Book review of The New Couple by Alison James
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you so much @netgalley and @bookouture for this arc and allowing me to read this thriller.
This one is out September 27, 2022 so grab it when you can.
This one had some great twists and turns and I loved the characters, especially super sleuthing neighbor Jane.
The story begins with Stephanie and Richard Hamlin winning a house in this small close knit neighborhood. Jane pops in to welcome them and believes there is something peculiar about this family. As she volunteers to watch their daughter Poppy, she really questions what is going on with them.
As Jane begins to uncover what is really going on, she may find out more than she wants to know about these new neighbors. This is told from three points of view and has plenty of crazy drama.
I enjoyed it and this is the first book I have read by Alison James but won't be the last.
#crazybooknerd #bookstagram #NetGalley #TheNewCouple #iloveagoodthriller

Young couple Liam and Keren live together and are not always happy. Their once loving relationship has turned toxic and they are fed up with their jobs and living from hand to mouth. Liam is a bit of a gambler, so when he sees a charity lottery with the prize of a three million pound house advertised, he puts all of his money into it and gets Keren to do the same. He buys as many tickets as he can with the joint money he has, reasoning that he has a very good chance of winning. It would be a step up for them even living in a cul-de-sac let alone in 12 Sycamore Gardens, a wealthy suburb. That would show everyone.
The time flies by and then the winner is announced and the keys handed over, with photographs of the beaming couple, all happy and with smiling faces plastered in the paper. Liam is particularly annoyed when Keren tells him she knows Stephanie as she minds their baby daughter Poppy in her nursery, and they already have a nice home. The winners are called Stephanie and Richard Hamlin and live quite close by. Liam is seething and moans about losing all of their money. He is in a foul mood. He was sure that he would win the lovely house and be made up forever. He thinks it is unfair and Keren keeps away from him.
Soon it is moving day for the Hamlin family. It is a very exciting time and as they step into their luxurious new home they marvel at their good luck and the beauty of their forever house. They have unloaded some of their belongings so Richard and his brother return to the flat to collect Poppy’s highchair, her stroller and her clothes. Soon back with another load Richard also brings their dog with him. Their neighbour Jane Headley comes to the front door to introduce herself and with a small gift of home baked delicacies. Stephanie does not invite her in and seems very nervous with her husband looking on. She tells Jane that their curly headed daughter is called Poppy and her husband is Richard. Jane feels uncomfortable so she quickly returns home, but she does feel a little bit snubbed.
As time goes by the family are still not very sociable and keep themselves out of the social group until one day Stephanie arrives at Jane’s house and asks if she would babysit for Poppy. She is shy and Jane hopes that Richard and Stephanie will join in with the group when they feel more settled and confident. She was intrigued by the family. They are a handsome couple, they have won a dream home and little Poppy is a lovely baby. So why are they so uptight? Then she sees Richard kissing a neighbour. She feels sorry for Keren.
There are two hideous criminals, three narrators and four parts in the book. The novel is described as Adult Fiction /Mystery & Thrillers. It took a long time until this genre was evident. The storytelling was good but the pace was uneven. The characters were well crafted, but I have to say I did not like many of them. The idea was quite unique and the suspense and plot twists were enthralling, more so towards the end of the story. Themes throughout the story included: greed, adultery, coercion, secrecy and more that I cannot divulge because they would be spoilers. I enjoyed reading this story but it is not one of my favourites from Alison James, my go-to author.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher Bookouture through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you for my copy sent in return for an honest and unbiased review. 3.5*review

I really liked it. Have you ever bought a lottery ticket and then felt cheated out of the prize when you didn’t win? Liam’s idea to assume the identity of the lucky, million dollar house winners and claim the prize was quite ingenious. With Keren playing along as Stephanie and Liam looking so much like Richard, what could possibly go wrong? As the plan becomes difficult to sustain, things start to unravel.. The New Couple is an easy, fast paced read that had me flying through the chapters.
Thank You to Bookouture, NetGalley and Alison James for the opportunity to enjoy this ARC.

