this book was very slow moving. I found myself skimming just to get to the end and see what the big twist was.

I loved this book. I liked the whole premise of neighbors getting together visiting. I was drawn into the mystery instantly and like so much how it was written. I never saw the twist coming.

Jessica Strawser begs the question, "How well do we really know our neighbors" after a seemingly innocent girls night in results in devastation. As the wine kept flowing, conversations turned from friendly neighborly banter to intense conversation. Did someone share something they shouldn't have? Did someone discover something that was meant to stay a secret?

As the ladies try to piece together their drunken memories of the evening, the police investigation into Kristin's disappearance turns up more questions than it does answers.

For Kristin's closest neighbor, Clara, the incident drudges up a past that she's thought she’d put behind her and becomes unable to separate herself from the scandal. As her own suspicions grow, Clara tries to keep the other women safe, but one woman is determined to form her own conclusions, even if it costs her her life.

I loved Strawsers writing style & was drawn in from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I didn't stay drawn in all the way through the book, as it really felt like it slowed down in the middle. The ending was fine, but felt overly predictable & not realistic. More like something out of a picture perfect movie. All in all, I liked the book, but felt the story was a little too predictable.

This was a twisty story about a mother and her twins who suddenly go missing after a neighborhood party. Everyone suspects foul play – and the husband – but is he really capable of hurting his own family? If you like your suspense on the not-super-scary side, this should be your cup of tea. I didn’t see the end coming at all!

This is a very well written book. I think Strawser really excels at writing and examining different types of relationships. Additionally, I feel she does a great job exploring women's issues: what it is like to be a mother, a stay-at-home mother versus a working mother, a single woman, women in love with other women, women's relationships to their families, different expectations placed on women at different points in their lives, etc. She writes so fluidly; it all has such a nice feel to it.

I was surprised to find that overall the Goodreads rating for this book is around a 3.50; although that still means it is a 'good' book, I would have assumed it would be higher, more like a 4. I think the main problem is the fact that this is classified as a Thriller and I would disagree with that designation. I would classify this as a Domestic Drama or even Women's Lit. It is my opinion, that her books would be better served if they were marketed in that way as if you go into this looking for 'Adult Thriller' you may be disappointed. Of course this is solely my opinion, I do not work in publishing, so really, what the hell do I know?

Overall, I had a really enjoyable time with this book. Strawser's writing always sucks me in and I will definitely pick up anything else she writes in the future. Thank you so much to the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. I always appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinions.

This books forces us to ask the question, how well do we know those around us. Full of twists I did not see coming, this smart read will keep you turning the pages and guessing until the very end.

3.5 stars
Solid, engaging read. I connected well with the main characters. I appreciated their growth as they struggled with the disappearance of their friend. The ultimate resolution is satisfying, although it takes a little too long to get things wrapped up. It's more of a slow burn book rather than packed with excitement.
Overall worth reading.

I've been spending October reading only horror/thriller books and realized I had this ARC from way back when still on my kindle. I decided it was time to give it ago and I'm so happy I did!

The story starts the night after a neighborhood bonfire when Kristin and her twins Aaron and Abby disappear without a trace. No one knows what happened. Did they leave of their own free will or did something more sinister involving Kristin's soon to be ex-husand Paul?

While the story follows a whole neightborhood and how Kristin's disappearance affects them all, the main points of view we follow are Izzy, a radio producer who is heartsick that her best friend (who she was secretly in love with) married her sister, & Clara, Kristin's next door neighbor and friend, who has the seemingly perfect marriage but a past involved with a violent crime that is told in bits and pieces.

I really enjoyed the characters in this novel, especially Izzy. Being the new neighbor and also trying to make new friends, it was so great to follow her throughout this book. I love that there was a sisterhood of women who all had each others backs, but also weren't afraid to lovingly call each other out on their bullshit. All the while, wondering what happened to Kristin & if she was ok. There were brief, one page interludes that seemed to be from Kristin's point of view thrown in as well, which kept the mystery very much alive.

While I did love the book, I felt like the ending left a little something lacking for me. I don't know exactly what it is. The bad guy was pretty obvious, but it also felt like a lot of time was spent trying to make you think otherwise. There was another big twist that I liked but didn't love. However, I am glad I picked up this book and will be adding it to my list of thrillers I recommend.

A little bit of Real Housewives with some mystery is how I would describe this book. I was picturing a little cul-de-sac of nosy neighbors that find out their neighbor is suddenly missing, along with her two children. She leaves behind a hot OB/GYN that everyone in town loves, but people find out that were divorcing.

I will say that I thought this was an okay book, but it could have been so much better. It was a bit too predictable, but it was still an overall enjoyable book.

I wanted to read this book because the description compared it to one of my all-time favorites, Big Little Lies. It was similar to Big Little Lies with the neighborhood of young moms and how their lives are intertwined. It also reminded me of Gone Girl with the writing style and the plot. I would love to see this book turned into a movie.

