This was supposed to be one of those towns and neighborhoods where nothing bad happens. Yes, you have those nosy neighbors that love to gossip, but other than that it's relatively safe. Personally, I would never let a 5 year old walk to and from school alone, and Rachel soon realizes her mistake when Billy comes up missing. Liz Alterman wrote a great mystery thriller that keeps you guessing right to the end. When another child goes missing that Cassidy is babysitting, things don't look good for her at all, but when you find out who took the kids it's jaw dropping. My most favorite part of this book is the last paragraph, because it leaves you shocked and wondering if what you think may happen will really happen. Definitely pick this book up.

A new to me author, this was a GREAT dark domestic suspense novel that is perfect for fans of Joshilyn Jackson, Mary Hannah Mackinnon or Shari Lapena. Full of some great twists and an ending that leaves you wanting more. I can't wait to read other books by this author. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance review copy!

Thank you #NetGalley #ThePerfectNeighborhood for the opportunity to read an ARC of of The Perfect Neighborhood for my honest review.

What is a perfect neighborhood? A place to raise a family where you don't need to worry about locking your doors as there's never any crime. Your kids are safe playing in their yards and driveways unattended by adults.

That was the suburban community of Oak Hill, until the day it wasn't. The day a young boy goes missing.

Everyone is a suspect, even the boys babysitter. Not long after this boy goes missing another child goes missing! This child also has the same babysitter. Coincidence?

Lots of secrets, twists, turns right up until the shocking ending.

A must read if you are a fan of domestic suspense.

I remember doing a cover reveal for this book quite awhile ago and I couldn’t wait to read it. The cover alone completely drew me in and I had a feeling this would be a good one. And it was!

A little boy goes missing on his way home from school and everyone in the neighbourhood is on the lookout for who could’ve taken him. It’s the type of community where everyone has a perfect life and a happy smile. But as we soon learn, nobody’s perfect…

I will say that most of the book had more of a domestic drama vibe as opposed to a thriller vibe. We get a closer look at the people of the neighbourhood and the problems that they’re facing. But even though it wasn’t heavy on the thriller piece, I still really enjoyed it! The writing was incredible and the characters were all so interesting.

The ending was amazing and really brought that thriller component back in!! It took me a long time to predict what was going to happen, and nothing could’ve prepared me for that last page. It was absolute perfection and I ended the book with chills running down my spine.

Please be aware that there is a lot of talk about miscarriages and infertility. If these topics are triggering for you, just know that they’re very prominent in this book.

I received this book for free as part of an Instagram book tour. My review is posted on Goodreads and Bookstagram.

A great psychological thriller/suspense.
The characters are well defined and the ending will surprise you!
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

In the Oak Hill neighborhood, gossip always abounds.

Allison and Christopher Langley have split up. Allison is an actress with lots of experience doing commercials and Christopher is a washed-up rock star. Allison left him in the middle of the night and she is staying with a friend.

Rachel Barnes is mother to 5-year-old, Billy. He’s a curious little kindergartner. Rachel has just returned to her job as a real estate agent. Rachel has allowed Billy to walk by himself several blocks to his home after school. That is where his babysitter, Cassidy, meets him and takes care of him until Rachel gets home. But, today his sitter is late meeting Billy and he has disappeared. Frantic, the family, neighbors, and police begin a search for him. What happened to this child?

As the neighbors gossip about who could have taken Billy, Rachel is beside herself with worry about Billy. Who has her son? But then another child goes missing while under the care of Cassidy, the neighborhood erupts along with the press. Is this the same person that took Billy? Could Cassidy have done something to these children? Where are they?

This story switches back and forth from different neighbors in this community. There are secrets and discord in lots of the marriages. I found the police investigations to be lax and shameful. Poor, silly Cassidy. I rather liked Cassidy’s friend, Lexi and Allison’s friend, Vivienne. They were real friends. This story had me guessing right up to the end. I’m betting lots of people will enjoy it.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This one held my interest but I didn’t love it. I did enjoy certain aspects of it however but I felt like there were too many extraneous details.

