Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audible for allowing me the privilege of listening to this twisted tale by Lesley Sanderson. I liked the book very much, it kept my interest and added just the right amount of suspense. I liked the voice in the audiobook except when the children were speaking, I felt it just wasn't the right fit for small children. Also, at the end I got confused by who all of the people were. I love a good twist and enjoyed the way this book came to a satisfying conclusion. Thank you again.

I really enjoyed this, The Mistress Next Door takes you on Harriet's emotional journey from he daughter being abducted (and later found) to her suspicions her husband is cheating on her and the mistress lives close. The suspense and tension builds throughout the book and keeps you absorbed until the bi reveal, which you can't predict. Everyone is a suspect and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is a really good, absorbing thriller.

This domestic thriller/mystery book was a good read, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The story is about Harriet and her husband Oliver, who live together with their three daughters. At the beginning of the book, one of the daughters, Tess, goes missing while Harriet is at the playground with her and her other daughters. Harriet is devastated and she goes into shock while she starts the search for her.

It turns out that Oliver has a secret mistress, and Harriet sets out to find out who it could be. Harriet also has a secret that she is hiding, but what could it be?

This is an intriguing story, which is full of suspense, secrets, twists and drama, with a lot of characters to get to know.

The audiobook narrator was fantastic, and she gave a great performance, which helped the story to come alive and feel exciting and dramatic.

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I was so into this story up until I found out why Harriett is being threatened, honestly the title was what intrigued me to want to read/listen to this book but the story didn't even relate.

ARC audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the narration on this book! Eilidh Beaton does a fantastic job voicing all of their characters and her accent is delightful to listen to. The story centers around a woman with a hidden past that haunts her and a rocky marriage that she spends most of the book questioning. I enjoyed the twists at the end and the flashbacks to when Harriet was 16 and what she’s been running away from for all these years. I connected with the main character even though if I was in the same predicament I definitely would’ve reacted differently. Definitely recommend to anyone into psychological thrillers of the domestic nature.

2.5 Rounded down.

So far as slow-burn domestic suspense books, it wasn't the worst I’ve read.

There were a few unbelievable parts, especially Harriet putting on a fabulous spread for her book club after acknowledging that her husband’s mistress might well be there!

Points for hiding the actual ‘villains’ whilst still giving us just enough to want to find out the conclusion.

The narrator did a reasonably good job, but I found it hard to get a feel for the myriad of characters and felt a lot of the voices blurred into one and all of the female and male characters respectively blurred into one gender stereotype, not to mention the creepy voices of the children.

I think the audiobook helped, as I was on a few long commutes, unable to grab my phone and put something better on.

I get the feeling if I had read the book, it would most likely have gone to DNF about 60% of the way through.

This was an excellent book! The twist and turns were perfection! It had me guessing who it could be the entire time! Harriet was a superhuman & Oliver was a cad. Will definitely be reading anything & everything from Leslie Sanderson from here on out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this Arc! I enjoyed the narrator of this story, but the plot fell flat for me. I think the premise had promise but the twist didn’t work for me. It felt too far off from the plot and it didnt feel natural.

This is my first read by this author, but I’d probably read more in the future.

Great read. Loved the narrators smokey voice. Had me gripped to the end. Realistic and relatable characters. This would make a brilliant drama series on ITV!

This was a did not finish for me. I tried, but I couldn't understand how the prologue connected to the story and I was not a fan of the narrator. This might be a better physical read than an audiobook, but I am not sure.

This was my first time reading a Lesley Sanderson book and, like in so many stories, the ending was what made it for me!
We meet Harriet, a mother of three, married to Oliver. I didn't like Oliver a bit throughout the whole story and also had some difficulties connecting with Harriet and all the other characters at first.
But towards the end all came together and started to make sense!
I also enjoyed Eilidh Beaton reading the book exept maybe the children-parts, but this is just my opinion and others might not be bothered by this. ;)
Thank you #NetGalley #Bookouture Audio for this advanced audio copy

I received the audio for this book from Netgallery and Bookouture, thank you both for the opportunity of reviewing,

All statements in the review are my own opinion:

This is my first novel from the author. I was pulled to the book by the title and cover. Both had me curious of its content. The book started out with a wow, kidnapping a child in the first couple of chapters, YES! However, it seemed to lose steam after that. This in my opinion was not a thriller and I really can't tell you what genre I would place this book in. There was a lot of focus on the cheating husband and who in the neighborhood he was cheating with.... A big lead to the "secret" of the wife, only to be kinda of disappointing to say the least. There were a lot of characters, none with a lot of depth to them, to the point where I don't remember a lot of them.

This was a audio, which is a first for me, and the narrator did a great job. Every clear and emotions when needed, great job. And maybe because I am a reader, I didn't grasp the story as much and for that I will place that in my star review.

When Harriet notices her husband is up to his old tricks, she has to assume he's cheating again. To make matters worse, someone is leaving notes threatening her and her children. Things get infinitely worse when Harriet learns that her husband's mistress lives in the neighborhood.... but who is this woman? And why does she want to ruin her life?

I really enjoyed this one. It starts with action, draws you in and builds as you go. I liked that there were enough red herrings to keep you guessing but no so many that it seemed like the main character was just paranoid. I also really appreciated that this book was set in a close-knit posh suburb where everyone knows everyone but managed to avoid the overwhelmingly catty female narrative that almost always comes with that setting.

I would 100% read more from this author!

