This book flowed so smoothly I didn’t realize time was passing. The story was interesting, even though it wasn’t exactly original. The main couple were both good people so it was easy to root for them. The story wrapped up nicely. Definitely a nice read for a quick thrill.

Thanks for NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the ARC.

I always say be careful what you wish for, because it will get answered, but not always how you envision it. And this book is the epitome of that. Danny and Juliette move to the country to put distance between them and their daughter’s death. When Juliette thinks she sees a girl next door, everyone thinks it is her grief. You just have to wonder, how well do you know your neighbors?

This book is filled with twists and turns and as soon as you think you’ve figured it out, you are surprised again. I listened to the audiobook and Emma Gregory was a terrific narrator.

I found myself getting attached to the characters both good and bad. There are a couple in here that were horrific and
give readers a chance hate them while having sympathy for another. . I enjoyed the narrator. This was a fun one
for me, I spent a lot of time thinking "how awful”.
This was a dark and twisted tale which entertained and angered me at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to receive this arc

I don’t really know where to start with this book. To me it felt horribly disjointed. I kept being told things, thinking I’d missed something, going back to check and realising no, no I haven’t. The dialogue was often clunky, and there was so much repetition of things we already knew. If I hadn’t needed to review it for NetGalley, this would not have been a book I would have finished. I usually love crime thrillers, but this completely missed the mark for me. The characters felt like cardboard cutouts, the plot often focused on unimportant things but didn’t give us scenes we really needed like when Richard suddenly appears talking about murder. There’s no indication he even owns a gun before that, much less that he has it in his hands. So him talking about murder suicide is just bizarre at that point - it makes no sense until a paragraph later where the gun is revealed. Not for me at all.

Thanks Bookouture and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to listen to TheLifeSheWants byMel Sherratt. The book drew me in almost immediately with the story of Juliette and Danny and the death of their six year old daughter. They moved to the country to try and start new memories without their daughter. They meet the neighbors Sarah and Richard and things start to become a little strange. Juliette believes that she sees a little girl in the neighbor’s yard; Richard claims that there is no child. Next, Juliette finds doors open in her home that she doesn’t remember opening. Juliette and Danny then find out they are going to have a new baby.

At this point of the story things totally change and the story goes to Richard and Sarah. It bounces back from past to future of young Sarah and her young sister Louisa. Sarah has a baby but then she starts acting totally strange. Richard is controlling and very mean. Sarah is being poisoned by Richard. Enter Louisa who comes to live with them and becomes Richard’s new lover. You don’t want to stop reading at this point because what the heck is happening.

The interaction between the characters is amazing. How does Richard get away with so much. He’s so manipulating !

This book will keep you on your toes the entire time.

Loved the narrator, Emma Gregory, how she gave the characters such depth, and was able to successfully tell the story which was over two timelines and from two characters perspectives. The Life She Wants is such a suspenseful and twisted story, and was addicting to listen to! The audiobook was shorter than most I've listened to, which was great because I was able to finish it quickly. Such a twisted story!! I would definitely recommend this audiobook to a friend who loves thrillers!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this audiobook!

EXCERPT: We stand together in the silence of the night, in the clearing in the woods. Our breathing is the only thing I can hear.

We are as one, but only because we've agreed to cover up what's happened.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. When is killing someone ever a satisfactory solution? This was just a momentary lapse of concentration. A burst of anger. A fist of infuriation. Hands squeezing something they shouldn't have.

But now the body is buried. We've hidden the crime. If anyone finds out, we'll make up lies and pretend it never happened. No one will ever know the truth.

Because I won't let them find out.

ABOUT 'THE LIFE SHE WANTS': From behind the curtains, Sarah spotted the man coming out of the house, followed by the woman. It would be strange seeing people in the property. She wondered how much it would change their lives. For now, she would bide her time and hopefully get to know them better. She needed to gain their trust.

When I met Richard, I fell for him instantly. He was able to give me everything I had always wanted, the dream house, security and above all, love like I’d never known. We lived a quiet life in the middle of nowhere; we didn’t need anyone else.

So, when the empty house next door is sold, I am wary. Will our neighbours invade the perfect life Richard has built for us? As soon as I meet Juliette and Danny, I am reassured. Overwhelmed by grief after the death of their young daughter, they have moved in search of a quiet life and a chance to start again. Over dinner one evening, we hit it off instantly and I know they are just the neighbours we need.

