L. Alison Heller

Since they found the body, I've been replaying what I saw. What happened between them, out where no one could hear? I think it was murder. In Cottonwood Estates, a quaint suburb full of PTA parents and manicured lawns, the Best Book Club Group in the World gathers once a month over cockails, gossip, and their latest read. As they debate endings and characters, each of them has her own secret story. Lena has hardly left her house in decades after a tragedy befell her family, but she’s finally joining the group. Her neighbor Annie has a past, and she knows something about what happened to Lena, something she can never share. New resident Jen deeply wants to make some friends, but she’s hiding a secret about her son. And no matter what, they’ll keep their children safe – even if to protect them, someone has to die. L. Alison Heller, whose work has been praised by Liane Moriatry as "warm, witty...refreshingly true to life,” ventures into suspenseful territory with The Neighbor's Secret, a novel of books, secrets, and women who will remind you of your own book club.

A Novel

The Neighbor's Secret

Kristen Claiborn

Look people, I’m in my mid-40s and living a relatively mundane life (although, others might claim it’s anything but mundane, but I’m really kinda boring). I’m not rich, but I’m also not poor, my husband and I do ok. We have a nice home, we eat REALLY well, and we have enough extra money that I can buy a few books every month and he can buy video games. We don’t take lavish vacations, we both drive cars that function and are paid for, but I have to physically crank my window. We are as middle class as middle class can be. I absolutely love drama amongst those I feel like are better off than I am. I sit here and think things would be SO much easier if we just had more money. Then I read books like these. While I understand this is a work of fiction, almost all fiction is grounded in some form of reality. Rich people’s drama is highly entertaining. The Real Housewives franchise is proof. 
	I blew through this book. It is easy to read and formatted in a way that allows for an easy-to-follow flow. The characters are well thought-out and developed, despite the sheer number of players. There were so many different conflicts though, it seemed like the story wasn’t about any one thing, but many smaller things, which is why I gave this one four stars instead of five. At the end of the book, I had a hard time discerning which neighbor’s secret this book was actually focused on, but I liked it. It was a satisfying book for me.

Suz Corso

There was way too much going on in this book and I was extremely underwhelmed by the ending. There was about 200 pages of nothing and then some slight conflict and a boring resolution.

Tatyana

This book. I don't even know how to explain it. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. It had some good parts in it. I was sus of a few characters and I enjoyed the emails about book club in it lol.
I had issues following the characters and who was narrating the chapter. It just seemed like this one was a little all over the place for me.

Lennox Johnson 

So, I was disappointed with this one. Quite a bit. 

I finished it quickly, but it felt as if an eternity were passing as I trudged through. 

Multiple perspectives/ storylines is not typically a problem for me. The writing here, however, was not strong enough to make multiple character perspectives and interweaving storylines work. 

Not having many sympathetic characters usually isn't a problem for me either. I don’t need to like a character, on a personal level, in order to appreciate them. Practically all the characters in this book made me feel indifferent or annoyed, though. 

I honestly don’t even have much to say… 

There was one family in this book that I did find interesting and sympathetic. I feel this story would have worked so much better if it had focused all its attention on Jen, Paul, and Abe, and kept everyone else as supporting characters. I was much more interested, and invested, in them and in the unique parenting challenges Jen had to face than I was in the scandal that was held just out of reach for most of the book [which I’d totally lost interest in by the time all the details really started falling into place].

Ashley Carlisle

I thought the book would be more about the vandal but it’s more about the parents and children; their reactions to certain situations. It’s a good book but I wouldn’t define this as “thrilling”. It wasn’t my type of book. But that’s okay. Some books aren’t for everyone. ❤️

The Neighbor's Secret A Novel

Reviews