Well, well, well. Can this circle of strangers get any crazier?

Hooked from the start, I loved the thrill and mystery surrounding Camille and Will Prescott and their new neighbors. Full of twists and questions, I enjoyed this one until the very last page. That cliffhanger though! A bit abrupt! Definitely a set up for the next book.

I realized after I read this that there is an earlier installment to this series. This one read as a great standalone but I’ll definitely go back and read the first book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Minka Kent for an early digital copy of this riveting story.

Camille is so relieved to get a fresh start with Will and her 2 kids. After her crazy mother in law was sent to prison, she knew they needed a new place to settle down. What she didn’t anticipate was having nosy neighbors and always having to be on guard. When she starts getting letters from her abusive mother, she is t sure that this was going to the be the fresh start she had hoped for.

This book was full of all the twists and turns I could have asked for. I’m already ready for the next book in the series!

Camille's perfect community turns into nosy neighbours, creepy rumours, and a body in her garage as things spiral fast. It’s tense, twisty, and totally addictive.

This was a DNF for me. I’m a fan of Minka Kent but I could not get into Circle of Strangers. Here’s why. Camille is a diagnosed sociopath. Actually, that isn’t surprising after I learned about her childhood and her deeply disturbed mother. Then there was the mother-in-law who is vicious and controlling. I didn’t like any of the neighbors either. I skipped and read a section in the middle and one close to the end and it just wasn’t for me. I’ll just wait for Kent’s next book.
1 star.

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and Minka Kent for this ARC.

I’ve just finished book #2 of The Dangerous Strangers series called “Circle of Strangers” by Minka Kent and wow! For such a short book (240 pages), it sure packed a punch!

This story picks up where book #1 ended and Camille, her husband Will and their children have relocated to Arizona. Their new neighbors on both sides of their house in the upscale gated community are a bit nutty. In book #2, Camille, an admitted sociopath and fiercely protective, is in the fight for her life to save her family.

Amidst all the chaos, you’ll be wondering who’s actually in control here and who’s pulling the strings?

Such a great series! Minka Kent is such a great thriller writer! You will just devour her books! This book earned a solid 4 stars from me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Thomas and Mercer, for the Advanced Reader Copy. This book publishes this Tuesday on August 19th. Now go read this one!

#NetGalley
#bookstagram
#CircleofStrangers

Circle of Strangers - 4⭐️
This was more fun than Imaginary Strangers!
It literally starts out with FMC seeing dead bodies in her garage and instead of calling the police, she goes back into the house to spend time with her kids LOL 💀
So we have Camille and her family moving into a new neighbourhood and right away she gets into all that tea with the new folks and created some drama herself.
I actually enjoy how the author introduces characters seamlessly instead of just dumping them all at one go. Wild read!
PS: The tension does dip right after the first few pages but it gets better after 20ish % mark.

I really enjoyed this one, even more so than the first in the series... until the end, when I realized that nothing was going to be resolved and the whole book was just set up for a third installment.

And I don't mean there are dangling threads to be explored in future sequels; this is an unfinished book. It literally ends mid-scene.

I love a good "whodunit" type story! Camille gets more than she bargained for with her moving states for a fresh start. Everyone has secrets, and you just can't trust anyone! This was very twisty and gripping. Thanks NetGalley

A solid second book! I continued to enjoy reading about Camille and root for her, and this was the perfect light thriller. Although there was a bit of a lull in the middle, it was still great.

This book kept my neck on a swivel.
Camille and Will – the newcomers to their gated community. Camille thought it was perfect, plenty of security, plenty of fences, and plenty of secrets. Georgie and Jackson, their children.
Mara and Oscar – the trouble married couple.
I was intrigued by the lengths that Camille felt she had to go to in order to protect her family. Little did she know there was someone who was better at the ‘game’ than she was. It was also interesting to find out that Camille and Will and pretty much the same upbringing by two moms who had difficulties of their own. This just adds another layer to their story.
Oscar and Mara – could there be a more not-so-perfect couple, each of them showing what they wanted folks to see but inside trouble was always brewing, sometimes at a simmer but always there.
Sozi – A very troubled woman to say the least. It was interesting that she always talked about her husband and her son, but every time Camille suggested a playdate, Ezra (son) always seemed to be suffering from one ailment or another, and why did no one ever see Austin (husband) except that one time?
The interesting thing about these neighbors is they all harbored secrets, each one of them had something to hide, each of them had more to their personalities than they dared show to outsiders. I thought I had this one figured out but when it came to that plot twist … I was highly impressed at the turn of events in this tale of who can outdo whom. I don’t know if there will be a book three in this series, but I certainly hope so because I’d like to see what happened to Camille, what consequences she took on when she did what she did, and if there was still someone better at the ‘game’ than she thought she was.

Get ready for another roller coaster ride of not knowing who to trust and who not. The cast of characters are all questionable and it kept me guessing until the very end. We are left with an open story that has to continue. I need for Camille to survive and come out on top. This is one I didn’t want to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. This is book two and you really need to read the first book to get the full experience. Well done.

What a tangled web we weave......

Camille and Will Prescott have moved from San Diego to Phoenix for a fresh start in a gated community. But it is not entirely the fresh start they were hoping for. Their new community is full of gossip, and don't get me started on the dead body that was found in the garage! Poor Camille, trouble just seems to follow her. After finding the dead body, Camille makes dinner for her children. Seriously, she's a mother and the children come first! But then....

The book then goes back in time and readers see that Camille is not having it! She has her hackles up and her antennae is going off. Women are flirting with her husband, people are gossiping, her husband is being secretive, and secrets are being exposed!!!!!

