I have read and enjoyed previous titles by Shalini Boland. She is one author whose books I’d buy without reading the blurb. Her latest book, The Child Next Door, definitely didn’t disappoint me.

This book started out a bit slow. Kristie is a new mom, living with her husband, in a quiet, cul-de-sac. One evening, Kristie hears something on her baby monitor that convinces her that there is a baby is in danger. Kristie is uncertain on whose baby it is and she is even more scared because she only knows of one baby in the neighbourhood, hers.

Through the chapters, readers get to see how Kristie’s life changed after the incident. There are a couple of things that she did that made it easy for me to connect with her. Her constant checking of locks every night, in particular, reminded me of a period in my own life. My house was burglarized a while back and I spent months doing the same thing. I used to wake up a couple of times in the middle of the night to check all doors and windows despite part of me knowing that they were definitely locked. I think this made me connect with Kristie even more. I could connect and understand her paranoia.

This book has a number of twists along the way that I couldn’t have predicted. I liked how the author revealed information as the story progressed. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, boom! A new twist! Needless to say, I was completely hooked to the story.

I loved the ending. I love it when all answers are provided in a way that sounds believable. This is what happened in this book. The conflict resolution was satisfactory. And then it happened. I thought the story was over and all the surprises were done but then came the epilogue. O.M.G! I remember suddenly, sitting upright, screaming, Whaat?

That ending is everything! Have you ever read something that actually made you envious of the author? Seriously, I wish I could come up with something like that.

This was a gripping, unputdownable psychological thriller perfect for fans of this genre. What a page-turner!

I'm looking forward to reading more from Shalini! This was a book that kept me reading, even when I had other things I should be doing.
My only complaint is that it was too short

Having children myself I know just how ultra heightened my senses became when they were babies. It was like I had all of a sudden got super woman hearing even if I was in a deep sleep. So when Kirstie Rawlings hears someone say “Lets take the child – and go”, through the baby monitor in her baby daughter’s room, she is frantic! Kirstie, filled with that adrenaline rush of ‘fight to the death to protect your child instinct’, is in her baby’s bedroom in seconds. Her daughter is fast asleep, but she knows what she heard. Neither the police or her husband believe her but it makes her even more determined to find out who could possibly have a baby hidden round where she lives.
This is a super suspense novel that makes you edgy as she can not let it go. So begins Kirstie’s own digging round to find out which of her neighbours could possibly be hiding a baby and why? Oh my goodness it is like those films where the good guy is pushing all the right buttons to get the bad guys backs up but you still don’t know who the bad guys are. The thing is if one of my neighbours began to ask me a load of pushy questions I would think they were weird and losing the plot, making me defensive. There are so many little threads that tangle you up and make you consider her sanity.
This is a real mood setting read to curl up with, with its tense, edgy chapters and one to get behind Kirstie on her mission to find the truth. Kirstie was a character that grew on me through the story but to be honest there wasn’t a lot of the characters that I liked at all. Ok some had their reasons to keep to themselves but others were just down right rude. Well Kirstie certainly poked at this lot good and proper. To say that the little huddle of houses where she lives won’t ever be the same again just doesn’t do it justice. It is smoke and mirrors stuff that just threw me ever way but the right way and I loved it!
I wish to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book which I have honestly reviewed.

After reading The Secret Mother by Shalini Boland over Christmas, I was thrilled to see she had another book out. Last time I read her book I just had to buy her entire back catalogue from Amazon as I fell in love with her style of domestic psychological suspense. And The Child Next Door continues that love affair for me as it was BLOODY BRILLIANT!!

Kirstie is a new mum and acting like any new mother with their first baby. She’s tired, emotional and overprotective so when one night she hears a crying baby and an unknown male voice over the baby monitor she rushes into baby Daisys bedroom, only to find her fast asleep in her cot. Worried for the safety of the child she has heard, she phones the police but they are unable to find any other baby on the street. Now I know that this can actually happen as when my twins were babies I used to hear a woman chatting and singing to a baby over my monitor and whatever frequency I used I could never get rid of her!! And I couldn’t find out who she was either as no one else in my cul-de-sac had a baby! In the end I got rid of the monitor……just in case!! But Kirstie is determined not to let it go and starts to poke around in the lives of her neighbours. But who is hiding secrets and who can she trust because even those closest to her seem to be deceiving her?

