I loved the premise of this book, but it got a bit boring in the middle. Nice ending, great twists and turns.

This book was unfortunately not for me.

I found it really meandering and disjointed and choppy and I didn’t connect with any of the characters at all. The writing was very repetitive and juvenile.

If you love gripping domestics mysteries that center around mom and neighborhood drama, this is your book!
I am a sucker for the mom gossip and devious conversations and this book was just that.
Thank you!

Another enjoyable romp through domestic thriller book land, The Mother Next Door was super gripping and I loved every salacious, catty second of it. While suspenseful and page turning, I didn't want it to end! It was an absolute true to life telling of the Mom's Club at some school's and kind of reminded me of a grown up version of Pretty Little Liars. I would read this again during Halloween, as it's a great Halloween read!

Thank you to the publisher, Graydon House, for providing me with an ARC of The Mother Next Door in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

The Mother Next Door was supposed to be part of the Fall Reads Blog Tour that I completely missed. I was swamped with work, stress and aching muscles, but was still convinced I would have enough time to participate in life. Well, hindsight is always 20/20 and my current self can only sympathize with my past self trying to ignore the obvious.

Anyway, let’s see if I can remember enough of The Mother Next Door to come up with a decent review.

The Details

Mothers that run the community. The popular group sans high school hallways. Claws underneath their white gloves. An upper class, squeaky clean neighbourhood where everyone knows everyone and no secrets stay hidden. Sounds like a good premise for a mystery/thriller/suspense story, right?

Right. The Mother Next Door unfolds slowly with a newcomer trying desperately to capture that feeling of belonging. Of having made it. Having achieved that certain social status. Because, apparently, that’s all that matters in life: social status.

Truth be told, I wasn’t a huge fan of the protagonist. She comes across as self-centred, entitled and a little out of touch with reality. No wonder, if she is only focused on achieving some make-believe goal of fitting in.

Regardless, the mystery part of The Mother Next Door was very enjoyable and kept me hooked until the end.

The plot is straight forward and easy to follow from the beginning until the end. I almost wanted to know more.

The writing is good. It sucked me into the story and makes it easy to imagine the neighbourhood and those shifty, judgmental looks one gets from their neighbours.

The Verdict

Overall, I liked it. The Mother Next Door is entertaining, intriguing and suspenseful.

I would recommend it.

4 very satisfied stars! This book is a solid addition to the psychological thriller/suspense genre. It wasn’t perfect, but it was well-written and entertaining and kept me interested all the way through. The click of moms did feel a little high school/college at times, but I guess getting older doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t behave like that.

I did like seeing the different dynamics among the friends in the group, and how they shifted as secrets started coming to light. Some friendships were formed out of this traumatic situation, and some broken beyond repair.

Also, I really loved that this book was set during Halloween - it was the perfect fall read! Overall this was a fun, thrilling read, and I’ll be looking for more from this author!

Let me start by saying I *l o v e* the atmosphere of this book. Halloween is one of my favorites, so as soon as it said Halloween party…. Sold!

At first, this wasn’t anything like I thought it would be. The first forty percent had me second guessing my reading choice.

But then, the drama.. the secrets.. everything startered to rear its ugly little head and I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

I kept envisioning Beth from Good Girls. Theresa gave me all the Beth vibes…. But more on a grown up mean girls scale. It’s not really packing a punch, it more so slowly unfolds little secrets at a time as you read.

If light domestic thrillers are your thing, check it out. Otherwise you may not be enthralled enough for this one.

Ooo dang y'all. Another crazy thriller to read!! The characters were fantastic, especially the main one... just crazy! Definitely worth the read. You will go through it quickly!

This was really good! I can't believe is isn't more popular. Major Big Little Lies vibes!

Thanks Netgalley for an EARC copy of this book. This is out now!

The suburban thriller I didn't know I needed in my life and the novel I wish I had read during the Halloween season. The Mother Next Door is a cleverly crafted mommy-drama novel with all the good twists you expect from a psychological thriller. Just the right amount of unreliable narrators, snippy gossip, and children running amuck to keep you engaged and unaware of the insidious darkness that lives inside the Ivy Five. Tara Laskowski frequently has the characters refer to the group of friends as sorority-like, and boy were they ever. The Ivy Five have the power of a whole sea of women, running the small town and the schools in the area from their perfect cul-de-sac.

They're perfect moms, with perfect homes, perfect children, the perfect Halloween party, and they keep all their secrets perfectly. Or, they did. This Halloween there's a new mom in town, Theresa Pressley, with her handsome husband and beautiful daughter. Theresa is immediately taken into the fold of the Ivy Five, a position is just waiting for her and she's desperate to be more, to be popular, that she takes it, no questions asked. Of course, that would make for a boring story alone, so there's an unnamed narrator taking us back into the events of Halloween 13 years ago and we also get all the inside dirt on the Ivy Five from the perspective of their Queen Bee, Kendra. With just 30 days until the big Halloween bash it seems impossible things could go wrong, but boy does it ever. With threats rolling in, a news broadcaster hot on their heels for dirt, and the whispers of murder assaulting you at every turn, The Mother Next Door is not purely suburban, Desperate Housewives fluff.

