Home Sweet Home is a solid domestic thriller. Most of the story takes place during the course of one day. A series of shocking and disturbing events unfold in a beautiful home in an affluent neighborhood. Time is ticking as the world goes about its day, but no one knows what is happening to Katherine and her five-year-old twins. Well, a few people are starting to be suspicious, and that might be the only thing that can save them.

I don't want to give too many details and spoil the ending, but this book definitely held me on the edge of my seat and kept me guessing.

One issue I have is with the title of the book. I don't think it really connects with the book very much.

This was a tense book that I read pretty much in one sitting, and late into the night! The book opens with neighbors hearing gunshots and then works its way back through the rest of the day, from the POV of Katherine, who is being held at gunpoint. as well as nosy neighbor Gladys and delivery person Logan.

I thought the author did a great job of helping the reader get to know each primary character, to the point where I could relate to all of them in one aspect or another. Both Logan and Gladys struggled with how involved they should get and I was able to empathize with the conundrum of trying to determine if there is really a problem or if your imagination is getting away from you. The switches in POVs and short chapters made for a quick and engaging read, and there was no character's voice that I was uninterested in hearing.

I had a inkling as to what the twist was, but didn't have it fully figured out, and the author did a good job at keeping the tension high and then pulling it all together in a way that made sense at the end. When all was said and done. I found the story to be both heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time.

Overall, this was a fast read that was fraught with tension and I enjoyed it immensely. I was glad to see that there are a lot of other books by this author, though surprised that I had not read one before- I'll be solving that problem soon! Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Home Sweet Home by Nicole Trope.

This is a dramatic novel - set in suburbia with ineresting characters.

Various characters share their POV about a family living on a quiet road. Good ending, and fast paced. I read this book in a few hours.
3 stars.

Katherine and John seemed to have a perfect life, a great marriage, and adorable 5 year old twins. But everything changes one day. Gladys the "nosy" neighbor doesn't see Katherine or the kids and becomes concerned. Logan the delivery guy is suspicious when Katherine won't take her package that she needs to sign for. Told in alternating POV we learn over the course of seven hours why Katherine is stuck inside her house and why her and her children are being held hostage.

This was my first book by Nicole Trope and I am so glad that a few of my friends recommended it to me. Her writing was superb! The twist at the end definitely got me and it tied up all of the loose ends perfectly. If you are looking for a compelling read that you'll have a hard time putting down, pick up a copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture 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.

Nicole Trope has done it again with this suspenseful novel! What is happening? Who did what? This novel will have you guessing until the last second. The plot revolves around a neighborhood where something unusual seems to be happening. Does one’s past have a way of catching up with you over time? Are Katherine’s mistakes going to come back to harm not only Katherine but her two small children? Should the neighbors be intervening? This novel is one that is difficult to put down. It is thoroughly enjoyable and at the same time very thought provoking. Read it! Thank you to Nicole Trope, bookouture, and netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It’s a a pretty okay book. You get a bit lost in all the different storylines and points of view happening at the same time. Honestly the most stand out character of the book is the neighbor. She is someone I would like to have on my side.

Nicole Trope is an author I am always excited to read. This one is a tense, terse, thrilling ride with a mother and twin youngsters held hostage by a deranged man. As life goes on during the day in the affluent suburban Neighborhood in Australia, neighbors and tradespeople are surprised not to see the family do the normal school runs, play in the garden or take in packages. The house is closed up in fear and danger. Gladys, the neighborhood self described ‘nosey neighbor’ is concerned that she hasn’t seen Kathrine or the kids today. What to do? Meanwhile the poor woman is being terrorized and unsure she will live until evening. A delivery man is suspicious. What do we really do under these circumstances when we are afraid to make a scene by calling the police. By getting involved. What is wrong with people. What is wrong with these violent men we raise, we marry, we excuse. An eye opening novel that will stay with you.

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐠𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬! That’s all it took to make the pretty, quiet Hogarth Street not the same anymore.

Katherine and Josh seemed to be a lovely couple with beautiful 5 year old twins, yet there were rumours in the neighbourhood about them having some trouble in marriage. Up until one morning, when things seemed shady.
Logan, the delivery guy and Gladys, the neighbour were chased off by Katherine saying she can’t open the door.
They couldn’t let go of the fact that Kat seemed scared and started making attempts to find out! But they had no idea that Kat and her kids were held at gunpoint inside the house.