The Perfect Neighborhood is a story about a neighborhood that is anything but perfect. The novel begins actress and model, Allison, leaving her husband in the middle of the night. The neighborhood is gossiping among themselves, until a kindergarten boy, Billy Barnes, going missing while walking home from school.

This story was written through many points of views. We read from the POV of Billy's mom, Allison, and Billy's babysitter. The characters are all way more intertwined than we may believe in the beginning of the book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fast paced, and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next.

Thank you to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book before it was published in exchange for an honest review.

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman is a mystery that starts out with a 5 year old missing boy. The neighborhood is full of affluent neighbors and is the chic place to live. Gossip abounds and theories galore. Unfortunately for me, the book bogged down in the middle and frankly, I got bored and couldn’t wait to get to the end.

The book is well written, but it just didn’t set off any WOW moments for me. I am definitely willing to read more books by this author.

Thank you to #netgalley and #crookedlanebooks for allowing me to read the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed above are my own.

We have the perfect couple, the Langley’s, living in the perfect small-town neighborhood. Allison is a successful actress and Christopher is a musician rock star. But is everything perfect like the neighbors think? Apparently not, because someone spots Allison leaving her house in the dead of the night, and disappears forever. And thus the gossip begins.
But then something out of the ordinary happens in the small town. A kindergarten boy goes missing on his way home from school with no trace of where he might be. Everyone initially blames the young babysitter who was late to receive the kid but the local police find no evidence for days and the case comes to a deadlock.
And then a second kid goes missing while the same babysitter is minding her siblings in another house. Is the babysitter responsible or is there some other dark secret brooding in the quiet neighborhood?
A fine domestic mystery underlining deep-seated problems in families. Let me be honest and tell you that the mystery was not so much a mystery to me because I did guess the mischief-maker quite early in the story. And yet it is a very interesting, fast-paced one-time read for me.
I even liked the way the book was formatted with dated narratives from Allison Langley, the kid’s mothers Rachel and Sarah, and Cassidy the babysitter. Simple and yet not so simple.
I recommend this to domestic mystery lovers. Curl up to this one with a coffee mug, and a blankie on a rainy night and you’ll thank me for it.

📖My Thoughts📖

After having just read another book about a sketchy neighborhood, I’m beginning to feel even more thankful with the neighborhood I live in myself. This is a pretty good thriller, but fair warning, there are some triggers in this book including child abduction, drugging and pregnancy loss. I think the hardest part about reading this book is that I have two small children of my own, and reading what the mothers of the missing children were going through really tugged at my heartstrings. Nonetheless, it was overall a pretty good book that was decently paced and easy to read. I did actually figure out the ending around half way through the book, but that didn’t take away from how it all played out. It still kept me on the edge of my seat waiting for it to unfold in the book. Thank you Netgalley, Liz Alterman and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Is Oak Hill, NJ the perfect suburban neighborhood?!? Hah right! Not in the least.

With multiple female POV’s, this dealt with a slew of melodrama. Lots of secrets behind closed doors, jealousy, backstabbing, gossipy neighbors, cheating. Then the one thing that no one expected happens. The disappearance of not one, but two children vanish into thin air.. three weeks apart. Both under the same teen sitters care. Were they kidnapped? No clues are left behind until a disposable phone is recovered in the yard of the latest crime scene.

It’s unsettling to read but oh what a thrill! If you enjoy a good domestic thriller this is not to be missed. 3.5 stars. Pub. 7/12/22

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. The story was intriguing enough but I hope the unnecessary drama was less and the details regarding the case were the focus instead. And I wished the author didn't put that very obvious clue. Other than that, this book was an entertaining read.

Apologies but this was a dnf for me,it did not hold my interest and was not keen on the characters or the story that just seemed to meander on with little happening

Oak Hill is the neighborhood in question, a mostly affluent area in New Jersey. Allison Langley, actress and model, left her husband Chris, a former rockstar, in the middle of the night; gossip runs rampant for a short while until 5-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing and police are unable to find any trace of him. His mother, Rachel, and Cassidy, his teenage babysitter, both feel responsible for different reasons. And then another child goes missing.

