I had the audiobook and the narrator did her job. I don't repeat the synopsis or give spoilers. This was at the low end of okay for me. Additionally, the book is marked mystery/thriller (why I chose it). At best,I call this fiction or women's fiction.

The story opens with mundane dialogue that is going to continue for over half the book. It's not even a setup for the main event. It is just a simple story about and between neighbors. Around 70% the big plot is exposed. (Yawn) Finally, I hear the narrator say my anticipated longing -- Epilogue. I was not prepared for the unbelievably long Epilogue. I had to look, yes the epilogue is really unnecessarily long. But, better there than a sequel.

The book was too slow and the ending was too full.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for accepting my request to read and review The Woman Next Door.

#NetGalley
#DreamscapeMedia
#TheWomanNextDoor

This was only my second audiobook and I did enjoy the storyline - two very different women becoming friends leading to families becoming friends. Watching Sophie and Angie’s friendship evolve and grow was interesting. As the friendship extended to the families, for some reason my interest began to wane. As the friendship blew up and shattered, the story morphed into chick lit drama, which I do enjoy, instead of a thriller, as I kept expecting something sinister to happen. Years later a new romance blossoms and causes reminiscing which gave more insight into Sophie and Angie.
The narrator had the perfect “English” voice befitting the setting. I remain on the fence about listening to audiobooks as opposed to reading them. Frequent rewinds were necessary for me as I tend to multitask when listening to audiobooks.
Many thanks to Natasha Boydell and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to hear this recently published book.

4/5 ⭐️ for me. I really thought this was going to be a thriller/mystery novel when I read the description and picked it out. It’s listed as a mystery & thriller. I kept waiting on the suspense to pick up, and was getting kind of bored. Then, I realized it isn’t a thriller at all. The first half of the book for me was kind of slow, but it finally picked up. I loved the second half of the book and loved the ending. It truly was a great story, but wish the beginning wasn’t so slow.

Well I didn’t see that coming. I definitely thought it was leading us one way and it was totally going the other. I loved the characters and they made me cry and laugh.

Wonderful narrator as well!

It was a decent enough book. I felt like it was all over the place though. She was writing the story and then all over the sudden it was. 10 years later. I did not like that.

I felt as though this book is divided in half. Without spoilers, there is one distinct story, then another that is connected. The back half of the book felt like a rushed afterthought, and I was left confused as to how and why the story went where it did. Perhaps this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

This was a beautiful story of two families and the stories that weaved around and through the characters. Stories of cherished friendships, deceipt and enduring love.

Boydell did a bangup job of developing her characters. They felt like old friends by the end. Mhairi Morrison, who narrated, had an endearing voice, one that lent itself perfectly to the theme of honesty and forgiveness.

Though the story lost steam for me in the middle it soon sped up and, while predictable at times, surprised me in the end. I consider it a lovely story that most will enjoy. Thankyou Netgalley and Dreamscape media for the ARC.

Sophie is the quintessential stay-at-home mom. She loves her family which includes her two children and wonderfully predictable husband. But she longs for something more. A more meaningful impact on the world around her. With a dried up writing career and at a loss for prospects to try anything else, Sophie feels an underlying restless inadequacy.

Then the new neighbors move in. Angie, a glamorous, high-flying lawyer, seems to have it all. Four adorable children, a drop dead sexy husband, and the apex of a successful career. The woman could want for nothing. And yet...

Over time the two form a friendship that blossoms and deepens within the year. Their families intermingle and never go long without seeing one another. They have the most enviable of friendships. Until they don't.

Years pass, the couples move on, the children grown up and apart...but fate is a funny thing.

This book 100% DID NOT go in the direction I was anticipating. I thought for sure this was going to be more of a domestic thriller. And it was not, in any way. Very high drama, but with a coziness I didn't anticipate. Based in the cover and title, the genre I though I was getting was not what I got. It was a good story, just not at all what I was in the mood for.

"The Woman Next Door" follows the diverging and rejoining paths of a pair of neighbors over two decades.

I really enjoyed this book, but I'm extremely confused by the 'Mystery Thriller' category distinction. I actually checked the NetGalley listing because I thought maybe I had misread it. This book is really, really strong and definitely keeps you listening but I think it would be much more successful if marketed to general fiction fans rather than mystery/thriller fans because if you're looking for a 'thrill' I have to say you'll be disappointed. To further confuse the issue, the cover all looks like a mystery/thriller. I think it's a little confusing and maybe causing it to not hit the right audience.

I loved the characters in this book and the way it was written so that you don't have a clear villain. It beautifully illustrates how sometimes things happen and you get a bit off course from the life you'd planned and it's not necessarily because bad people are involved or because people intended to hurt you. I also loved the way that the book has each of the characters respond to the situation in very different manners. It really showed the way your life experience can be affected by your response to the unexpected, less-than-pleasant things that come up.

Overall, really loved it, just not as a mystery/thriller.

Reviewing
The Woman Next Door
By Natasha Boydell

Ladies, ladies, ladies… When will we ever learn that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side!

In The Woman Next Door author Natasha Boydell pens a thought-provoking Look at every day relationships. Husbands and wives, children and parents, Neighbors, colleagues, and friends. Readers will relate to the naturally flawed characters and relish in their growth. As tensions rise readers will find The Woman Next Door increasingly difficult to put down.


