3.5 rounded to 4 stars

This book was definitely dark and twisty! Overall you really only found yourself rooting for maybe two characters (besides the kids of course) because so many of the adults in this neighborhood were just so awful to each other. Even though most of the characters were so unlikable I still couldn't put the book down and needed to know who the kidnapper was. I definitely guessed who it was before the reveal but to be fair there weren't that many people it could've been and I don't think it detracted from my enjoyment of the story overall. Also hello what was that epilogue I need answers!!

A compelling domestic thriller that will genuinely leave you guessing. Good character development and well-rounded portrayals with plenty of twists. An engaging read

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. A perfect family leaves a perfect neighborhood in the middle of the night and the town goes abuzz. Then a child goes missing on a babysitters watch. Flash forward to a while later and a family gives that baby sitter a second chance. And it happens again. Coincidence? Or is babysitter really to blame? I gotta tell you. I did not see this ending coming AT ALL. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Great read! This story really makes you wonder who's living next to you!! So many twists and turns I couldn't put it down.

Take an upper class, beautiful neighborhood. You know the ones - with the big beautiful manicured lawns. Now do you wonder what goes on behind those closed doors? Is everything as peaceful as it looks?

Well you know it's not that good - otherwise, why would we have a book, right? But this one was really fun in a twisted way. There were some twists I did not see coming at first. In fact, it almost seemed like it was two separate books in the beginning. Then it started to come together.

I like the writing style and thought it brough the story to life.
I liked the story and thought there were some things in there that I hadn't read about before
I like the characters, and felt like they were people I knew in real life.

I do have to admit that I was a little confused at first - there were a lot of people to keep track of.
I also think the beginning was really good, then it got a little slow. But it was a great ending.

In summary, this is worth the read!

Thank you to the author, the publisher and to #netgalley for the ARC which did not impact my review.

This started off really strong, faded in the middle, then picked up again at the end. The premise is fantastic, but the events that follow the opening chapters are implausible, and there are to many side stories going on. It may make a good book club book due to all of the questions the plot draws up, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

This is a book about our perception of people we think have the perfect life. About never knowing the private struggles someone might be going through, no matter how rosy things seem on the outside.

When Allison and Chris move to an idyllic town, they catch everyone’s eye. The actress and musician with an enviable marriage. No-one knows about their fertility struggles though.

Cassidy is a baby sitter with a secret. One that may have cost her her future and a little boy his life.

Rachael was never really comfortable letting her 5 year old boy walk to school alone and she should have trusted her instinct. She also shouldn’t have lied to the police when she said there were no issues in her marriage.

When Billy goes missing, the small town is left reeling, and pointing fingers at each other to assign blame. This is not the sort of thing they’d expect to happen where they live.

This was such a gripping mystery. It was one of those books I walked around reading while I was doing everything else, I just had to know how it ended! Told from several points of view, the story is cleverly woven together to reveal all of the back stories, casting suspicion on just about everyone.

I’ve been having a bit of a slow reading month, with not much really grabbing me, so I’m glad I ended it on a fast paced twisty thriller like this one!

The Perfect Neighbourhod by Liz Alterman is a psychological thriller about a quaint small town where kids suddenly start disappearing. Everyone starts suspecting everyone else and rumours go wild.

Although I did enjoy this book, it seemed like there were so many suspects and wild goose chases from the beginning and it was a little too much. Very much followed the script of other books like this.

It is told from the perspective of a few people in a higher class neighborhood. You know the kind. Everyone knows everyone and ALL their business. The Karen's of the world thrive in these environments. I LOVED the character dynamics. It was a bit confusing at first to tie the names of the characters to which household she belonged. But once i got to know the characters it made it more fluid. The plot. Oh man, I have said it before, the storylines I find the most creepy are the ones that could happen in real life. What happens when in a seemingly safe neighborhood, the children start going missing? There seems to be very few leads and no information. It's intense.

This was the first book that I've read by Liz Alterman and I loved it! Even though the chapters were a little longer that I prefer, I was still engaged the entire time. I really enjoyed the multiple narrators and felt they added a lot to the story. The characters had a sense of relatability which helped me connect to their narrations. Also, the storyline didn't feel unrealistic as some thrillers can be. I was able to work out whodunnit fairly quickly but it didn't decrease the psychological toll this book took on me. Plus, I especially loved the ending which had me wanting to keep reading!! I would absolutely pick up another Liz Alterman book in the future after reading this one!

If you're a fan of domestic thrillers, you will love this one!
Allison, a model and actress leaves her husband in the middle of the night and the neighborhood explodes with gossip. A short time later, a child goes missing and the gossip about the marriage break up becomes background noise as the police try to find the little boy. When a second child goes missing a few weeks later, the community is reeling. There are so many secrets to be revealed.
My jaw hit the ground at the end of this one!!
An excellent read!

