3 Stars

So I felt The Mistress Next Door was just average. It wasn’t bad. I just wouldn’t call this a “must-read”.

Short Premise- The husband is having an affair. They have three young kids together. Husband of course travels for work. Mom is super over-protective of the kids and has a questionable past. The new neighborhood of Prospect Close isn’t quite far enough to escape previous secrets or affairs. You go on a journey goes to uncover who the mistress is and what the wife is hiding.

What I liked…
-the last quarter of the book
-the narration, her accent was amazing
-how she said zeb-ra

What didn’t work for me
-super slow for the first several hours, not much happened
-not enough character development
-the ending was a little rushed for me

Thank you, NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Good read about neighbours who live in an exclusive cul-de-sac with strange goings-on. One family in particular seems targeted and she already has a lot of guilt from a past experience which appears to have come back to haunt her. Kept me interested all the way through!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

A huge thanks to the publisher for my complimentary copy and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The book is the first Lesley Sanderson book I have read and a thriller perfect for fans of popcorn reads or domestic thrillers. I did not quite understand this book but it features a devoted wife (Harriett) and mother who absolutely has built the perfect life for her little family . This all changes when her past comes to haunt her and the perfect family crumbles in her face. The book is a perfect read on a lazy day and trigger warnings for kidnapping.

📱E-Book Review📱

The Mistress Next Door
Lesley Sanderson

🌟🌟🌟🌟

This was great!

I was thoroughly invested from the start and found that it kept pace throughout.

It was really easy to read and the plot and characters were really well thought out and presented.

I liked that we were thrown into the action and intrigue pretty much straight away and then the tension of what might be happening built from there.

I really liked most of the characters - they were all introduced nicely so that you got a feel for each of them and their lives - but I found that I just couldn't trust any of them and was building theories continually.
Having said that ...I really didn't like Oliver and his misadventures! A really well written character though.

I pretty much guessed the plot - which wasn't a bad thing, it just made me more on edge waiting for something to happen - but I still didn't guess who it was behind everything.

I loved that everything was explained by the ending and nothing was left hanging - I hate having questions still.

A very satisfying read - I really enjoyed it!

Deep dark secrets, lies, affairs and so much more within a small tight knit community. It was absolutely a page-turner and the twist in the end was mind blowing. Highly recommend!

I was underwhelmed by "Mistress Next Door" by Lesley Sanderson and would give it a 2-star rating. While the book held my attention, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had read similar stories before. The plot felt predictable and lacked originality, with many of the twists and turns feeling like they had been done in other books in the genre. The characters, while well-defined, failed to bring anything new to the table, and I found myself not feeling emotionally invested in their journeys.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my expectations and left me feeling like I had wasted my time. While it may still be enjoyable for those who are new to the genre or haven't read many similar stories, for someone who has a more extensive background in thrillers, "Mistress Next Door" falls short.

I devoured this book in less than 24 hours! A gripping thriller that kept me hungry for more. This book was not your typical husband cheating/scandal book, but it was much more. I ended up reading it so fast because I had a good amount of fear/anxiety from reading this book, and I wouldn't have been able to sleep last night if I didn't finish it.

I want to be careful not to give away the book's themes, and I am not one who usually favors trigger warnings, but I think that mothers struggling with anxiety or newly postpartum should proceed with caution! The book description did not give away that it would be centered around children and their safety/well-being for a significant portion of the book. Before reading, I probably would have waited until I was not struggling with postpartum anxiety. Overall, great book! I just struggled with the topics!

This is your typical domestic thriller and didn't particularly add anything new to the genre.

In the first chapter you are introduced to a LOT of characters which was very confusing. The dialogue could of been improved between the characters as I felt it didn't flow. That being said I was interested in the plot and was very interested in finding out what happened.

Overall I did enjoy the book and think 3 stars is a fair rating.

Everyone in this book has secrets, although some were more volatile than others. A hidden past will definitely come back to bite you. The chapters in this book are from the present and the past building up to something disturbing.

Harriet and Oliver seem to have the perfect marriage, perfect home and perfect children, but the personal view of their home life is much less perfect. Oliver works all the time which leaves Harriet to care for the children on her own since they also recently lost their nanny. The nanny's abrupt departure has left Harriet in a bind, but she also feels she lost her best friend. This is just on mystery of many.

A missing child, little threatening notes, finding lipstick on your husband's collar and catching him in one lie after another make this thriller interesting and hard to put down. It started a little slow for me, but as I got further into the story, I was more drawn into the story as the mystery deepened. The identity of the mistress is quite the mystery and the twists at the end were quite shocking. Someone is definitely out to get Harriet, but you just do not know who until the very end.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a fast paced read that kept me glued to the page.
Sanderson pours on the tension and suspense. This was another well written and well thought out page turner for me.

