This book had a lot of elements that I do like--cults, creepy mysteries, suburban drama. But, I will say the one big thing that kept pulling me out of the story was the dual perspective dual timelines. I can appreciate what they each brought to the story, it was just a lot for me to mentally keep track of in a thriller mystery. Other than that, though, I did really like this book! I had a lot of fun with it.

Hannah is a trophy wife and stay at home mom to two children, her husband is a millionaire and they seem picture perfect--on the outside. A body is unearthed near their vacation home during construction and things go down hill from there. The body found belonged to a woman who was a member of an insane cult. Multiple POV's and it jumps back and forth between past and present. It got a bit confusing for a second nut everything pulled together in the end and made sense.

loved this mystery and keeping secrets and the different point of views. Also loved trying to figure out who did it . I enjoyed the mystery behind it.

I loved this book. It was creepy, involved a cult, and kept my interest from start to finish. The two timelines kept it interesting, and were well done,

The Body Next Door is quite the thriller. I am an avid fan of multi-perspective AND dueling timelines. However, I had a hard time following as there were 4 perspectives throughout two timelines. About half way through most of the connections began to click. I feel as though the use of magic was leveraged in order to make a plot point make sense and that took out a bit of the realism on how the story made sense as a whole. All in all, I give this book 3 stars because I genuinely didn't know who/what happened until nearly the very end which is always my favorite part. Everything tied together well and I certainly respect that.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy!

If you know me, you know I love a suspenseful thriller that I'm trying to figure out before the end of the story! This novel kept me reading and guessing well into the night. It toggled back and forth in time, giving information from the past that informed the present and dropping clues as to what might have occurred. A commune/cult, a wealthy family, a boy with supernatural powers, a talented musician, everything converges into a final climax that was worth the sleep I lost for it!

Thank you for my copy and for having me as part of the tour!

I was hooked on The Body Next Door by Maia Chance from the first chapter. Multiple POV and then/now chapters kept me fully engaged. I knew the characters and storylines would converge, but HOW? I was reading as fast as I could to finish.

This is the story of Hannah, a wealthy woman living a dream life, except everything is not as it seems. A body has just been discovered near her second home on Orcas Island up near Seattle. She has a connection to the body, but how did it get there? Who did it? And why was her husband’s artifact used in the murder?

As much as I loved many things about this book, there is an element of magical realism that I didn’t like. One character can do things with his mind like bend spoons, bust through brick walls, and make inanimate objects do what he tells them to do.

I wished this wasn’t part of the story, because it detracted from enjoying the book. This may not be a problem for other readers, but I do not like magical realism or science fiction and usually I’ll just stop reading.

If that wasn’t part of this story, it would have been a five-star read!

I look forward to reading anything else the author writes (as long as there is no magical realism).

They buried their secrets, but not deep enough…

Hannah McCullough’s life is far from perfect, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Instead, you’d see a beautiful young mother wholly devoted to her two children and a docile wife utterly besotted with her self-made millionaire husband, Allan. You’d see the designer clothes she wears, the luxury car she drives, the dewy-eyed au pair she employs.

You wouldn’t see the dark secret she carries.

But when a construction crew unearths the body of a young girl near the McCulloughs’ vacation home on Orcas Island, Hannah has no choice but to confront her past. She wonders how much Allan knows about the victim and the apocalyptic cult she was connected to. Meanwhile, Allan can’t seem to understand why his beautiful young bride, as polished and pristine as the collectible artifacts in his glass case, would threaten their fairy-tale lifestyle by digging too deep, in places she knows she shouldn’t.

As the police investigation into the gruesome discovery deepens, the facade of Hannah’s picture-perfect marriage starts to crumble, and she soon finds herself on a dire hunt for answers. And Hannah’s search takes an unexpected turn after she crosses paths with three strangers with shocking secrets of their own.

The premise of this book sounded so good but the execution was not for me. I found that I was 100% bored with this book. It was hard to get through and even harder to pick up. I almost dnf’ed it but I pushed through with the hopes it would get better. It had too many pov’s that o just didn’t care about. They all irritated me to no end.

Since this is a mystery / thriller, I'm not going to rehash the plot, but the blurb gives a good overview of the story. As I suspected when I started this title, everyone is just some degree of "off" -- whether that's a little or a lot. Sometimes that made things interesting, sometimes not so much.

The story is told from multiple points of view, so that made things a bit hard for this reader to follow until about halfway mark. There's lots to keep straight here. There is also a past/present timeline (s) that also makes the reader work to understand. Things got better in the second half, but I would have liked a bit more of a punch to the ending.

There are also some creepy elements of the story, with witches in the woods and strange behaviors and such. It gives the story a bit of a spooky feel.

Overall, this was an okay read for me, with some interesting characters that kept me reading.

This book is banana pants nuts and you should read it.

If you read the publisher's blurb you'd probably expect a fairly standard domestic thriller: Hannah McCullough's seemingly perfect life begins to unravel when a body is found near her family's vacation home. Hannah is forced to confront her past involvement with a mysterious cult as she seems the truth about the identity of the victim and the killer.

This is all true. But it gives no hint that there will be several unsettling narrators and a hefty dose of magical realism.

I don't want to say more about the plot because I don't want to spoil the experience for any reader. However, readers should be prepared for the fact that this is not your standard domestic thriller. It is a murder mystery, but in terms of 2024 releases, it has much more in common with Lost Man's Lane than with House of Glass.