I would recommend this book for readers who love character driven family dramas.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars with a 14+ rating for mature themes and content

It can be a blessing to have your neighbors be your best friends,.....but for some it can turn into a nightmare.
When a storm knocks down part of a fence between Sophie and Angies house it creates a new pathway for the two families to spend time together. Angie and her husband are new to the neighborhood and have 4 children while Sophie and her husband Alan who have two children have lived there for a while. The two women become quick friends and the families start spending more and more time together.
As the families get closer Angie's past struggles of trusting her husband start to resurface as she fears he is getting too close to Sophie. When one of them cheats its not only their world that gets turned upside down but their new friends and neighbors as well.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This is a study in family relationships and domestic life. Angie and her family move in next door to Sophie, her husband Alan, son Tom and daughter Katie. Angie is married to Jack with four beautiful children. She has a successful law career, and Sophie thinks Angie seemingly has it all.

This story follows the two families as the children grow and relationships alter and change. It was not really my type of book. I did like that the book took place at various points over an extended period of years. I didn’t really feel attached or care specifically about any of the characters. I was vaguely interested in the storyline but if I didn’t finish the book, I wouldn’t have wondered what happens and ruminate over the plot. I felt like it was kind of a surface read on what could have been a deep, heavy subject. There was an opportunity to really develop characters but that didn’t happen.

Thanks to NetGalley for this audiobook! "The Woman Next Door" is a great read, with an ending that I did not anticipate!

The audiobook is read with a wonderful voice, modulated to reflect the different aspects of the main characters--Sophie and Alan, and their new neighbors Angie and Jack. The friendship that develops and evolves between these friends is sometimes expected and sometimes not. For the most part, it is the tale of two London families and their everyday lives. But, as in real life, ordinary moments can be interesting, and they certainly were here. There is just enough of the "will they or won't they?" to create drama and keep the story lively. I enjoyed the time that I spent with these couples and their children, and I felt that the thoughtful tone that was struck by the two women assessing and evaluating their lives, their careers and families, and their relationship, was engaging, and prevented the book from becoming too sentimental. Although I did see one major plot twist as it approached, I was unprepared for the last part of the book. I loved how the story played out, and I loved that I was not disappointed by the ending (as can happen too often when the plot shifts wildly at the conclusion of a book)!

Thank you to netgalley and Natasha Boydell for the audio-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was *classified* on netgalley as a mystery/thriller, so I went into it excited that I was going to listen to a thriller (and it was my first audiobook ever!). At times during this book I felt like maybe I requested the wrong book because the book itself (to me) absolutely did not belong in the mystery/thriller category.

Continuing along, hoping for like some good MURDER, or even just a stabby stab, it just was bleh. The plot was so predictable, SOOOO predictable - that figuring it out felt so easy. It's a family drama, there isn't a mystery/thriller aspect to it, if I'm honest.

Also some of the dialogue was so cringey. There was a moment where the two moms, who are in their 40's, are talking to each other and this was the conversation:
"I'm sorry for being a bitch" | "Well you're my bitch, so..." HUH????

Overall, I think this book is 100% mis-genred, this should be more in a drama/fiction setting because that's all it was.

The Woman Next Door, the second novel from Natasha Boydell, is a domestic drama that follows the lives of neighbours Sophie, Angie and their respective families. An engrossing tale, it explores whether the grass is greener on the other side of the garden fence!

I liked the ending and call back to earlier years.

Thank you, netgalley for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC audio copy of The Woman Next Door in exchange for an honest review.

Sally is a happily married mother who was a freelance journalist but when she decide to stay home to raise her two little kids her world became a lot smaller... that is until the Taylor's moved in next door. Angie Taylor, is a successful high power lawyer with four bright overachieving children, a handsome husband who is happy to help with the kids. These two women seemed miles apart until a storm toppled their shared fence opening their worlds to each other. They quickly became best friends, as did the rest of their families, spending afternoons at each others homes, cookouts on the weekend and summer holidays abroad. Both women were slightly jealous of the other but when an affair threatens to break their lives apart they realize the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

I really enjoyed Natasha Boydell's new novel about the differing dynamics that two families can bring into their lives. It was not what I had been expecting which was a nice surprise. The characters are likeable and interesting enough to push the story along with a good pace considering most of the drama is internal. The story is told from both Sophie and Angie's perspectives. About 3/4 of the way through the novel there is a shift in the storyline which I actually enjoyed more. I look forward to reading Boydell's previous novel as well as her new works in the future. I had the audio version narrated by Mhairi Morrison. I think she did a great job and was easy to listen to with good timing and inflections.

I found this book to be really interesting. It definitely didn't go the way I expected, and it took me by surprise a couple of times. I found the writing to be very real and refreshing.

This book was not at all what I was expecting!! I went in thinking this would be a good British domestic suspense story but really it was more a story about the complicated friendship between two neighbors. Angela and Sophie are mothers, each struggling to balance motherhood and careers in their own ways. I related to a lot of each of their lives. However I found the middle of the story dragged a bit and then one of the women does something to irrevocably break up their friendship. Fast forward to when their children are grown and two of them meet and fall in love at college only to bring up all the bad memories of the past again, forcing the women to confront their painful past. Decent on audio but just an okay read for me. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Good book. I enjoyed the characters with their flaws and back stories. The only thing I didn't like was when they went from Sophie/.Angie to Freddie/Katie. It didn't seem like it was a smooth transition. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if i had read it vs listened to it.

i was not a fan. definitly not a thriller and barely a mystery. the conflict doesnt happen until about 60 percent through the book and even then the anwser is given within 2 chapters. i was not invested at all in the story or the characters