A whodunnit that will have you questioning most characters and their motives. Not terribly hard to figure it out as the story unfolds. Many narrators/perspectives to keep track of. High end neighborhood horror story.

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman is a neighborhood/domestic drama with a mystery surrounding the missing children. It was a pretty slow burn, but I was able to stay fully invested thanks to the different viewpoints, and even though I thought I knew what was coming, I wasn't entirely correct. There wasn't as much drama as I was expecting as I was hoping for lots of gossip and other fun small neighborhood things, but it wasn't TOO heavy on that. The most drama came from Allison leaving, and then Lindsay's POV since she is right among the neighborhood gossips, but her part was a lot smaller than I was expecting. The mystery of the missing children, while being a main part of the story, did take a bit of a backseat at times in my mind, and the focus ended up being more on what each of the MCs was personally experiencing.

I found this book basically impossible to put down and it was a really easy listen/read. The audiobook was fantastic thanks to the different narrators for each viewpoint, and I loved Amanda Dolan, Priya Ayyar, Hillary Huber, Laura Jennings, & Gail Shalan all equally. Huber was the narrator for Lindsay's POV, so I was a little disappointed that she didn't have a larger part since she is one of my favorites, but I was really happy with all of them, so it all worked out in the end. The Perfect Neighborhood is so named because clearly nothing about Oak Hill is perfect and most of the residents are hiding something. I love these types of narratives and was definitely not disappointed. I also really enjoyed Alterman's writing style and would gladly read future books from her! If you want an escapist read that you can enjoy while sipping some wine on the patio during a summer night, The Perfect Neighborhood is a perfect choice.

I devoured this book in one day! The constant neighborhood domestic drama that was in this book was so interesting which made you turning them pages.

The missing children?? Boy oh boy what a wild ride!!

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review. A great read, perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

This one took me a while to pick up because of the "missing children" plot point. I'm pregnant and currently very hormonal, so I had to wait until I could really handle the subject matter,.

That being said, I neither loved nor hated this book. The "what the neighbors are doing" genre is very in right now, so I feel as though I've read a lot of these types of books all in a row, and none of them are particularly unique. I liked Alterman's writing, I just didn't have a strong reaction to any of it either way.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for suburbia thrillers that have all the drama. This starting off with couple drama, leading into criminal drama is what hooked me. This book was an enjoyable read and definitely scratched my "neighborhood drama" itch that I always have.

A great read with plenty of twists and turns. Kept me guessing. Will definitely read more by this author. It was impossible to put down!

Really hard to finish this one. Unlikeable characters everywhere makes it so hard to connect or care about much of the plot line.

Terrible police work handling the missing children case and it was too similar to a previously read story.

This book started out great. A child kidnapped in an upscale neighborhood. Many suspects.
Told from many POVs. Then it started falling apart for me. And the ending seemed to come out of left field.
I just didn’t like this one.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. It was just not for me.

“The Perfect Neighborhood” is the story of an abducted child in a desirable, upscale suburban neighborhood. This psychological thriller, told from multiple viewpoints, details the many cracks in a seemingly perfect setting. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped to; I felt it was a little too contrived in its complexity. One too many twists and turns.

The Perfect Neighborhood was a good solid domestic thriller.

Told through the eyes of multiple characters, residents of the upmarket suburb of Oak Hill are thrown into turmoil when a young child disappears on his way home from school one day.

The babysitter Cassidy is instantly suspected and judgement is also thrown on working mum Rachel. How could she leave her child like that to return to her career......why wasn't she there to pick her son up from school?

Everyone in the neighborhood has an opinion and fear soon takes over when another child mysteriously disappears, again under the watch of poor teenager Cassidy.

There's a second storyline sort of running parallel to the missing children, that of Allison and her husband Chris. The seemingly perfect couple who have everything they could possible want, but is there life really that perfect. After numerous miscarriages Allison simply can't take it anymore and disappears in the middle of the night, leaving everything including her husband behind.

I founds this a really quick easy read and the storyline had the right pace to hold my attention throughout. I'm a fan of multiple narrators and different viewpoints to the same story so I enjoyed how this was written in that way.

A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Perfect Neighborhood.

So this was a decent story and an intriguing mystery until the end where it just goes off into crazypants territory.