I really took to Kirstie straight away and was desperate to get to the bottom of the voice on the baby monitor. But she wasn’t doing herself any favours with her paranoia as it was chasing away her husband and her friends and I have to admit I did start to worry about her mental health myself! All the inhabitants of this street seemed to have something to hide and it definitely proved that you really don’t know what goes on behind closed doors! I trusted NO ONE and it was DRIVING ME MAD!!

Shalini Boland really knows how to grab her readers by the throat and not let go! Her twisty narrative had me totally gripped and once I started to read The Child Next Door then that was it, I wasn’t stopping until I had finished every last word. And talking of last words, that epilogue absolutely blew me away!!! So much so I’m finding it hard to stop thinking about it too, especially without a little shudder every time it pops back into my head!

Another addictive triumph from Shalini Boland and once again I shall be highly recommending you read her books if you haven’t already discovered them. For me they are absolute perfection!

EXCERPT: Fear clutches at my belly. Sweat breaks out on my upper lip and prickles my scalp. The thump, thump, thump of my heart beats in my ears. I must have been mistaken. Surely it can't have been. . . but there. . . what's that? Whispering. And then, clear as day, a man's hushed voice:

'Quick, let's just take the baby now and go.'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: ‘Don’t take my baby.’

Kirstie Rawlings is jolted awake by a child crying. Racing upstairs to check on her new-born, she is plunged into every parents’ worst nightmare. She hears an unknown voice in the baby monitor, saying: ‘Let’s take the child – and go.’

Is someone trying to steal her little girl?

In the bedroom, her daughter is safe asleep in her cot. Is the voice coming from a nearby house? But there aren’t any other babies living on her quiet country road…

The police don't believe her. And neither does her husband.

Kirstie knows something isn’t right. She thought she could trust her neighbours, now she isn’t sure. As she unravels the secrets of the people living on her street, Kirstie’s perfect life begins to fall apart.

Because someone is hiding a terrible lie. And they will do anything to stop Kirstie uncovering the truth. But is the danger closer to home than she thinks?

MY THOUGHTS: Five super-sized shiny heart-pounding stars! 💗💗💗💗💗

'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.'

I read The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland in one sitting, my thoughts darting all over the place. Is this woman crazy? Is she having some type of post-natal psychotic episode? Or is someone really out to get her?

This is my first book by Boland, and WOW! what an introduction to her writing.

First time motherhood is never easy. I remember it well. The sleep-deprivation, the bone-numbing exhaustion, the fear of not coping, of being the only mother in the world who doesn't cope, the stupid thoughts that dog your waking hours and prevent you from sleeping at night, the wondering how your husband could possibly find this ghost of the vital woman he married even remotely attractive, the wondering just who he is spending his time away from home with, the resentment of the time he is not spending with you . . . Boland has captured all this fear exactly, and then taken it to the next level.

The shady neighbour, the beautiful woman down the street, your best friend. . . all looking at you, all whispering about you. . . who are these people really?

And then that ending! Breath-taking. Didn't see that coming! Still shaking my head in amazement.

