This book was really difficult to get into. Most of the time I could not keep up with what was going on with the characters or the storyline, perhaps it was me. A stalker type situation between neighbors - a married man and his hot younger neighbor. Just not a huge story line and hard to follow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I restarted this book 3 times. I read hundreds of books and this book confused me. The back and forth. Multiple inner thoughts of characters. Dialogue than flashbacks… more inner thoughts. I just couldn’t get into it and had to force myself to finish. The plot was there, good characters, it just didn’t come together and flow well.
It felt like a drama that went on and on.
The narrator was flat.

This was very hard for me to listen to. One character gets fixated on things in his thoughts and the repetitiveness of his thoughts made me anxious and unsettled. I typically enjoy marriage/relationship thrillers, but this one seemed to focus too much on sexual relationships for my liking and I ended up not finishing it. I think it would be easier for me to read this in a traditional format instead of listening to it.

I'm not impressed. I wouldn't really call this a thriller, more like general fiction. It is a lot about the changes in people's lives and how they do or do not overcome them very well. In the audiobook, there is a lot of back and forth between characters and it is hard to follow. I also did not find the characters very likable. 3 stars I feel is generous.

This book was ok but the narrator was great. The book felt confusing and hard to follow at times. I didn’t feel that any of the characters were very likeable but not in a love to hate them way. Just kind of annoyed by most of their actions.

This was just ok for me. The narrators voice was not pleasing, so perhaps if I had read instead of listened it might have been a little better. The story itself was slow in the beginning, got a little better in the middle & then ending was....eh.

This book let me feeling kinda confused. It’s full of obsessed characters and hormones.
If you like desperate housewives you’ll enjoy the story. It’s not a thriller or a mystery I’m not really sure where it fits.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Dreamscape Audio for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. Unfortunately, it was not for me.

I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook as I read along, and I did not care for the narrator. She had a way of sounding snobby and stuck up even when the character wasn't. I also didn't feel like there was any differentiating between the characters.

I had a very tough time following the story. It felt like we were dropped in the middle of it, with very little of the backstory explained. At times, the background was addressed as if we should already know. I also have a hard time succinctly describing what this book was about. For me, it didn't have much of a beginning or an end. I wasn't entirely sure where it was going, and it felt a little discombobulated.

Adam is a stay-at-home dad, or SAHD with a silent "H" as he likes to call himself. His wife, Sarah is a teacher. This is where it kind of plops you into the middle of things. Adam is obsessed with his neighbor, Ali, and seems to be somewhat of a peeping Tom. I don't think anything physical happened between them, and Ali seems to be put off by the attention. However, I found it odd that when Ali didn't show up from work and was seemingly missing, her job called Adam as the emergency contact she had listed. The relationship between them wasn't fully parsed out or explained. Adam's creeper status was also heightened because the only reason he was a SAHD was because he got caught and fired for jerking his pickle at his desk at work.

Sarah on the other hand, was having an affair with her boss's son, Crispen. When Sarah ended things with Crispen, he began dating neighbor Ali. Sarah's character was odd because I couldn't get a feel for her personality and just when you think you understand her, there's a personality flip. It felt a little like the author didn't know how to write her.

The whole thing culminates in a massive fire and a death, and a little bit of a whodunnit mixed in with "was it a murder?"

Overall thought is that I found the story incredibly hard to follow.

One thing that absolutely irked me to no end was that this writer had a style of making the characters repeat themselves 3 or more times in an inner monologue to emphasize the point they were dwelling on something.

- What did he do, did he do something, what did he do?
- What's going on, what's going on, what in the world is going on?

It came off like a hyper focused, anxiety induced or obsessive tick because it happened so often. I would have been fine with it, if it was limited to one of the characters doing it, but it was EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER and sometimes not even the main ones. It just bothered me and was so unrealistic that they all had the exact same inner monologue tendencies.

The characters were all unlikeable and you don't get a feel for their entire personalities.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia for the audio Arc of #TheNeighborsWeWant by #TimLane. It was an interesting book with a lot of lies, deceit and murder. I would recommend.

https://www.instagram.com/thrillology_explorer

The cover and description had me hooked. This was an interesting book…definitely not a thriller, suspense maybe? The writing style was a smidge difficult to grasp, the storyline was all over the place, and the characters were not likable at all. Okay, the baby was semi decent. Hahaha! I enjoyed the multiple narratives; however, I kept getting lost with the story timeline. There was a mesh of dramatic events with oddball characters; thankfully things started moving quicker around the 80% mark. Overall, it was a decent read and would recommend the audio version.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted ARC (audiobook)…as all opinions are my own.

I thought this book looked promising and I think the storyline had great potential but I felt that throughout the audiobook I kept waiting for it to really pick up and it just didn’t. I seemed to be missing a big twist or something to really make this a thriller. I mean there are affairs happening and perverted creepers but it was hard to connect when none of the characters were very likable. I felt throughout most of this the people and situations described just gave me the ick. I did enjoy the narrator though, she did a great job and did make the book more enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me an advanced copy of this book.

