I’m pregnant and found the content too triggering. Perhaps I’ll give it a try in the future! The concept sounds intriguing, but I requested it before finding out that I am pregnant.

This one really kept me guessing the whole way through. Did not expect that ending!

An exciting story of betrayal and the struggle to confront the past.

Interesting points: murder mystery, “mommune”, alternating perspectives, dual timelines, new mom struggles

Unfortunately, I can't recommend reading Nowhere Like Home. I kept holding out for the book to get better but I was just plain bored throughout. I had high hopes for this book but it didn't hit the mark for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I haven't read or watched Pretty Little Liars. I'd even forgot this was by same writer and for a lot of this book wondered if this was her first or second work as a book author. At least now I know she's been a professional writer for so long, I don't need to hold back.

3+ because a lot of the story did get me involved.

Lenna is invited to this community of moms by an estranged friend with whom she wishes to reconnect, but getting there everything feels off, she feels watched, her things disappears, and she's afraid it might even bring to surface the trauma she's worked so hard to bury.

The book is told from four points of view, in two different times. One will take us to the source of Lenna's trauma and distance from Rhiannon, one will show us when she finds Rhiannon again after two years and visits the closed community where her old friend lives. I don't like how the story forces us into thinking this or that of people, it more than once made me suspect being manipulated. Not just that it was hiding things from me, we want that when reading these types of book, but that it was lying to me. I didn't want to go back and check because I actually enjoyed the book.

For a lot of the book, it builds very toxic relationships and it makes you curious about how the toxicity happened and where it will lead to. When you think you've been saved, you realize it wasn't really that. Or was it? For maybe the first half of the book, this was well done, enticing. Please, tell me more! But then it becomes too much. For some time I wondered if the writer had a kink for twisted characters and privileged those over a believable plot. However, the book derailed even more as we get to the climax and it just felt like a soap opera plot they had to come up with due to some contingency. Really, I even ask myself if the person who planned the basis for the story is the same who gave it the conclusion, because this story could have gone so many more interesting places. Or at least a less convoluted explanation—I'd have preferred the predictable. Moreover, the ending... it never ended! I definitely wasn't invested enough for all those extra pages.

Unfortunately, the way it developed made the part about toxic friendships lose meaning to me, but it was still delicious to read while it lasted. I'll probably carry good memories of this read because there's a big chance I'll forget all the complicated explanations the second half brings us.


Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Lenna has been enticed to an off the grid women’s community by her former friend Rhiannon, who out of nowhere gets back in touch. But this community soon reveals its intense set of rules, and its connections to Lenna’s past.

This book was slow starting out, and kind of kept being slow to the very end. I never really got as invested in the characters as I wanted to. The ending really picked up and got me invested, which upped the rating of the book for me. I would recommend other Shepard books, but not this one.

DNF - really could not get into this one - not for me.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for this

Nowhere Like Home felt like an adult condensed version of Pretty Little Liars, which makes sense considering the author. It began with Lenna venturing to a remote part of the desert to a commune where Rhiannon lived and invited her to see. Lenna struggled with guilt over how their friendship ended, guilt over being a bad mom, and frustration over her son’s constant crying.

The story flashed back to 2 years prior when Lenna and Rhiannon worked together for a magazine.

Except other characters also mattered and ineracted with Lenna in the past and maybe they somehow mattered in the present? Suddenly, she started feeling weird about this commune and why Rhiannon didn’t seem to want to talk about the past.

I enjoyed the twists and the drama overall. It was a quick read if you enjoy a good friendship/betrayal/secrets vibes and the possibility of a cult.

I definitely recommend this one.

This was an interesting thriller but you have to do quite a bit of suspending disbelief. I didn’t really like any of the characters (except the children), but the story was good. I liked that you get the story from several different perspectives and I liked the format through which we saw Gillian’s perspective. This story is told in two timelines, the present and about 2 years ago when the characters’ stories started to converge, although they didn’t know that at the time. Lenna hasn’t seen her friend Rhiannon since she disappeared a couple of years before but she reaches out and asks Lenna to visit her at the “mommune” where she lives now. Lenna is struggling with being a new mother, and she decides that going and reconnecting with her friend may help her move forward. But Lenna soon realizes that she is not the only one with secrets. Overall I gave this one 3.5 stars. I thought the story was a little cheesy but interesting and it’s a quick read.

This is probably Sara Shepard's best adult fiction yet and I did appreciate the take on how hard friendship- and motherhood- can be. It's just a little too long and there are a few too many characters, but it's entertaining and twisty enough.

I loved the concept of this one but the execution fell very flat. The dialogue did not read well for me and I didn’t connect with the characters or the plot.

I always pick up Sara Shepard's novels, so when I received an ARC for her latest one, I was thrilled. The only problem is I am always let down by them. The endings always come out of left field and I am left disappointed. This time, I think I will stop while I am ahead and just DNF.

