3.5 stars rounded down. This book gave me Liane Moriarty vibes, but with bad pacing. The story was good, but the ending felt rushed. All in all I enjoyed it though. I would read another book by this author.

If you like drama, you’ll love this one! Very big little lies - esq with all the lies and secrets!
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! Pub day Oct 5

The Neighbor’s Secret is the book for you if you’ve binge-watched Big Little Lies or Desperate Housewives!

You follow three women in this neighborhood who all have secrets they’re hiding. And I truly enjoyed reading from each perspective!

I also loved that each month the women in the community met up for bookclub, and you got to see how they all interacted.

Overall, I was surprised by the twists and thoroughly entertained!

What a fun, thrilling read! If you like Desperate Housewives or Big Little Lies, this is the book for you. Set in a tightknit, soccer-mom like community called Cottonwood Estates, several neighborhood moms attend a book club every month. However, once you start to scratch the surface of what appears to be their idyllic life, you will discover there are deep secrets and sinister underpinnings amongst this group. This book takes you on many twists and turns, weaving through the present and the past, and delivers an exciting ride right up until the end! I would highly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and FlatIron Books for this splendid read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for a free ARC of The Neighbor's Secret by L. Alison Heller. This book comes out on October 5th!

Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Rating: 3.5 to 4 star

What I liked: This story definitely kept my guessing. I truly wasn't sure what all of the secrets were until the end!

What I didn't like: I had a hard time getting into this story. There are a lot of characters, and different voices throughout the book. The book also deals with some heavy topics related to the children in the story. As a parent, it's always a little harder to read those things!

I read a couple of reviews before I decided to request this on NetGalley, liked the synopsis of the story, thus was excited when NetGalley gave me permission to download the book. I belong to a couple of book clubs and am enamored by them, so I did like how prominently this neighborhood book club was featured in the story.

But I couldn't really get into it. It felt more torture than joy when I told myself I had to go back and read more of it. I think the child psychologist may have been the only character I liked. 😁

So many secrets in this neighborhood- cover ups and wow- does anyone really know their neighbors? This was a quick read but I did find it getting a bit confusing with so many points of view. A vandal, a death, and some scandals- and I thought my home town was bad!!! This neighborhoods saving grace is the book club that meets every month-these women all mothers who prove that in the end, family is above all else.

3.5 ⭐️

The book opens with an unidentified narrator confessing that she saw “THE TWO OF THEM” leave the party five minutes apart, like they didn’t want to be seen-and with no good reason to sneak off together, and wondering AFTER the body was found-if it was MURDER?

A Vandal, targeting the homes of the women who attend the Cottonwood Book Club.

And, one of the members, Jen wondering if she is raising the Vandal, or worse-if he is a Sociopath in the making.

Ok! You have my attention!!
I thought I was settling in for a 5⭐️ Read!

But, despite some great ideas, and some smart writing, I never really connected with this book.

I usually love a good suspense story which revolves around one neighborhood and the secrets of its residents but I think that these stories work best when the secrets are being confided to us in the first person POV.

They just seem juicier and more scandalous when they are whispered directly to us.

As written, I just NEVER felt ANY tension. The entire book felt like filler, with flashback chapters from 15 years prior, filling us in on the secrets, until we got to the end, and learned the answers to those first few questions posed.

But, I would like to join the Cottonwood Book Club!

Not only did the women enjoy monthly meetings with themed snacks and drinks-they actually discussed some Classics-from the opposing POV’s of members! This book club wasn’t JUST gossip!

And, I loved how one of the members, Deb, referred to a certain book as “dingbat lit”! You know the kind that has a protagonist who infuriates you when she suspects someone of being a murderer but doesn’t call the Police, choosing instead to interrogate the person on her own, and ends up chloroformed and bound in the trunk of the car! Love that term, Deb! PRICELESS. If you are looking for a new book club-look me up!

I would like to Thank Flatiron Books for my gifted copy via NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
Available October 5, 2021.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

What appears to be the pleasant, upscale neighborhood of Cottonwood, is really a place of secrets and coverups. The local bookclub includes many of the women in the neighborhood. A few have lived there a long time and are privy to the history of the area and the neighbors. Most of the bookclub members are newer and younger.

Everyone pretends that things are really fine with their lives and families.
Annie has a daughter, Laurel, that seems to be acting out, at 13, in any way she can.

Jen has a son, Abe, with the diagnosis of Conduct Disorder. Jen fears her 13 year old son is, in reality, a sociopath. She tries to defend him but she fears he lies to her and she just covers for him.

Lena has an adult daughter, Rachel, that left Cottonwood years ago. Even though she is in contact with her mother, for some reason, Rachel has never come back home.

A vandal is creating mischief in the area and everyone is suspicious but no one knows who the culprit is or why they have chosen to punish the inhabitants of Cottonwood.