I absolutely enjoyed every minute of reading The Mother Next Door, it was such a great thriller and I really loved the creepy vibes blended in with it being based around Halloween. It isn't a truly unique, jaw dropping thriller, but it is an excellently crafted one that had me hanging onto every word. Tara Laskowski absolutely nailed suburban, snooty moms and all their drama so well. This one was a hit.

Really enjoyed this one - I was really engrossed with the story the entire time and can't wait for her next book! Thanks for the opportunity to read!

I love the vibe of "The Mother Next Door". Reading it in the dark only added to the intrigue. The good wives club isn't so good after all, but what are they willing to do to keep their secrets from being exposed?

So many personalities, so many different ways this could have gone, and I loved every minute of it!

Little Houses filled with mean grown ups and spilling over in secrets and lies. OH MY! Everything you want from a dramatic thriller, the PERFECT beach read. I'm definitely grabbing a few as gifts for my friends on our next vacay.

Thank you so much for a chance to read this book!

The Mother Next Door is a well-paced suburban drama filled with unreliable characters and no shortage of secrets and lies! Overall I found this to be a quick, enjoyable read and I look forward to more from this author.

The Mother Next Door was a special treat to read! It's what you get when you combine Mean Girls (or should I say Mean Adults) with a lot of secrets, lies and an exclusive Halloween Block party.. It's quite the neighborhood drama and even though the characters weren't particularly likeable - they are written exactly perfectly for this book. This was my first book I have read by this author but I plan to check and see what else she may have published.

Sweet Mother of Chocolate! 😳🤯😱

I have to say, I absolutely LOVED how you get little shocks along the way, but the ending is just huge! I loved those little nuggets of "WAIT! WHAT?! 😳"
I loved each character in this book but boy did I LOVE the secrets, deceit, & the little nuggets about Halloween and it's party. Truly delicious and scrumptious! You won't regret reading this. This hit every spot for me! Man oh man that ending I tell you!

I give this 4.5 / 5 snowflakes! ❄️

Thank you NetGalley for this!

The Ivy Five don't play. They are tight-knit and don't want anyone to invade. The question is, why are their four members, and not five? Perhaps the answer could be found with the Hive leader, the 'queen bee', Kendra. She has lived in the neighborhood the longest and what she says toes. The fact that one of their members disappeared years ago is not lost on any of them. One this is clear, however, and that is that they are not looking to fill that spot.

Yet, there is a 'new bee' a 'newbie' after all. Will Theresa, who just moved in the neighborhood be included into the hive? If so, what hoops will she have to jump through to fit in?

Let's look deeper at the original five, including the missing member. It becomes quite clear that each of them has a secret, secrets that would be devastating if revealed. Will their activities grow to such an extent that these secrets become exposed? What of Theresa? Can she penetrate the hive, not so much to fit in, but to push them to reveal their deepest and darkest of secrets?

This intense book was released during the Halloween season. Quite perfect, actually, as it is filled with at atmospheric edge. The fact that the story makes you look at all of the woman - and what they have to hide - and the possible consequences facing each of them.

For a read that would get anyone in the Halloween spirit, then this is the book for you. For a book that makes you look hard at the characters - no matter when you read the book - then this is the book for you. Tara Laskowski has written an intriguing story, one that definitely caught my attention and has me interested in her backlist, as well as future books as they are released.

Many thanks to Graydon House and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I really wanted to love this book because it sounded so good but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I found the characters to be annoying and I found myself not really caring if I finished this book or not because I was also bored.

I loved all the Halloween vibes but overall, the story/plot was just okay for me. I also found it hard to follow the story at times due to the number of characters and situations and how their backstories connected them to one another.

Kendra is a good mother; Theresa is a good mother too. Theresa has just moved into the iconic Ivy Drive neighborhood -- a place she has admired from her time in college. She meets Kendra, and is brought into the fold of the Ivy Five (an influential group of moms who have been the Ivy Four for a while). Theresa is eager to please the moms, but will it be enough? Everyone's secrets start spilling out -- how much damage will they do? Everything comes to a head at the annual neighborhood Halloween party, and by the end of the night, the group will be back to the Ivy Four.

Overall, this was a pretty good book. Theresa and the ending weren't quite what I thought which was great! I thought the beginning was quite slow moving, but I enjoyed the Halloween atmosphere and the unknown of it all. I didn't really find myself invested or connecting with any of the characters as we didn't seem to get any depth to them.