It's the perfect small town neighborhood where everyone knows each other and there aren't any secrets. Well just maybe there are a few as the story unfolds. One child goes missing under the babysitter's care and everyone becomes a suspect. When the second child goes missing and was being watched by the same babysitter the suspect list is drastically reduced. I enjoyed the way the author developed the characters while focusing on their individual problems so you were not able to eliminate them as suspects. Lots of twists and turns to keep you quickly racing to the end. #ThePerfectNeighborhood #LizAlterman #NetGalley

I love the suburban drama. You would think it was over done, but I just never get tired of it!

Two children go missing within a month of each other and the whole town is on edge trying to figure out what happened. People are pointing fingers, rumors are flying, it's the perfect neighborhood drama! I loved the suspense and could not put it down until I figured out what happened.

THE PERFECT NEIGHBORHOOD
BY LIZ ALTERMAN

I bumped this one to the head of the list thinking that I wanted to read a great page turner. This started out slow for me as the writing style was not something that I was used to or even noticed a book written in this way before. I wasn't as wowed as I had anticipated but soon I started to get used to its pace. I had envisioned something altogether different but the more I read the more I warmed up to enjoying this. It has that reality television show about the rich housewives of a famous city vibration to it. The really gossip filled rich neighborhood where all of the mothers start picking out pre-schools for their infant babies feel. Where all the neighbors are women who are stereotypical and fake.

Until five year old Billy goes missing on his way home from kindergarten. Who would seriously let their five year old walk home without an adult? His mother Rachael is wracked with guilt and so torn up about his being taken. She can't remember what he wore to school that day when police ask her for a description of his clothing. What a hot mess her and her husband's marriage is. I don't think I know anybody in real life that were as cold to each other as those two are.

Allison has left her husband Chris at 4:00 AM and Phil whom the police say that he isn't credible because he served in the military? What's that about? Since when do we not honor the brave young men and women who fight for our country in the military? Cassie feels guilt ridden as the babysitter who was late meeting Billy at his house and is the talk of the *idyllic* town where everything on the surface looks perfect but couldn't be more polar opposite. In Rachael and Cassie's case they both lied to the police and have secrets wasting the two officer's time hindering an investigation in every parent's worst nightmare.

When a second child goes missing and Cassie is even more vilified as the same babysitter whose children she was supposed to be watching disappeared life is not as bucolic as these snobby people like to believe it is. I was totally clueless as to who abducted both children which was a huge positive for this novel trying to be something that I had hoped it was. I was disappointed in this one but it got better further in. It turned out to be an above average and engaging read so a solid 4 stars for this one.

Publication Date: July 12, 2022

Thank you to Net Galley, Liz Alterman and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#ThePerfectNeighborhood #LizAlterman #CrookedLaneBooks #NetGalley

Suburbia thrillers are my jam, so this was right up my alley. It was an excellent whodunnit with pretty enjoyable and intruiging characters (though some did fall into more cliché tropes like the gossipy neighbor, etc). There are some characters you'll deeply hate, too (looking at you, Rachel's husband and that damn stepson). Overall, would recommend!

This was an engrossing domestic suspense story about what secrets hide beneath the seemingly perfect veneer of an upperclass neighborhood. The book starts with the disappearance of 5 year old Billy and is told primarily through the POVs of his mother Rachel, his babysitter Cassidy, and his neighbor Allison, with some additional chapters interspersed from various other neighbors.

The chapters are short and alternate between narrators, keeping the pace of the book fast. The author gives you many different potential villains and I had a hard time figuring out who committed the crime- I didn’t figure it out early (which I usually do!) and thought that the suspense and subtle clues were done really well. I didn’t especially like any character in this book, though I did feel that I could empathize with them, for the most part. The end of the book leaves another open question that kept me thinking about it after I finished reading.

Overall, fun read with a good mystery that is hard to figure out. I recommend this book to readers of the domestic suspense genre. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A well told unique story that combines a mother’s worst nightmare, a babysitters worst fear and plot twists and turns that take you to the darkest of places. A suspended read that picks up from page one and doesn’t let go till the last page. Full of surprises and jaw dropping moments. This is one book you don’t want to miss.

This was the right book at the right time for me. Liz Alterman describes a “perfect” upper class CT neighborhood. The houses are big and the neighbors are competitive and catty. The actress wife of an aging rock star disappears and shortly thereafter a boy vanishes on his walk home from kindergarten. The neighborhood is thrown into a frenzy looking for the boy. Told from many viewpoints, including the missing wife, the boy’s babysitter and his mother, as well as other neighbors, the author reveals many secrets held by the inhabitants. No family seems to be truly “perfect” here. Though I solved the mystery of the disappearances before it was disclosed, I think Alterman did a nice job of maintaining suspense and eaving clues as well as red herrings. I recommend this and thank NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Wow another great thriller that had me guessing until the end. This story started a bit slow but I love how it is told from different perspectives. The plot moved along after establishing the characters and I was a bit shocked at the ending. As a parent myself my heart broke for the two families and I could feel the raw emotion. I will definitely recommend this story and give it 5 out of 5 stars. Thank you netgalley and publisher for the advanced copy.

The author is clearly a talented writer, and the premise of the book and the feelings it conveyed were really well done, but the characters were painful and stupid at points.