Member Reviews
Well….this wasn't the best book I've read but on the other hand, I have read a lot worse. It was a quick read with nice short chapters, so it was easy to follow. This wasn't a psychological suspense book and I am not convinced it was a psychological thriller either. It read more like some kind of murder mystery with a large portion of family and neighbourhood drama. The characters and character development were the things that most annoyed me. In some stories, it works to have unlikeable characters but in this story, the readers should have some relatable or likeable interaction with Allyson. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all. She irritated the living hell out of me with her spineless and on the other hand completely irrational behaviour. The other characters were; what you see is what you get, so no big jaw-dropping moments there. Without giving spoilers (I hope)…I think Justin his part could have been so much more exciting than what was the actual reveal. I did like thinking throughout the story what he was doing, but the reveal just fell totally flat. The ending wasn't that great either, but at least it was neatly tied up. A nice read if you are looking for something quick with lots of drama and miscommunication (or better said a lack of communication)
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you, NetGalley, and Storm Publishing for this ARC.
It started off very slow but picked up about halfway through. I got a little lost with the dual POV and the names being so similar, I’d forget which sister is which. Overall not a bad read, I enjoyed it.
First of all, I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to read this book first. I liked the idea of the book but it took me a while to get into. It started getting more interesting about half way through.
I was actually hooked from the first page. I really enjoyed the short chapters and how intriguing this story was from the beginning. The author does an amazing job depicting each character. The dual pov from both sisters was something I really loved about it. Everything just flowed so seamlessly. Even though some of the storyline was a little predictable, none the less it was really good! At one point, I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong. There was one of the twists I didn't see coming. I’m excited to read something else by Sally Royer-Derr!
Thank you NetGalley! #TheSecretsNextDoor #NetGalley
Small town thriller following twins Tabitha and Talia. A strange new neighbour moves in next door and suspicions flare.
This book was a quick and easy read. If like me you prefer a thriller to a romance for your holiday chick lit type read then this would fulfil that need.
The pacing was ok, better at the end than the beginning. Some of the hints were slapped in your face rather than danced around and some aspects were completely unguessable until revealed.
Most of the characters other than Talia were difficult to like much which meant I wasn’t particularly invested in what happened to them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I was engrossed in this story about twins Tabitha and Talia. The story is told from the two perspectives. It kept me engaged throughout and the characters were very well conceived. I did find some of it rather far fetched whcih is the reason that I haven't awarded the book five stars.
⭐️ 3.5 STARS ROUNDED UP
I did enjoy this book but I found the first 60ish% really slow but the last 40% was excellent, I didn’t see any of the twists coming and was fully engrossed on those last few chapters.
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Thank you NetGalley and StormPublishing for the opportunity to review this book.
Pure evil! I was hooked from the very first chapter! Sally's writing style is very much like how I think or would speak. The story flowed smoothly and easily. Sally built each character meticulously. I really enjoyed reading this book and each crazy place it took me to.
Roller coaster ride is an understatement for this crazy ride you are going to take when you open this one up!
Little Beak NY, is where this story takes place. Tabitha and Talia are twin sisters not to mention they live next door to each other. The twins also have a business together called Little Beak Sweets. It is a quaint cupcake and cake bakery. Tabitha is married to her college sweetheart Grant and Talia is married to her childhood sweetheart Zach. Zach, Talia, and Tabitha grew up on the same street in the same town and knew each other very well. Or did they? They have a new neighbor and her name is Anne. Talia lives the closest to Anne and for whatever reason she starts to spy on her from her back yard. Eventually remembering that Talia has a key to the house Anne is renting Tabitha suggests that they go inside and have a look around.
Things are looking as if Anne has things she is hiding.
Things get real when Tabitha's husband has an unfortunate accident. They all truly try to figure out who could have wanted Grant dead. It goes on from here just like this and you will continue to keep guessing!
Highly recommended everyone read this adventurous book!
This was an ok read. I was able to solve a few of the twists along the way, but it didn’t really keep my interest and I definitely found myself skimming to get through it. I thought it had some decent elements and I did enjoy the characters, but in the end, it just seemed too out there for me-all the twists tired up in a little bow in the last couple chapters.
I really enjoyed The Secrets Next Door. It was written very well and kept me engaged. Although some of the storyline was predictable, I still enjoyed it. Thank you NetGally and Storm Publishing for this arc!
