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Release date: March 24, 2017

Publisher: Raucous Publishing 

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Blurb: 

A new neighbour becomes a new friend. She looks up to you. She admires you, but is it you she wants? You begin to wonder if she wants your husband, or even your child. But then you realise, she wants your life. 

When Sharni and Tom move into 24 The Pines, it seems like Clare and Chris have the perfect neighbours. Sharni is always there to help, especially with childcare for Clare’s two-year-old, Ben. But Clare can’t shake off the feelings of anxiety that assail her whenever Sharni is near. Is Clare just being overprotective, or are her feelings justified? As Sharni‘s influence touches everyone around her, Clare finds herself fighting for her sanity as well her family. 

Review: 

Oohh what an addictive read! Once I started I didn’t put this one down, and despite one minor complaint, I loved every second of this read. Clare and Sharni were both woman who clearly had very dark, troubled pasts and trying to figure out which one of them was actually reliable was so fun. Clare is so fragile and already unstable, so when Sharni moves in next door, something about her immediately sets her on edge. Already a highly anxious person, Clare delves into full blown paranoia and I love nothing more than a erratic, edgy narrator. 

Things are told from Clare’s point of view until the halfway point when it flips to Sharni’s perspective and while I liked seeing things from her side, it was pretty repetitive. It basically, albeit more quickly, retold chunks of what you’ve already read from her eyes. I think it was definitely necessary to hear from her, I just wish it would’ve been done differently. It disrupted an otherwise fantastic flow to the story, BUT once the timelines merged it was very intense until the end. 

There were also brief sections from a therapy session between one of the woman and a doctor and I really liked trying to figure out which woman it was. This wasn’t predictable in the slightest and has plenty of killer twists and turns that surprised me. This book is pure entertainment of the best kind as long as you don’t think too hard about plausibility and the like. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.