Member Reviews
Thank you to Liz Altemann, Savern House and Netgalley for the ARC!
When Laurel and Rob West find their home at a great price, it seems to good to be true. Nestled on Cold Creek Lane, Laurel tries to adjust to the new house and neighborhood. With a new baby and an active toddler, things are stressful enough but now add on Laurel’s elderly neighbor who pays WAY too much attention to her kids, plus her husband’s micromanaging ways and Laurel is at the edge of her rope. When she meets Addie, she is happy for a friend. Meanwhile, Corey is struggling on the other side of town for all that she has lost. These women don’t know each other but they have something in common…
I was thrilled to hear this book being chatted about with my friends at The Pulse - I have loved Liz Altermann’s previous books and couldn't wait to get into this one too! The pacing of this story was perfect and I finished reading it in a day while on vacation - I found myself grabbing my kindle every spare minute to read and see what was going on with these people! I can relate a lot to Laurel, and remember those feelings of “new” motherhood to your second child quite well. Your emotions are all over the place and you’re trying to hang onto some semblance of yourself while balancing two little people that very much need you. Poor Laurel had zero support system - with her nagging husband, passive aggressive mother-in-law and now Marion, the neighbor who just wont stop butting into her life, it’s no wonder she was so tired.
Then there’s Corey, another woman, in a totally different place in her life. My heart broke for her; I can’t imagine myself in her place, but without giving any spoilers, I felt like her emotional state was just written SO well. This was one of those stories where I truly had NO idea how the two storylines were going to come together, how these women’s lives would intersect, but when they did, all the pieces clicked into place. And the shocking way in which this story ended absolutely blew me away!
With a suspense that never let up, well-developed characters (some likeable, some unlikeable) and a clever plot, “The House on Cold Creek Lane” is one of my favorite reads this year!!
This story releases August 6, 2024 and this review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)
Thanks to #NetGalley and #SevernHouse for the book #TheHouseOnColdCreekLane by #LizAlterman. Rob and Laurel have moved into a new house on Cold Creek Lane and the neighbors are not really normal. There is the old lady who is very opinionated about their kids, the flirty neighbor and the overly nice neighbor. Corey used to live on the same house. She knows the neighbors very well and blames one of them for her daughter’s death. Corey and Laurel have never met, but maybe they one can save the other. What a wonderful, suspenseful book!
Packed to the brim with suspicious characters, dastardly deeds, and a slowly unrolling plot, The House on Cold Creek Lane filled me with dread. And while this tale of domestic suspense mixed nicely with a neighborhood drama, it was the gaslighting and misdirection that utterly turned my head. Step by step, I reveled in how this storyline had them all walking toward an unthinkable end.
As for the characters, they were all thoroughly unlikeable. Two, in fact, had me itching to shake them good and hard. From a belittling husband to his spineless wife, both of them hit the mark with their irritating behavior. That’s not to say that I was turned off of this book in the slightest. Oh no. Their action—or inaction—totally got my blood boiling. And, IYKYK, but only the best authors seem to manage to pull that feat off.
The only fly in the ointment was my ability to see through the twists. Now how much of that was merely down to my insatiable love of all things thriller and suspense, I’ll never know. Despite that, however, the multiple mysteries and unreliable narrators kept my fingers flying. So while I managed to work it all out, it just might be perfect for anyone looking for an utterly chilling novel. Especially if you’re new to the genre.
By the end of this slow burning plot, I was delighted by the eventually cascade of dead bodies. With plenty of foreboding and just enough suspense to whet my appetite, it’s clear as can be that Ms. Alterman nailed it in one. It’s also unsurprising why all of my colleagues at Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse have been raving about this dark and twisted tale. After all, I did inhale it in just a single sitting. Rating of 4 stars.
Thank you to Liz Alterman, Severn House, Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse, and NetGalley for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Laurel was 12 years old when her mother was viciously murdered, 20 years on, her killer released and Laurel, husband Rob and their two young children are moving into their first proper home - a house on cold creek lane.
The name of the lane and the cover alone had me eerily excited to dive into this read.