The characters were believable and engaging. The only character I did not love her backstory was Izzy, but it was easy to ignore and I could see how it was important to the story. Without giving a spoiler Izzy’s backstory needed my credibility. It seemed frivolous. One small change to Izzy’s “crisis” would have made it more believable.

Towards the ending of the book, there was one chapter where the dialogue became cliché. I thought it was going to be the ending and I would not have liked it as the very ending. You need to keep reading for an ending that does not disappoint.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an intense page-turner with some relatable humor. I plan to read Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser next.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Not That I Could Tell has been setting on my NetGalley shelf for quite some time, and after reading it today, I have no idea why I waited so long to dive into this one. I was already a fan of Jessica Strawser, but I truly loved this psychological suspense novel. On a Saturday night in peaceful Yellow Springs, Ohio, a group of women gathers in their neighbor’s backyard for a night of womanly bonding, laughing, and wine. A few days later, they realize that one of the women, Kristin, is gone. Thus begins a media frenzy paired with ample neighborhood gossip as everyone tries to understand what happened to Kristin and her young twins. Her soon-to-be ex, Paul is a respected OB/GYN but is quickly under the microscope of law enforcement and members of the community. Kristin’s closest friend Clara struggles because of notion there may have been domestic violence which brought back horrific memories from her past. Their newest neighbor, Izzy, is going through her own struggles and sympathizes with Paul’s situation. The only thing evident is that none of these women know each other as well as they thought.

I’ve seen mixed reviews about this novel but I absolutely devoured this one. Initially, the major action centers around Kristin and her children’s disappearance, however, this slowly becomes so much more. Told from Clara and Izzy’s points of view, the reader learns about each woman’s happy moments, fears, disappointments, and regrets. The other woman from that night are also included in the novel, but play a much smaller role than Izzy and Clara. Honestly, the only characters I actually liked in the novel were Rhoda and Randi. These women had a newborn baby, owned a funky boutique in town, and spent time at unusual gatherings in the woods with people adjusting their karma and drinking odd tea. They were hilarious, open-minded, in love, raising their baby, and just great. Izzy got on my last nerve pining over her sister’s husband. Natalie was basically irrelevant. As for Clara, I both loved and hated her throughout the novel, but agreed with her husband Benny (many times) that the woman needed to mind her own business. I gained a different respect for her as the story closed, but still, I just wasn’t a big fan of hers.

Without giving spoilers, I can’t say that I was shocked by the outcome as various passages in between chapters began to allude to what had happened. However, how everything was executed was a complete shocker to me, making me skim back over several portions of the novel to see if there were obvious clues that I had missed. I wish I could’ve liked and/or related to the characters more than I did, but I still found this to be a great novel.

*Thanks to NetGalley for in exchange for my honest review.

While I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, all opinions remain my own.

I thought this was an amazing suspense book. When the woman next door disappears right after a girls night of drinking and fun, no one knows quite what happens. Was it her possibly abusive husband, gone just a little too far or was it something else? This one kept me guessing right until the end. I thought for a while it might just leave me guessing and not end the story at all, but the author was kind and did give this book a conclusion, however vague and let me have some semblance of an ending in my life. There are still more questions then answers for me in the world of "Not That I Could Tell" but I still give it a solid 4.5 stars (rounded up to five). I found the characters interesting and the story line kept pulling me along, kept the pages turning, especially the last quarter of the book.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

Not That I Could Tell begins the morning after Clare hosted a party of six neighborhood women to christen her new firepit. Waking up tired, groggy, and with little memory of the night before, they are shocked to learn that on of them, Kristin, has disappeared along with her twins. Paul, her distraught and estranged husband suggests she fled for financial reasons, cleaning out the bank account. Clare wonders if there may have been foul play, but then she may be biased having first-hand experience of domestic violence. Natalie’s daughter Hallie is on the case. Meanwhile, Izzy, the single woman of the group is recovering from her own broken heart and thinking Paul may help fix it.



Not That I Could Tell is an interesting intersection of genres–not quite a thriller though we do wonder what happened to Kristin, not as much as the neighbors do, since there are short interstitial chapters from her point-of-view. It’s also not a romance, as Izzy makes very clear, though there is some romancing. It’s not quite a family/marriage drama though Clare and her wonderful husband Benny have some disagreements about what Benny perceives as Clare’s misplaced obsession. It’s a bit of everything and not a book you can pigeonhole, which is why there is the category “Contemporary Fiction.”

I like the people in the book, particularly Clare, Hallie, and Benny. The police are pretty nice, too, though not particularly effective. The resolution is satisfying, though not surprising. It’s not going to keep you up at night, but it kept my interest.

I received a copy of Not That I Could Tell from the publisher through NetGalley.

Not That I Could Tell at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
Jessica Strawser author site

How well do we really know anyone else? Our neighbors? Our co-workers and colleagues? Our friends? This book tears at the scab of our social stratosphere and rips it off. Great book. I really enjoyed it.

