In Circle of Strangers, Minka Kent turns a picture perfect gated community into a pressure cooker, and then dares you to put your ear to the lid.

Camille Prescott thought she was moving into sanctuary, quiet streets, manicured lawns, neighbors who wave from behind designer sunglasses. But Kent quickly strips away the illusion. The meddlesome neighbor who knows too much. The couple whose smiles hide something volatile. The sense that the fences aren’t there to keep danger out, but to keep secrets in.

What makes this book so deliciously tense is the way Camille becomes both observer and participant in the neighborhood’s unraveling. Watching her dissect the lives around her, while ignoring the hairline fractures in her own, feels like standing on the edge of a glass floor you know will crack. When the past comes knocking and a body turns up in her garage, the line between victim, witness, and suspect blurs until you’re not sure which one Camille really is.

Kent’s pacing is a slow burn with flash-fire moments that make you stop breathing. Every conversation is loaded, every glance feels like a clue you might miss if you blink. And when the truth finally claws its way to the surface, it’s not just shocking, it’s the kind of revelation that makes you rethink every page you’ve read.

A dark, voyeuristic thrill ride where the safest-looking streets hide the deadliest secrets, this is Minka Kent at her most unsettling.

Great thriller! Love Minka Kent’s books. Couldn’t put this down and hope there will be a third one.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Minka Kent is one of my favorite authors. She grips you at the beginning and doesn’t let up until well after the last page. This book was just that gripping, and intriguing. I was completely hooked from the opening moment: a quiet gated community in Phoenix and a secretive new start for Camille Prescottuntil a dead body in the garage shattered the façade. The contrast between suburban calm and sudden violence sets the tone for a gripping domestic thriller that kept me turning pages.

Camille is an endlessly compelling protagonist sharp, self‑serving, a little unhinged, and utterly fascinating. Her paranoia feels both unsettling and magnetic, drawing you into her twisted worldview. Meanwhile, the neighborhood is brimming with tension: Sozi’s over-enthusiastic friendliness feels invasive, and the electric undercurrents surrounding Mara and Oscar give the setting real depth. Kent captures that creeping unease beautifully.

Camille is back in the second installment of the Dangerous Strangers series and I’m here for it!! 🙌

Definitely a fast-paced twisty read, though a little more predictable this time around. I was hooked though! I’m already looking forward to the third installment! 👏

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Minka Kent for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

4.5/5
Thank you @minkakent @amazonpublishing #partner for the gifted copy of this eARC!

Just finished Circle of Strangers by Minka Kent (book two in the Dangerous Thrillers series) and yep, this series continues to be right up my alley! If you love thrillers that are fast-paced, juicy, gossipy and unhinged... add this one to your TBR.

This one is a shorter thriller, but don’t let that fool you...it hooks you from the very first scene. I mean… nothing says domestic bliss like cooking spaghetti and meatballs while casually ignoring the dead body over yonder. 😳😂 IYKYK.

This one had everything I love: juicy neighborhood gossip, shady characters, secrets galore, and that delicious “trust no one” vibe. Add in a sociopath or two and I’m basically thriving. I did clock a certain character as a walking red flag early on, but figuring out the why and watching it all unravel kept me flipping pages nonstop. And no, I didn’t guess all the twists.

It’s also perfectly set up for book three because the chaos is FAR from over. If you love dysfunctional relationships, toxic friendships, cheaters, liars, and a few characters who seriously need therapy (or jail)... this is the book for you.

Can’t wait for the next one! 🙃

Love the circle of friends and their interactions. Kept me guessing and didn’t see that ending coming. Had my jaw dropped. Always love Minka’s books and this wasn’t any different! 4 stars!!

This novel is a highly anticipated sequel for me . . . also written and easily enjoyed as a standalone. It was so much fun to revisit Camille Prescott and her family, who have recently moved into a cozy gated community in Phoenix. Troubling rumors begin to swirl between the new friends she has made in the neighborhood, leaving her leery and confused as to whom to give her trust. Her security cameras are glitching, making it hard to prove what lurks in and out of the shadows of this quiet cul-de-sac. Camille’s husband, Will, is watchful, dedicated to keeping them safe from any outside meddlers. Danger is so close, and the more details Camille discovers about her new neighbors, the more unease she feels. Who is a friend and who is a foe? Find out August 19, 2025!

I highly recommend this book for fans of psychological thrillers, deeply flawed characters, and domestic suspense.

I hope there is more page-turning action with Camille Prescott on the way!

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Circle of Strangers for my unbiased evaluation.  4 stars

I realized this was book 2 in a series. I didn’t know this when I requested to read it. I think had a I read the first installment, book 2 would have been better for me. This is not on the Author/publisher.

I would recommend this book. Read the first one first. This is my opinion. You’ll have a better understanding of the characters.

It took me a very long time to get into this book - I felt like Camille was a bit annoying in the beginning and it took forever to get over that slump for me. I thought the overall plot was interesting and I did feel like by the end, I was flipping pages to finish. Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC!

Title: Circle of Strangers
Series: Imaginary Strangers Book #2
Author: Minka Kent
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: August 19, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars!
Pages: 229

Camille and Will Prescott have relocated from San Diego to a quiet gated community in Phoenix.
Their new neighbors are Sozi and Austin Hahn, and Mara and Oscar Moreno

Finding out more about her neighbors seems to be a hobby for Camille. If you read the first in this series you know Camille is a bit of a sociopath, she tells us that it is ‘personality disorder’.
For fun (she calls it a hobby) she created an account on the dating app ‘True Spark ‘. With the help of AI she creates a beautiful profile photo that uses to catfish married men. One of which turns out to be Oscar. We are aware that Oscar and Mara are always fighting but always making up. But are they really cheaters?
IN addition to her ‘hobby’ it appears Lucinda from her past seems to be reaching out ~ again!