𝘼 𝙬𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩.
𝘼 𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙩.
𝘼 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙠𝙞𝙙𝙨.

What exactly happened in the house and were Logan and Gladys right about what they thought was happening?
The story was distributed through various POVs.
The ending twist did come unexpected but i was still hoping for more! I was expecting that Logan’s story will be given a little more time and Logan would be given a chance to portray his true character.
Overall, it was a quick read with a twist!

Home Sweet Home is intense & stressful (in a good way). I started reading it on a Thursday and finished it on Friday because I could not put it down! The story is told from different characters’ perspectives and is about a family being held hostage in their own home. The characters are developed so much so I felt like they were real people. Nicole Trope blows me away every time I read her books!

The home on Hogarth Street has a beautiful emerald-green front lawn, perfectly trimmed hedging, an ivy-covered front gate and there’s a distinct scent of honeysuckle in the air. In the yard, two scooters lie on the grass. How odd to be so quiet. How odd, on the hottest day of the year, to have all the windows closed. In a normal family, in a normal house, on a normal street….everything is about to go horribly wrong.

‘Home Sweet Home’ begins with a delivery driver who is trying to deliver a parcel to a house in the suburbs. The homeowner comes to the door, but tells him she can’t open it. The manner in which she expresses herself alerts the driver, a man with a difficult past, that something is wrong inside the home. Little does he know, the nosy elderly couple across the street are also concerned for the family inside.

SEVEN HOURS. The world shifted for the lady of the house and who she was when the sun rose is not the same person as who she was when the sun set. Before the sun closes the day, she’ll blame herself for past choices and mistakes made. She’ll regret trusting the wrong people.

You’ve heard the expression ‘life can change in an instant,’ now come read this book and LIVE it. There’s a desperate decision being made within the walls of the home on Hogarth Street and Trope has the ability to place you right in the middle of the action. You’ll feel the desperation and terror. As the temperature soars and your hunger pangs grow, you’ll be looking for a way out.

I loved this book because it didn’t all come together until the end. I spent so much time trying to look for clues and at about 75% of the way through, I realized that nothing is really ever what it seems. I guarantee you’ll be willing your heartbeat to slow down and yelling, “Wait. What?!”

Why did I love this book? Well, we all love a good secret exposed, don’t we? We gossip. We dissect each other’s life because we are convinced that everyone is hiding something. This book will fill that need. You’ll be sucked in at what’s been going on behind closed doors and you’ll want to warn everyone on the street. Especially the nosy-nelly across the street. It fed my desire to offer second chances, to not judge a book by its cover and to extend a helping hand to those in need.

You won’t want to miss out on this well planned and executed psychological thriller.

"Whatever you do in your life, you can never outrun karma. Karma never loses an address."

Publishes August 6, 2021

I was gifted this advance copy by Nicole Trope, Bookouture and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

An excellent read which held my interest from the beginning until the end with good characters.

I can definitely recommend and thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this book.

Katherine and John West are the perfect neighbours. They live in a nice house, in a friendly community, with their young twins, George and Sophie. But on this particular morning, something's off on Hogarth Street. Katherine won't open the door to a delivery driver. Her neighbour, Gladys, is concerned that the blinds are drawn and the children aren't making their usual clamour as they get ready for school. When shots ring out and the police arrive, the truth begins to unravel, and it seems that no-one really knows what's going on behind closed doors....

I enjoyed this book very much. I liked that it started out with the shots being fired and then went back to the events of the morning leading up to it, through the eyes of several different characters. I think this could have unravelled a bit in less capable hands, but the author managed to tie everything in brilliantly, and I loved that each character was thoroughly realised and fleshed out, with concerns and troubles and motivations of their own.

The twists were well-plotted and I didn't see the main one coming at all, and I loved how the information was gradually meted out throughout the book. This is the first book I've read by this author, but it certainly won't be the last. Well-paced, twisty, and a gripping read.

Thank you to NetGalley, and to the publisher, who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have no shame in saying it. The author got me. She absolutely fooled me.

I thought that the story was really simple. We knew who was doing what and why. Yeah…I was sooooo wrong and I loved what the author did with this.

