While the book moves around at a fairly fast pace and is somewhat intriguing, some plot points are never really adequately explained. For instance, why would Lenna take her child to a place she knows little about and why would she not tell her husband where she was going just to catch up with some friend she hasn't seen or heard from in years? There is no indication that her husband was abusive or she needed to escape him in any way so it seems like she was just being selfish.

It doesn't make sense that she would urgently feel the need to catch up with Rhiannon either. Their initial friendship was brief and not very healthy on either side. It is not understandable why either one of them would remember it so fondly and/or want to rekindle it. In fact, there are not really any healthy friendships in the entire book. The relationships in general are mostly toxic. Although at times some characters do express genuine concerns for others and act accordingly, for the most part, each of these women is just out for herself and acts accordingly. It might seem at first like this is going to be a book full of great friendships and found family vibes, however, that is not the case at all.

I was obsessed with the Pretty Little Liars series when I was a teenager, and Sara Shepard is making her return into adult fiction with a dark, twisty commune story with Nowhere Like Home. I've found myself slightly disappointed with childhood favorite authors branching out into more mature writing, but Shepard did not disappoint with this one!

Lenna is exhausted. Her baby is crying all the time, her marriage is suffering, and she is in desperate need of some relief. When an old friend re-enters her life offering a promise of solace and support through the "Mommune" she is a part of, Lenna is convinced this is the break that she needs. She heads out to the desert to join this community, but her own baggage is not a safe secret from the women living here.

This was the perfect amount of suspense to keep me coming back for more. Every time a section ended on a cliff hanger, I found myself saying "just one more chapter" because I needed to know what would happen next.

Told through multiple timelines and perspectives, Shepard does a fantastic job of winding together storylines to answer questions that initially lead you feeling stumped.

I will admit this started to drag on a bit for me and the ending felt a little on the goofy/unrealistic/rushed to pull it all together side, but this is one that really hooked me in from the start. I definitely recommend checking this one out when it releases, especially if you are a Pretty Little Liars fan!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

"If she lived her life backward , she’d do everything right. Everyone would."

I really enjoyed Sara Shepard's latest book for adults. Her crossover from YA has been seamless, in my opinion. She's a wonderful storyteller.

We start out meeting Lenna. Her old bestie Rhiannon has recently gotten in touch with her after a spat a few years ago. This all takes place in a 2 year timeline, which seems short but I just overlooked it.

Rhiannon always wanted to live on a commune with other women. She was tired of the rat race and not really looking for romantic love after all the suffering she's gone through in her life and it's admirable for someone to just admit what they want. She was an interesting character.

Anyway, Lenna is now a stressed new mom and Rhiannon thinks it would do her good to come stay with her in the desert on the commune. Lenna gets a wild hair and says yes for some reason and this place is neat. It's pretty much what you'd expect; they even have a gong to announce yoga, and presumably, other things. What could go wrong?!

All is not as it seems here though and as the past and present merge, the outline of a devious scheme begins to develop, but is it too late to escape? Can anyone ever really leave Halcyon?

This had a lot to say about the intricacies of female friendship, some of which was silly at times, but most interestingly, we saw the weaponization of mental illness. Some terrible things were done to others and excuses were always made, even when they said there were no excuses. That never truly landed and it was disappointing for me.

The journey on this one is better than the destination. I didn't really love the twist and ending but I had such a great time reading it that I didn't mind. Sometimes things don't end how you'd like, in real life or in fiction!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the chance to read and review!

This was a definite miss for me. I love anything with a cultish plot, but the characters were SO immature and annoying, and trying to understand ANY of their decisions was turning my brain into knots. I figured out the ending to the book pretty early on and did not enjoy the journey to the finish line.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC!

This book just wasn't for me! I did try to get through it and enjoy it. But I was honestly just not getting into it aftee a few attempts of reading it.

I would give a more detailed review. But I don'r want to dissuade anyone from reading it. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a great book! I kept formating my guesses and was off base for the big reveal. I love it when a book stumps me!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

There are communes and there are mommunes. Women who ran away from one thing or the other ended up in this mommune. But also, some of them were carefully recruited. They worked together, did their chores, but also they had enough fund for anyone who needed to go under IVF treatment.

Lenna ran to her friend, Rhiannon, even thought they haven't seen each other for a very long time. Their friendship was unbreakable, but at the same time, it was bit toxic. They were there for each other, but also they were destroying each other. No one could get between them. When Rhiannon left Lenna, Gillian came into play. She was little obsessed with both women, but she was okay with only having one as a friend. She had social anxiety, which made it hard for her to form friendships. When she realized there was no way Lenna would see her as Rhiannon's equals, she spun out of control.

Sara Shephard made me not miss the crazy twists and turns of PLL. She made me question friendships as she would do. For those who were HS students when PLL came out, now you can reach about 30 something version of it.

I'd forgotten how twisty a Sara Shepard book can get. You really never know what you're going to get, and everything and everyone is up for suspicion.
I'll admit I'm not big on the "lonely woman desperately reaching out for friendship' suspense novel troupe, seems like too obvious a plot but Sara Shepard naturally turned it into something else entirely.
I do have to wonder if this book was plotted out from the beginning, or if it was a choose your own adventure type of bulletin board kind of ride while writing because how one gets from point A to point 6 is beyond me. It's quite the adventure in trying to figure how who can be trusted and preparing yourself for whatever might come next.