I really liked the characters and the setting of friends in a small neighborhood. There weren't big surprises throughout, which I think would have made the story more interesting, but it was an entertaining read.

Jessica Strawser’s latest novel Not That I Could Tell is a riveting mystery that will have you looking at your neighbors and wondering how well you really know them. The story is set in a quiet, little neighborhood in a small town in Ohio, one of those towns where everyone thinks they know everything about everyone. A group of women who live on the same street decide they need a girls’ night so neighbor Clara takes the lead and offers to host a bonfire at her house one Saturday night. The moms in the group test their baby monitors and realize with glee that their monitors will work from Clara’s yard, so the party is a go. It’s a relaxing, casual affair, just good friends, wine, and a little gossip. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary is said or done, but by Monday morning, one of the women, a mother named Kristin, along with her two young children, has gone missing.

None of the women who were at the party that night can make any sense out of Kristin’s disappearance. As far as any of them can remember, she didn’t say anything out of the ordinary at the party and didn’t mention anything about traveling. The police are investigating the disappearance but they just seem to be going in circles, turning up more questions than they are answers. And then there’s Kristin’s soon-to-be ex-husband, who has all but moved back into their house. He claims that he just wants to be there in case they come back, but things just don’t quite seem to add up.

Did Kristin take a trip and just forget to tell anyone? Did something happen to make Kristin pack up her children and flee? Or is something even more sinister afoot? Is Kristin’s ex somehow involved? Or are Kristin’s friends just reading way too much into things? Did they not know their friend as well as they thought they did?

There’s so much to like about Not That I Could Tell, but I think my favorite thing about it is that it’s a story about so much more than just Kristin’s disappearance. Yes, it’s about that and in that sense, it’s a completely engrossing mystery, but at the same time, it just has so many more layers to it than just a straight forward mystery.

It’s also a story about the women in Kristin’s neighborhood, particularly stay-at-home mom Clara and neighborhood newcomer Izzy. Kristin’s disappearance triggers painful memories for both of them and the story also follows how they deal with the emotional fallout. For Clara, it triggers memories of a tragic event involving a friend who was a victim of domestic violence. This leads her to immediately suspect Kristin’s ex of foul play because she can’t seem to separate what happened to her friend from what may or may not have happened to Kristin. For Izzy, who has moved to the neighborhood in an attempt to escape the heartbreak of an unrequited love, Kristin’s disappearance serves as a distraction but also as a reminder that you can’t always outrun your problems and sometimes you have to just face them head on. Unlike Clara, Izzy tries to be more open minded when it comes to Kristin’s ex since she knows what it’s like to love someone who no longer loves you back. Izzy even starts to befriend Kristin’s ex because she feels sorry for him, which really gets Clara fired up and leads to many tense moments between them as they continue to wait for news about Kristin from the police.

The author keeps all three of these women front and center by having the story unfold from each of their perspectives in alternating chapters. We got to watch bits and pieces of the investigation into Kristin’s disappearance come together, while simultaneously watching Izzy and Clara as they work through those emotional issues that Kristin’s disappearance has dredged up for them. Kristin’s chapters are actually the most powerful – they are concise and emotionally raw – slowly but surely painting a painful journey that takes us up to the moment of her disappearance. Kristin’s chapters were also the ones that most effectively built up suspense as they seem to indicate more and more along the way that her life was much more troubled than she ever let her friends know.

I also loved how the author really delved into the psyches of each of these women while, at the same time, advancing the storyline of such an intricate mystery. Her characterizations are so rich and so realistic – I found both Clara and Izzy to be so relatable. They could easily be any of my own neighbors and so I found myself very sympathetic to what they were going through.

It took me a few chapters to really get into the rhythm of this story, but once I got going, I was really hooked.

Not That I Could Tell is a gripping and suspenseful read that had me turning the pages well into the night because I so desperately wanted to know what had happened to Kristin. It’s a domestic drama written in the vein of books like Big Little Lies and TV shows like Desperate Housewives, so if you’re a fan of either of those, I’d definitely recommend this book to you.

In Not That I could Tell readers see the pulse of a neighborhood change when one of the neighbors and her young children suddenly vanish. Who, if anyone, is responsible? Does anyone know more than they are saying?
The tension builds slowly in this well crafted novel and readers will wonder if anyone will learn what truly happened. As for the conclusion-I never saw it coming. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Alas, another mis-classified book.

One night, a group of neighborhood gals get together in a backyard and drink too much wine. The next day, one of them is gone, with her two kids. Did her estranged husband kill them all, or did she take her babies and leave? That's the basic plot, but the story is really about the intrapersonal relationships of the women in this group.

I particularly liked Izzy's story--the girl whose best (guy) friend marries her baby sister. The catch? She's totally in love with him. But the rest of the ladies are well drawn and believable as well.

Unfortunately this is marketed as a thriller, but it's really more Emily Giffin with a slight edge. There are a few twists and turns, but thriller it is not.

Still, a fun and mostly engaging read.