ZERO SPOILERS!!!! ZERO SPOILERS!!!! LESS THAN ZERO!!! SAFE TO READ!!!!It's 3am....I just finish reading this -'sleep-killer'-story....My final HONEST REACTION?.......**HYSTERICAL**!!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I could roll on the floor laughing right now....SOOOOOO FUNNY .....GREAT WILD RIDE!!!!!!Really...I'm not sure if I'm laughing at myself - or the story - or both! A few random thoughts - as you know I'm not going to give anything away: ......This is a question for my women friends: When you are str...

One star is for me because I finished it. One more star because the author came up with some good character names. Cora Conti, Cynthia Stillwell, Detective Rasbach I'm looking at you.Well, that's about all the nice nice I can make.I can't get past the clunky, amateurish writing! If I heard "Marco said" "Anne replied" "Cynthia stated" ONE MORE TIME....oh my gosh. If you, as an author, are going to write a book that is almost entirely dialogue, wouldn't you make sure you were a damn fine dialogue

My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...I still haven't listened to very many audiobooks. While I prefer to read on my e-reader or read a book, I really do like having the option to listen to an audiobook now and then. It's a nice change and I can close my eyes (as long as I'm not driving). But I don't close my eyes often as usually it doesn't matter how exciting the audiobook is, I could very well fall asleep.However, I didn't have that problem with this one. I w...

It was kinda cheesy, but that’s okay! It was very entertaining. I was hooked the whole way through.I kinda figured out where it was going early on, but that’s okay! Instead of feeling predictable, it made me feel like a super detective!The characters were kinda unlikable, but that’s okay! They were developed in such a way that you love to hate them while you are snickering and shaking your head.The story is kinda far-fetched, but that’s okay! I could very easily suspend my disbelief for this one...

3.5 starsThe first 75% of the book was terrific--lots of twists and turns, well-paced, interesting character development and relationships, I was eager to return to my audiobook every time I was away from it. I also loved that contrary to most thrillers that save the big reveal for the end, in this book, you find out who kidnapped the baby halfway through the book--so you get to watch everyone scramble and unravel from there on out. I liked it so much that I was mentally composing my 4-star revi...

*Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishing, and also to Shari Lapena for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review*Goodness me, this book was so full of twists and turns, I don't know whether I'm on my head or my heels right now!Imagine the horror of discovering your 6 month old baby has been abducted from her crib in the early hours of the morning. Imagine also the myriad of emotions you'd experience. Well, that would be bad enough, but what multiplies that horror

3.5 starsA swanky rich couple have a six month old baby. The babysitter cancels at the last minute, buuuutt the husband really wants to go to that dinner party next door with the hottie neighbor. He convinces the wife Anne that it will be just fine to leave the baby by herself and check on her every thirty minutes. They return home to find the baby is now missing. Then all the secrets...gotta have secrets. Mom is struggling with post-partum depression. Could she have done something to the...

Cynthia and Graham invite next door neighbours Anne and Marco to a small dinner party but tell them not to bring their small baby. Cynthia and Graham, themselves childless, are not child-friendly. The pre-arranged babysitter cancels at last minute so Anne and Marco decide, reluctantly. to go anyway, leaving baby Cora alone, taking a baby monitor and agreeing to take turns checking on her every half hour. So far so good.....until....Anne and Graham return home at one in the morning and to their h...

