Hands down my favorite book that I've read this year! A real page turner, with twists and turns and a satisfying ending that had been on the edge of my seat as I raced through it in one day!
I loved it.

The description of the book gives away some of the storyline! It was a great read with a lot of twists and turns along the way. Makes you wonder what you would do for a friend.

This was a decent thriller. A bit difficult to get into initially but had a good ending. I have never read this author's work before but would definitely read more of her books.

This was the first book I read from Nicci French and I really enjoyed it. I will definitely read more by this author. I went into this book blind and it so good to where it was hated to out it down. I enjoyed most of the characters and the way the story progressed. I highly recommend this book. Thanks to NetGally and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When Bonnie Graham's friend asks her to perform at her wedding at the end of the summer, she readily accepts. All she has to do is put a band together. How hard can it be?

Even though she is currently a music teacher, Bonnie has been on the music scene for a long time and knows a lot of people. Thus, she is able to hastily assemble a band with members including her ex-boyfriend, Amos, and her best friend, Sonia.

As the summer wears on and they spend more time together prepping for the show, tensions begin to rise and relationships become strained. When Bonnie finds the body of her lover, and fellow band member, Hayden, dead, lying in his apartment in a pool of his own blood, she thinks she knows what happened.

She then hatches a plan to try to protect the killer, but does she really know who that is? Alternating between past and present perspectives, with Bonnie as the main protagonist, the truth behind Hayden's life, death and their relationship is revealed.

I feel almost exactly the same upon finishing this, as I did after Lisa Jewell's, The Family Upstairs. In short, underwhelmed. I thought that I would really like this, as I frequently enjoy stories focused on music, or musicians. However, this was just too slow of a burn.

With this being said, I also appreciate a slow burn, but the final payoff needs to be worth it and for me, this just wasn't. The back-and-forth felt extremely chaotic to me. I generally prefer an alternating timeline, but it has to be seamless and here I found myself forgetting which time I was in. Additionally, I didn't find the relationships and corresponding drama to be particularly believable.

At the end of the day, while there were some glimmers of a solid story under all the chatter, this one just did not work for me.It may work for you though, so do not let my opinion sway you from picking it up. If the synopsis sounds interesting, give it a go! There's a Reader for every book!

Thank you so much to the publisher, William Morrow Paperbacks, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Even though this one didn't quite work for me, I would definitely be willing to pick up more work from this author!

Bonnie puts together a band to play for her friends wedding. These relationships are complicated and full of secrets and lies. Later she’s in another friends apartment with a dead body. Did she kill this man or is she covering for someone else? The timeline flips back and forth from Before and After which I liked. I also liked the short chapters. I was surprised a few times and enjoyed it overall. It just could have been more. The characters were pretty stupid and no one was very likable. I always find it hard to care about a characters murder when they are so awful. Things start to be revealed but there is no big climax. It left me a little disappointed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc for an honest review.

Who is lying and who is telling the truth? There’s a body in a pool. This is the perfect whodunit. There are lies and more lies but can you figure out who did it? This book had me guessing until it’s conclusion. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Honestly, The Other Side of the Door didn't blow me away. As someone who reads a lot of thrillers and suspenseful novels, it just didn't give me that feeling that I look for. If you're looking for a book to grab while you're distracted or poolside, go for it.

Dual timelines is always a plus for me and the before and after really worked for this story. Also, working for this story are the short chapters.
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I love a fast paced thriller and the dual timelines and the short chapters made this such a quick read.
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When Bonnie arrived at her boyfriend’s house and finds him dead, instead of calling the police she removed all evidence that she was ever there, which is not at all suspect.
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Bonnie is supposed to be spending the summer rehearsing with a band to play at a friend’s wedding but instead of a summer of fun it’s a summer of betrayal, secrets, and murder.
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What happens when the friendships you had, the love you believe you had and the truth you thought you knew are all a lie? What happens when the life you live is nothing like the life that is shared behind the other side of the door?
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This is out today! Thank you #NetGalley and #WilliamMorrow for an arc In exchange for an honest review
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#quarantine#foffimreading#bookclub#bookaddict#bookcommunity#goodreads#bookishbounds#aprilshowers#bookishladiesclub#bookwineandmetime#theothersideofthedoor#niccifrench#netgalley#williammorrow

When a friend of Bonnie’s asks her to get a band together for her wedding, it’s the last thing Bonnie wants to do. As she asks around she meets Hayden, a talented musician that agrees to join them. Hayden immediately starts to cause trouble in the group and has also made enemies along the way. Bonnie quickly falls for him, but their relationship isn’t all that she dreamed of. When Hayden turns up dead, anyone could have killed him as each of them had probably wished him dead at one time or another. The truer question is who killed Hayden Booth? French is an author I truly love, but unfortunately this book fell a bit flat for me. Told in a matter of fact way in a duel time frame of before and after, it lacked the suspense needed to make it great. That and the abrupt ending left me a bit on the disappointed side.

The book had a very slow start, and the characters were not very likeable. I had a very hard time getting into it - I just didn't feel invested enough in the characters to care why they were doing the things they did.

From other reviews I see that this is a re-release of an existing book. I don't know why the author felt it needed updating, but I don't think it's worth the read.