When Laurel receives a note addressed to her saying ‘I lost my family. Now yours is in danger.’ She is petrified, she is not only trying to fit in being a suburban mum, dealing with neighbours with questionable intent but now this note.
The book had me gripped with wanting to know what was coming and how things were going to play out. We have two first person pov , Laurel and also Corey who used to live in the house. Both women are suffering loss, and I was excited to find out what tied them together in the story. This is a popcorn thriller with domestic suspense.
Many thanks to NetGalley, published and author for my ARC.
This was a great thriller about trusting your mother's instinct! Laurel and Rob have just moved into a new neighborhood. Glad to be out of the craziness of the city, Laurel just feels a little uncertain. Why was their below cost offer accepted and why had it sat empty for so long? Rob tells her she needs to accept that good things can happen in life. It may seem too good to be true, but she needs to get over her constantly worry about bad things happening. Her fears and worry are blamed on her past and the tiredness of being a new mother. But when strange things start happening and Laurel doesn't agree with Rob about certain aspects of the neighbors, their relationship quickly strains. Rob just blames her irrationalness when these things happen and pushes her to get out more. When she finally gets the story about the terrible incident that had happened at her house, more pieces start to click into place but real truth of what happened is still being uncovered and all it will take is one person to change everything. The past, the current and the future are all about to collide in the most unexpected of conclusions. I really enjoyed this one and couldn't wait to see how to all tied together. Loved how it ended even though I had to read it a second time to grasp it all! Thriller Book Lovers the Pulse are packing this in their beach bag this summer! Once you start, you won't put it down. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the complementary ebook. This review is of my own opinion and accord.
I’ve been offline and soaking up the ☀️ in #nicaragua for the past two weeks. Obviously, I went straight to the @thrillerbookloversthepulse crew for a recommended read. My pick? #TheHouseonColdCreekLane by @lizalterman
I flew through The House On Cold Creek Lane in on sunny afternoon at the pool. Liz Alterman’s sharp storytelling will immediately draw you into the story and keep your attention until the end.
Highlights:
🫶🏼Laurel and Corey’s alternating POVs add depth and variety. Corey’s dry humour is a bonus
🤍The fast-paced plot with unreliable narrators and shady characters keeps the tension high
🫶🏼The story delivers great twists and a very satisfying ending
If you’re looking for a snappy thriller with great writing, The House on Cold Creek Lane is for you! Eager to read more from Alterman.
A story of two women tied through a house in New Jersey. Laurel and Corey alternately tell their stories in this tale of women coping as best they can. Laurel's mom was murdered years ago and it affects her to this day. It's her husband Peter who bought the house, which seems somehow creepy to her. Corey lost her child and she has been living in a condo in Florida with her mother but now she's been evicted because the age restrictions. How do they fit together? No spoilers from me because this is a clever one. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.
Two women, each shaped by a dark past, have never met but have something in common. Something that has them on high alert.
Laurel and her young family are new residents on Cold Creek Lane. They’ve been welcomed by their new neighbors-some warmly, and some not so much.
Corey temporarily lives with her mother in a retirement village, struggling to rebuild her life while making poor choices.
Nosey neighbors, strange occurrences, and secret obsessions, are issues that both women have experienced. What unfolds and brings them together is shocking!
I loved the alternating perspectives of Laurel and Corey. Being a mom, some moments involving the kids had me feeling anxious but the short chapters helped break up the tension. I also enjoyed seeing Laurel trust her gut when faced with negative influence by family members. Reading about Laurel’s creations as a former pastry chef, activated my sweet tooth! I’m excited to read more by this author!
When I see a book that’s heavy with domestic suspense, sign me up! I was so glad to partner with @thrillerbookloversthepulse to read an ARC of this book. It was dripping with suspense and nefarious characters and everything you want in a book in this genre.
I really loved the depictions of motherhood and found them to be spot on.
This book had a level of tension going into it that didn’t let up because you have no idea what’s going on. Why did Corey leave the house? Why is Laurel not comfortable in the house? And why is Laurel’s husband acting strange. This book had two female POV’s and they really came together well. This book definitely had me on edge so job well done!