Harriet lives in the enviable community of Prospect Close with her husband Oliver, twin daughters and newborn baby. It doesn't take long before Harriet's seemingly perfect life starts to unravel: she starts to suspect that her husband is cheating and then receives a number of threatening notes. Harriet tries to work out whether the two things are linked and who knows about what happened in her past. Can she really trust her 'friends' in Prospect Close?

The Mistress Next Door was well written and I really empathised with Harriet. I could genuinely feel the fear she felt for her children and was totally invested in finding out the truth.

I listened to the audiobook of this story. I enjoyed the narrator and ended up finishing the whole book in less than a day.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

2.5 Stars

Harriet thought she had the perfect family. She had a loving husband and three beautiful daughters. But lately, her husband has been traveling and working more than usual. It seemed like he didn't want to be home. Was he cheating? With who? Things escalated when she started to receive taunting and threatening notes. Was it from the other woman? But why?

The premise was decent but had poor execution. The characters were dull and lacked development. I couldn't relate nor did I care for any of the characters. Not to mention, the protagonist led us on a wild goose chase. Harriet was jumping to conclusions left and right without concrete evidence. I found myself asking, what's the point of all of this? I agree with the other reviews, the big reveal was a letdown. I also found it unconvincing.

***I would like to thank NetGalley, Lesley Sanderson (the author), and Bookouture Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.**

Harriett lives in the upper class, tight knit community of Prospect Close. With 3 young children and starting her own business, life is already stressful enough, but she then becomes suspicious that her husband, Oliver is having an affair. This wouldn’t be the first time. Juggling her suspicions of her husband’s affair and trying to keep a secret from her past hidden becomes too much for her to handle as it is made obvious from ominous threats that someone knows her secret.

At the beginning, I was really hooked into this story. I loved the prologue from Anonymous. The beginning of the story with Harriett’s daughter going missing made this book start off on a high. But then…..meh. The one word I could use to describe this book overall is anti-climatic.

The plot? Great idea! The execution? It didn’t hit the mark. This is definitely more of a domestic drama than a thriller. The book focuses more on Oliver’s possible affair than Harriett’s “dark” secret. And, once both are revealed, it is extremely anti-climatic.

I did not feel a connection to these characters enough to get invested in their story. I wasn’t really cheering for anyone throughout my reading. I was mostly just screaming COMMUNICATE! If you would communicate with one another 99.9% of your issues would be resolved! However, I am not a passive person, so maybe that is on me.

This story had a great idea but it was very average for me. I don’t feel that this was a memorable story.

This was a fun and twisty slow burn domestic suspense. I really enjoyed the narration and I was interested in the plot for the entire book. The gross husband and his gaslighting was so frustrating! I think this book was a little longer than it needed to be, and I thought there could have been more investigation and discussion into the daughters initial disappearance.

I definitely didn’t see the end coming so that was a fun twist. I would recommend this book!

Harriet isn’t happily married, but she adores her three young children. Her husband is always busy working, or at least says he is, though she’s beginning to suspect that he might be having another affair. On top of this, one of her girls goes missing while they’re at the park, only to be recovered safe and sound but talking about the nice man who took her for a walk. And then, the first note arrives, claiming to know Harriet’s secret. Can Harriet keep her family safe, or is it already too late?

There was nothing I enjoyed about this work, so I’m just going to jump right in. The characters were bland, with none of them having real personalities or being evolved beyond stereotypes. The protagonist also had almost no depth or real development; her personality only consisted of paranoia. This was partially due to the fact that the dialogue was written in a stilted and repetitive way, which didn’t make the characters feel like real people.

There’s also minimal explanation for why the characters are doing what they are until the very end of the work, and even then, it’s explained in monologues that feel forced and absurd. Not incorporating their motivations/goals clearly into the story from the beginning added to their lack of depth and made it difficult to understand or care why things were happening. Related to this, there were many instances where there was no follow through from the characters – if these had been real people in real-life situations, they would have done much more.

The subplot and secondary timeline of this work revolved around revealing the protagonist’s “big secret” from 2006. For the first half of the work, almost nothing is revealed about it. The hints relating to it aren’t intriguing but are repetitive, which detracted from any tension that could have been there. Honestly, I think the secondary timeline didn’t add anything to this work aside from slowing down an already unbelievably slow plot and adding to the general disjointedness of it. As for this being a thriller – there were zero moments reading this where I felt anything other than apathy, and I think this was largely due to the poor characterization of everyone in this story.

This thriller wasn’t suspenseful or exciting, and there wasn’t even a real mystery aspect incorporated, so I don’t know how to classify this book. Unfortunately, I don’t recommend this read. My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received this book as an ARC and I couldn't be more pleased that I did.

A mother with a spotted babysitting past has made a comfortable life with her husband, twin girls and newborn in a highly sought after neighborhood where everyone knows everyone and all can see everything. Harriet, our main POV doesn't completely trust her husband, due to a checkered dating past of his own. When threats start showing up, blackmailing Harriet, I dare you to guess who is to blame.

The twists and turns in the story had me trying to figure out who did what and left me totally shocked when you finally find out the answers. Very well written and evokes the works of KL Slater as well. I can't wait to sink my teeth into more of Lesley Sanderson's work.

Oh, I really enjoyed this. Firstly, the narration worked really well, and then the plot kept me guessing right to the end. I did have a niggle on how some people could afford living in the houses/apartments.

Overall a brilliant listen and thoroughly enjoyable.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own