There are many puzzles and mysteries in this story. It takes the entire book to untangle them all. I enjoyed most of the characters in this book. They were interesting. Some characters were not developed enough and left me wanting to know more about them. I found things a little choppy as the author jumped from one family’s story to another. Several things were just sprung on the reader with very little lead up to it. Most things were somewhat tied up by the end of this book. Don’t expect to solve all the mysteries before the end of the book, if you enjoy doing that. You will not have all the information or clues to be able to do so.

This one is difficult for me to review. I love the setting: a seemingly nice neighborhood full of happy families, where everyone gets along, the schools are great, and there's absolutely no crime. But what if that's all a sham? I live for these kinds of books.

The book didn't disappoint as a whole, but there were too many muddied narratives and gaps in the story to give it that 5-star feel. I felt like I spent more time confused to really enjoy it wholly. Many times I actually had to flip back in the book to search for an explanation that just wasn't there.

This has potential but just isn't quite there.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really like that a book club is a fairly big part of this story. It follows the lives of a few who are a part of the same book club and whose lives also are intertwined in way they do not know.
I also found the book to have unpredictable twists and turns with enough drama to keep me engaged. It was well paced. However, I did not feel a connection towards any of the character. This may be because I felt the book jumped around from different characters a lot, which left me sometimes confused and struggling to “keep up”. It took awhile to learn all the characters. I may have benefitted from keep notes on who is who.

The Neighbor's Secret by L. Alison Heller is a slow burn but had just enough suspense to keep be invested in this story.

How well do you really know your neighbors? In Cottonwood Estates there is all sorts of drama happening. The reader meets all the neighbors in a clever way; through a book club. In seems like each one of these families is hiding something from the other. There is a neighborhood vandal who makes all of these families suspicious of the other. We also have an older neighbor Lena who is hiding a secret from the past. Let's not forget the teens of the neighborhood; one may be a sociopath and the other may have a drinking problem. Could they be the vandal as well?

Before the story ends, all of these families secrets will be exposed; linking two of them together. If you like family drama; this is the book for you!

The Neighbor's Secret releases on 10/5/2021~
Thank you to FlatIron books and Net Galley for the eARC'

Cottonwood Estates is a seemingly perfect neighborhood with great schools and beautifully manicured lawns. The perfect place for young families to call home. In the center of it all is the Cottonwood Estates Book Club. These ladies meet once a month to drink, talk about books, and examine the neighborhood gossip. Everything is perfect until some mysterious crimes start to occur against the ladies of the book club. These crimes become more and more personal and the ladies are all holding secrets that they are worried will be exposed. Will they be able to protect each other?

L. Alison Heller spins a great story that reminds us that the perfect family is usually an illusion of some sort. The characters were developed perfectly throughout the book. They all felt very real and I could relate to most of them. The book club theme was brilliant and I think most avid readers will enjoy this clever tale.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

#TheNeighboursSecret #NetGalley
Finally I've read a good novel.
The Cottonwood Book Club serves as the subdivision’s eyes and ears, meeting once a month for discussion, gossip, and cocktails. If their selections trend toward twisty thrillers and salacious murder mysteries, it’s only because the members feel secure that such evil has no place in their own cul-de-sacs.
Or does it? What happened to Lena’s family fifteen years ago was a tragic accident, and she will never admit otherwise. Devoted wife and mother Annie refuses to acknowledge—even to herself—the weight of a past shame. And new resident Jen wants friends, but as always, worry about her troubled son gets in the way.
When late-night acts of vandalism target the women of the book club in increasingly violent and personal ways, they will be forced to decide how far to go to keep their secrets.
Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for giving me an advanced copy.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I couldn’t keep up with the characters and the difference between present day and the past. There were a few connections I couldn’t make out and at times it felt like I was reading a completely different story.

A seemingly perfect subdivision is thrust into turmoil upon unusual acts of vandalism hunting the local book club members. The past of an allegedly perfect wife and mother is brought into the limelight thus throwing her under suspicion. A great read!

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. Very captivating with amazing character development. A tight neighborhood book club that would go as far as to hide a murder. This book is so full of twists and turns I was shocked at the end. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Talk about building suspense! I enjoyed this domestic thriller and devoured it in a few days. The ladies of Cottonwood Estates have a book club where they meet to let loose in their suburban bubble. Each one navigating certain "issues" as a mother, some past and some present. How will they intersect? How will they handle the mounting tension as a vandal is let loose in the neighborhood?
Loved the connecting storylines and the way the author keeps you guessing till the very end. Highly recommend. #Theneighborssecret #lalisonheller #netgalley

Cottonwood Estates is the perfect neighborhood with beautiful homes, friendly neighbors and good schools. There is even a neighborhood book club. On the surface, it looks like the ideal place to live. But you never know what goes on behind closed doors, do you?

The Neighbor’s Secret starts with vandalism and ends with tragedy. In between, many secrets, some deeply buried for years by the book club members, are revealed. L. Alison Heller has a unique style. She builds suspense slowly, skillfully weaving between different time frames and voices. Just when you think you have figured out what happened, there’s a surprise turn. This is a compelling read! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books and L. Alison Heller for this ARC.

I enjoyed this book, and figuring out the interlocking stories and history between all of the characters and their children.