Book Review-Shadow Garden by Alexandra Burt
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Thanks very much @netgalley for approving me to read this digital arc! This one is available 7/21/20
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Donna Pryor lives in a beautiful retirement community. But things aren’t quite how they should be. And Donna suspects that he ex-husband is somehow behind things.
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I can’t really say much about this one because, spoilers. But this was a slightly unsettling psychological story about regrets. There was a great level of mystery going in this, as I had no idea what was going on for quite sometime. I was actually confused for the first part of the book because I couldn’t quite get a handle on where Donna was, what her situation was and where this story was going. Once I had a little more clarity on those questions I really enjoyed the way the story played out. Sometimes there wasn’t enough clear definition between the present and a character thinking about the past and it would take me a minute to catch up.
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The ending had something that I didn’t see coming and that is always fun when that happens.
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I gave this book 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was good but I didn’t love it.

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•SHADOW GARDEN• by Alexandra Burt
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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This story centers around the Pryor family. Donna, Edward and Penelope. Edward is a surgeon, Donna is the perfect socialite wife. Penelope is their only child and she has always been.... different. .
The story begins with Edward dropping Donna off at Shadow Garden, a beautiful, luxurious community. There, she has a staff to cater to her every desire as she heals from an injury. .
While she is there, she hears whispers, she sees staff creeping around in the shadows, notices strange objects in her condo. She begins to distrust her assistant. Her husband and daughter refuse to answer her calls. .
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I don’t want to give too much away, but this one held several surprises for me. I stayed up reading late into the night because I really wanted to figure out what happened. It was suspenseful, mysterious and tragic.
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✨Due out July 21, 2020

Shadow Garden is about Donna Pryor, an affluent socialite who lives in her ivory tower until things begin to crumble. The cover was one of the things that attracted me to this novel, as well as, the summary. However, for me I found it very slow in the beginning taking longer than I wanted to feel I was getting into the book.

I wish the beginning could be re-written as there is a huge potential with this story-line. If you are willing to be patient, it does pick up later in the story making for an interesting read.

Several times I almost put this down and labeled it DNF but I ended up finishing it and I’m glad I did! The book starts out slow and I bit confusing but it get better. The main character, Donna started off dull and unlike able but she grew on me as the story progressed. I am also the mom of an only child, a daughter so I can see her actions where Penelope was concerned; a mother protects her child, always! This was more of a domestic thriller rather than a psychological thriller and definitely cannot be classified as horror. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the domestic thriller category and thanks Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

This book is more or less a family drama presented as a psychological thriller. I think with a little editing and repackaging, it could be a stronger version of what it really is- a dysfunctional family and the drama surrounding a specific night. The beginning of the book was confusing and it was hard to tell what was going on. The last quarter of the book really picked up and everything started falling into place- but it took too long to get to that point. Overall, the premise is excellent, the execution poor, so it ends up being a so-so read for me.

This book is gothic in language and setting. Donna, one of the three narrators, is completely unreliable, but we don't know why. Penelope, her daughter, appears like a Addams family member and Edward, the father/husband, is such a cold fish that he is a cipher. This book will appeal to fans of gothic stories and, probably, even some of the Nordic suspense novels. I can think of one of my patrons who will like it, but not a lot of them.

This was an unusual story containing elements of Bad Seed and Momento. Half the time I was confused, as the story skipped around so much both in time and characters that it was hard to follow. The characters were pretty much stereotypes surrounded by a lot of drama. A strange book thatThe writer was good at putting words together but the story was weird and unsatisfying. I'm pretty much glad to be finished with it.

First of all this book has a GREAT cover! Its so haunting and then placed beside the epilogue you know you are in for a real treat. The characters are very interesting and you are invested in each of them. This goes between the three main characters and tells the story of dark house and the family in it. Overall a satisfying book

Shadow Garden by Alexandra Burt. The story was disjointed, difficult to follow the different POVs. The timelines were ambiguous. Could not engage with characters and was uncomfortable being in Donna's "head".

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I didn't finish this one (only got to about 20%). Not for me - I just didn't care what happened, and found the writing style not to my taste.

Others will no doubt enjoy it, though - just a personal thing.

Alexandra Burt spins a psychological thriller that leaves you in suspense even after the end. I couldn't stop reading while sympathizing with Donna and wanting to know the truth, too., about her absentee daughter and ex-husband Shadow Garden will not disappoint.

Donna can tell something is wrong with the property she is in. Albeit luxurious, albeit beautiful, albeit huge, something is very, very wrong. Something that is not visible.. but she just knows.

This was a wild ride. I never knew what was going to happen next. There was also a lot of drama happening with the protagonist pertaining to her daughter and her ex-husband. I love books that have juicy drama, and I have to say that this one is juicy! It's a great domestic fiction, more on the darker side. There were under and overtones of something lurking in the background. It gave me chills!

I definitely recommend this book to those who like domestic fiction!

Shadow Garden is a psychological thriller about a family of three.. Donna, her husband Edward and their daughter Penelope! The story carries forward as a dark horror tale about the house that the family stays in.. but its a thriller story said in voices of the trio! So if you gonna expect horror, you’re gonna be disappointed.. That said, the story is good and the flow is gripping.. no interest was lost while reading.. the characters were not what I expected.. but i think its because the story line is overpowering! The ending was not what I was expecting.. This is not gonna be my only Alexandra Burt book!
Thank you NetGalley, Alexandra Burt and Berkley publishing for the ARC. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way !

This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the synopsis but overall an enjoyable story. Great writing style but a little predictable.