Our characters were terrific – even the side characters had things going on that broke my heart – and I was so worried for all of them!

This one is very nicely done!

*ARC provided via Net Galley

A terrifying, anxiety-ridden plot that almost gave me an aneurysm in my attempt to finish it, this story on second chances was simply brilliant.

70-year-old neighbourhood busybody Gladys and six-foot-four, tattooed, ex-convict-turned-delivery man, Logan, have nothing in common. And yet both of them can't ignore the niggling feeling that all's not well at John and Katherine West's house. Even though everything looks normal from the outside, Logan's intuition senses that the Wests are in danger. For lonely housewife Gladys, keeping tabs on her neighbours' movements is one of her pastimes, in between taking care of her husband Lou, who is succumbing to Parkinson's. So she instinctively knows something is wrong, on seeing the drawn blinds on the West's windows. How this unlikely pair turn saviors for a terrorised family forms the crux of the story.

I am baffled by how the author has managed to pack so much adrenaline into a plot whose events span just seven hours and are confined to a single house. I loved the characters of Gladys and Logan; despite their personal circumstances, they go out of their way to help someone based purely on instinct and awareness. Katherine too, was an admirable character - her love for her children bleeds through her POV in the book. Honestly, this was one of those rare books, where except for the bad guy, I liked everyone else.

The storyline touches upon a very sensitive issue of how many a time, children become pawns for feuding parents. It also poses the question whether it is our circumstances that define us or the choices we make. The author maintains a tense narrative from start to end, keeping one riveted. There is a bit of violence which makes for an uncomfortable read. But on the whole I enjoyed the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In the world today, we are basically taught not to bother people, not to interfere, just leave well enough alone. Well that can be good in some circumstances, this book shows that in other respects it is good to make sure everything's okay with someone, check into something, etc. I like how the author did that and wrapped it in a mystery as well. I thought this was going to be a straightforward who done it type of deal, but it wasn't just that, it was about second chances. The pace was pretty fast moving and I finished this book within a day, well I did figure out the mystery of it I would definitely recommend. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

How would you react if your home - your safe haven and place of solitude - was no longer safe? Danger lurks in the West house and this story explained in the perfect way. This is how you write a thriller.

A quiet street on a hot day in Australia. What can go wrong? Everybody loves the sun and feels better, but it seems some people are not such happy campers...

What if you feel like something is wrong with someone living close to you? Do you call the police or will you try to find out more first? Are you a neighbor looking out for others or are you just simply nosy and meddling? What is the right thing to do? 

What if you are a stranger with a past and feel like something is wrong with people you don't know at all? Do you call the police or will you try to find out more first? Are you trying to help or does your past come to bite you in the ...? What is the right thing to do?

What if two people who don't know each other have the same concerns? Do they call the police or are they going to try and find out more first?

Whatever they decide, they will have to do it now, because time is running out...

The story is told from different points of view and it gives the reader the chance to find out how the past influences the present and the future. For some it will end well and they turn their lives around. Others though are at the end of their tether and disaster is looming...

This is a book where I was wrong footed more than once and that's just great! I sometimes wonder how many kilos of emotions you can drop into a story. Well, tonnes and tonnes if you ask me and that's exactly what they author did.

If you want to find out how a story can be harsh and beautiful at the same time, you should read this one. 5 stars

Thank you

I was sent a copy of this book for an honest review. This was such a good book that I didn't want to put it down. It had me gripped from the start! Exciting and fast-paced, with good characters. Definitely recommended!

#HomeSweetHome #Netgalley

Omg! Omg! This book took so long to get to where it was going ! My son came in and asked me who I was yelling at?! ( I was yelling at my Kindle) lol I think my heart beat out of my chest waiting for Logan or Gladys or heck even the cops! To get in the freaking house!! The suspense was killing me! Lol my heart is still beating crazy! If you'd like to know who or what I'm talking about you'll have to read! Lol believe me its well worth reading! Ok I have to go now I need a big glass of wine to calm down! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me! And thank you to my new favorite author Nicole Trope for keeping Me up all night reading this book!

I am disappointed to say I did not enjoy this book.' The subject matter and what was happening to some of the characters is not something I would choose to read. I will not be more specific as I do not want to give away the plot. This was just not for me. I wish the author all the best with the book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.