Minka Kent has delivered once again! I loved Imaginary Strangers and could not wait to get my hands and eyes on this book. I enjoyed being back in Camille's orbit. She is quite the character! Camille has a lot going on, she is suspicious of everyone, one might say she is paranoid, or is she just more Intune with the complexities of human nature? Camille is such a great character as one never knows what she is going to say, think, or do. As she navigates her new neighborhood, she meets several neighbors and it becomes obvious right away that she and her husband did not move into Mr. Rogers neighborhood!

Minka Kent is a very clever author who is great at building unease, tension, and drama. I never quite knew who I could trust, who was being reliable, who was up to no good, etc. I had a lot of fun reading this gripping, shocking, captivating and well thought out book!

Circle of Strangers isn’t a bad book. In fact, my 3 star rating is me saying “yeah, I had a good time”. It was a fun and fast paced read. I finished it in one sitting because the mystery kept me hooked and the whole perfect gated neighborhood with weird vibes was deliciously unsettling. Seriously, the four hours that it took me to finish this novel flew past.

With that being said, it did get a bit repetitive. The author kept circling back to the same conversations and interactions. And, for a neighborhood, it felt oddly empty. I kept waiting for new characters to show up and they never did.

This part is obviously my fault, but this is a sequel. I wasn’t aware of it and when I found out, half of the book had already been read. It works fine as a standalone but I definitely felt like I was missing some backstory on the main couple. If you’re interested in reading Circle of Strangers, my advice would be to read the first book too.
For that reason, and because there’s clearly another book coming next, the ending didn’t feel like a true ending. But I did enjoy the twists and turns at the end.

A fresh start in a new town quickly unravels when danger — and old secrets — follow the Prescotts home. I really enjoyed this follow-up to Imaginary Strangers! Camille and Will Prescott have moved to a new town for a fresh start, but it doesn’t take long for things to feel… off. Neighbors with secrets, strangers who seem to know too much, and a sense that danger is never far away kept me hooked. I still think I liked the first book just a little more, but this one kept the suspense going and gave me enough twists to keep me guessing. The ending makes me think we might be getting a book three — fingers crossed!

Circle of Strangers is the second book in a series. Minka Kent is relatively new to me as an author, but I am enjoying reading her catalog! Her books are quick and suspenseful. Highly entertaining.

Before starting CIRCLE OF STRANGERS, I recommend first reading book #1 in the series, IMAGINARY STRANGERS.

I liked how this book picked up right where the previous one left off. It was fast paced and kept me guessing about this so called, neighborhood of strangers, and who was really trustworthy. The epilogue left me wanting more. I can see a third book in this series coming and I can’t wait. Minka Kent is a great thriller writer. All of her books are bingeable!

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for my gifted copy.

4.5 ⭐️Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of one of my favorite authors! I have read several of her books now and really don’t understand how this author doesn’t have more hype! I had no idea this was book 2 of a series, but thankfully could be read as a stand alone. The end though?! Really need a book 3 because I need more! Short chapters and lots of cliffhangers throughout to keep the pages turning. Make sure to pick this one up on 8/19 when it comes out!

This is the second book in a twisty domestic suspense series, and you absolutely need to read book one first. This sequel picks up right where the first left off, dropping us back into Camille’s unsettling world. Both books are fast paced, bingeable reads that you can tear through in an afternoon, but this one takes the tension up a notch. The Arizona gated community setting adds a fresh layer of creepiness, with its manicured streets hiding shady neighbors, whispered secrets, and the constant sense that something is about to go very, very wrong.

What makes this installment stand out is how much deeper we get into Camille’s mind. She’s such a fascinating character, a sociopath who’s both unsettling and oddly compelling. Being inside her head again was an experience in itself, as she navigates family dynamics, neighborhood drama, and her own unpredictable impulses. The atmosphere is thick with dread, yet Kent’s pacing keeps you flipping pages without ever feeling weighed down.

As for the twists, most were unpredictable, which is always a win for me in this genre. The ending in particular took me by surprise and has me crossing my fingers for a third book. If you like domestic suspense with a smart, sharp edge, and you’re not afraid to spend some time in the mind of a morally complex character, this series is well worth starting from the beginning.

I loved both The Stillwater Girls and When I Was You by this author. I also loved the first book in this series Imaginary Strangers . I was so excited to get this from NetGalley, and I wasn't disappointed.

This one is about Camille and her husband, Will. After a major event, they move from San Diego to Phoenix, hoping to start anew. Camille meets her new neighbours: Sozi, Mara, and Oscar. Then she finds a dead body in the garage, and all hell breaks loose. Camille makes it her mission to uncover the truth, and the new neighbours don't like that very much.

Once again, Minka Kent has created a creepy story of a woman on the edge, bordering on paranoia. The entire book had an eerie atmosphere, and the narrative skillfully wove seeds of doubt about every character. Even though some of the plot twists have been done before, the author's execution and writing style make for a winning combination. I loved the short, punchy chapters that had me saying, "Just one more chapter!" over and over again. It was such a gripping read that I finished it in a single day.

Fast-paced and tense, this domestic suspense takes you into the world of secrets in a gated community, where you question every character's motive. I changed my mind so many times it made my head spin. I liked Camille as a character, flaws and all, and she was a very compelling female lead. This is the perfect read for a "butt-in-chair" day. If you enjoyed the first book in this series or any of the author's other novels, you'll appreciate this one.

What would you do if you found a body in the garage of your new house? Probably not what Camille did which is feed her kids and then, ahem take care of it. I missed the first book and thus I think I missed something about Camille. That said this is very much about a neighborhood filled with secrets and lies. And Camille's one who has a lot of them. There's gossip and then there's gossip. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.