It’s hard for me to pass up a neighborhood mystery filled with characters misbehaving. The Wives of Hawthorne Lane has plenty of characters behaving badly, twists and turns, you might think you’ve stepped into an episode of those famous housewives on Wisteria Lane. Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Hawthorne Lane is one of those culs-de-sac that most women dream of. The perfect houses. The families all friends. The big events like Halloween where everyone meets up together and puts on a festival for the neighborhood. Those beautiful facades are hiding some very dark secrets.

Georgina, beautiful and married to a very successful lawyer. She’s the type A behind the festival. Never a hair out of place and a fabulous cook to boot.

Libby, newly single due to her husband asking for a separation. Owns a floral shop in town.

Audrey, ravishing beauty and editor of an entertainment magazine, married to a best-selling author.

Hannah, new to the neighborhood. Recently married to a man twelve years older but together they are so happy. Until reminders of her past start appearing in her mailbox.

Four women whose lives appear just perfect on the outside, but behind closed doors, their lives are sometimes anything but. When a body is found dead in the woods behind their homes after the Halloween festival, it shines a light on the neighborhood and these women more than ever before. But who had the motive?

Great novel. So well pieced together with the police interviews interspersed throughout the novel. A lot of bombshells dropped here and there also. As with her novel The Perfect Sister, DeCarolis is a master at weaving together interesting, dysfunctional people to form fantastic mysteries. These four women are all extremely different and while not necessarily likable, at least in some ways, admirable. Their lives are not perfect. And of course there is one busybody in the mix for humor.

Really fun novel for the fall. Definitely recommend.



Reviews will be posted to:
BookwormishMe.com
LibraryThing: BookwormishMe
The StoryGraph: BookwormishMe
Goodreads: BookwormishMe

Reviews will be posted after publication to:
Barnes & Noble
Amazon

The Wives of Hawthorne Lane by Stephanie DeCarolis is a highly recommended domestic drama with plenty of "Desperate Housewives" overtones that shows the deceptive side of residents in an upscale neighborhood as the plot leads up to a murder investigation.

The novel starts with the body being found on Halloween night and Detective Frank Olsen investigating. After this opening, there are chapters jump back in time following actions leading up to the murder with some chapters following the murder investigation and some following a couple who don't live on Hawthorne Lane.

Residents of Hawthorne Lane include:
Mark and Hannah Wilson have just moved to Hawthorne Lane. We know Hannah has a secret she's afraid to tell Mark.
Colin and Georgina Pembrook have two teenagers, Sebastian and Christina. Georgina is the reigning Queen Bee of the neighborhood and plans all the neighborhood events.
Audrey Warrington works for a large publisher and is married to Seth, an author. She's having an affair.
Libby Corbin and her husband Bill are separated and he is seeing another woman. She owns a florist shop and has a teenage son, Lucas.
The chapters following Maggie and her abusive boyfriend Dean will eventually tie into the residents of Hawthorne Lane.

The writing is very good and the plot moves quickly. There is plenty of suspense, secrets, and twists. All the characters are well developed, have secrets, and are dealing with big issues. The narrative unfolds through the point-of-view of each character

The biggest drawback to reading it is all the domestic abuse. It was too much for me. The final denouement makes up for some of it, along with the information DeCarolis includes after the novel. If you can handle the domestic violence, it is a well written novel. Thanks to Ballantine/Bantam for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine | Bantam for allowing me to read this book.Hawthorne Lane is the perfect place to live. Its tree-lined street and stately homes are the envy of the town. Every Halloween the residents of Hawthorne Lane come together to host their famous Fall Festival. But this year, someone won’t survive the night.

This was a fun popcorn thriller. Great fall book. There’s a murder on Halloween night in an upscale community and the victim isn’t revealed until the last pages. This book is about the picture perfect wives and their secrets.
It was a fun spooky season read. But, not super unique. Check TW before reading.
Thank you to netgalley and Ballantine books for the ARC.

i loved getting into the lives of these women. at first, i thought i would get them confused, but they were all so easy to tell apart, and yet they all were fully developed personalities and not stereotypes or parodies. it was a little dark sometimes, but the way their lives intersected made it worth it. a good book for fans of big little lies with an autumn setting!

intense, effective fall thriller filled with an assortment of interesting characters and awesome ideas throughout. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

I just finished The Wives of Hawthorne Lane by Stephanie DeCarolis, and I couldn’t put it down. The story is haunting and suspenseful, with secrets that kept me guessing until the very end. I loved how DeCarolis made the characters feel real and complex, each with their own hidden depths. It’s the kind of thriller that stays with you long after you turn the last page.