A well paced story with an interesting concept. I wanted to know what would happen but did not engage with the characters. An easy read.

Domestic thriller that asks the question "How well do you know your neighbors? Your friends? Your husband?". Set in a posh neighborhood the novel begins with middle class couple Fergus and Jane noticing someone is moving into a house on their block. The house was used as a charity lottery with the winners being a couple who wins a furnished house. I found this neighborhood kind of curious as it appeared that super wealthy people lived there as well as middle class folks and I can't imagine multi millionaires wanting to live next door to blue collar people who happened to win a prize. Jane (she is a part time teacher's assistant married to a college professor) notices the new people have all of their possessions in garbage bags and when she stops by with some flowers, she notices they have a baby but no baby furniture. The new couple Richard and Stephanie are also not friendly at all.

Jane and her neighbors are wondering about the new people when Stephanie appears at Jane's door asking her to watch the baby for awhile. Jane agrees but doesn't understand where Stephanie is going or why the baby's dad isn't watching her. As Jane becomes more and more curious, Richard and Stephanie are clearly hiding something and will do anything to keep their secrets. The story has a bit of a slow start and then we get into the middle part where we find several other point of views, all of which tell the same story with their own viewpoint. This made the book kind of repetitive since we already knew much of what happened. I found Jane the only really likable character although the lengths she goes to in investigating the new couple seemed unbelievable.

There are some secrets and twists many of which were easy to guess. There is an overall gloomy tone to the story and the story villains are not all that interesting. I did like the ending and the fact that the loose ends were all resolved. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

The New Couple by Alison James
What an enjoyable read! The plot, characters, and all the twists made me not want to put this book down. It was fun and suspenseful and I was guessing up until the very end. I was hooked from the very first chapter. The alternating POVs made the book for me, those are my favorite.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book although a quick read, didn’t really grab me! Storyline was weak and disjointed and characters not believable! Read on my holidays and struggled to finish it as lost my interest half way through.

The New Couple
by Alison James

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for sending me this ARC e-book in exchange for an honest review.
IT had me up most of the night until the last page.
Sometimes the nosy neighbor is the person who saves your life. It was a good read. I thought Jane was very sure and finally acted.

This book starts off with a very enticing premise. The neighborhood busy-body becomes suspicious of a new couple who moved into her neighborhood after having won their home from a charitable sweepstakes. She becomes somewhat obsessed with them and starts investigating. When I started reading, I felt engrossed. Unfortunately, the book slowed down significantly when it switched narrators unexpectedly and played through the exact same timeline from the perspective of each of the new neighbors. Although this provided some unique insight, it certainly prevented any twists or reveals and also resulted in some duplication throughout. I would recommend this book as a light read for anyone who is a fan of domestic thrillers and definitely to anyone who enjoys the occasional Lifetime movie.

"The New Couple" is a very gripping page turner. It's about a new couple that move into the elusive Sycamore Gardens. But who are they really, and what are they hiding?
This book had me so enticed to find out what happens that I couldn't put it down. It's very well written (in time frames and from different character perspectives) which makes it even more appealing to me as it really gives you a 360 degree view into the lives of the characters.

The New Couple
Thank you to the author and publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book totally surprised me. In the first couple of chapters I thought I had it figured out but oh boy was I wrong, this book was unpredictable!

I really enjoyed the fact that we were into the thick of the story before the halfway point, the story moved quickly (but not too quickly) making for a very fun and enjoyable read.

Personally, I thought the characters lacked personality. There was really one two characters that had distinct characteristics and traits - everyone else sort of felt like “fillers”. It would have been nice to have a put more life written into some of the characters to be able to connect with them more. That is the only reason I will give it a 3 instead of a 4 out of 5.

Overall, a great read and I can’t will be reading more from Alison James.

