Difficult pasts and unhealthy friendships are featured in Sara Shepard’s Nowhere Like Home . This psychological drama and crime novel features several women and is presented from the perspective of four of them. Lenna Schmidt is the main character. She is surprised when she gets a call from an old friend, Rhiannon Cook. Rhiannon had disappeared a few years ago and now has a son. After meeting her, Lenna learns she is living in rural Arizona with a group of women and children in a community called Halcyon Farm. They’re mostly off-the-grid and Lenna is invited to visit.

Lenna’s five-month-old son Jacob cries constantly and her husband Daniel doesn’t seem to help. Maybe getting away for a few days and repairing her friendship with Rhiannon is what she needs. Upon arrival, Lenna learns that the community has rules about outside phone calls and asking questions about the women’s pasts. Additionally, the gate is padlocked and only the leader knows the codes.

Lenna believes in omens, is unsure of herself, craves feeling needed, experiences anxiety, hates being out of control, and feels uncomfortable initiating conversations. Rhiannon desires a community of some sort, not a romantic partner. She can also be manipulative and has secrets, but so does Lenna. The other characters are also well developed. It was great to see Lenna mature and grow more dynamic as the story progresses. Through the perspectives of Lenna and Rhiannon, as well as two other women, Gillian and Sarah, readers see how each views the others and their relationships. This added depth and complexity to the characters.

The story imbues in the reader a feeling of deep anxiety for Lenna as she tries to make sense of the circumstances she finds herself in. However, I kept wanting her to be stronger and take control of her life. The book has a deeply involved plot and good character development along with a remote desert setting. However, the writing style used is not my favorite. There are continual flashbacks to two years ago and this adversely affected the pacing. Additionally, while most items are successfully concluded, there is one thing that was not fully resolved. I wanted full closure on that item. Themes include friendship, family, relationships, social anxiety, lies, secrets, support, and much more.

Overall, this is thought-provoking with complex characters and plenty of angst and suspense along with a couple of action scenes. It kept me guessing what would happen next throughout the novel. The book has a great premise and has some unusual twists.

PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and Sara Shepard provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for February 20, 2023. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

While I normally love Sara's books, I wasn't impressed with this book. I feel like her best work was already done and nothing can compare to the PLL series.

As someone who struggled with the isolation of motherhood when I had my first kid, I was drawn to this premise of a group of women joining a ‘mommune.’ Unfortunately, this book was far too slow of a burn for me and I did not care for the characters or the relationships between them. I had a hard time staying invested in what was going to happen. The end had a few twists so if you like a slower paced book you might enjoy this more than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Pretty Little Liars is one of my favorite shows but the concept here just didn’t gel with me like PLL did. I found the concept bizarre and not as interesting to get through.

Ooo this Sara Shepard novel was a fantastic read!! I really enjoyed the storyline and all of the characters that she writes about. This had a great thrill/suspense aspect to it and I am a big fan of her writing, must read!

This is my first Sara Shepard book, however I was a huge fan of Pretty Little Liars, the tv show. The book was fast paced and had such an element of mystery, throughout the whole book they kept mentioning what the MC had done that nobody knew about. While I found it intriguing and easy to keep up with, I wouldn’t say that I loved it. It was a good. I enjoyed it

I’m not normally one who goes in for stories about communes but the synopsis drew me in. I should have stuck with my gut and skipped it because this one dragged at so many points and I never really got invested in any of the characters, which makes for a challenging read, especially for a thriller.
Lenna decides to join a “mommune” of other mothers when she finds motherhood challenging and she hopes to heal her relationship with her old friend who is part of the community at the same time. But the commune has some super sketchy rules and the other moms are Sus to say the ,east and the main characters real reason for being there is revealed.
I have to admit that the ending did pick up and there were a couple of twists that I didn’t expect but it overall lacked enough depth to call it a thriller for me.
Thanks to Dutton Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

What a twisty read. This book is set in now and two years ago.
Following Lenna, who is a new mother with a baby who cries constantly and a husband who became distant. When a friend from her past, Rhiannon seems her out and invites her to a commune (mommune) for women and mothers, she writes a note to her husband and leaves for a few days with her baby.
There is also Gillian who has an online presence for having social anxiety and writes posts about her crazy roommate and wanting to befriend Lenna and Rhiannon. She has many secrets of her own.
The women at the commune help each other and raise kids together. They seem a bit odd and have sketchy rules. But Lenna wanted to come to work things out with her friend. Weird things are happening , secrets come out and Lenna wants to leave but the commune isn’t ready to let her leave.