Domestic thrillers are quickly becoming a favourite sub genre for me! The drama, the secrets and the mysterious neighbours with the books are almost addictive.
In this way The House on Cold Creek Lane did not disappoint. You had the slight dark and off putting neighbours. The dual POVs of two mother who should do anything for those they love. As well as the families who play devil's advocate and make you second guess these mother's motives.
This book moves at a steady pace, with great character development and two stories cleverly intertwined. The ending, although predictable, was intense and enjoyable!
This was a quick domestic suspense read. Told from the perspectives of two young mothers, the story touched on motherhood, loss, and coming to terms with past trauma. The pacing kept my interest and there were some twists and turns. Having read a lot of thrillers, I figured out who the villain was midway through and saw some of the twists coming but I did enjoy how the plot unfolded. One part of the ending even caught me by surprise!
This quick, easy to read suspense novel is one that I think readers new to the domestic suspense genre will enjoy.
Thanks to Severn House for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
Laurel and Corey don’t know each other but they have something in common. Something very sinister is lurking on Cold Creek Lane; something only a couple people know.
Laurel and Rob move into the home on Cold Creek Lane. Rob bought it without Lauren’s approval. Laurel hasn’t even seen it yet. She isn’t sure she wants to live there. The house and street don’t feel right to her. I found Rob to be quite obnoxious and controlling throughout. I did not care for him at all but we aren’t really supposed to. Good job creating this insufferable character, Liz.
Corey is divorced and living with her mother several hours away. She is a mess in so many ways. Her mother wants her to move out but she can’t even hold down a job. Laurel and Corey’s lives are interconnected but only Corey knows this, for now.
All of the characters are so well put together. They are all odd and a bit dark in their own way and full of personality flaws. This story reminds me of Desperate Housewives but with the psychological thriller vibe of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. What a thrilling, chaotic story we are taken through as new characters come in and stir up more nonsense, or try to help and end up victims. I loved every minute of it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the ARC of this book.
When Laurel was ten, her mother was killed in a bank robbery. An only child, she had no support from her father, who remarried an unsympathetic woman very soon afterwards. Although dealing with unresolved grief and fear, she went on to become a pastry chef and to marry Rob, a cheerful young man, and have two children. Shortly after the birth of their daughter, Poppy, Rob buys a house in suburban New Jersey. Laurel has never seen the house and she feels unready to blend into their new neighborhood.
Corey is mourning the death of her three-year-old daughter, Frankie. After a nasty divorce from the husband she still blames and the sale of their house in New Jersey, she moves in with her widowed mother in a Florida retirement community. Corey has a part-time job in a local garden center. She runs a lot.
The House on Cold Creek Lane is vivid and engaging. I found myself feeling very involved in the lives of these two apparently unconnected women and I grew to care about what happened to them. From my own experience of new motherhood in an unair-conditioned house, I can attest to the realistic descriptions of both Laurel and Corey over the course of one terrible summer.
I only gave this book three stars because I guessed the identity of the villain very early. (Two of Laurel's neighbors are so obviously dreadful that I couldn't believe either of them was the "bad guy.") Also, both Laurel and Corey, while initialy sympathetic, are too unbalanced to be the real heroines of their own lives. While I understand that pushing a sick person to get help can be counterproductive, I did start to feel that they were causing a lot of their own problems. Both women really needed to stop blaming the mean, selfish, and/or insensitive people in their lives and get over themselves.
That said, I found The House on Cold Creek Lane to be a quick and enjoyable read. I would definitely try another book by Liz Alterman.
I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
#TheHouseOnColdCreekLane #NetGalley
Wow!!!