This review will be posted to Goodreads on August 16, 2024 and to Instagram (@goodquietkitty) on August 17, 2024.

This book was a journey for me. At first I was not a fan, the shifting perspectives were too often and it was hard to keep track of all the different characters right off the bat. I also wasn't a fan of how a few of the characters were written. I found Josh's perspective to be boring and repetitive in the beginning and Allen was insufferable. However, as the book went on I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought. The cult setting was really interesting, and I enjoyed how all the different character perspectives came together in the end. I was able to call a few of the twists. I think there was a good amount of disbelief that needed to be suspended but otherwise this was a pretty solid thriller. 3.5 stars!!!

Read this book in 2 sittings. Sadly life gets in the way of marathon reading. It’s 2 am and I just finished the book because I couldn’t set it down. The book is unique as it has 5 perspectives and 2 different timelines. At first I was confused but as you read, the pieces start to fit together and all the secrets unravel. Also this unique writing style makes the plot move constantly. The book does involve a cult which I always find interesting to hear the perspectives of people who are a part of them. I enjoyed Hannah’s personality and her truth. A lot of the characters stories are either really sad or really sick. A great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This was a decent thriller. I liked Maia Chance's writing style and the book definitely held my interest. I was granted instant access to this book as I am a member of the Hive influencer progrram from Harlequin.
I would definitely consider reading more books by Maia Chance in the future!

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Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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This thriller will have you constantly on edge! I loved the mix of multiple POVs and Dual timelines. The plot also was cult-ish and twisty which was addicting! I highly recommend picking this one up!

I just finished reading this book, and I can honestly say it captivated me from the very first page. This masterfully crafted thriller takes you on a riveting journey, weaving together the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect in fascinating and unexpected ways. The beauty of this narrative lies in the way it grants the reader a unique perspective—one that the characters themselves would never fully grasp if they were living through it and there are unexpected twists! Each character is richly developed, drawing you in with their distinct personalities and secrets. The author skillfully builds suspense, leaving you eagerly turning pages in search of the truth.

I wanted to like this one but felt it had too many points of view going on and it was hard to follow. It had lots of potential
Thanks for sharing this book with me and letting me review book I like this one a lot it was engaging and had a good plot and setting . It was a fast paced quick read
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the lookI like this one a lot it was engaging and had a good plot and setting . It was a fast paced quick read

This book just had too much going on. Too many point of views. Too many plot points. I actually enjoyed the cult element but the magic part was too much.

Thank you to MIRA, Netgalley and Maia Chance for the ARC!

The title of this story grabbed my attention right off the bat - LOL! So much so that I didn’t even read the synopsis and went in blind. What I found was a slow burn mystery. Slow burns are not always my favorite, but in this particular book, the writing spoke for itself. I was captivated by the mystery Maia Chance created. Told from multiple points of view, for about the first half of the book, I had no idea who these characters were in relation to each other but I enjoyed their perspectives and trying to figure out how their stories would come together. When they did come together, everything made perfect sense. Interspersed with bits of magical realism, “The Body Next Door” is a unique and enchanting mystery. The plot was solid, held my attention and there were several twists I wasn’t expecting too!

”The Body Next Door” is out now! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

#TheBodyNextDoor #NetGalley
Boring.
Hannah McCullough’s life is far from perfect, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Instead, you’d see a beautiful young mother wholly devoted to her two children and a docile wife utterly besotted with her self-made millionaire husband, Allan. You’d see the designer clothes she wears, the luxury car she drives, the dewy-eyed au pair she employs. You wouldn’t see the dark secret she carries. But when a construction crew unearths the body of a young girl near the McCulloughs’ vacation home on Orcas Island, Hannah has no choice but to confront her past. She wonders how much Allan knows about the victim and the apocalyptic cult she was connected to. Meanwhile, Allan can’t seem to understand why his beautiful young bride, as polished and pristine as the collectible artifacts in his glass case, would threaten their fairy-tale lifestyle by digging too deep, in places she knows she shouldn’t.
As the police investigation into the gruesome discovery deepens, the facade of Hannah’s picture-perfect marriage starts to crumble, and she soon finds herself on a dire hunt for answers. And Hannah’s search takes an unexpected turn after she crosses paths with three strangers with shocking secrets of their own.
It was boring. I don't like these types of thrillers. Sorry. Not my cup of tea.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing Mira for giving me Tan advance copy.

I was originally drawn to The Body Next Door by Maia Chance because of the title and cover. As a lover of thriller novels, I go into each book with such high expectations. I have been disappointed many times, but The Body Next Door exceeded my expectations!! This is one of the few books that has done so. There are many reasons why I absolutely loved The Body Next Door.
First, as a reader, I loved that I got to see the different perspectives of each character through their own individual chapters. Speaking of characters, I was pleasantly surprised with the fantastical element of speaking inanimate objects. I’ve never read a thriller book that placed this into the plot.
Next, I highly enjoyed discovering how each character was intertwined with one another, especially because it was something I couldn’t easily guess. Additionally, the twists and turns in the plot had me hooked!!
Lastly, every thriller needs to have a good ending, and The Body Next Door did just that!! Again, it was something I couldn’t guess, and I actually liked that it was a happy ending, so to speak. I definitely recommend reading this book if you’re a fan of thrillers, crime, a bit of mystery, talking objects, and cults!