3.5 stars. The story centers primarily on Lenna, who is navigating friendships with both Rhiannon and Gillian, both who have their own issues. A couple years after we meet Lenna, Rhiannon reappears from parts unknown and convinces her to join this off the grid community; Lenna could never say no to Rhiannon so she goes and realizes there is more at play then she suspected.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for this e-arc.*

This one was a slow burn for me. None of the characters were relatable or even likable, and read very YA for women in their late 20s/early 30s. That being said, the story had me questioning if this woman was entering into a cult and that alone kept me reading because I wanted to know after investing time into it. All in all, the ending was twisty enough for me to not be mad, so I can’t complain. Thanks to Dutton Books for my eARC. 𝗡𝗼𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 publishes 2/20.

Lenna has not heard from her former best friend, Rhiannon, in two years. So when Rhiannon suddenly reaches out and invites her to join her at a mommune, Lenna is intrigued. But when she arrives, she realizes she may have not been invited there to rekindle her friendship. but instead to deal with a secret from her past.

This book took me forever to get through. The plot felt similar to quite a few I have read before, but was a lot slower. It took to about 40% before something actually happened. I found every character to be unlikable and it was tough for me to care about what happened to anyone. The ending was absolutely far fetched and not even in a way exciting enough to make up for the rest of the slowburn book.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book had all the ingredients for a really suspenseful page turner. Somehow, and I am not really even sure how, it just didn't quite come together. Maybe it was too long and too many narrators and too many characters missed obvious problems? Maybe it was the too pat out of the blue ending that felt more forced than a twist? Whatever it was, I could have used a tighter story with a less bouncing timeline and narration.

I received at complementary ARC of this book from Netgalley on behalf of the author and the publisher.
This book was okay. The part about the women's community in the desert sounded interesting to me. It has some parts that were a little slow. The build up was a little creepy, as the women in the community all had their weird quirks and were full of secrets. The make character Lenna was a person who suffered from anxiety and questioned every move she made and everything that she did after the fact. All in all I liked it.

I haven't read anything by Sara Shepard since the first few Pretty Little Liars books years ago, but I remember not being able to put them down, so I was intrigued to pick up Nowhere Like Home. Though there are similarities, this book was as enjoyable for me. It was incredibly slow and I didn't come to care for any of the characters. Still, I thought the premise was interesting and I appreciated some of the twists.

Nowhere Like Home - Sara Shepard

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"It's kind of a funny expression. Blowing something up. We toss it around all the time. My phone is blowing up. Her career is blowing up. We talk about it like it's something getting bigger and bigger-I've always wonder how that got misappropriated. Because in essence, blowing something up is eliminating it. Making it cease to exist. Turning it into nothing."

After her close friend Rhiannon disappeared two years ago, Lenna was shocked to hear from her again, and even more shocked when Rhiannon asked her to come live with her at Halcyon, a women’s commune in the desert. At a crossroads in her marriage and motherhood of a new baby, Lenna gets off with her son in tow. But when she arrives at Halcyon, she starts to see things may not be as picture perfect as Rhiannon described. What secrets are the women in the desert hiding, and will anyone discover Lenna’s own secret?

My first ARC book, thanks to NetGalley for the early copy of this one. “Nowhere Like Home” was very reminiscent of the author’s Pretty Little Liars series, but with set with older women at a women’s commune with cult vibes. I’ve always loved Shepard’s twisty style of writing complicated women and while many times the situations seem incomprehensible, they are still interesting to read. Unraveling the past and breakdown of Lenna and Rhiannon’s friendship was only the first step into the secrets, where it seemed everyone brought to this commune had an invisible string connecting them. I really enjoyed this one and love seeing that one of my favorite authors as a teen still hits home as an adult for me!

Honestly, when I first saw this book being promoted and having LOVED Pretty Little Liars as a teen, I knew I had to get my hands on it. However, I think I put high expectations on this book and I was not impressed. I typically enjoy multiple POV/different timelines but at times I found myself confused between the past and present. I wasn’t very interested in the very cult like story line either. Overall, ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I found myself putting the book down and picking it back up but I DNF at about 50%.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton for the opportunity to explore an advance reader copy of this text in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow burn with a completely unexpected ending! I found myself holding my breath, just waiting to see what would happen. I loved the connections given throughout the characters and the storyline itself was one I don’t read about often, so it was very intriguing for me. There were a ton of twists throughout the book, making it hard to put down. Definitely an enjoyable read!

I really tried to get into this… I was so excited b cause the PLL series was a favorite of mine but I just could not bring myself to finish this book. The pacing was too slow for me and it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good but there were a lot of characters to keep track of and I found myself forgetting a lot of what happened and who was who because of that. It was a bit distracting. But overall the story was good and kept me interested. The twist was a little bit of a let down but overall I enjoyed the read.

I love Sara Shepherd, and I did quite enjoy this book, but it wasn’t a favorite. I enjoyed the twists and premise, however some of the characters were unlikeable (and not in the good way) and it drug in several places. I would read it again and would recommend to a friend.