In this wealthy neighborhood, a few things happen around the same time. First, Allison leaves her husband Christopher in the middle of the night. No one in the neighborhood knows where she went. Then, on his way home from school, five-year-old Billy disappears. His babysitter Cassidy was late to meet him. When another child goes missing, the residents are scared and don't know what to think.

This story is told from multiple points of view, mainly Allison and Cassidy, but also the parents of the missing kids and various others in the neighborhood. I honestly could have been behind multiple explanations for the disappearances except for what actually ended up being the explanation. Also, after everything involving the kids is solved, then we get some extra epilogue style wrap up chapters and one of them is OTTM (one twist too many) or just beyond believability for me. There are also a few plot holes throughout and fairly inept police when all is said and done.

Although this was mildly entertaining, I don't think I'll remember it because other than the bizarre explanation for the missing kids, there just isn't much here. I don't know on what planet a parent would think it was okay to let a five-year-old walk to and from school by himself, because where I live they won't even let a kid that young get off the school bus at their driveway without an adult present, much less dismiss them out of a classroom to walk home on their own.

I listened to much of this as an audiobook and the narrator does an excellent job keeping the listener invested in the story.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Yikes, good read! can't get enough of the crazy neighbor books after living next to one and finally escaping it! I swear my life is like some of these books!

The Perfect Neighborhood by Liz Alterman is about two children that go missing from a close-knit neighborhood. The babysitter is blamed; the crossing guard is blamed; the parents are blamed. But who is actually to blame? This story included a lot of unlikeable characters, and I didn't enjoy it very much. Especially since the big reveal wasn't much of a surprise. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Wasn’t my favorite but it was still a good storyline. Seemed very much like many other suburban thriller.

Books about small neighborhoods and their dramas are always a must read for me and this did not disappoint.
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The gossip mill is constantly spinning, especially after Allison leaves her husband. It’s all anyone can talk about until five year old Billy Barnes goes missing. Now the missing boy is all anyone can talk about, until another child goes missing and drama turns into real fear. I don’t want to give too much away here but this had me flipping the pages until the end to find out who took the kids and how it all connects together.
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Thank you #crookeanebooks and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you so much @CrookedLaneBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 12 July 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Oak Hill is considered the "perfect neighbourhood", but when a 5 year old boy (Billy) goes missing during his walk home from kindergarten the residents start to realise that it isn't as idyllic as it seems.

WHAT I LIKED:
- I'm a sucker for a good suburbia neighbourhood drama
- the multiple POVs helped build up a more well-rounded visual of the neighbourhood

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the story alternates between multiple POVs (maybe 5?) which I found to be confusing at times
- I cannot wrap my head around why on earth a 5 year old boy is walking home from kindergarten on his own or why on earth he has a cell phone?! Too unbelievable for me.
- I wanted Desperate Housewives vibes, but instead this felt like a very watered down & predictable version in comparison
- the last lines for Allison felt out of character & purely there for the shock factor

3.5 stars

This was an interesting read. It was a fairly typical domestic thriller in the sense that, although the twist at the end wasn’t completely obvious, there were only so many realistic possibilities, and the relationship dynamics were pretty standard. I enjoyed it and found the story itself engaging, just not super surprising. I wasn’t disappointed by it and will probably look for other books by this writer in the future.

Following different perspectives of women who all tie together in some way for this thriller. I enjoyed this a lot. It took me a minute to understand whose perspective I was reading and how to tell the women apart, but overall an addictive read!

Summary: When actress and model Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband, Christopher, in the middle of the night, it’s all her Oak Hill neighbors can talk about. The gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes goes missing on his walk home from kindergarten.

Billy’s mother, Rachel, blames herself for being at work and letting her only child walk alone. Cassidy, Billy’s teenage babysitter, was also late to arrive on the afternoon he disappeared and blames herself for his disappearance.

As the clock ticks down, police are unable to find any trace of Billy, forcing Rachel to ponder the enemies she’s made in their well-off suburb. Could it be one of her neighbors who stole her son? Would they abduct Billy to hurt her? How easy would it be to take a child while the parents or nannies are distracted?

When another child goes missing, the town is put under a microscope as the police try to get to the bottom of the disappearances. Will they be able to find the two children, or will it be too late? What secrets lie at the heart of this tragedy, and how far will one go to keep those dangerous secrets buried?

My Thoughts: this was a quick and suspenseful read that kept me guessing.