I mostly enjoyed this well-written domestic drama. I know they're a dime-a-dozen right now but some are more enjoyable than others. The story is told mainly from the POVs of Allison, Rachel and Cassidy in alternating chapters with dates included at the beginning of each chapter so that we can follow the progression of the drama, interspersed with occasional chapters from the viewpoints of other characters. I have to be honest and admit that I had trouble keeping the narrators straight, other than teenage Cassidy. Maybe it's because they had such ordinary names - Allison, Rachel, Sarah, Betsy, Lindsay (no offence to friends by those names!) and it was hard to tell them apart. Also, by about 75% I was getting a little tired of Allison's inner monologue to do with her childlessness. It was very sad and had its place in the plot but it went on too long. Things picked up again as we raced towards the climax.

I'd still recommend this book as a quick and engrossing read.

Yet another book where I predicted the ending (and then some). It doesn't mean that the book is bad, but I do wish it was executed a bit better.

There are scenes where it becomes obvious who did the crime(s) early on, and the little seeds of doubt that are supposed to steer the reader in another direction weren't planted properly, at least not in my case.

The predictability isn't the main flaw of this book however, since I've previously enjoyed similar books, and I did enjoy this one too. No, I think the problem is that so many dialogues between the characters added nothing to the story. It just seemed like they were there to fill up the pages, making the book feel longer than it really was.

I was expecting something like Desperate Housewives, but scarier, and I got a very, very, VERY watered down version of that instead. I wasn't even scared once while reading, which is sad.

Anyway, the characters. I didn't have any strong feelings about them, other than Cassidy. She was a babysitter who was at the scene of the crime not once, but twice when the kids went missing and a big part of the community is convinced she had something to do with it. Did she?

Classidy was the most relatable to me, and the most realistic. The rest were fine, but they won't stick with me like she will.

And the atmosphere was nice, I like small town/suburban settings, especially in mysteries. I really loved the descriptions at the end when it rained. Because of that I'd read another book by this author in the future.

3.5

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I honestly dnfed this book... it was not getting me hooked and I think its the start of the book that wasn't really giving ...

Following on from her debut YA fiction book, The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman is a cosy domestic noir. It begins with the scandal of the separation of the glamour couple neigbours, before a five year old child goes missing as he walks home alone from kindergarten. The story is told in multiple voices, from the babysitter, the separated wife and the mother of the missing boy. As the police investigate, the neigbourhood gossip is rife and there’s plenty of judging and blame to go around. Then another child goes missing and the perfect neigbourhood is not all that it seems. So, an enjoyable psychological thriller that explores the darkness and secrets of suburban living with a three and a half star read rating. With thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman is a highly recommended suburban drama.

It is the talk of the neighborhood gossips in Oak Hill, New Jersey, when actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Chris, at 4 AM. But this is overshadowed when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing while walking home from kindergarten. Rachel, Billy's mother blames herself for her career and parenting. Cassidy, Billy's teenage babysitter blames herself because she was late to the Barnes house that day. Police are unable to find any trace of Billy. Perhaps Oak Hill isn't as idyllic as it appears to be on the surface?

The narrative is told mainly from the point-of-view of Allison, Rachel, and Cassidy, in alternating chapters with a few chapters from others in the neighborhood. As the search continues and the neighborhood gossips drink wine and discuss events, there are many secrets exposed and suspects are plentiful. Suspense and tension rises quickly. Everyone judges everyone else and we are privy to their pronouncements.

The quality of the writing is excellent in this suburban domestic drama. The characters resemble archetypes of different personalities rather than real people, but it works in a novel of this type. It is a quick read and an entertaining whodunit with a satisfying denouement. It is also a bit disappointing that whodunit is very predictable, but the appreciation is in the journey to the conclusion. 3.5 rounded up.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

I really struggled to read this book because I became confused on who was who, I had to read sentences twice because I found my attention wandering. The thing that kept me reading was i didn't know who had done it and I wanted to find out. Thank you netgalley and crooked lane for this ARC