This story has more than the average amount of sociopaths.

This is my fourth: Minka Kent but my first in this series. So I was playing a bit of catch-up. Since I read other Minka Kent novels I knew I was in for an interesting and hopefully fun ride.

Story ends with me asking ~wait what is really going on?!
Ends with a cliff hanger!
I need to digest this little more before I am ready to think about Book #3.

Want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 19, 2025.

Nooooooo! This sequel missed the mark for me after I absolutely loved and devoured the first book. I started this one as soon as I finished “Imaginary Strangers”, hoping to continue to ride the high from Book 1 with its creepy deranged psychological thrill. Unfortunately, Circle of Strangers has a much different feel as a (I hate to say it) boring domestic drama. The intrigue I had throughout the first book was completing missing this time around. Camille and Will felt like completely new characters and I missed the kids involvement (they were such a big part of the first book and were merely shadows just being mentioned here and there in this book). I found the writing to be repetitive and slow moving. I still liked watching Camille’s story unfold, but felt like a whole new standalone book.

If you haven’t read “Imaginary Strangers” I highly recommend reading it first. It was really good and skipping to this one wouldn’t be worth the major spoilers.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. This review will be shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date Aug 19 2025

I love minka Kent books and I actually reread the first book in this series to see where the characters originated. I personally think it is important to read them in sequence. That said, I feel like the first book was much stronger than this followup. The twists are kind of obvious and outlandish in a melodramatic way and I wasn't really into how it "resolved." This one was not for me.

Wow! Did not see that ending coming in more ways than one. Minka Kent is the master of tangled, jaw-dropping mental thrillers and this one does not disappoint.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have been a fan of Minka Kint for more years than I can remember! Her books never disappoint, and I read them way too quickly. I really loved Imaginary Strangers, and this is a sequel. Camille and Will have moved to Phoenix to start fresh, and at first, things seem like this was a positive change, although they have one nosey neighbor. Things take a turn when Camille finds a dead in the pool. After this traumatic even, the cracks start showing in their live. This was a wild run and I was on the edge of my seating turning the pages late into the night!

As usually another very good read by Minka Kent. I have enjoyed all her book. This one I found to be a quick read and the twisty part was fun. One of my favorite authors and I was happy to get an advance copy of this book.

Four months after the events of Imaginary Strangers, Camille and Will are starting fresh in a gated Arizona community, hoping for a sense of peace and security.

Camille quickly meets her neighbors—who are more than eager to share the local gossip. Though she knows better than to get caught up in drama, Camille soon finds herself falling prey to the whispers and suspicions. Once again, she begins doubting those around her.

And that cliffhanger at the end? One helluva punch. I’ll absolutely keep my eye out to the third installment to see what Camille does next!

Camille is fascinating in so many ways, but what stands out most is her fierce love for her children. She may be able to cut people out of her life without hesitation, but her kids? Come hell or high water, they’ll never leave her side. I also appreciated her proactive and therapeutic approach to her diagnosis—it made me wonder how many others take the same route. Is it more common than we think, like seeking help for anxiety, PTSD, or depression?

While I didn’t find this installment quite as compelling as the first—it gave off some definite Desperate Housewives meets The Real Housewives of… energy—I still enjoyed it. I’d give this a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley, Minka Kent, and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for a review. This one is set to release August 19, 2025

This is the second book in Kent's "Dangerous Strangers" series. I hadn't read the first book, but Kent did a decent job of describing events from the previous book that were important to know when reading the newest book in the series.

Camille, Will, and their 2 children have just moved to a swanky gated community in Arizona. Camille has such an interesting "hobby"; catfishing men on dating sites. Like, what could possibly go wrong?!

I felt that the first half of the book dragged on and was very redundant. I found myself thinking, "When is something good/exciting going to happen?? " Since the author is well known and I've loved many of her books, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and trudge on. Well, boy, was I wrong. Everything about this book, including the horrible ending, left me so disappointed. This was definitely not one of her better pieces of writing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

This is Book 2 in the Dangerous Strangers series.

Camille and her family are starting over in Arizona. The new neighbors, the gossip mill, secrets, lies, and distrust aren’t a great way to start their new life. Then Camille finds a dead body in her garage. She continues on “business as usual” making dinner and putting the kids to bed. Only to then deal with “the mess” in the garage.

I didn’t find myself conned or even really caring for or about these characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Camille Prescott will do anything to protect her family. She and Will move their family to a safe, gated community in Phoenix. What seems like a fresh start turns into a nightmare. The community seems perfect, but looks can be deceiving. Their neighbors on one side, Mara and Oscar, have an interesting yet volatile relationship. On the other side, Sozi seems to know everything about everyone and quickly turns into Camille's confidante. Things start to get a bit wild with the Prescott's neighbors, and the next thing you know, there's a dead body in their garage.

This is the second book in a series, but I didn't realize that initially and I hadn't read the first book. I wish I had in order to get the full story of the Prescott's past, but I was still able to read the second book without things being confusing. I've found that I completely fly through Minka Kent's books and Circle of Strangers was no exception. The chapters were short, the story was fast-paced, and of course there was quite the twist. This was an enjoyable and quick read!

This book has me desperate for more. I loved the first book in the series and thought this was just a sequel but it’s clear there’s a lot going on here and another book is needed. This book is a slow burn; some parts have a desperate housewives vibe and other parts seem a bit slow. The entire time you can just feel the secrets building and can’t wait until the answers explode out. I absolutely can not wait until the next book comes out. 4.5 stars