3⭐️
Author: Sara Shepard
Genre: Thriller

I’ve not read any Sara Shepard before but I’m glad I picked this one up. I enjoyed the multiple POVS between these friends, the characters were all flawed with history that could ruin their lives and I loved the setting because I’m from Tucson, AZ! I also enjoyed the mom life side of a few of the characters.

I just found it all a bit off, the choices made and the outcome. The twist wasn’t a huge surprise, but the way it all played out was a little overly dramatic. The writing was easy to read and I wanted to get to the end to see how it would end for everyone, but it fell a little flat for me.

If you’re looking for a mommune with cult vibes, jealousy filled friendships, remote desert vibes and drama drama drama! Then you’ll like this!

Thanks to @netgalley and @saracshepard for this ARC coming out February 20, 2024 in exchange for my honest feedback.

#pagesplantsandcoffee

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I had a hard time getting in to this book. The characters were well created. I went into reading this with high hopes, and felt let down.

This was an okay read with a creepy cultish vibe dealing with the creepy mom culture / told from multiple pov .
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book

This was a fun thriller to read. It's all about female friendships and how there's a side to every story. We start in LA and pivot between POVs before ending up in a female only commune (a mommune) located somewhere in the middle of the desert where there's no one else around. This story is sad at times, creepy at others, but is always grounded in the main friendship. Overall, both a fast and engaging read.

This was a great read with cult-ish vibes. Totally loved all the great characters. Definitely has a big creep factor.
Thank you NetGalley and Sara Shepard for the opportunity to read and review this book

3.25 stars

This is definitely meant for the high school/new adult reader. It didn’t really hit the way I had hoped, a little too much drama (and not the good kind) for me.

All that being said, this will be a hit with the younger group who it was likely meant for, I’m sure. The plot and mystery were good, I just didn’t personally relate on any deeper level.

Beautiful cover and author of the Pretty Little Liar series so I had pretty high hopes. This is definitely more of a YA book especially when it comes to all the drama, secrets and betrayals. I should have realized that this would read way more YA than I was expecting. I read PLL and watched PLL as a teenager and enjoyed both, but now as an adult, this didn’t quite hit the same. That said, I think it will work for Gen Z and perhaps some millennials looking for the nostalgia of all the drama that PLL had.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of my latest read!

Sara Shepard has had a longstanding place on my bookshelf with her popular YA series, so I was eager to dive into this newest thriller about motherhood and friendship. My review falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars depending on how I'm feeling at the moment. The description of shady friendships, the "mommune" and not knowing who to trust immediately pulled me in, but I did find a difficult time getting behind anyone character to root for as I read. This was a quick read for me since it hit on several topics I typically enjoy, but still this book left me wanting just a bit more. I have nothing against this book but I do think it fell a bit flat for me, and am still determining if I would recommend to a friend.

Thank you, NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the copy of Nowhere Like Home by Sara Shepard. I thought the social media posts were really well done and realistic. The story was a little uneven, bouncing back and forth between the past and the present so quickly it was hard to keep track of, so the book seemed really long. This book touches on many issues; cults, mental health, female friendships, motherhood, and communes, but none of them were really examined deeply. It would have been better to have one or two issues that were the heart of the book and really explore them more. If you like a surprise reveal this is probably the book for you, because I had no idea how this book would end.

This book is a thriller about jealous friends, complicated friendships, and bad roommates. I think this book would appeal to a younger audience. While i did kind of enjoyed the writing style I could not connect with their characters and their actions. The writing did feel a bit amateurish. I felt the characters were not likeable at all and the conversations between them annoying. The ending I also thought was not well done.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. This book had some twist, but there was also at times where I felt it was a little slow. Overall, it was a great book.

I did not see that coming one bit!! It was well written and the twists kept coming. At some points I did find it a little long winded but overall great story!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

I have never read a cult thriller novel that i even slightly enjoyed prior to this one so i can say that this was not a bad book. But it unfortunately failed to develop the story and execution could have been much more complex.
This was a fun read but it unfortunately wasn’t my favorite one.
3.5 stars

Social anxiety is real and this book hits it hard. I really was looking forward to falling into the depths of strong characters and plot, but this fell short. I found myself scrolling and wanting to get to the point, but it dragged on. Unfortunately, this cult read was not for me, but I greatly appreciated the ARC.

After reading this, I realized I am absolutely the type of person who would accidentally join a cult. It took me a bit to figure out what was happening, but this book was so engaging.

This was the best type of a cult thriller, depicting some yummy mommies that are up to their ears in lies and subterfuge. The perfect fall read, full of secrets and suspense!

I enjoyed this book so much! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read it.
It was full of twists and turns. Not knowing who could be trusted and believed and the main character finding herself in the midst of it all.
I believe we all suffer from social anxiety in some ways. Some more than others.

This book had promise but didn’t deliver.

It’s a moderately engaging thriller. However, the entire premise is ludicrous and the story is full of more holes than a moth eaten sock, more dead ends than a cemetery, and more red herrings than a kettle of fish.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

I’ve been a Sara Shepard fan since high school, so I knew that this would be written well. And it absolutely was, but the plot didn’t really do it for me. There was too much going on with it—there were 3 “main” POVs, plus 2 timelines, plus a mysterious cult in the current-day timeline that was full of interesting characters. Everything was tied up nicely at the end, but I found myself unsatisfied.

As a PLL fan, I went into this book with incredibly high hopes, and that may have been part of the downfall. I enjoyed the topic-cult-like commune in the middle of nowhere-but this took a long time to catch my attention and was almost a DNF. The flashbacks to different times were dull and didn’t add much to the story. However, I did enjoy the parts of the book that took place in the commune.