The Family Across the Street: A totally unputdownable psychological thriller with a shocking twist Paperback – August 4, 2021

One of the things I love when cracking open a new novel (literally, i have to hold it in my hand, smell and touch the pages) and see the words leaping out at me that way. It’s how quickly you find yourself getting absorbed into the story. Even though I read through several reviews that had stated this, I am always one to say just because someone else loved a story doesn’t mean I will also. It also doesn’t mean I will be absorbed into the story right from the start.I can with most certainty guarantee you that you will keep turning the pages to see what is happening next. I walk around with my iPad constantly, to the point I bring it to the dinner table. I guess it’s a bit like other people and their phones. But since I received this paperback, I haven’t honestly been able to put it down except to go to the restroom. If I wasn’t so grossed out about germs and such I would probably have brought it in there. It’s that good. Being on a lot of meds I have to nap plus being ill. But if I were able to stay awake as I did years ago when younger this would have been one of those paperback I would have read in one sitting. The story is fast paced. Takes twist and turns you find unexpected. Has a point in there that I absolutely did not see coming and such charming characters and characters I found such hatred for that I felt like I was equating them to people I know in my life. That to me is reflective of a truly gifted author who can not only describe her character but have them seem like they have become part of your life.While I live in the USA and this took place in Australia which for me is on the opposite side of the world and I haven’t much knowledge of, I found not only some of the written language a bit funny such as BLOKE where as we would say BRO or FLAT for APARTMENT, MUM for MOM, and missing some words from sentences such as the word THE. They say going to University. Or getting out of Hospital. So reading this way was just a bit of a different experience for me. I enjoyed it and am glad for the experience. I feel that even if you are unable to afford the book try to make every effort to either see if you can get it used or borrow from the Library. You will enjoy it and it’s one of those novels that will stay with you not only because of the subject matter and this being May which is Metal Health Month but because the story itself is very well written.

This is a great story, recommended to me by my mom. A lot of action and suspense. I was really glad there was a very detailed wrap up of everything that happened to the characters in the end. Why did I only give it 4 stars then? Unfortunately there are like 20 pages of promotional stuff at the end, before you get to the link to leave a review. I would probably have read more books by this author if there was just an email sign up link and a list of other books by her….but the endless teasers for every single book that you are forced to page through (in the ebook version ) just to get to the review link is a frustrating shameless promotion that caused me to downgrade my review with each turn of page after page after page once the story is completed over.

Great summer read. Love this author. Characters are so real. What inspired you to write this story? Its fascinating and I loved it.

The description on the back cover is not at all accurate; not even close. It is a completely different book than what is described on the back cover. I am not sure if that was intentional as a way to hook readers or if it was just lazy. But either way, I felt duped by the back cover.The book takes place in just a day. It starts out pretty good. In the prologue, one of the neighbors is introduced and then never heard from again. I found that really weird. I thought for sure she would be connected somehow but that never happened. I am not sure why she was even introduced to begin with.The book is told from the perspective of a multiple characters and dives a little into their lives. I thought some of the deep dive into their back stories were a little boring and unnecessary.The book started to drag towards the end because it took forever to get to the end. The twist was actually pretty good. I did not see it coming. There were small clues throughout the book that the person keeping one of the characters hostage was not who you thought it was. However, the reveal of the twist was poorly written in my opinion. I had to re-read it a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly. It seemed kind of sloppy in the reveal. And the last 20 or so pages were so boring, I just skimmed right through them to the end.Overall, this book will be a quick read. The twist is decent but it drags in several places and the flipping around to different characters get tedious after a while. The storytelling was a little sloppy in places. But whoever wrote the back cover description should be fired because the book was not the way it was described AT ALL. I think it actually would have been a better book if it was anything like the description.

Logan is very lucky to have met Debbie. He was a very caring person. Gladys is a great neighbor to have. All brave people. Loved the children too. Fast read that I totally enjoyed. Twister on the hostage taker.