This was a funny and romantic story. The storyline and the characters were amazing. I loved the dog .

THE MAN NEXT DOOR
SHEILA ROBERTS
OCTOBER 14/25

When Zona’s second husband screws her over like her first one did, she sells her house, car and try’s to pay off his gambling debt. He also blew through her daughter! Bree’s college fund, so Zona moves in with her mother and gets a couple of jobs to try to salvage her, and her daughter’s life.

When the cute guy buys the house next door, her mom, Louise, is determined to set Zona up with him, but after a few strange occurrences, her mom is thinking that he is definitely bad news…

This hilarious turn of events, makes for a fun multi generational romp.

I seriously kept waiting for the next door neighbor to be a murderer! Sheila Roberts wrote this book with the intention of making you think he was a murderer. I throughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it! I received an advanced copy on NetGalley.

This was a really good book. I thought it would be suspenseful at first, but then it turned out totally different. It was funny and romantic.The ending turned out great. I loved the dog Darling, he was quite a troublemaker. I look forward to the next book that Sheila Roberts writes.

I love Sheila Roberts and the cover is so cute for her latest novel, The Man Next Door. It was a fun read, sometimes confusing with the storylines but all in all a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Overall this was a cute book with a storyline that kept you guessing. The character development was great and the underlying theme was slightly unpredictable. Overall, I enjoyed it as a good summer read. This was a book you could put down and pick up right where you left off without difficulty. Thank you NetGalley for sharing.

This is a perfect book for fans of Gladys Kravitz - the nosy neighbor on the Bewitched television show - or Snoop Sisters. In this book the three generations of main characters are very quick to jump to conclusions and judgements.
It was a cute story in spots and frustrating in others.
My thanks to #NetGalley for an early read copy.
Three stars from me.

I love Sheila Roberts books, I have read all of them. I enjoyed the story very much. was a quick read, hard to put down.

Amazing book loved the characters and plot. I couldn't stop reading I stayed up all night. I loved the book so much thank you for the arc.

I just couldn't get into this book. I didn't like the writing style and the dog running away made me roll my eyes more than once. It's also not just a slow burn, it is sllllooooooooooowwwwwwww. No thanks, I'll pass on this one.

loved this cozy mystery about a new neighbor moving in next to the ladies and there is talk of rear window and other mystery movies. there is also mention of the grandma writing a book. martin is the neighbor and he is in love with the grandma . zona is the daughter who is burnt by love 2x and she is isn't looking for love. her daughter doesn't really want love either but finds it with a fen. zona ends up finding love with the neighbor next door but he is dealing with family issues.

"The Man Next Door" by Sheila Roberts is a slow-burn novel that follows three generations of women navigating life, family dynamics, and fresh starts: a 44-year-old broke divorcée, her house-bound mother, and her adult daughter.

Zona’s been dealt a rough hand in love and money. Her first husband cheated on her, and her second destroyed their savings—including her daughter’s college fund—with gambling. She had to move back in with her mom, Louise, and is trying to make ends meet by taking a second job so she can help put her daughter through nursing school.

Her mother, Louise, hasn’t had much luck either. After breaking her leg on a senior singles cruise, she is now house-bound. She and her caretaker spend their days spying on their mysterious new neighbor. They’re influenced by the movie "Rear Window" and other true-crime series, so tensions and imaginations run high. Her neighbor, Martin, is a great help, but she is too shallow to really appreciate him.

Bree, Zona’s daughter, has trust issues due to her mother’s bad luck with men. She works as a waitress and has put walls around her heart. She’s afraid of being in a relationship, so she doesn’t take any risks. And she definitely doesn’t want her mother to have a relationship with the new, dangerous neighbor—or any man, for that matter. They also have a dog named Darling, who keeps running away to explore the area. Things come to a head when the woman next door disappears, and they suspect foul play.

I liked the relationship between the three women. Zona was a great mother and daughter. Louise was also great. Bree was a whiny young woman. While I liked Louise and Zona, Bree irritated me. She whined a lot, kept blaming her mother for ruining her life, acted like a brat, and even tried to dictate who her mother could date.

Bree was too judgmental and bossy for my taste, always trying to control her mother’s life. I could understand her bitterness—she wanted to enroll in nursing school but now lacked the funds—but she took it out on the wrong person: her mother. Her mother did everything she could to fix the situation by taking on a couple of side jobs, and didn’t get the appreciation she deserved—at least not at first.

Another thing that nagged me was the dog. He kept running away, and I found it irresponsible. He ran away several times, and it became tiring after a while. Enough already! And another thing—the story moved at a slow pace. I enjoyed it, but I never felt compelled to keep reading.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I liked the psychological games playing on our minds—not being sure what to think of the man next door—and the story arc. The writing was good, alternating between viewpoints in third-person POV and giving us a window into their feelings. However, I expected a thriller based on the description. While it bears a weak resemblance to "Rear Window"—a house-bound woman spying on a suspicious neighbor, a dog digging in his garden, and a cynical, middle-aged nurse—it lacks the tension of the movie.

After consideration, I rate it 3.5 out of 5 stars. While I did enjoy it, it wasn’t the suspense tale I expected. It’s more of a family drama than a thriller, so keep that in mind. There’s plenty of drama and a subtle hint of mystery, but little suspense to speak of. Still, if you adjust your expectations and approach it accordingly, you’ll likely enjoy it.

* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.

I just could not get into this! Zona is getting divorced for a second time and living with her mother, and her daughter Bree is trying to go to school and work. I think there will be drama with a neighbor, but I’m not interested enough to find out.

DNF at 21%

Unfortunately this book is just very well written, and I had a really hard time getting into it. The jumps between character's and storylines was also very confusing.