Wasp’s Nest

By Kat Stoddard
Book cover for "Wasp's Nest" by Kat Stoddard, showing a lounge chair by a pool with trees in the background.
Title: Wasp's Nest
Author: Kat Stoddard
ISBN: 9781250387967
ON SALE: 06/30/2026

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ISBN: 9781250387974
ISBN: 9781250446763

 A modern retelling of The Philadelphia StoryWasp’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 fiance Warren, a steady soon-to-be state senator, is nothing like her first husband. Tess’ 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 Mitch hasn’t bargained on 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. Real love triangles connect on all sides.

A person in glasses sits on a chair, wearing a striped shirt and jeans, with bookshelves in the background.
Kat Stoddard lives with her daughter in Baltimore. Wasp’s Nest is her debut novel.

Praise for Kat Stoddard

“Fast and funny.”

Goodreads
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“Old grievances and new attachments surface over the week before Tess Lowell’s second wedding. Set amid the rituals of wealth, the novel follows a small constellation of characters as they circle one another in a shifting landscape. What begins as a return to familiarity becomes something less stable when Tess’s ex-husband arrives, accompanied by a young man whose presence unsettles the balance of the house. 

In this novel, Kat Stoddard masterfully explores the ways people construct and revise their own narratives, and in the complexities of human connection. In what happens when all the apparatus of intimacy gives way; what remains, and what cannot be easily resolved.”

Sarah Blakely-Cartwright

“In Wasp’s Nest, a struggling artist brings a fake boyfriend to his rich ex-wife’s second wedding, kicking off seven days of crackling dialogue, bad decisions, and feelings too big to ignore. Kat Stoddard writes with surgical precision, laying bare what love costs when desire, history, and pride collide. Brutally honest and beautifully done—I didn’t want it to end.”

Kate Broad
author of Greenwich