This was told from two POVs (twins Talia and Tabitha- which took me a bit to differentiate the two lol). This was a quick read with short chapters. I found myself skimming quite a bit- when the author was describing things in so much depth it was just too much for my brain. I found the story entertaining and easy to follow. The story had a few twists and I did enjoy how it all came together.
This book was great! It was a page turner for me. It was full of surprises and twists from the beginning until the end. It keeps you guessing until the end. I didn’t won’t to stop reading it because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. It was the first book I had read by Sally Royer-Derr and I plan to read some of her other books in the future because I really liked her writing style and how she made you keep guessing throughout the book. I loved this book a lot! Thank you to Netgalley, and Storm Publishing for giving me the opportunity to receive a ARC of The Secrets Next Door to read and review.
I enjoyed this book! I feel like it flowed, and even though I have read books similar to it before, the similarities weren’t so much so that I didn’t want to continue reading. The surprises kept coming and at one point I did think I had it “all figured out” and was wrong. Throughout I felt like I was not really sure what was going on with any of the characters so it allows for the suspense to build.
Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing and the author for my DRC.
Wow!! What can I say about this book! I am speechless. It’s been a long time since I’ve been hooked on a book like I have this one.
I found that throughout the book I had one person in mind who was doing all the bad things (trying to keep it spoiler free). But then you are thrown for a loop at the end. I could not put this book down!
I genuinely think this would make a great movie!! I will definitely be purchasing this book when it’s released!
This was a fairly enjoyable read. The premise was interesting and I liked the writing style.
However, it was a little slow paced and repetitive at times and I'm not quite sure it falls into a psychological thriller category.
I didn't really like any of the characters which makes it difficult to feel really invested in a book. They didn't feel well developed. For example, Zach had no layers; he was either irrationally angry man or he was perfect husband, they were the only settings he seemed to have.
I figured out most of the plot quite early on... except for who Anne was and why she was there. I'm not sure it would have been possible to work that out but I enjoyed trying to guess how she fitted in.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Sally Royer-Derr for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
A story told from 2 perspectives, twins Talia and Tabitha live next door to each other in a small town. Talia is married to Zach, their childhood friend, and Tabitha is married to Grant and has a young son. Although they seem close there are tensions under the surface. And these are not made any easier when a new neighbour, Anne, moves next door to Talia.
This was a quick and easy read, I raced through the pages. I wouldn't necessarily class it as a psychological thriller more of a family drama but I did enjoy it nonetheless.
I liked this story right from the beginning. The dynamics between twin sisters, Talia and Tabitha, who happen to live right next door to each other, was interesting enough but add in a newbie to the neighborhood that seems to prefer one twin over the other and the tension becomes too much for all of them. While the storyline does end up being borderline ridiculous, the entertainment value never diminishes. I thank Netgalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Big thanks to NetGalley for hooking me up with this ARC for my honest take.
Had a blast with this thriller, full of surprises! The plot and characters are great, and that twist caught me off guard.
The secrets next door is about twin sisters who live the white picket fence life in a smaller town. It is mainly in Talia’s point of view, one of the twins, but does sometimes switch over to Tabitha, the other twin. They both have issues with one another but nothing comes forward until the house next door to Talia becomes rented by a mysterious author. I am going to be honest, this came up short for me and I don’t have a lot to say. I really liked it in the beginning, but it became a little slow and nothing really made sense until the last 40 pages where everything was then sprung onto the reader. For me, it was not a satisfying ending and it felt somewhat rushed. I don’t normally try to predict the ending but parts of it felt a little cliche. Also the whole book was just the twins not really getting along and marriage problems, it became repetitive real quick. I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc! This review is already published on my blog and goodreads, which is linked in my blog!
Twins, Talia and Tabitha, are living and idylic life with their families ;in Little Beak NY, when a mysterious author, writing her next trilogy moves in next door to Talia. After welcoming her to the neighbour hood with fresh cupcakes from the bakery they co-own, they leace with differing opinions on the woman. While Talia finds herself thinking of a new friendship with Anne Graverley, Tabitha finds her suspiscious. Over the next couple of months, Talia has an easy budding friendship with Anne, and Tabitha is jealous. Anne does have secrets of her own. And they should be suspicious of her.
I enjoyed this book. I saw some of the twists but not the final one! I found the pace fast enough to keep my attention and keep me guessing. I would definely read more from this author.
Thank you to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and the author for the ARC, for my honest review. All opinions are my own.