All is well until Juliette spots a young girl in our garden. Richard convinces her that she is seeing things, that it’s the grief taking over. But Juliette won’t let it go. She is sure she saw a child. She believes that Richard is threatening her. She starts to think that I’m not safe.

I need to convince Juliette that she’s imagining it. I need to keep Richard happy. If I am to protect everything I have built for myself, she must never find out the truth.

That my perfect life is built on the deadliest lie.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a book that you really need to concentrate on as you read because it is not always obvious just whose point of view you are reading. There is also a fair bit of jumping about in the timeline, also not always apparent. I think that had I listened to the entire audiobook instead of reading the first 80% and listening to the last 20%, it may have been a little clearer. But, in the end, it all makes sense. It's just a little frustrating getting to that point.

Although The Life She Wants packs a punch, I didn't find it a particularly enjoyable experience. There are characters that I absolutely hated; sly, nasty and manipulative. They left a nasty taste in my mouth. I really found it difficult to connect with any of the characters other than Juliette and her husband. And I found the child totally unbelievable, although very little is seen and absolutely nothing heard from her. So very wrong on all levels.

The book reminds me a little in format of the old western movies, where you have the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are really, really good, and the bad guys are really, really bad. There's a whole heap of tussling and wrangling and jostling for position going on, and the good guys appear to be coming off worst until the very end, when justice prevails, albeit usually with a few bodies strewn about along the way. But did justice prevail here? I'll let you make up your own mind.

⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheLifeSheWants #NetGalley

I: @mel_sherratt @bookouture

T: @writermels @Bookouture

#contemporaryfiction #domesticdrama #mystery #psychologicalthriller

THE AUTHOR: write police procedurals, psychological suspense and women's fiction with a punch - or grit-lit, as I call it.

I live in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with my husband and terrier, Dexter (named after the TV serial killer) and makes liberal use of my hometown as a backdrop for some of my books.

I also write women's fiction under the pen name of Marcie Steele.

DISCLOSURE:Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC and an audio ARC of The Life She Wants by Mel Sherratt and narrated by Emma Gregory, for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

As a psychological thriller, this book is pretty good. It's a dark and twisted tale which entertained me immensely and had me seething with anger at times. Although the story is pretty subtle, rather than being a full-on psychological thriller, it does show the effects of gas-lighting and the power an abuser can have over their victims.

The audio book is shorter than many audio books; and apart from a bit of confusion on my part about the character names and PoV switches (with some flashbacks mixed in too), the book is well written, which made it a joy to listen to.

I have not read books by this Author before, but I would certainly be interested in reading other books by her; and I have to thank NetGallery and Bookouture Audio for my copy of the book.

This was probably the best Mel Sherratt book I have read! The twists and turns kept me gripped from start to finish. I read it obsessively in just 2 days. I loved the clever storyline. The only slight criticism was that I found the narrator's voice when she was Louisa grated on me at first. However, the storyline was so gripping I quickly overcame this as the book progressed. A brilliant read, I loved it

This was a book that I couldn't get through fast enough, the characters were pretty well developed to the point that you immediately hated one in particular. The story of Louisa dealing with domestic and mental abuse was enraging to the point that I couldn't wait to see if the perpetrator got his due. I was totally invested in most of the storyline but some parts did get a bit OTT but overall, I was all in on this domestic thriller!

I really enjoyed the narration of this audiobook. I felt as though the character jumping was slightly on the more confusing side than I feel for most stories. On more than one occasion I had to go back and re-listen to parts because I was finding myself confused on who was telling which part. This particular storyline fell a little flat for me and I would put it on the shelf with all of the other run of the mill psychological thrillers.

***ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.co.uk in return for an honest review ***

Juliette and Danny have moved to the Midlands from London to help them recover from the tragic death of their daughter. Danny is still living in the city during the week due to work.

Juliette befriends their new neighbours, however all is not rosy at the house next door...

This audiobook was very hard going. The storyline jumped around leaving the reader/listener struggling to fit it all together. The narration was very stilted and the vocabulary used just didn't fit.