Harriet and Oliver lives in the close-knit highly sought after Prospect Close community with the best schools and the perfect little town where everybody knows each other and cares about each others business. Harriet is thrown off when one of her child goes missing and then she starts receiving threatening notes. Who could be doing this to her? She is freaked out especially since she herself has something to hide….
This is a fast paced domestic thriller with present and past POV’s . The writing felt a little chaotic and not as seamless but i still enjoyed the plot. Some of the scenes felt unreal, especially the interaction between the husband and wife. Felt the main protagonist was too speculative and way too many things happening. I couldn’t get myself to like Harriet which probably affected my rating the most.
Thanks to NetGalley for this advanced copy in return for an honest review.

An excellent read. Takes a while to get going but wow does it get pacey. A lot of affairs going on and the reader is not sure who is with who til near the end. Harriet is the main character who blamed herself for the death of a child she was babysitting years ago and all the trials and tribulations that ensued.

Harriet is a mother of 3 children, lives with Oliver her husband and there nanny Kate. They live in a lovely community where she has lots of friends. But, everyone has secrets, a lot of secrets. Harriet finds out her husband is having another affair and after hearing from neighbours in the spa she thinks she’s closer than she knows. She starts getting anonymous notes after her daughter goes missing for a few hours.

I liked the story, there is a lot of secrets to follow and the ending is really good. It’s an easy read which goes back from present to past. An easy psychological thriller. . 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

The Mistress Next Door by Lesley Sanderson Narrated by Eilidh Beaton was an excellent book/audiobook from start to finish. It was an addictive unputdownable psychological thriller. I had to listen to it all day to find out what happened. and was full of twists and turns and all the characters were excellent Especially the ending was 10/10.

I highly recommend this book I loved it

Big Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book and audiobook


"https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11746388-vanessa"> View all my reviews

What is wrong with people in this book? What is wrong with everyone in Harriet's (the main character) life, past and present? Why are people like that? Harriet has lived with the most horrible guilt for years. With guilt for something she did not do. For something she could have done nothing about. For something that just happened. For something that, honestly, had nothing to do with her. No one, not a single person in the whole book reassures her that none of it was her fault or even within her control to prevent that from happening. The THING that haunts her would have happened no matter what Harriet did or did not do. Yet her life is ruined, it haunts her wherever she goes, she is guilt-ridden, and - she is also treated as such. Come. On. COME ON. People are horrible. Where is that thing called empathy? Where is that thing when you are not afraid to tell even those who are closest to you about the horrible things you have experienced (but those were not your fault!)? What is that fragile, surface-level, frail, and fake love, friendship, and intimacy where you cannot share those things for years upon years just because you are afraid you will no longer be loved or at least good enough for them?
No matter how nice some of the characters in the book seemed, by the end, I was just frustrated by how inhumane and non-empathetic everyone was.
Harriet's husband, the cheating ass lying a-hole with an ego the size of several continents - he was able to FORGIVE Harriet for what she had done (but did not do in fact, as The Thing would have happened with or without Harriet being or not being there)???? What?? WHAT?
This aspect of the book kept making me angrier and angrier, as the last pages of the book were approaching. Never mind all the crazy twists taking place (yup, the twists were brilliant), never mind all the horrible people showing their true colors. Never mind that the book is really well written. It brought up in me So Much Anger. Especially when I thought about the fact that this actually is what society is like out there. This fragile surface-level relationship thing actually is the norm out there.
Broken people make the easiest targets. And Harriet is very, very much broken. Although she should not be. She should have been assured by her immediate family and by doctors and by police and by everyone, everyone that she is not and has never been the bad guy.
The ending of the book was bittersweet. Such a happy ending after a twisty book? It was weird and unusual for sure, but it was very well-fitting for this particular book.
I am not sure what others think this book was about. I will be really looking forward to seeing more reviews once the book is out and published. I am super curious if others saw what I saw there.

Just from the title alone I knew this would be a great book and I was right. The way this story unfolded will leave you in knots and it will be hard to put down. I highly recommend this book and I suggest going into it blind.

I was immediately draw into this. The characters themselves were intriguing but each needed just a bit more development for the final twist to be as shocking as it intended. I understood what the author was trying to achieve but didn't find myself all that surprised by the twist and it didn't have the enormous impact I hope for in a final thrilling twist. I was entertained by this from beginning to end and listened to it all in one sitting. I look forward to more from this author, as this was the first I've read from her and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of this book for my honest review.

I enjoyed this domestic thriller by Lesley Sanderson. There's not one character in here you are going to like except maybe the baby and that is OK. I don't like my books all neat and tidy and full of perfect people. I enjoyed the suspenseful build up of what is it in Harriet's past that is leading to the big ending. My one complaint is that maybe it all tied up too neatly. But there were surprises I enjoyed along the way.

The Mistress Next Door was an enjoyable read that I couldn't put down. It had some unexpected twists and turns and an ending I did not see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I listened to the audio version and also read the book as well.
This was ok. It was a bit drawn out and complicated. The ended was surprising and I wasn’t able to figure it out like I do with most books.