I'm a big fan of cultish stories- how one becomes part of a community that blindly follows a leader without questioning the red flags around them. How lost does one need to be to leave their whole life behind and start fresh with promises of finding new purpose.

Nowhere Like Home finds a group of broken, damaged, and lost women looking to start new, to leave their secrets behind and start over with people that don't know what has brought them there.
Rhionnan, after abruptly leaves her job and life in NYC without any notice, leaving her best friend Alex to wonder if she is to blame, resurfaces 2 years later recruiting Alex to Halcyon where matriarch Marjorie has created a community of women who only rely on each other in their desert Oasis.
Alex is still reeling 2 ;years after a tragic event, a secret she's been keeping all this time, even from her husband. When Rhionnan comes back and asks her to give Halcyon a try, she figures she has nothing to lose.
However, once at Halcyon, Alex realizes she can, indeed, lose everything.
A story rife with complicated, messy, imperfect women with imperfect lives. There are secrets and betrayals. There are missed signs and ignored red flags. The setting- 5 miles in the desert with only one way out through a locked fence where you need a closely guarded code to open- provides tension on how there is any possibility of escape.
The ending moved into more of an unrealistic scenario. I feel the final reveal could have been just as explosive without an actual explosion (that is not really a spoiler.) However, the overall pace and tension of the story kept me flipping the pages late into the night!

If you love books with cult vibes and messy female friendships, this is for you. I really enjoyed this and reveled in how f***ing messy these women are.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

This book was bananas. I had to keep reading to see how things were sorted out…but I cannot get over how legit bonkers it was.

I like the plot idea of a cult/commune where it seems everyone has a secret but this novel was a wild ride.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

I am not quite sure what I thought of this one. This was the first one I’ve read by Sara Shepherd who is quite the writer! This story made me think about people and how you never really know what is going through their minds, causing them to behave the way they do.

The friendship between Lenna and Rhiannon and then Lenna and Gillian is a toxic one from the get go but when Rhiannon disappears, Lenna is beside herself but opens up to Gillian. Then Rhiannon reappears in Lenna’s life asking her to come to a commune where she has been living.

There is a lot of manipulation and lies between these “friends” which made you feel bad for them but wonder why neither one of them could step away from their toxic friendship.

From the authors who brought us Pretty Little Liars. We are taken on a ride of lies.

Lenna has kept a lot of her past a secret from her husband until old friend that comes back from past. Lenna might have to dig up those old secrets.

This novel went by quick! This was go go go from page one of Lenna stepping off the air plane. We are getting three POVs, plus present and flash back timelines but it is easy to keep up with.

You can really feel Lenna’s struggle with the past and with being a new mother.

I didn’t see the twist coming. I thought I did and then it just blew my mind 🤯. I always love a thriller book that doesn’t tie the ending in a perfect but leaves you wondering what if…

In Nowhere Like Home we follow the intertwined stories, and internal guilt, of three women.

One theme in this book is that lies always have a way of catching up with us. Leena met Rhiannon and had an instant connection but when Rhiannon abandons Leena to go take care of something from her past she’s hurt. She turns to a girl who Rhiannon had warned her against, Gillian, and it all goes wrong ending with Gillian’s death.

Years later, Rhiannon and Leena reconnect and the story follows the trauma they’ve gone through, and how truly complex humans and friendships are.

I was on the edge of my seat for more than half of this story. Some things I could easily figure out but most were total wild cards. It was a supremely satisfying mystery/thriller that ties, nearly, everything up nicely at the end.

I’d give this book 2.5 stars. This author wrote the YA series Pretty Little Liars, which this book reminded me of by using initials to talk about characters throughout the book.

This is the story of Lenna, who doesn’t make good choices when it comes to befriending other women. She meets Rihannon who disappears after a couple years only
to pop up and invite Lenna to visit her at the cult-like “mommune” where she lives. In the time Rihannon is missing, Lenna befriends Gillian, another poor choice of a friend.

Lenna decides to go see her old friend at the cult in the desert. Is Rihannon whispering about her? Did someone steal her baby’s diapers? Why is there barbed wire surrounding their property? There are too many red herrings in this book; almost everyone is written so that you’d believe they could be “the bad guy.” No one is really likable. If you enjoy YA fiction you may like this one, otherwise I’d skip it.

I read all of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars and The Perfectionists series, so I was excited that the Publishers and NetGalley chose me to read her newest thriller book. Nowhere Like Home was a slow burn. Overall I enjoyed it, but it felt really long to me.

Told through alternating povs and timelines, Nowhere Like Home is a story of 3 women whose lives intersect at important parts. For one reason or another they all find themselves in the same place. Relationships between women can have their ups and downs, this book shows that with the added thriller elements.

I have to say a "mommune" sounds awful but it makes for an entertaining book! It was a great backdrop for the book. I did feel like the main character was a little underdeveloped but the story was entertaining enough. I liked the framing of reconnection with an old friend to draw Lenna in. I felt it like could have been tightened up a bit

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lenna is living in LA and lonely, until she meets Rhiannon. They quickly become best friends until Rhiannon vanishes. After some time passes, Rhiannon reaches out to Lenna and asks to meet. When they meet, Rhiannon convinces Lenna to come visit the women-only community/commune in the Arizona desert where she is living. When Lenna decides to take her up on her offer, she gets much more than she bargained for as her darkest secret is brought to the forefront.

