3.5 rounded up for the guilty pleasure appeal.

Premise - They're rich. They're bored. And now one of them is dead... New Bethlehem, CT is more than just an Amtrak stop in this story. The story acquaints us intimately with a number of elite married couples (all privileged, none happy) as they get a bit too acquainted with each other. Deviance is deadly, etc. etc.

Pros: This has all the voyeuristic fun of peeking into the messy lives of the 0.01%.
✨ The story sucks you in
✨ The character lives and inner lives are rich
✨ The absolute MESS of the romantic entanglements is *chef's kiss*
✨ This book is great for marriages, you finish reading it and immediately run off to kiss your husband and thank him for being the best, read: not a super-dick.

Cons: It kinda feels like a first draft:
🚿 long chunks of just pure exposition
🚿 chunks where the placeholders are still there, not fleshed out - ex: describing Billy's ruthlessness it says Billy looked for information that would hurt his former employees and used it to hurt them - but why not specifics?? I know I can make something up (and I did) but the story is in the details! A bad guy did something bad is an outline, Billy published photos of his former quant streaking down Madison Ave after the company holiday party is a story.
🚿 some men can write women well, but if Frey is among them then this wasn't it. The women read like men with boobs, especially when it comes to their sexuality. It's about as real as porn.
🚿 Is Frey trying to put us all off of food?? If I could unread "coconut cream explosion" as an all-too-sensory description of Teddy's ejaculate, I would. Same goes for "yogurt cannon." If you're considering a GLP-1 don't bother, you can get all the food aversion of Ozempic for just the price of one book.😅

Described as The White Lotus x Big Little Lies, it's definitely leaning very heavily on the Big Little Lies side of the equation - like 95% Big Little Lies, maybe 5% White Lotus? Or possibly 0% White Lotus, if we're going by vibes.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Gina Gershon. She's a great fit for this sort of story! Dishy, but more in a gossipping WASP than celeb rag tone.

Thanks, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Audio, for the audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

When the privileged get bored things get interesting!
Story follows the disarray that comes when one disconnected couple has a party to spice things up. When has that ever kicked up glitter and not dirt?
Salaciously entertaining without all the unnecessary details.

Devon and Belle rule their small Connecticut town, but they want more than their money and social standing can provide so they decide to throw a huge party. It's that night where everything goes awry, proving that money can't always fix everything.

I loved Gina Gershon as a narrator. Her soothing tones are perfect as she describes the action and embodies different characters in the story.

As a note, there is quite a bit of sex in the story so if that's a dealbreaker for you, you may want to reconsider listening to the book (I always feel like it's easier to skip scenes if you have to in written books). It does take a while to get to the meat of the action, there's a lot of world building here to explain the location of New Bethlehem, Connecticut and to introduce the players.

The beginning of the story feels a little slow, but it does eventually amp up. However, I did feel like much of the plot ran a little too slow at many points and it may be hard for readers to take in such unlikeable characters. This just was not the book for me, but others may enjoy it so I am rating this 2.5 stars (rounded to three for NeGalley.)

I received this advance audio copy from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This was definitely not the book for me. It was back and forth and confusing. Very had to really discern if there was an actual plot and point to it.

This was a very enjoyable, entertaining read. And although I found the majority of the characters to be appalling, I did enjoy them and all of their drama. In addition, while I felt that the author did a great job of world building and character profiling, some of the descriptions went on for far too long and had me fast forwarding ahead at times.. I also felt that the book dragged on way too long before getting to any action.

All in all, I did enjoy the book, as well as the narrator, and will read titles from this author again.

The narrator did a great job at capturing the extremely offputting personalities here, so that’s a plus. The cover drew me in immediately. It’s incredible. However, the book ended up not being for me. The writing felt very stilted and choppy which made it hard for me to get into the story. Then we had the absolutely atrocious cast of fools lol. They did make for good entertainment but I was shaking my head in disbelief the entire time.

Set in an elite Connecticut town, Next to Heaven follows two wealthy women who throw a decadent party that spirals into betrayal, chaos, and murder.

I really wanted to like this, but as others have said, it leans too far into the fringe to resonate with a broader audience. It has a niche vibe, and I’m clearly not part of that niche. Frey’s attempt at a stream-of-consciousness, art-house style came off more manic and repetitive than profound. It started strong but quickly unraveled into cringey weirdness. If that’s your thing, you might love it—but it just didn’t land for me.

I received the audiobook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.