🏠 The Neighbors We Want - Tim Lane

2 ⭐️ - Ugh I hate to do this but this one just wasn’t for me. Also, why does the book cover match my house? That scares me. I hardly ever give low star reviews, but I also want to be honest with all of you. Please keep in mind that just because it’s not for me, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it! I thought the synopsis sounded great for fall/spooky season and the book was, just wasn’t for me.

This was not what I was expecting. I thought I was getting a domestic thriller about creepy neighbors. Instead I got a story about a creepy peeping tom neighbor who can’t control his hormones. The main couple doesn’t like each other, they both have weird connected affairs, and a child they don’t really care about? Overall this whole book was a miss for me and just felt so empty. It was definitely a miss and not what I thought I was getting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This was a hard book to enjoy. Very unlovable characters and it wasn’t as much of a thriller as I expected it to be. Narration made it a bit better but this just wasn’t what I expected.

The narration is great. The author is talented. But I disliked every single character in this book, and the twists weren't enough to overcome that for me. So, a well-written thriller with a strong plot and surprises doled out in back-and-forth timelines, but the impact was lost on me because I need a shred of some like-ability somewhere in someone.

Lots of starts and stops for me to finish this, but ultimately am glad I did. It wasn’t an easy listen as the characters weren’t likable, were terribly immature, bizarre, creepy and just plain weird. Oh and most are somewhat seemingly unhinged with many secrets. Deep dark creepy twisted secrets. You truly never know who you’re living next door to. Interesting, but not an easy or relaxing listen.

The Neighbors We Want by Tim Lane

Thank you to @netgalley, @dreamscapemedia, and the author for the opportunity to read this #advancedreadercopy in exchange for my #honestbookreview. This is available for preorder now and will be published on September 5.

Adam is having a hard time adjusting to his new life. He’s newly a stay at home dad and is slowly falling out of love with his wife, Sarah. He’s unfortunately slowly becoming obsessed with his next door neighbor, Ali, though. But one day his obsession leads him to noticing Ali’s ex-boyfriend Crispin lurking around her house instead of her. When he’s then informed that she failed to show up for work and doesn’t see a sign of her around the house he begins to suspect the worst. Will his search for the truth turn over the truth or only more twisted secrets?

This was absolutely unhinged! This book should be on every domestic thriller fan’s TBR. If you liked The Whispers this one will also be a must-read! It has that twisted suburbia feel of Desperate Housewives that I really enjoy. Not a single truly likable character but that’s also incredibly realistic in a community such as this one!

TW: che@ting, drug use, st@lking, bl@clmail, @rson, others

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC opportunity!

I wish I could rate this higher. Unfortunately I didn’t find any of the characters in this book redeeming. The main couple, the neighbor, the principal- all had selfish qualities and seemed generally miserable. The main couple had a baby and the way the husband resented being a stay at home dad was difficult to read.

This story unfortunately didn’t keep my interest or make me feel invested in the characters or plot. I am likely not the right audience, but I’m sure there are other readers who will like the story.

This book is just too weird! I’m over halfway still trying to figure out who is who and what is even going on. And so much breast milk talk 😵‍💫 it’s a natural thing but I don’t think the average mother talks about breast milk this much,

WTF?
I loved it but WTF?
Adam is dealing with intrusive thoughts while staying home with the baby. Sarah is struggling to pump milk and work and her boss is a crazy lady.
She has an affair with a young man and he is dealing with his own stuff. His girlfriend lives across the street from Adam and Sarah.
She has her own issues going on.
And everything unravels.
It was good. I loved the narration.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tim Lane and Dreamscape Media for an audio arc of The Neighbors We Want.

"Adam is having a hard time adjusting to the stay-at-home-dad life. The sleepless nights and the constant diaper changing are not what he expected after he was abruptly fired from his job. Then again, Adam wasn’t prepared for his relationship with his wife Sarah to slowly come apart at the seams either. One thing, however, keeps him going—his growing obsession with his neighbor, Ali.

But one night, something changes. While staying up with his baby, instead of seeing Ali in the window across the way, he sees her ex-boyfriend, Crispin, lurking around her house before disappearing within. When Adam hears that Ali doesn’t show up for work the next day, and she doesn’t seem to be home, he fears the worst—that she’s been abducted, or possibly killed. His search for the truth will lead him on a path filled with deceit and lies.

Adam knows the answers are lurking somewhere in the shadows of his small suburban town—the trouble is, the truth is hard to find when everyone has something to hide."

This was a quick listen this weekend (thankfully) & it is quite possibly one of the worst books I've read/listened to this year. If it had been any lengthier, I 100% would have DNF'd it.

All of the characters were awful. There is not a single one that is relatable or that you want to root for. It was just an odd & EXTREMELY dull story. I hate "hating" on a book, but this is one of the ones that has me scratching my head, wondering how in the world it got published. The only good thing I can say is that the narrator did a great job. That's it.