanie Wrobel was reading her 2024 release The Hitchcock Hotel, and after finishing I couldn’t wait to read more of her work. Luckily, her latest thriller just came out, and boy was it fun! Wrobel has a knack for writing complex characters with interesting motivations, and Revenge Plot has so many good twists, I could not put the book down.
As far as a story recap goes, I’m going to keep it brief so I don’t spoil anything. The story is told in two timelines. In the first part, we meet literary agent Claudia Conley, who is celebrating Christmas alone in an Airbnb in the Catskills. Claudia represents powerhouse author Jo Stone, whose thriller series has topped all the charts for the past several years. She’s fixing a fancy dinner for herself—due to the fact that she and her brother Liam just had a fight and he refused to spend Christmas with her—when she hears a loud noise outside. A man named Arnie and his son Theo have just crashed their car into a tree outside her Airbnb. Claudia runs outside to help and reluctantly decides to invite them into her rental while they wait for a tow truck, but they’re in the middle of a snow storm so it could be hours.
The second section switches gears and takes place ten years earlier in 2014. Twenty-year-old Neve White is a talented writer and has just published her first novel. Her agent, Claudia Conley, has set up a book launch event at a local bookstore, and Neve couldn’t be more excited. We follow Neve as she navigates the world of publishing, starts an affair with an older, married man, and sees her dreams of becoming a famous writer start to crumble after her debut fails to achieve the sales numbers her publisher was hoping for. Desperate to come up with an irresistible book pitch for her second novel, Neve finds herself agreeing to Claudia’s dubious advice. She’s the expert after all, isn’t she?
As the story progresses, all the various connections among the characters become clear. Arnie turns out to have a hidden agenda and didn’t wind up in front of Claudia’s Airbnb by mistake. But what could he possibly want from her? It isn’t until much later that all the threads start to connect and make sense. There are a ton of surprises and twists in Revenge Plot, the kind that make you want to go back and reread sections to see what you missed. There’s a lot going on in the story, but Wrobel does an admirable job of keeping all of her spinning plates in the air.
I also liked the way the tone changes in the different sections. Claudia’s and Arnie’s chapters are pure mystery/thriller, as Arnie’s agenda becomes more and more clear: he wants something from Claudia and won’t stop until he gets it. The tension slowly builds as the reader realizes things are “off.” Why does Theo call his dad “Arnie” instead of “Dad”? How does Arnie know so much about Claudia and her work? And what is Claudia hiding? Clearly she’s upset by Arnie’s presence, and it isn’t until Neve’s narrative that we learn why.
Neve’s chapters, on the other hand, lean more towards coming-of-age literary fiction. Neve is young, bright and ambitious, and her journey to becoming a successful writer takes some predictable paths, although I didn’t mind the predictability because her story is so fascinating. Although at first it seems like Claudia is the only connection between the two storylines, other important details and reveals emerge that connect Neve to what’s happening with Claudia, Arnie, Theo and other side characters. It was all sort of mind blowing! And Neve is an interesting character to follow. She’s sort of a mess at times, but when you see everything she’s going through, you’ll probably sympathize with her too. She’s burdened by so many secrets, when all she wants to do is write.
Because the story takes place in the world of publishing, Wrobel adds all sorts of fun publishing details to her story, like how nerve wracking it is when the New York Times best seller list comes out, or what happens behind the scenes during a bidding war among different publishers. Neve even worries about her book’s review stats on Goodreads, lol. As a book reviewer/influencer, I already know a lot about the publishing industry, but it’s always fun to read about it (although the author sensationalizes it a bit in this story, as some scenes seemed overly dramatic).
There are lots of things I haven’t touched on in this review, the number one question being who is Jo Stone and what do they have to do with the story? Wrobel includes some epistolary content throughout the book, like emails, Reddit threads and more that sow the seeds of this mystery and keep readers guessing. The way everything finally comes together was so satisfying, and I especially loved the very touching “Eighteen Months Later” chapter that acted as a bittersweet finish for one character’s journey.
Lots of fun from start to finish, Revenge Plot is a must read for anyone looking for a well written, entertaining story.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.
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