I read The Woman Outside My Door in one sitting, straight through. It’s a quick read at 271 pages and I was hooked from the very beginning. This book was SO creepy. I am admittedly a bit of a wimp but I knew I was not going to sleep until I finished this book and found out what happened. There are some definite Whisper Man vibes to it. I’m actually blown away that this is Rachel Ryan’s first book because it was fabulous and really well done.

There were so many little details woven into the story that had me guessing pretty much every possible outcome. At some point in the story, you figure out where it’s headed but I could not stop racing through the pages. I would say, rather than a huge twist moment, it’s more of a gradual turn in the storyline. I loved that aspect of it and it made this book a really enjoyable read.

I read a lot of thrillers so there’s always the worry that it will be too predictable. The Woman Outside My Door kept me intrigued throughout. My philosophy with thrillers is to suspend disbelief a bit and just enjoy the ride. I can imagine a criticism of this book might be that there was just too much going on but I actually really loved that about it. Everyone is a possible suspect. Or maybe it really is all in Georgina’s head. That attention to detail would have allowed this to end in several different ways and all would have worked well. To me, that’s a great thriller.

I’ve had a great string of books so far in 2021 and The Woman Outside My Door is no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed this from cover to cover.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Are you someone who had an imaginary friend growing up? I totally am - her name was Kinda (pronounced kin-duh) and I'm not afraid to flaunt her, haha! The premise of this book truly grabbed my attention from the start. The whole time it had me guessing, have they really gone mad? This was a fast-paced read that I could not predict the ending of (which is hard to come by for me these days). It's not as suspenseful as I was expecting, but reads as a dark drama. I'm glad I didn't pass this one by!

Hot take: This perfectly adequate thriller provides a well written mystery but lacks emotional depth.

Synopsis: Cody has a new grandmother. One his mother had never seen and his father doesn’t believe exists. But when Cody disappears “New Grandma” becomes very real... for everyone.

Review: Ryan presents a well written debut that touches on the long lasting effects of trauma, the death of a loved one, betrayal, and devotion. And while the main thread of this thriller offers plenty for discussion, Ryan attempt at misdirection leads to too many red herring sub plots while the real mystery feels neglected until it’s time for the big twist reveal.

A quick thriller for library pick up and an evening in.

I loved this fast paced, #creeptastic thrill ride of family secrets, past traumas, a child with an imaginary friend, family secrets and more! I finished this in 2 sittings and I can't wait for more from this author. She's on this thriller addicts radar!
Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for my copy. All thoughts are my own.

Thanks to Gallery Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy of The Woman Outside My Door.

The synopsis and Dublin setting are what drew me into this book. It is a very fast paced and quick pyschological thriller with a few twists.

When 7 year old Cody, tells his mum Georgina about his "new Granny" who he met in the park, something tells her it is more than just an imaginary friend. With her mom passing away recently, she's more sensitive to this. Her husband says it's normal, but when she starts seeing things that make her believe she's right....

I don't want to give too much away. While I enjoyed reading this, because it was so short I felt like things came together too quickly that I wish there would have been more on. Also, part of the ending of the book is very relevant with some things that have been happening in Ireland recently, so I really liked that aspect.

The cover drew me in, along with the synopsis. Creative plotting.... what if your son's imaginary friend seemed so real and threatening, would you go to the lengths Georgina did to find out if this friend was real?! This psychological thriller was good but I did anticipate a little more from it when I initially started to read it. I thought it was more just a mystery and not so much a thriller. I liked the story itself and told by Georgina's POV it seemed like she may be the one going mad, but the ending tells us different. I liked the ending of the book and how it picked up as secrets were unraveling and being revealed. I think it was a little rocky fitting it all together, I would've liked more whodunit options and to have them being questioned until the end. Overall I liked it, but hoped for a little more. I will still look forward to reading more by Rachel Ryan as she grows in the domestic thriller genre! Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for the copy to rate and review with my honest opinion. I give this a 3.5 star rating!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Woman Outside My Door by Rachel Ryan.

Georgina's beloved mother has passed, which is already devastating. But now her son is claiming to hear and see New Granny, which is not only salt in the wound, but alarming. Is her son just enjoying an imaginary friend to help in his grief, or is it something more suspicious than that.

This is a quick domestic/drama/suspense/psych/thriller? I'm not really sure, and that may be the main issue I had with it. The behavior between the couple was wrought with gaslighting, crappy communication and self sabotage. Sometimes those things inform a story, in this case it just muddled the story up. And it's already not very long. Towards the end I was annoyed enough with the characters, that it became harder to care about the outcome.

It's written well, has a charming Irish personality, and it's not boring, but the story could have been a little crisper.

Georgina is a young mother dealing with a bunch of sh*t, to put it bluntly. Her beloved mom just passed away unexpectedly from cancer. Not long after that, she found out her husband cheated on her once with an ex-girlfriend at a retreat, so they're working through some bumps in their marriage. She's busy raising her son and going back to school at age 30 to finish her degree and become a teacher. Things only get crazier for Georgina when one day, her son comes back from the park and tells Georgina that he was talking to "new Granny" in the bushes. Which is impossible, because Cody doesn't have any grannies. His granny just passed away.