4.5 rounded up!
This book was the perfect mix of hidden secrets, juicy drama, suspense, and twists. I was so intrigued by these women and their day to day lives on this ritzy, secluded street, uncovering multiple secrets along the way. Narrative construction using multiple POVs made the story feel very fast paced and had me rapidly turning pages and the ending was extremely satisfying in every way. The setting and time of year also gave me all the fall feels and now I’m excited for Halloween 🎃. Another phenomenal Stephanie DeCarolis book for the win!

Thank you Ballantine and NetGalley for an early copy of The Wives of Hawthorne Lane. Fabulous book, I could have stayed in this plot for sooooo much longer, I was never bored. The women characters were Awesome, even when they made mistakes. It could have been a tv series, I wanted it to go on and on. Colin and Dean were disgusting people, such trash, soooo glad how it ended for both of them. Also The TWIST WAS WOW!!!!!! The friendship these women have is what we all strive for in life but maybe not under those circumstances. Great writing, hurry and get another book out Stephanie.

Think stepford wives and desperate housewives! This was such a good book that will leave you wanting more long through the night! Make sure when you start you have a long time to relax and enjoy!

This reminded me so much of Desperate Housewives and I loved every moment of it ( and now want to re-watch that show!). This twisty tale of domestic suspense had my attention from the start. The author did a great job in the characters, especially the women, and interweaving affairs, secrets, unhappy wives, and then a murder at the end, which made for a really fun book to read. I loved the twists and turns, especially at the end. I rated this a 4 star book on my Goodreads and other socials.

I love a good domestic thriller....and this one isn't one of those.

Predictable. Terrible people. Subpar plot.

I should have known better.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

A domestic suspense / psychological thriller filled with family drama which tells the story of 4 woman living in an affluent neighborhood whose lives intersect in unexpected, trouble-some & deadly ways.

This book takes on a number of unexpected turns & unpredictable reveals. I found myself immersed in the world the author created & didn’t want to put it down until the very end.

Perfect for fans of domestic thrillers with true to life characters.

Trigger Warning: Contains vivid descriptions of domestic abuse.

Favorite Line: “But now that it seems inevitable that he will find out, its’t is better, kinder, for it to come from her lips, from a place of love & remorse rather than revenge?”

Thank you NetGalley, Bantam & the author for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great, easy to read thriller. And, Omg, the little twists totally slap you in thr face. I totally thought I had it figured out, but I really didn't. Definitely an author I will check out again.

Thank you to Net Galley and Ballantine Books for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This was my first book to read by this author but definitely not my last! This book will leave you wanting for more and the characters and storyline stick with you long after you finish it. Do yourself a favor and pick up this page-turner!

This was an entertaining domestic thriller filled with unreliable characters. Stephanie DeCarolis writing kept me engaged with the short chapters, steady pace, and complex characters. The twists were not over the top and kept me guessing.


Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Everyone has something they’re hiding…some are just better at it than others.” An excellent reminder that you never really know who your neighbors are! Even in the most prestigious neighborhoods, there’s still shady dealings lurking behind perfectly manicured facades!
When a murder occurs on one particularly elite street, the possibilities become endless. Every resident becomes a potential suspect, each with their own carefully guarded secrets that could provide motive for the murder of one person or another. DeCarolis skillfully explores how wealth and status can mask all sorts of darkness, creating an atmosphere where anyone could be capable of anything.
Full of details and small surprises, DeCarolis keeps you guessing, and just when you think you've figured it out, another revelation shifts your suspicions in an entirely new direction.
The finale is karma at its absolute best, a satisfying conclusion that’s both surprising and inevitable, leaving you to ‘wonder if justice and truth must always be one and the same,” and proving sometimes the most dangerous secrets are hidden in the most respectable places.

I loved this book. It very much reminded me of desperate housewives. I loved that each housewife had their own secret and it all collided at the end of the book. The abuse from Colin on the women seemed really realistic. I with the book went more into how his son had become violent. I would’ve liked to see how he changed from that.

I'm definitely in the minority with this one but the writing did not work for me, at all. I did stay until the end and felt the ending had a satisfying, thrillery ending.