Freya and Jack move into their first forever home and Freya quickly forms a friendship with Emily her next door neighbour, fast forward a couple of mo the and Emily and her young daughter have gone missing.
The police don't seem to be taking this seriously and Freya takes on the task of finding out what happened to her friend and her daughter. A good fast paced book with a few twists along the way that keeps the reader guessing.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Freya and her fiancé Jack move into their new home on Sunningale Road in Weybridge. The house is in desperate need of some TLC but the couple are keen to make this into a family home.

Freya soon befriends neighbour Emily from next door and her daughter Thea. Emily is lovely and friendly whilst her husband Michael is a bit of a cold fish. The ladies are soon sharing secrets together over a bottle of wine.

A few months later Emily and Thea disappear and the police investigation goes nowhere, so Thea takes it upon herself to get involved. Why isn't Michael concerned about his wife's disappearance? Who can she trust?

Appearances are deceiving and secrets are revealed in this twisty tale of obsession, and betrayal.

If you love psychological thrillers then this is a book I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It has some twists I didn't see coming! I read this book in one sitting and I would definitely recommend this book!

I didn’t love this story but I didn’t hate it either. This is one of those books that is stretched out to the point that it becomes annoyingly long when it would have been a juicier story if it had cut out the lagging parts that just make you roll your eyes anyway.

Freya was thrilled to be in a new home situated in a cute and peaceful suburban neighborhood. Freya can now enjoy drinks and gossip with someone since Emily has become her new friend. Over dinner one evening, Freya witnesses something awful that makes her question the truth of Emily's life. Emily and her daughter go missing without warning within days!
Freya suspects Emily's husband is hiding something after meeting him. Finding out the truth will make you question everything!

You won't believe how much your mind will spin with these answers.

This wild ride took me by surprise so many times because you think you know what’s going on, but you're so wrong!!

A well-constructed plot that effectively builds on suspense.

I found The New Home to be a tense and thrilling read that kept me engaged. The story took some unexpected turns that made for an exciting read, and the ending was mind-blowing!!

The author delivered with this one here.

The New Home is a twisty and turny thriller about a woman who forms a friendship with someone who then disappears. I enjoyed this read, but it wasn't particularly unique as far as thrillers go. I'd say that as a beach read or a plane read it would be great. This isn't the book you'd choose for book club, or that would lead to deep conversation. It's a thriller that keeps you distracting from other things, or entertains you while you soak in the rays!

Wow I loved this book, so many twists and turns, I spent many a night staying awake trying to read more. A perfect thriller!!!

The New Home was the first book I've read by Chris Merritt, and it won't be my last! This novel was full of twists and kept me guessing until the very end. The plot and characters were interesting, and I was really invested in finding out what happened to Emily and Thea...and the truth was something I didn't see coming at all. Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review The New Home. : )

This isn’t the best book I’ve ever read to say the least! The story is silly, there are too many coincidences, and the characters feel one dimensional - there’s not one who is remotely likeable. Freya has an outrageous sense of entitlement which annoyed me, I won’t go into that any more because of spoilers! Having said that it was weirdly compelling and I was hooked.

This thriller read is filled with action and twists. It was a good solid read, and entertaining till the end. You are entertained by the amateur detective Freya and wants her to solve the case. Really entertaining.

A very clever thriller. You won’t work out who is the real bad person is until the end but you’ll think you have a few times! Definitely a new author to get into! 4/5.

There are a lot of domestic thrillers out there and I thought this might be quite samey but I was pleasantly surprised, it was intriguing and full of drama and I found myself flying through the pages

reya loves her new home on a quiet suburban street. And her beautiful neighbour Emily is everything she’s ever wanted in a best friend. Finally, she has somebody to share her secrets with over a glass of wine. But as Freya watches her new friend setting the table for dinner one evening, she sees something shocking that makes her think that Emily’s life might not be as perfect as it seems. Days later, Emily and her daughter vanish…

When you meet Emily’s husband, you will think you know what he’s hiding.

You will ask yourself whether Emily and Freya really did meet by chance.

You will think you know what happened to Emily and her little girl the night they went missing.

But when you discover the truth, it will shake you to your core and you will lie awake at night wondering if you can ever really trust the people in the house next .

Do you really know the neighbors next door? Can you really trust them? This was a page turner full of dark secrets and unexpected twists. Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. Available now!