I don't recommend this book.

I was looking forward to this one, having a change from my usual reads. I didn't realized it was a re-release still curious, I jumped in. It did not meet my expectation. The story is mainly told by Bonnie's POV. It goes from current time to past in between chapters.
I felt the before was unnecessary. The after is what kept me going. Being a Thriller I expected more from the plot.

"How stupid how sad and absurd and meaningless, to die like that, for nothing at all."

The Other Side of the Door is the story of Bonnie, a musician and music teacher, and a dead man. The story is told in alternating timelines--before and after Bonnie finds a dead man in her friend's apartment. For the first 25% of the book, the reader isn't actually sure who the dead man is. I found that frustrating as I hate when authors purposefully withhold information to make the story seem clever. In fact, I almost gave up on the book and it was only because I got stuck in a doctor's waiting room that I kept moving forward with it and eventually got wrapped up in the story. And I did get wrapped up. And even though I hated Bonnie and her choices, I wanted to know who the killer was and was completely off about the killer's identity. It's hard to say much more about the story without giving things away because the whole purpose seems to willfully mislead the reader. All in all I will say that The Other Side of the Door is a good beach ride, but likely not a thriller that I will remember to recommend.

My Review:⭐️⭐⭐ / 5 stars

This is a re-released thriller from husband/wife duo Nicci French, originally published in 2010. Bonnie Graham discovers a dead body at her boyfriend’s flat and instead of notifying the authorities she ropes in help of her best friend Sonia to help dispose of the body. The story goes back and forth between her POV before and after the discovery of the body. She is a music teacher at a local school who spends the summer in London practicing with an amateur group of musicians to play at her friend Danielle’s upcoming wedding. However, many different secrets are revealed over the course of the summer including secret lovers, violent affairs, and rivalries. The book has such an interesting twist and thrilling start, but immediately lags a few times throughout. The characters are not likeable, so you don’t feel any empathy for them as they are going through all these events. Even though the twist in the story really surprised me, the ultimate ending was unfortunately lackluster.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

US Pub Date: April 27, 2021!

When Bonnie, a music teacher, agrees to put together a small bad to play at a friend’s wedding, her life is turned upside down when one of the musicians is murdered.

Bonnie assembles a group of made up of amateur musicians to play at the wedding. Then she meets professional musician Hayden and he joins the band. Hayden’s presence at the band’s rehearsals causes tension and rifts in the motley group.

The story’s timeline is told in alternating chapters of before and after the murder. I thought that worked pretty well because so much of the plot was about covering up the murder. But the rest of the story was all over the place with suspects and red herrings- a former lover who’s now involved with Bonnie best friend, a star struck student, a former college friend Bonnie starts a relationship with. And then there is Hayden. He’s supposed to be a charming, charismatic, and free-willed musician. He also likes to stir the pot and cause trouble. He uses people, steals from his friends and is abusive. Hayden’s charm didn’t translate off the page for me. There was nothing appealing about him and that was the weak point of the book. He never made enough of an impression on me to care about his murder.

There’s lots of suspects and red herrings, but there’s too many cliches and parts that dragged for me.

Who do you call when you need to hide a body? Bonnie Graham is thinking this as she stares down at the body on the floor.
Bonnie wants to be thinking about music, and the band rehearsing for her friends wedding. Maybe it was a bad idea bringing a bunch of strangers together to play music. Egos and skill levels clashed, and now look where she is. There is no perfect Playlist for hiding a body.

Who would you call to help hide a body? The most obvious answer is your best friend, purely because they keep all your secrets anyway. Personally, I would call my brother. I feel like blood ties might be stronger then friendship, and plus he's pretty strong. Let's be honest, you need muscle when bodies start to stiffen.
The first chapter had me questioning who I would call, and then who Bonnie called. It the perfect way to start a thriller, to get the blood moving in anticipation. I was hooked immediately.
Moving between Before the body, and After, the story slowly unfolds. I liked how this was done, with two storylines eventually merging to answer all my questions. The final twist was surprising, and worked well with the story.
Though the story started out as the perfect thriller, it didn't stay that way. I was slightly disappointed that all the good stuff happened immediately. Yes we got our answers within the rest of the story, and it was told well, but it stopped being suspenseful. I needed it to linger.

A friend recommended this author to me and raved about their books so I was excited to try this one. However, I am much too much of a scaredy cat! I will leave this author and their books to everyone who loves them. DNF

This was my first book of the author's. I had heard of them but had never read them. So I was excited when I got a copy. The mystery was very good. The twist was unexpected. At times it seemed a little slow, but if you hang in there it is worth it.

Although the alternating timeliness was a bit confusing at first, I was able to catch up once I learned the cast of characters. I enjoyed the story and the plot development.

This disturbing and puzzling psychological mystery alternates narratives between Before and After a murder.

After sets the scene, showing what faces music teacher Bonnie Graham, who is cleaning up after a killing at her friend Liza's flat. Did she do it? Is she protecting someone else?

Tension escalates in the After as police find the body and readers wonder how Bonnie can get past this. A shocking revelation makes her see events through a clearer lens and leads to a stunning conclusion.