"They held onto each other, weeping. Two shattered people, one of them a liar." I was really enjoying this book! Lots of twists and turns and untrustworthy characters, right up until the last 20 pages, which blew it for me.Anne and Marco have a beautiful baby girl named Cora. One evening their babysitter cancels when they are due to go to their next door neighbours' for a dinner party. Marco says it'll be fine, they'll take the baby monitor and check on her every half an hour. What could go wro

Wow . . . what was that ending?! OK, let me back up.There's no denying that this is a compulsive page-turner. At the heart of the story is a frenzied pulse running rampant and it’s addicting. Ending chapters with shocking revelations, casting doubt and making me waver on my belief of who was behind it all, time and time again, was pure magic. I read this book over the course of one day, simply because I couldn’t bear to put it down. I had to know who took baby Cora and WHY.With that being said,

3.5 Stars. This book turned out just meh for me. I was completely sucked in from the start and then at about the 65 % mark the characters started annoying me and I wasn't thrilled with the ending. Some other people might like this more than I did. I read a lot of psychological thrillers so now very few are 5 Star reads for me.A special shout out to Kirsten Potter the narrator. She was awesome!!! This is very easy to follow on audio.

First of all, I'm a skeptic by nature. By going into a thriller, I go in grudgingly knowing I'm going to be critical. Suspending belief shouldn't be required for a story done well. As I'm reading, this is the constant chatter going on in my head recalling Elaine in a Seinfeld episode - "maybe the dingo ate your baby." I'm thinking anything is possible at this point - including the dang Dingo!This is warped. Let me preface it. A baby is missing. Stolen from her crib while her parents sat at a din...

The entire plot relied on the male protagonist being the stupidest human being to have ever existed on the planet. I just couldn't believe his poor logical reasoning at all. The rest of the characters are also one-note: the mother is hysterical the entire time and doesn't use her brain once, their neighbor's only characteristic is being skanky, and the detectives are super unprofessional and aggressive. The writing often relied on telling instead of showing by blatantly telling you a character's...

THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR is an outstanding debut psychological thriller novel from author Shari Lapena, and one of the best reads I have read this year! This novel, a child-abduction case, races along at an amazing speed, full of twists and turns, totally gripping the reader for the suspense ride from beginning to end. I kept flipping the pages as I had to know what had happened. I loved it! “They left their six-month-old baby (Cora) home alone and went to a party next door.” But with the monitor o...

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena is a 2016 Pamela Dorman Books publication. A hypnotic and atmospheric thriller.This story starts off with a familiar- ripped from the headlines- setup where a couple, Ann and Marco, decide to leave their young daughter home alone while they attend a dinner party next door. They bring the baby monitor and check on the baby every half hour. However, when they return home from the party they discover the child has been kidnapped. After reading the first chapter...

STRUGGLES!First off, I listened to the audiobook for this and the narrator was just NOT my cup of tea.Even taking this into consideration, however, I'm not sure how much more I would have enjoyed it, if at all, if I had read the hard copy. I really do not feel like there would have been much difference. In fact, I may even have DNFed a hard copy, so I could give the narrator slight credit for at least helping me finish it.I went into this completely blind. I had heard a little buzz about it, mai...

Wow! This is one of my favourite reads of 2016 and is long-listed for my Top Ten Books of 2016. This totally took my breath away and from start to finish I was totally lost in this book and the desire to know the truth. I HAD to know the truth. I guessed the ending so many times, should not have bothered, it was brilliant and had so many twists I was feeling motion sickness!Honestly, check out the blurb:You never know what's happening on the other side of the wall.Your neighbour told you that sh...

It all started with a “what were you thinking?” moment! Then rapidly morphs into a parent’s worst nightmare. Anne and Marco have a dinner party to attend next door when the babysitter cancels at the last moment. Of course, being responsible parents, they have no choice but to cancel dinner. Right? Well...no! They make the unbelievably foolish decision to still attend. Their genius solution? Simply leave their 6 month baby home alone and just take the baby monitor! What!!?😳As you may have guessed...

HA! What a wild and "crazy" ride!Sometimes when I read a crime-thriller, I become bored with the pace or exasperated with the clues and detective types, but not so this time. Each character had their own complex personality, and/or presence here, and there is never a dull moment.Without giving anything away, I'll just say, be prepared for a shocking crime and horrendous secrets revealed, some of which, you will find terribly disturbing!I entered this mystery not knowing anything about the plot s...

2.75I never read drama like this before Was almost to be worst book of 2017