3.75 rounded up

I don’t normally like neighborhood dramas but couldn’t put this one down. There are a few dark topics and spots in the story but overall it felt authentic and raw. There was also a surprise reveal around 85% and another in one of the last chapters that buttoned everything up nicely.

Thanks netgalley! Will read more by this author!

It started off good but then too many characters too many intersecting storylines. The last quarter is was just getting to be too much. I will try this author again though.

Jake goes from the frying pan into the fire when she goes into hiding after a very messy and very public separation from her husband. It’s the oldest cliché in the book, Jake’s husband has been sleeping with her best friend. And if that weren’t bad enough, her best friend has leaked some damaging comments allegedly made by Jake. But Jake’s new home is surrounded by some very disturbing, neighbors, and just when she thought life couldn’t get any worse, it does. I really enjoyed the book, but not the narrator. She paused and emphasized the wrong words multiple times and it was very distracting.

Juicy and scandalous domestic thriller!

Jake, short for Jacquelyn, is hiding from the world after her husband abandons her for her best friend. In her new house, she is grieving her marriage, her son who died at birth, and her job. Her neighbor, Mabel, befriends Jake to bring her out of her shell. But the people who live on Sweetwater Lane are much more troubled than they appear. Because Jake’s new neighbors are full of dark secrets. They are jealous and suspicious of each other. Some are deeply disturbed. And some have the potential for violence.

If you’re looking for a dark neighborhood drama, then add this one to your TBR!

Thank you Netgalley, Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks, and the author for this ALC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on June 10, 2025

This was a nice surprise, a fairly short and quick Donestic thriller that packs a punch and has a heart, Jake is hiding herself away after her husband has shacked up with her best friend, and exposed some awful comments online. Mabel is determined not to let her new neighbour hide, and lures her out with cake and friendship. The pair get up to some really ridiculous antics that I found amusing, think nursery age humour. Meanwhile across the street from Jake is little Billy and his mom, she flips on a coin, adores him one minute and abuses him the next, at the other end of the street are new kids Wendell and Delilah, Wendell and Delilah have a horrific backstory, and as the story plays out all of the characters knit together beautifully.

Trigger warnings apply for Domestic violence, child abuse and child loss.

A first read for me from the author, her skills in writing children’s books shine through in the writing of the kids in the story.

Great narration.

Huge thanks to Blackstone Publishing-Audiobooks via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC🎧