I enjoyed this book. It did get off to a slow start but once it picked up I was really interested. I thought I’d figured out the twist but was wrong, which made it even more unexpected! This book gave cult-y vibes so definitely check it out if you’re interested in that. Add this to your list!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to read a Sara Shepard. She is known for her twisty stories and I usually really enjoy them. This was not my favorite of hers. I couldn't connect with Lenna very well. And I wanted more current-time storyline but the focus was more on the past and all the relationship issues between the girls. I wanted to feel a big suspense but instead I had a hard time sticking to the book.

Overall, if you are a Sara Shepard fan you might still want to give it a chance. If you go in realizing this is going to spend a lot of time on the past you might really get into it.

I’m going with 3.75 stars… it was a ride for sure and definitely gave me PLL vibes at times. But there was something about the writing & pacing of this one that I didn’t vibe with for a lot of it. It felt a little draggy at times? And repetitive. But I enjoyed the story overall!

Thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story focuses on Lenna and Rhiannon. Rhiannon ghosted Lenna over 2 years ago. Left town, blocked her number, and Lenna hasn’t heard from her since. Now, Lenna is married with a newborn and is burnt out. Suddenly, Rhiannon reaches out offering Lenna a chance to escape to a “mommune,” a community of mothers living off the grid with their children.

This book was interesting, but Most of the book felt like women just bickering back and forth. The characters consistently infuriated me, and who disappears to go off the grid in a desert with no details and leaves their husband a note? Yikes. Despite how frustrating the characters were, I found myself wanting to know the ending. I did enjoy the ending though and didn’t guess the twist. Overall I give 3.5 stars.

i’m currently undergoing an exercise for my manuscript where i ask myself how each scene is possible to help identify plot holes, half-baked descriptions & unnecessarily complicated twists. it’s very clear this author did not do the same exercise. everything that occurred in this mother’s commune-gone-wrong felt so out of left field, the entire plot suffered as a result.

I really enjoyed this book. It had somehow spots but the book as a whole was engaging and suspenseful. I was really rooting for the characters, all of them, even the unlikable ones 😂. I liked the multiple viewpoints and timelines. I definitely recommend giving this one a shot!

I read this twisty story way past my bedtime. So good! I will have to find more from this author because I loved this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you #Netgalley

So many twists and turns in this read! The story is told from three perspectives, Lenna and her two newer friends Rhiannon and Gillian. Each woman has their own insecurities, jealousy and secrets. Years pass when Lenna hears from her old friend Rhiannon who convinces her to come visit an all women compound she is living at. While there Lenna is forced to face her past and quickly learns that the compound is also full of its own secrets and who can she really trust? I enjoyed the story line, but felt it was dragged out a bit.

Lenna is an awkward girl with anxiety issues, and has a hard time with life and relationships, so when cool girl Rhiannon befriends her and helps her find a job she can’t believe her luck. She would do anything for her best friend. Then Rhiannon leaves her without a word and lenna becomes friends with Gillian. Gillian is so strange and very controlling and manipulative- But are any of them really friends? Everyone has so many secrets. And someone gets killed because of them. Later, when lenna has a husband and new baby Jacob, Rhiannon gets in touch with her and tells her about an amazing community in the desert she belongs to called halycon, where women and their children live together and support each other- lenna goes to visit and the secrets and lies start to surface. In the isolated locked down commune nothing and no one are what they seem! So much action and so many twists! I loved every minute of this book. Thank you NetGalley for the advance digital copy

Give me any thriller or horror story about a commune and I’ll usually be down to read it. This turned out to be quite entertaining, despite following a few tired formulas.

Lenna met Rhiannon at H&M of all places, and they become quick friends. Like, weirdly quick friends. They form a very codependent relationship, with Rhiannon constantly jealous of anyone else being in Lenna’s life. Lenna, despite protest, became friends with Gillian, aka @gilliananxietybabe. As her user name suggests, Gillian has extreme social anxiety and is trying hard to make friends. She and Lenna start hanging out, and that’s when things fell apart with Rhiannon.

Two years later, Rhiannon returns and invites Lenna to a community, Halcyon, in the deserts outside of Tucson. It’s a group of women living together, making a village to raise each other’s children, and living off grid. Lenna leaves her husband Daniel with just a note and brings her infant son Jacob to the middle of nowhere.

The community, or “mommunity” as they call it, is full of interesting people, along with tons of kids and animals. We have:

Melissa, a community teacher and homeopath who just had a baby, and Naomi, her twin sister

Amy, who also helps as a teacher and does construction

Ann, who takes care of the animals and plants

Sarah, who is currently off getting IVF treatments

Marjorie, the woman who runs the community

Coral, the chef, and

Gia, a former socialite turned Halcyon’s bookkeeper

The rules, at first, are pretty normal: do your chores, be respectful, don’t use plastic or litter, oh and you CANNOT talk about anyone’s past. As her visit progresses, the women there keep trying to get Lenna to stay, but she just wants to go home to her husband. I must say, her character is quite naive, and a bit annoying. The ending was also missing something, but I still enjoyed this book! 3.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to Penguin Group - Dutton, Sara Shepard and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on February 20, 2024.)

Such a wild ride of thrilling suspense and mysterious events.

Lenna is married to Daniel and they just had their first child who is crying non-stop making her anxious and more suspicious about her friends from the past.
Gillian suffers from social anxiety and appears to be quite obsessed with Lenna.
Rhiannon was great friends with Lenna but she disappeared and now 2 years later reappears offering Lenna an escape to get away or take a break from her life at this women's community in the Arizona desert.

Hold on for this wild ride of events that happen in the desert making you truly wonder who's who, who's real, crazy or what's going to happen.