After seeing that incredible and haunted cover and reading the surprisingly intriguing blurb gives us impression there is something mysterious and ominous about a house, I was so excited to read this book because as reverse psychological effect reading horror stories took out of my mind the madness and terrifying situation we’re dealing with. So I just hoped this book may give me getaway and entertain me with an eerie, spooky story but it didn’t…
The horrific, dark story I wished to read turned into dysfunctional family drama is told by mother, daughter and father. The mystery behind the story is so predictable and be solved in the beginning and abrupt, obvious and dissatisfying ending.
And the characters are so dislikable. There are so many pages needed to be edited or discarded ( I was about to pass out Donna’s long inner monologues about the mansion she lived before). There are so many unnecessary details and there are also blank parts about the back stories, motives and relationship dynamics of the characters. Three of them seem like just empty, soulless bodies with flat and boring attributes.
I hardly catch the story’s progression because it reminded me of driving a car at the wet, construction zone filled with bumps and pits. It was blurry, confusing. At some parts I lost my way and I wanted to call an Uber to take me back to my comfort zone (Then I remembered, I cannot do that because of social distancing so I’d better concentrate well and catch where I left.)
The story starts Edward’s driving to his wife Donna to a place named Shadow Garden which seems like special condo complex for wealthy people and designated a loyal staff for her. After a tragic accident, Donna suffers from her injuries, trying to gather her strength to walk again and she seems like psychologically damaged, confused about relationship with her husband Edward who is wealthy, successful plastic surgeon. Donna is afraid of being trapped in Shadow Garden and her husband may cut his financial support at any second and she will be left penniless, estranged from her family. Even her own daughter stopped calling and contacting with her.
We realize that their 29 years old daughter Penelope suffers from sociopathic tendencies and we’re not sure the reasons behind her psychological disorder. Is it genetic or caused by traumatic experience? During the years we witnessed her wrongdoings starting from childhood stabbing her friend’s hand with a fork or implies about her involvement about disappearance of Gabriel who is found unconscious at the staples. We hardly have any clue why she keep doing things and even at her narration parts we couldn’t see how her mind works because her inner thoughts are evasive and clueless.
And Edward seems like cold, distanced and workaholic but we don’t get much clue about his dysfunctional relationship with his wife. There are so many arguments and fights between mother and daughter but those parts are also unrealistic and emotionless.
Overall: I barely finished and this story left bad taste at my mouth. This isn’t what I expected and I truly disappointed. I mostly try to be patient to find best attributes about a book not to be ruthless grader but unfortunately I haven’t found anything concrete to love or enjoy. So for a long time, I’m giving two stars to a book. I wish I could enjoy it just a little bit.
So much thanks to NetGalley And Berkley Publishing for sharing this ARC with me. I am truly sorry but this wasn’t my cup of tea.

This was an odd reading experience for me, it was beautifully written, so I almost didn't mind that I had no idea what was going on. The text would be flowing pretty well and all of the sudden jolt into a confusing direction. I kept checking to see if I had accidentally skipped a page or two. In the end I was left undecided if I enjoyed the book or not and therefore have no idea how to rate it, so I settled in the middle. I would read more by Alexandra Burt because I did like the style of the writing very much, I just think this story needed a little revising/polishing to take some of the jarring transitions out.

4-5 stars, my first but not my last Alexandra Burt book! I thought this was so well written, gripping from the start, but why I couldn’t say 5 solid stars is it’s a bit confusing at parts. Overall, it’s a very intense, chilling, twisted story that really kept me engaged and yearning for more. I did find some parts a bit confusing, since it seemed to time jump without explanation, and also a bit slow in middle, but glad I finished, as I did enjoy it and find it quite chilling and thrilling! Preorder today, as it’s not one you want to miss! Suspense, twisty, chilling, and shocking!
Will make sure I buzz it up on all the different platforms!

Alexandra Burt is back with another RIVETING domestic thriller! I think the first book I ever read on netgalley was her first novel, Remembering Mia. So when I saw this one I jumped at the chance to read it and revisit an author who blew me away! Well, she's done it again folks as this book is EXCELLENT! I highly recommend it.

I thought this story had potential but needed some work. In the first half of the book you meet the main character Donna - a middle aged woman married to Edward, a plastic surgeon, and the mother of Penelope aged around 29. Donna appears to have been ‘sent’ to live at Shadow Garden. We are not told what this place is but from the context I guessed it was some sort of very up-market care home for wealthy people who were either infirm or loony tunes. Edward seems about to ‘have a moment’ and Penelope seems, well, difficult, troubled, a danger to herself and others.

It was a chore to get to that point. The story was not easy to follow. The time lines were all over the place with no explanation and there was sooo much detail about Donna’s perfect mansion (that she no longer lived in) and her former, perfectly curated life . I couldn’t help thinking who the heck cares? Who cares about the hand crafted chandelier imported from Italy and on and on and on. By the halfway point I had guessed what was up with Penelope and what Donna’s condition was. There was obviously some tragedy that was going to be revealed but it was like pulling teeth. The name of the care home - Shadow Garden - may have been a good title for a somewhat creepy novel but this wasn’t creepy and I thought the name would be awful for a real place. I thought there was a lot of confected drama, call it melodrama and because the story centred around an ultra wealthy family with seemingly unlimited resources it seemed to have no resonance with real life, real people, real problems and certainly not me. I did not enjoy reading this.

A chill inducing, suspenseful novel that you will not be able to quit! A mystery that twists around not only the main character, but the reader and refuses to let go until the very end. the author weaves a suspenseful tale that leaves you guessing.