This is one of those books where the tone of the book itself is different from the back cover description. The facts all match up, but instead of reading about the woman who isn't Stephanie Hamlin, we're plunged into the story of her middle-aged neighbor. Jane is a judgmental woman who likes to use big words. She lost me when she saw two neighbors having sex in another neighbor's garden and described it as "animalistic coitus." She's got a lot of opinions about a lot of people, including the couple who just won their house in a fund-raising raffle. Her newest neighbors, Stephanie and Richard Hamlin, aren't who they claim to be, but there's a lot of conflict in the neighborhood even before the new couple moves in.

The first third of the book is all from Jane's point of view and moves slowly until, about a third of the way through, it switches to another character and finally gets more interesting, until we switch to a third character's point of view. The middle of the book had me intrigued, but the ending was a disappointment...and the characters I was most interested in were almost completely left out of the plot.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Bookouture for the #ARC of #TheNewCouple. Thus book started a little slow, the main protagonist at that point an older middle aged women with a busybody need to know what's happening with her new neighbours. From there the story took off and the book became increasingly difficult to put down. I'm now looking for other books by this author after reading this. Highly recommended 4.5stars.

The New Couple is broken into 4 parts. Without giving away too much, the first and last part are narrated by Jane. Jane’s kids are grown, her marriage is struggling and her job is below her skill level. So when a new family moves into a house in her neighborhood, her interest is piqued.

Stephanie and Richard Hamlin have won a beautiful, fully-furnished house in an upscale neighborhood through a lottery. But when they arrive in a dirty pickup truck with their belongings in garbage bags, they are not what anyone expected. Jane stops by to welcome them to the community and is shocked to see that they don’t seem to have anything for their baby. The couple is also gruff and rude. When Stephanie starts asking Jane to watch baby Poppy, Jane begins to pay close attention to Stephanie and Richard’s interactions.

I liked Jane’s first section the most. It made me want to keep reading. Part 2 was similar but the rest dragged for me a bit. Maybe because it was the same timeline being rehashed multiple times? Overall I enjoyed the book but found the ending a bit anti-climactic.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

All in all a good read. It certainly kept yoy guessing about what was actually happening and what may happen. Would read more of the authors work

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for sending me this ARC e-book in exchange for an honest review

Okay so I’m super new to thrillers and I’m still figuring out how to rate them…my rating for this is simply based on the fact that the story kept leaving me wanting to know more. I found myself so anxious about the plot (in a good way) as the story went on. I was pretty hooked and enjoyed all the little twists and turns along the way.

I really liked Jane’s character—even though she was super nosy i love that she stuck to her intuition and never backed down. She really is a champ and pretty damn brave given the situation.

this felt like a thriller that was more on the mild side. It wasn’t heavy, wasn’t scary, but it did have my heart racing during some moments! If you’re an experienced thriller reader, this story may not get your blood flowing— but I enjoyed it overall.

One aspect that I didn’t LOVE, was that the first three parts all basically started from the beginning of the book, just from three different point of views. I was too invested in the story and wanted to see what was going to happen rather than start at the beginning each time—but it made sense in order to tie the whole story together. Part 2 was the craziest for me because things start to add up at that point!

Is this the best thriller you’ll ever read? Maybe not. But I did enjoy it and appreciated the fact that the ending didn’t leave me with any questions.

This book was a fun, suspenseful read! I loved the characters and the alternating POV’s at the end. A refreshingly unique storyline!

WHAT A BLOODY PAGE TURNER!!
I read this in one day needing to know how it was going to end.

This is the first time I've heard of this author and Im actually annoyed with my kindle recommendations never having suggested Alice. Now that I've finished this I brought The Guilty Wife and can't wait to start that next.

This was a fast thriller , making you wonder what this family was hiding . It was a interesting plot! I would recommend!

Wow! It's been awhile since I read a book in one day. However, I devoured this one! A new couple moves into an exclusive London neighborhood with their young daughter Poppy. But all is not as it seems with this picture perfect family!