Georgina immediately raises a red flag, but her husband thinks that their son is just playing a pretend game, grieving the loss of his grandma in the only way he knows how. But things start to get stranger - Cody starts to have secret conversations on the phone late at night, Georgina finds a note from "new Granny" in Cody's pocket, Georgina knows she's being followed home from the shops one night.

I found the book to be genuinely creepy at some points - Ryan nails the execution of that unsettling, gut feeling that you have when something just feels off but you can't describe it and you don't necessarily have proof. A lot of the book is Georgina trying to convince her husband that things are going wrong and her husband not believing her. Some of her fears turn out to be unfounded, but others turn out to be very, very real.

The ending feels a bit rushed and sort of out of left field. Ryan introduces so many interesting characters that seem a bit off and I was hoping these characters would tie in better to the whodunit, but about 80% of the way through, it takes a very different turn. Overall, this was a fast-paced, easy to read thriller - a fun and creepy Irish story. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley!

The Woman Outside My Door is a family thriller about a mother who is concerned about her young son's imaginary friend. After the death of Georgina's mother, her son Cody begins to talk of his "new Granny." Alarmed, Georgina attempts to find out if this new granny is purely a figment of his imagination, or if she is in fact more sinister.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked that I never really knew if Georgina was being paranoid or if something was actually happening. I dislike thrillers that have predictable endings, but this one left me guessing until the very end. I would definitely recommend to any thriller fans, and I will pick up books by Rachel Ryan in the future.

Overall: 4 stars

Well written psychological thriller. I liked the plot, but it didn't seem very original, and I wanted to know more about the woman than the book gave. It would feel a bit freaky if my mother just died and then my son all of a sudden starts taking about this "new granny." I thought the characters were well-developed, and the book was not boring in the least, but there wasn't anything earth-shattering happening either. It did keep me entertained the whole time, and I liked the ending even though it was somewhat sad, and the whole story was a bit far-fetched for me.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Don’t mess with mama’s baby! I did not see the ending coming at all. I was so surprised by how much this book moved me (I cried at some parts) and how I really had zero idea (until the author wanted you too) who, if anyone, was stalking the family. Maybe she was Georgina was going mad. Maybe it was someone involved with the husband. You just don’t know. Georgina is dealing with all this all while dealing with the loss of her beloved mother and trying to finish college. She’s got a lot going on. I loved the characters. Especially the school mom “friend”. This was a terrific psychological twister.

Unpredictable and Fast-Paced

The Woman Outside My Door is based on a family who seems to have the perfect life to the viewing eye but the secrets they hide can tear them apart.

Georgina and her family live a quiet life in Ireland. There family seems to be the normal loving family. However, with Georgina's mental illness and her husbands infidelity. What seems like a loving family, might just destroy them.

Georgina's mother has recently passed. Georgina and her family were close knit family. Her son Cody (a seven year old little boy who loves his Granny) seems to be taking Georgina's mother's death the hardest. Cody was very close to her. However, After Georgina's moms passing. Mysterious, Weird things start to happen. mysterious phone calls to Cody. Cody playing at the parks where he mysteriously gets candy from somewhere, and someone peeping through windows. When Georgina brings this issues up to her husband, He is in quick denial and assumes Georgina's mental health is suffering again.

However, When Georgina's dad suffers a heart-attack, the truth will be reveled. Is Georgina's mental health showing up again or is it true that there is someone invading there tight knit family?


This was a phenomenal read to end the 2020 year! I look forward to reading more of Rachel Ryan!

Georgina is having a hard time currently. Her mother passed away a few months ago, her marriage is on the shaky side, and her son Cody has invented an imaginary friend he calls New Granny. Georgina's husband insists that Cody's game is his way of grieving his grandmother. Georgina is convinced that her family is in danger, and she is determined to figure out who New Granny is.
The opening of this story had real promise in being a fast-paced thriller. Unfortunately, this is a book where the plot and characters have not been fully developed. I would say this is a slow burn of a short book, where the twist and mystery don't happen to the very end. I didn't care for Georgina I liked Bren her husband, so much better than her. This is the author's debut book, but I have to say it wasn't my cup of tea.
I would like to thank Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me early access to this book for my unbiased opinion.

Georgina is alarmed when her son, Cody, mentions 'New Granny'; however, her husband Bren believes Cody created an invisible friend as a coping mechanism for losing his grandma recently. Despite Bren's insistence that this is just a game, Cody has been talking to someone on the phone and continues coming home with candy wrapper, saying New Granny gave it to him.

While this is happening, Georgina is already exhausted -- she's working, taking college courses, dealing with her own grief after losing her mother, and trying to help her father cope with the loss of his wife, the last thing Georgina needs is to have to worry about whether or not New Granny is real. Her marriage is in a rough patch already, but her and Bren's different perspectives on New Granny isn't helping.