This is mostly because it circles around two things that I do not enjoy reading about, children and cults. In hindsight, I should not have asked for this book as the synopsis clearly states that this book would involve children. It seems as if this was leaning towards women being forced to have children which is not something I currently want to read about as the state of America is already requiring such duties of women. Thus I sadly will not be finishing this book.

I received an advanced copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
A convoluted, wild plot with past/present timelines with extremely toxic, co-dependent relationships between several women. An intense, sometimes confusing and even overwhelming plot with multiple unstable characters and an intentional commune setting thrown into the mix. This book was exhaustive, outlandish and not something I would recommend to others.

✨Book Review - Nowhere Like Home✨

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌑

*I was provided this book free of charge by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

As always, Sara Shepard delivers! I have been a Sara Shepard fan since the early days of Pretty Little Liars and I preorder everything she writes.

I loved the call back to the A like character from Pretty Little Liars. I love an unknown character that pulls the strings and drives the story. I enjoyed how in this story, going to the authorities wouldn’t really solve anything, unlike in PLL where I felt that going to the police would have solved a lot of things.

The story was believable and I always love a good cult story so I loved that aspect.

It was well written, and the one thing that I felt brought it down to 4 stars instead of 5 was that it ended on kind of a cliff hanger but not enough that I felt there was going to have a second book. If there was a promise or enough of a cliff hanger that I would expect a follow up, this would be 5 stars! But the lack of a full resolution was a little frustrating.

Overall, I always highly recommend everything by Sara Shepard (except that one book we won’t talk about). She has been one of my all time favorite authors since I was a teenager and I love that her books are leaning more toward adult now.

Nowhere Like Home comes out in less than a week, so make sure you preorder!

This is twisty, dual time line, multiple POV thriller that, well, no spoilers. Lenna has been struggling since the birth of her son and when her old pal Rhiannon show up, she impulsively takes the baby and flees to the desert community where Rhiannon has been living. Their back story- how they became friends and what happened two years ago, spools out slowly and includes Gillian, who is jealous of their relationship. In the present, there are some coincidences that work and others that, to be frank don't, but that doesn't mean that this isn't compulsively readable. None of these characters are especially likable (I think that's part of the point) but the women in the desert are intriguing. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Shepard's fans will be pleased and new readers equally entertained.

Lenna and Rhiannon are friends, until Rhiannon suddenly disappears. Two years later Rhiannon reaches out to Lenna and invites her to join a “mommune” - a community of women in the desert. But after Lenna arrives she fears it may have been a mistake.

While there’s a lot of interesting ideas here - motherhood, friendship, secrets, lies, and twists - I really struggled with how slowly this one moved and the extreme ending. None of the characters were compelling to me and their motivations were lacking. I did however like the alternating perspectives and past/present timelines.

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for an electronic copy of this novel.

This was very twisty and suspenseful! I actually loved the ending, I didn't see it coming. I love a cult story!

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much @DuttonBooks for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 20 February 2024)

SYNOPSIS | Lenna used to have a close connection with Rhiannon until she disappeared. A few years later they reconnect & Lenna learns that Rhiannon is staying at a "mommune" in the desert. She is intrigued enough to join her for the weekend with her baby with the hopes of rekindling their old friendship.

WHAT I LIKED:
- that we get to read both current day & past timelines

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the pacing dragged throughout
- I sadly didn't become invested in any of the characters or their relationships to each other
- the conflicts felt very juvenile & overall it felt kind of silly
- it reads like YA instead of an adult thriller
- the ending

Lenna is startled when out of the blue she gets a call from her old friend Rhiannon who disappeared from her life without a trace. Rhiannon is now living in a remote desert community where women and children look after each other. Being a new mother herself, Lenna decides to visit Rhiannon for support and answers. Once there, Lenna starts to get suspicious of this community and the residents that live there. When a member returns to the community Lenna realizes that she was brought here for a reason and that she has not escaped her secretive past.

This book has it all stalking, secrets, problematic friendships, sabotage, revenge, communes, even murder? Told from multiple POVs and timelines it threads together a story that captured me from the beginning. Loved the added topic of new motherhood and the struggles that brings. I was not expecting the reveal and it shook me.

i really enjoyed this book! The format of this book alternates between past and present tenses. It’s told via MPOV’s. As a reader it was very easy to follow the storyline and engage with the characters. I found I was hooked from the beginning and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Just when I thought I had things figured out another twist came out of nowhere and threw me for a loop. Fantastic read. Thank you for the chance to review this book in an exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this book, however the execution was lacking. It started off great, but then it dragged out for entirely too long. There was too much distrust between characters and also a lot of really strange choices. Like why is Lenna going to this women's commune with her 5 month old son? Every parent knows the first year is the toughest because of the lack of sleep and I think Lenna just couldn't think straight and her brain was off. Rhiannon was all over the place. I did enjoy Gillian. I felt she was going into full stalker mode and I enjoyed her storyline. Overall I think it could have been probably 50-100 pages shorter and a little more cleaned up. The ending was definitely wild and I didn't see it coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Dutton for my copy of this ARC which publishes 2/20/24