This is a first by this author and the story seems to move way too fast in my opinion. The main character Freya and her fiancé just moved into a new home in a new neighborhood and befriends the neighbor. Fast forward, next chapter the neighbor and daughter is missing and our main character is set to find out what happens to them. All of the supporting characters are absent and it is unbelievable that she is absorbed with finding her neighbor/ friend when she just moved in and the story does not build up the friendship; it just feels like a nosy neighbor trying to meddle and becomes annoying fast as she tried to engage the neighbor who is a senior and suffers with dementia. The story felt jagged with lots of information about mental health and statistics and leaving hints of someone else missing prior. The elements of story are not well tied in together as it builds, I found it annoying to want to finish.

What a ride! So much tension and I had to keep reading to get to the end. The question marks about Freya's mindset leave you guessing about reality and some great twists.

Enjoyed this quite a bit and finished this in 2 sittings! All about a new neighbourhood that brings with it, new secrets and much more! Pick it up if you are looking to curl up with a book on the weekend and finish it fast!

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨 𝙈𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩

This was my first read of Merritt’s work and it was well written and enjoyable. A few things bothered me and I’m gonna get these out the way first. So the characters. Freya. She was annoying, impulsive, dramatic and nosy to the point where her character just felt unrealistic. I struggled to relate to her and her vivid imagination— there was a lot of description about the latter and as someone who literally does not have the ability to picture a single thing in my mind, I really struggled to get into her character. Jack was shady from the off and completely unsupportive. Michael didn’t help himself at all. And despite enjoying the plot itself, it felt far fetched to me— only ten percent of the book focuses on the building of “friendship” between Emily and Freya so the intensity of Freya’s need to help (and risk everything to do so) felt slightly forced.

Things I liked: it was written solely from Freya’s POV, which worked well with this plot as you start to see situations from her perspective and it became evident pretty early on that she was an unreliable narrator, which added to the intrigue. I liked the interspersing “anonymous” chapters as both the “writer” and who they were writing about was unknown which added to the creep factor. I think the way mental illness can distort reality was depicted well through Freya’s character. Overall this was a fast and enjoyable read that I flew through and would definitely try another book by this author. Recommend picking this up if you’re looking for a domestic thriller with an undependable protagonist or just an easy, intriguing read.

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (3/5)

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫 + 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐀𝐑𝐂!

While I've never bought a house, and probably never will, I nonetheless fall in love with houses, and the potential they have, all the time. A new home is a a place to start again, to build something new, to leave the past behind. Or is it? For Freya, sadly, her new home turns into something of a nightmare. Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Freya and her fiancé Jack have found their dream home. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, sure, but it has potential. And the neighbours seem lovely, or at least interesting. But then, a few months later, their neighbour Emily and her daughter disappear. No one seems to be looking for them, but Freya can't let it go, especially after she experiences a tragedy herself. So she starts digging and the further she goes the more she becomes unsure of everything she thought was safe. The New Home ticks a lot of different boxes for the domestic suspense genre. There is a close friendship between two women, a lovely home, a creepy attic, lazy police, a suspicious husband, and a tired fiancé. So technically The New Home should be a great read and yet it just didn't click with me. A lot of this comes down to there being a lot of telling, instead of showing. Merritt skips almost directly to Emily's disappearance and we get her friendship with Freya only in flashbacks. This didn't really work, especially once we begin to suspect Freya isn't super reliable. We didn't see their friendship grow, so we can't entirely buy into it. While I enjoyed the twists and turns, it felt low stakes to me since I couldn't connect to it. The ending of The New Home then also feels very sudden and didn't entirely satisfy.

My main issue with The New Home is the protagonist. I don't, necessarily, ascribe to the adage that men can't write women, but then you read books like this and realise that even well-meaning men don't necessarily get it right. Freya is a bit of a mess, which in and of itself is very interesting. But Freya is messy to the extent that it's no longer a character flaw, but a writing flaw. Merritt seems to consistently undermine her, in the hopes of crafting an unreliable narrator. Mix in mental health issues, fertility issues, and feminism, and you get a female character that is less a character and more a paradigm of "unreliable psychological thriller woman". Freya will blame the patriarchy for everything, even if the issue is her. She will consistently misinterpret things and then regret that, only to do the same thing a page later. She will learn a lesson and forget it. She has an incredibly eye for detail, which is consistently missing in crucial moments. What frustrated me here, I guess, is that Merritt set up Freya to be a very interesting character, but then weakens or undermines her as the plot demands. Change the character or change the plot, but don't switch them back and forth as you think fits. I have seen a lot of praise for Chris Merritt, so perhaps this is simply a misfire, which is absolutely allowed. I will probably read another one of his books in the future, just to double check.

Sadly The New Home did not do the trick for me. A lot of the choices made by Merritt didn't resonate with me, or even struck a wrong chord. I have, however, heard many positive things about him, so I will be giving one of his other books a try.