We follow Georgina as she tries to find the truth behind New Granny and meet several suspicious characters that may know more than it seems. This book is full of twists and turns and it was definitely a page-turner to get to the bottom of what was really going on with Cody's New Granny.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book!

The Woman Outside My Door
By: Rachel Ryan
Published: out now

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.🤚🏽 (4.5)

What is really going on? Is it an imaginary friend, gaslighting, the supernatural, a wild imagination, or is this woman slowly but wholly losing touch with reality?Or could it be something else entirely?

What I liked:
i was hooked from the beginning!
Great anticipation. I couldn’t stop reading at some point. I had to know what was going on.

What I disliked:
A specific character. If you’ve read it and you want to chat, my DM’s are open.

For fans of:
⭐️Claire Macintosh ⭐️ fast-paced “lollipop” thrillers ⭐️ Ireland 🇮🇪

⭐️Thanks to @netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

What would you do when your child says he has a new grandma? Run for the hills is what this mother should have done. Taking family drama to the next level you’ll really find yourself asking if anything is real only to discover your worst nightmare come to life in this book. An amazing and must read for fans of the thrills.

Georgina is at a point in her life where she can make changes toward a better life. Her son Cody is 7 now, so she has the chance to go back to school and follow her dream of being an art teacher, instead of working at a bookshop. And after a hiccup in her marriage, she and her husband Bren were getting things back on track. She lost her mother recently, suddenly, but she’s trying to move forward again, to be there for her family, for her dad, and for herself,

And then Cody had a lollipop.

They were at the park one afternoon, and Cody disappeared into a woody area with some friends. When the boys came back out, Cody—only Cody—had a lollipop. Georgie asked him where he got it, and he told her that he’d gotten it from a woman. She said she’d be his New Granny.

When Georgie told Bren, he shrugged it off and said that kids make up imaginary friends all the time. It’s just Cody’s way of dealing with his grief. It makes sense, but Georgie isn’t convinced. She gets even more suspicious when she catches him on the phone talking to New Granny and finds drawings of her. But Bren is still unconvinced that there is any real threat. And he knows that she’s had some issues in the past with seeing threats that weren’t really there. He encourages her to get therapy.

Georgina’s logical mind can understand where Bren is coming from. She knows her own history, and she knows that kids create imaginary friends to deal with their loneliness. But her gut tells her that this woman, New Granny, is a threat to her family. She feels that New Granny is a threat to her son. And she is willing to do anything she can to keep her son safe.

The Woman Outside My Door is a debut domestic thriller from a new voice. Author Rachel Ryan writes about Dublin, Ireland like she was born and raised there (she was), and she jumps into the thriller genre with a big splash.

I loved The Woman Outside My Door. I read almost all of it in one day, struggling to put it down. It’s written well, has strong characters and a wonderful sense of place, and is a very compelling story. And while there are plenty of red herrings planted throughout the story (and throughout the neighborhood), the resolution is both surprising and makes perfect sense in the context and wraps the story up beautifully. This is a great book, and I can’t wait to see where Rachel Ryan goes next.

Egalleys for The Woman Outside My Door were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I was shocked that this was a debut! I was captivated by the first few days ages and was totally hooked. Georgina is dealing with so much after the unexpected death of her mother, going back to school, raising her son Cody, and her marriage with her husband Bren. As if she couldn’t handle anything else, Cody starts telling her about his imaginary friend, New Granny. Georgina has to figure out if it’s just an imaginary friend or if things aren’t quite what they seem. There are so many different ways this story could have gone and I’m happy to say it kept me guessing til the last minute. Those are the best type of thrillers! The one thing I wished was that there was more to setting the scenery in Dublin. It’s some points the setting of the story was lost. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next though, this was a wonderful debut!

The Woman Outside My Door is full of twists and turns. I was guessing how this story would end until the very end of book. Rachel Ryan did an excellent job spinning this tale.

The Woman Outside My Door by Rachel Ryan is a suspenseful thriller.

Georgina’s seven year old son, Cody, met a new friend at the park he calls New Granny. Cody had imaginary friends in the past. Bren, Georgina’s husband, is confident New Granny is a new imaginary friend. Georgina and Bren are having marital problems which make it hard for Georgina to trust Bren. Georgina’s mother died recently. She is grieving and wondering if Cody is grieving by inventing a new imaginary friend. Is New Granny Cody’s imaginary friend or who is Cody’s new friend?

I really enjoyed The Woman Outside My Door. It is a mix of suspenseful thriller and personal drama. Georgina is grieving her mother and worried about her father. There is suspense throughout the book while Georgina tries to figure out if New Granny is Cody’s imaginary friend or a real person. The reader wonders throughout the book if Georgina is going crazy or if strange things are actually happening. Many of the surprises in The Woman Outside the Door were predictable but I still enjoyed figuring out what was going on. There were a few surprises I didn’t see coming. The story was interesting and all of the characters seemed questionable and untrustworthy.

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for The Woman Outside My Door.