When Laurel and Rob West move into their new home in New Jersey, it seems too good to be true. But Laurel can't shake off her old feelings of anxiety. The neighbor who pays far too much attention to the Wests' two young children . . . Rob watching her every misstep .. and there's something people aren't telling her about this house . I promised myself I wouldn't go to that neighborhood again. Not that street. Not so soon. But I couldn't help it. They made it too easy. Corey Sutton is trying to outrun her past. Recently divorced and reeling from a devastating loss, she moves into her widowed mother's retirement condo in Florida. Everyone says she just needs some time to recover and rebuild . . . but is Corey beyond saving? She wants answers. And there's very little she won't do to get them. Though Laurel and Corey have never met, the women have something in common, and if they're not careful, it may just destroy them both
Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for giving me an advance copy.
First of all, huge thank you to @lizalterman for letting us @thrillerbookloversthepulse readers get the ARC of this. I was not ready for the wild ride you had us on for this one!
I have never read anything by Liz, but I quickly downloaded The Perfect Neighborhood after reading this. He’ll Be Waiting will be my next purchase.
I consumed this book. I could not put it down. I had full blown conversations with my kindle while reading this. I was angry, I was shocked, I was wanting to jump in my kindle & shake some of these characters. It. Was. Amazing.
This is one of the best thrillers I’ve read. It does not disappoint. The writing is excellent & the ending was NUTS!!
I HIGHLY recommend this one. I honestly loved it so much-I might need a physical copy for my bookshelf.
Thank you Liz! You are incredibly talented!
This was a decent popcorn type thriller. I do love books that have neighborhood drama in the plots, this one has plenty of it. I wasn’t ever quite sure what was going on or who was to blame for what. It’s a dual perspective narrative and I liked and was more intrigued by Corey’s parts. The ending didn’t disappoint and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick interesting thriller, the beginning and the end of this book were very good, the middle dragged a bit.
I really enjoyed this one. As an overprotective stay at home mom of two, I was able to connect and sympathize with our main character, Laurel, and man did I want to wrap my hands around her husband’s neck! It definitly had me filled with anticipation and dread, and I couldn’t wait to see how this all played out. I wanted better for our other main character Corey, but I understood why the end went the way it did. I will say that for me, the twist was very predictable and kind of a bummer because I wanted a bit more, but overall I really enjoyed this one and flew through it in two sittings. Thanks to Severn House for my eARC. The House on Cold Creek Lane will be published 8/6.
This fast-paced, dual-perspective thriller will have you racing through the pages!
The story follows Laurel, a mother with a toddler and new baby, struggling with the overwhelming pressure to create a perfect family life. They just moved into a house on Cold Creek Lane and Laurel has a growing sense that something isn't right. Her anxieties are fueled by a husband who dismisses her concerns. I remember how isolating it could be with young children and I think the author captured this perfectly. We also meet Corey, a woman grappling with a devastating loss. She was the previous resident of the home on Cold Creek Lane and believes the loss of her daughter was no accident. Corey's grief felt raw and genuine, making her a character you can't help but root for despite her flaws.
While I wasn't surprised by every twist, the well-developed characters and Liz Alterman's smooth writing kept me hooked. I will definitely seek out her other books. If I wasn't too busy with work and kids sports, I would have easily finished this in one day.
The House on Cold Creek Lane weaves Laurel and Corey's stories together, culminating in a crazy conclusion where their paths intertwine. If you're searching for a quick and engaging read that delves into the complexities of family, loss, and the fierce protectiveness of motherhood, The House on Cold Creek Lane is a must-add to your bookshelf.
Why was the house Rob bought for his family such a steal?
Domestic thrillers are always favorites for me. I love a good suburban setting where the characters are always harbouring big secrets and all is not what it seems. Told from dual POV's, we follow the story of two women, Laurel and Corey. How these stories intertwine will leave you gasping! This was such an amazing book. I was riveted as I read and didn't dare put it down because I was so engrossed. If you love thrillers, you need to get your hands on a copy of this.
This book is buzzin’ over at @thrillerbookloversthepulse and for good reason!
I was hooked and it kept me up way past my bedtime. It follows two females POV. Laurel and Corey. Corey used to live at that house and Laurel just moved in with her family. Laurel is dealing with postpartum and her husband is someone I wanted to punch.
Corey is dealing with a traumatic loss that has taken over her life.
I really enjoyed this story and how it came together. This was my first by this author and definitely won’t be my last!