Very disappointing

I received my audio version of The Life She Wants and I have to say that although it was well written for me personally I felt it should have come with several trigger warnings. This book comes with the death of two young children, domestic violence, emotional and financial abuse and coercion. I just felt it was too much although I did continue to the surprising, and not totally believable conclusion.
Maybe I would have been better off reading the hard copy because even the narrator's voice for Richard made for difficult listening. (That's a compliment to the narrator)

#thelifeshewants by @mel_sherratt was my most recent read via @netgalley! Thanks @bookouture for providing this audiobook for review! Thanks to the author for providing the most dispicable male character Ive read all year (Dick). Richard is such a creep I literally wanted to kill him. When a sweet couple moves in next door, Richards connvining ways even extend to them, and likewise, his squeamish partner is pitiable enough at first UNTIL you learn about HER and mannnnnn is she a peice of work!! I honestly still didnt feel like the end twisted for me bc i knew from Dicks background what had occurred but i guess those naive neighbors wound up setting the scene for some comeuppance. I honestly was so intrigued by this i almost stayed up until the very end, but fearing id fall asleep and lose my spot, I stopped it and the ending didnt punch for me like it shouldve. Still I was left feeling conflicted at the end bc the victor in the scenario was also pretty dispicable. I think the break in the audio also did a number on the suspense so note to self: do not quit on a high drama spot! Has that ever happened to any of you??
If you like characters who go beyond morally grey into morally gross, who gaslight the shit out of one another, you'll enjoy this story that involves neighbors.
Note to self: ignore your new neighbors and #mindyourbusiness !!!!
#netgalley
#neighbors
#myneighborsgotasecret
#netgalley
#bookoutre
#audiobook

I absolutely loved listening to this audiobook, it really kept me on the edge of my (car 😉) seat and kept me guessing all the way.

I do think there might have been chapters missing from the audiobook as at least twice the story didn’t seem to follow on from the previous chapter, but although annoying it didn’t deter from the enjoyment of the story too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for letting me review this audiobook.

What a great listen/read. This book was such an easy book to listen to. The story was intreguing and had me wondering all the way through just how things were going to turn out. Some great twists really kept me guessing.
What appears to be a perfect life may not be the life you want.
Two couples leading very different lives become neighbours. As they get to know each other it becomes apparent that the grass isn't alway greener on the other side.



Suspicions start to grow when what seem like innocent things soon escalete


I absolutly love all books from this author and this one was again another great read. Any Sherratt fans out there will enjoy this.

Two couples living side by side couldn't be more different. One is in mourning over the loss of their daughter, but cautiously optimistic when they discover they have a new baby on the way. The other couple is secretive and strange, the husband an abusive control freak as the two keep a dark secret hidden from the world. Good, but not one of Sherratt's best., too little character development made some of the characters stock villains

This was a great quick read that had me hooked straight from the beginning.

The author incorporated so many twists and turns that had me guessing constantly. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a thriller that is easy to follow along with and can be demolished in one sitting!

The audio for this was perfect - My heart was racing at some points.

3.5 stars

After tragedy shakes up Juliette and Danny's lives, they decide to pack up and move out to the countryside in the hopes of making a fresh start. Their new neighbours, Richard and Sarah seem friendly enough at first, but when Juliette tries to speak to Sarah on her own, Richard is reluctant raising all the red flags that all isn't right in that house.

Following two timelines, we are told the backstory of Richard and Sarah's relationship and find out what has led them to being so secretive. With lots of twists and secrets to be uncovered, this is a pretty dark domestic thriller.

I listened to the audio of this book and while I enjoyed the story, unfortunately the narration did not do it any favours and became very distracting.

The Life She Wants by Mel Sherratt

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

From behind the curtains, Sarah spotted the man coming out of the house, followed by the woman. It would be strange seeing people in the property. She wondered how much it would change their lives. For now, she would bide her time and hopefully get to know them better. She needed to gain their trust.

When I met Richard, I fell for him instantly. He was able to give me everything I had always wanted, the dream house, security and above all, love like I’d never known. We lived a quiet life in the middle of nowhere; we didn’t need anyone else.

This is a dark and twisty story which is both entertaining and frustrating at times - everytime I thought I knew where the story was going, Mel would change direction. This story is told through the eyes of Sarah, Juliette and Louisa - complete with flashbacks to the past.

A very quick read with well developed characters.

Rating: 4/5