I just bounded through this book, unable to put it down, unable to take my eyes from the pages. Definitely recommended. Highly recommended. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This is the second book written by Shalini Boland that I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing. The first book of hers that I read and reviewed was ‘The Secret Mother’. which was released towards the end of last year. I loved it and so I had high hopes for ‘The Child Next Door’- I was not to be disappointed. I really enjoyed it but more about that in a bit.
Kirstie is a new Mam, whose baby is not that old. Whilst she is downstairs and the baby is in her cot, Kirstie hears something shocking on the mobile baby monitor. She thinks that her baby is in danger as she hears someone talking about taking the baby. Naturally as a new Mam, who is protective of her baby, she panics and thinks that it is her bairn (child) that the mystery voice is talking about. She feels an immense sense of relief when she finds that it isn’t her bairn but then she starts to panic as she thinks that a baby is in danger in the immediate vicinity. Kirstie rings the police, who attend immediately but after door to door enquiries, the police don’t think that she heard what she thinks she heard. It isn’t long before Kirstie and her behaviour start changing. She seems to suspect everyone and believe nobody. I really felt for Kirstie and I could completely understand how protective she was of her child. However, saying that I did begin to wonder if she really was losing the plot. It isn’t long before secrets and lies come tumbling out of the closet about Kirstie, her husband and the neighbours. I don’t want to write too much about what happens as I don’t want to give any spoilers away. What did Kirstie hear? What is the truth? Was Kirstie right to be concerned about her neighbours? What secrets and lies are uncovered? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
As with Shalini’s first book, I found it extremely hard to put down ‘The Child Next Door’. It wasn’t glued to my hand but it might as well have been. My Kindle came everywhere with me and I resented any interruptions, which did not go down well with my two Labradors. I was hooked on the story from the moment I opened the front cover and I was under the book’s spell until the last word on the last page. I just needed to know what the truth was. Reading ‘The Child Next Door’ was much like riding on a very unpredictable rollercoaster ride with lots of unseen twists and turns and moments that are so shocking that they take your breath away. I really did feel as though I had been through the wringer reading this book but not in a bad way. This book certainly kept me guessing and changing my mind as to what really happened.
In short, I did really enjoy reading ‘The Child Next Door’ and I would certainly recommend it to other readers and particularly to readers, who are fans of psychological thrillers. I can’t wait to read what comes next from the brilliantly twisted mind of Shalini Boland. Here’s hoping that there isn’t going to be too long a wait until her next book. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 4* out of 5*.

I've read all of this author's books and enjoyed them all, so I did wonder if she could get any better, but with The Child Next Door she's written another gripping psychological thriller.
It had me hooked from the start, lots of twists and an overall excellent read,

I couldn’t get this book out of my mind. I read it in two sittings. So many twists and turns. When a new mother starts behaving out of character, people are quick to diagnose mental health problems. Is Kirstie going crazy or is there really something to fear? I loved everything about this book except the last page, which felt like an unnecessary addition for the sake of it. I like a tidy ending and this “twist” didn’t work for me.

Another page-turning, unputdownable story from Shalini Boland.

The day that Kim announced The Child Next Door by Shalini Boland was available, I burned through the keys of my laptop to get there, it was a must, I had to have it, OMG the palpitations I was having if it wasn’t to be mine. Finally the book was mine, snuggled comfortably on my kindle waiting for me to open the pages and delve into Shalini’s artistic mind.

Shalini blew my mind with her new psychological thriller The Child Next Door, I couldn’t hold back, I raced through the pages, looking around myself wondering if I heard it too. That voice, a male voice heard through the baby monitor, “Let’s take the baby and go”.

The worst nightmare of any mother is the thought that their child may be taken. Kirstie bolts to her daughters nursery only to find Daisy fast asleep, who was the person over the monitor, could it be from a neighbouring property and the baby monitor picked up interference, but there are no other babies in the street. The police and her husband don’t seem to believe her, is Kirstie becoming paranoid.

The further I delved it becomes increasing worrisome that Kirstie is becoming, suspicious of everyone, delusional to the point paranoia, her relationship with her husband is becoming fraught and the threads are beginning to untangle.

Shalini managed to drag me into the same thought process as Kirstie was I becoming paranoid, what was happening, I was on edge, gripping the words as they flew past, looking for answers, trying to fathom out the undeniable feeling of unease. The convoluted plot burled me round and round, trying to find the end, my thought process was dizzy with possible scenarios.

If you feel the need to read a psychological thriller which will drive almost round the bend trying to find the answers, then this is the book for you, the ending won’t be what your expecting, but that’s the whole point of a damn good psychological thriller.

Congrats Shalini, you took me on a nail biting journey, an absorbingly mesmerizing psychological thriller which I couldn’t help become embroiled in.

Thanks go out to Bookouture, Shalini Boland and Kim Nash for the advanced readers copy of The Child Next Door in exchange for an honest review.

This author never fails to deliver. Kept me hooked from one page to the next with a totally unexpected twist to the end. Fantastic!