This one was a really pleasant surprise. The first few chapters were a bit slow but honestly the story picked up really well after that. There are several major characters in this with Lenna being the main lead. I really enjoyed this tale of secrets, lies, hidden agendas and betratyl. Things aren't always what they appear and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't hide from your own past.

I really try my best not to DNF ARCs but I just couldn’t take this one. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters, since none of their decision making processes made any sense, which is one of my least favorite characteristics in a main character. The dialogue also felt so unnatural and clunky, which I can’t stand to read. It read like a tween book, but was marketed as an adult thriller, which is just inaccurate. I also kind of found the interpretation and implementation of social anxiety so inaccurate it was almost laughable. Nothing about the plot or the characters kept me interested enough to keep reading, and I decided to DNF at 25%.

Thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for this free eARC.

Thank you so much for this ARC!

This premise was EVERYTHING. A tired mom looking to rekindle with a mysterious friend from the past, anxiety, social media and my favorite - cults.

This book was written in three parts, past and present with multiple POV's. What a fun ride. I honestly did not guess what was coming! I love when you cannot trust a single character and this delivered. The Mom-Cult group was a unique perspective and definitely not at all what I expected.

One critique - this felt very long and at some points drawn out. However, you cannot help but be invested and see it through to the end.

Wow oh wow! This book was absolutely brilliant and I couldn’t put it down! I highly recommend it and make sure you clear your calendar!

I really enjoyed this book! The premise was interesting and although the pacing dragged at times, it was pretty good for the majority of the book. The flashback format worked well enough, but I felt myself getting more and more impatient to get to the conclusion after the 70% mark. I also couldn't connect to any of the characters except for flashback Lenna. Most of their actions didn't seem rational or relatable at all, but they of course made for a great story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy - I always enjoy Sara Shepard's books!

Thanks to Netgalley & PENGUIN GROUP- Dutton for the E-ARC! I grew up with the Pretty Little Liars series, so I was excited for another book from this author. This was good! Very fast-paced & I actually liked the characters. Definitely a new favorite!

Nowhere Like Home 🏜️🌵🐍🍼🌄
by Sara Shepard
4.5/5 ✨

If you know me, you know PLL and Sara Shepard were my ish in high school. Her writing never, ever fails to disappoint and I can’t seem to put anything down that she does write. Nowhere Like Home wasn’t any different!

This was such a fun spin on the culty idea of mommunes and I was kept guessing until the very end. You’re going to think you’ve got it figured out, but you don’t! I loved the multiple perspectives; it added on another element of surprise in terms of the storytelling. If you’re a fan of Shepard’s previous work, you’ll love this one too.

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this ARC!! Be sure to grab a copy of Nowhere Like Home on February 20th!! 💕

This is an interest take on cults/communes where the main character decides to join a "mommune" full of mothers where she hopes to do some healing and repair her relationship with an old friend in the community. But the community is super suspicious and has sketchy rules and as you'd expect, secrets from the past come out and the main characters true reason for being there is revealed.

I should've known from the whole "mommune" thing that this wasn't going to be the type of story to click with me but it's Sara Shepard so I wanted to give it a try regardless. I think this could've worked better if the pacing didn't seem to drag at so many moments. I never got invested enough in Lenna, the side characters, or any of the relationships going on to enjoy this story when nothing much was happening. I found myself putting it down and never having the desire to pick it back up which is not what I want when reading a thriller. I will say that the ending did pick up and there was a twist that shocked me.

Not for me but I could see this working more for people who enjoy a bit slower and suspenseful cult/motherhood/friendship stories.

I was expecting more from the author of Pretty Little Liars. Maybe that is why I found Nowhere Like Home to be mediocre. I don't know. I had a hard time getting into the story. I didn't like any of the characters. I wasn't a fan of the ending... Although, I didn't see it coming. Great suspense... No surprise there. I started showing interest in how everything would pan out when I was 30-40% into the book.

At first I really was into this book. Lenna seemed to be a real sympathetic character even if her reasons for leaving were strange. but I'm not a mother so I felt like I was missing a little in the connection here. The pacing was low and it was quite repetitive.

Sara Shepard is a stellar story teller. I do believe that she typically leans more YA which I am total ok with. Her stories are very plot driven, and this one was no exception! Another great read.

This book had me shook to my core. I loved all of Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars books so when I saw she had a new book coming out, I had to read it! The interesting “mommune” setting was something so different from everything I have read. The ending blew my mind!