This is the first book I've read by this author and omg what a way to start. Kirstie is a new mum to baby Daisy and life is great until one night she hears a male voice coming from her baby monitor saying "let's take the baby and go". She panics and runs upstairs thinking her baby has been taken but she is fine. Where did the voice come from? Was it her imagination? Other strange things begin to happen ......... Is she losing her mind or is something sinister going on in Magnolia Close?

Edge of your seat, nail biting story. Brilliant.

I quite enjoyed this book. It was well written and the characters were well developed and thought out. Ms. Boland seems to have found her niche, she writes psychological thrillers with such ease and brilliance. I was captivated by this story, I could not put it down! Every time I felt like I knew what was going on, Ms. Boland threw a curve ball. This book was suspenseful and full of intrigue. At times, I felt the internal dialogue of Kirstie was a bit much, it felt bogged down. I found myself skipping quite a few of her “rants”. Overal, I thought this book was well executed and I look forward to reading more of her works.

I enjoy a good psychological thriller as well as the next person. This one started out really great! I was so excited to read it....until I got towards the middle, it slowed down a little too much for my liking. Anyway over all, a good story. A new mother hears some male voice on the baby monitor. "Let's take the child and go." Kirstie Rawlings knows she heard this, but no one believes her. Not her husband, police no one. Is she just over tired and thought she heard it? Was it a dream? Is she just being a nervous new mother? Kristie starts to 'look into' her neighbors. There are some people that aren't too fond of someone digging into their past, and Kristie just might find out the hard way. Was she dreaming? Something isn't right, but will it cause her to loose her baby or even her life? Read the book to find out. Thank you Net Galley for a copy of this book. I voluntarily read it and the review is my own opinion.

Shalini Boland has done it again! An excellent book which kept me guessing and I couldn’t put down! Loved it !!

I’ve loved all Shalini Boland’s books and I loved this one too. It’s another page turner and I didn’t guess the major twist.
It’s not my favourite book by this author but for me she’s set herself such a high standard to maintain with her previous books . Definitely worth a read

This book was a really easy read, with characters I got to know. The setting was one relatable to us all and the speed with which Kirstie’s life changed and the circumstances surrounding it were (mostly) quite believable. I wanted to unpick the story, to predict the ending - a sign that I was ‘involved’ and the final twist came suddenly but convincingly. The only thing which made it a 4🌟 rather than a 5 ⭐️ was that I felt the first half was a little too long. To compensate the 2nd half raced by! A good book and an author I will read again.

Great story! As the title says, I couldn't put it down. Had me guessing until the very end.

I loved this book. This author is now on my (very short) list of 'authors whose books I read regardless of the blurb'. Had me reading page after page late into the night. Brilliant.

Holy guacamole! What a rollercoaster of a story this is! It left me reeling and in desperate need of a stiff drink.

Kirstie is a new mom to a baby girl called Daisy. One night, she's awoken by voices coming from the baby monitor. Convinced someone is trying to harm her baby, Kirstie races upstairs but there's nobody there and her baby is sound asleep. This event really rattles her though and soon her entire life starts to fall apart as she becomes increasingly afraid for her baby's safety.

As someone who frequently suffers from periods of insomnia, I have no problems whatsoever imagining how sheer exhaustion can play tricks on you and make you feel like you're losing your mind. Kirstie is losing a lot of sleep as well, staying awake all hours because she doesn't feel safe in her own home. But is her fatigue to blame or is something else going on? It's incredibly easy to sympathise with her, to relate to her distress. Even though she sometimes makes some dubious decisions, I could understand her quest in keeping her daughter safe from harm.

This psychological thriller kept me guessing until the end and as the tension built up, I found myself inching closer and closer to the edge of my sofa. Just like Kirstie herself, I started suspecting everyone, wondering about their intentions, trying to figure out if they were hiding something and if so, what secrets were lurking behind the closed doors in this seemingly quiet and peaceful cul-de-sac. But I never would have guessed the outcome, even if it had come up to me and hit me in the face. What a shocker!

This is another brilliantly gripping, totally addictive and engrossing page-turner by Shalini Boland. It grabbed me by the throat from the very first page and wouldn't let go. I'd go as far as to say I think this is the author's best one yet and I absolutely can't wait for her next offering!