This book was amazing. I've never read a book anything like this one before. It had all the makings of a great story and would make a fantastic movie. Our main character, Fiona, comes home to her house one day only to find another couple moving in. She doesn't remember selling this house so she is really confused. She tries to call her estranged husband Bram, who still lives with her and her children however to her horror his number has been disconnected and he is nowhere to be found. This book was really good you really got the terror, confusion
and hurt that Fiona felt towards her husband both in the past and in the present where he is currently missing. There were so many twists and turns in this book right when you thought you knew everything the author throws another wrench in things. It was really fascinating to read and I'm glad I got the chance. This book was great and if you like thrillers then this is one that you shouldn't miss, the story line is very compelling and creative and the characters both good and bad ones were amazing. I couldn't get enough.

Our House is the best thriller I’ve read this year. It’s a slow burner, and becomes more and more enticing as the story of how a woman’s family home is sold without her knowledge unravels. The plot is chilling and scarily realistic. This book is an entertaining and fascinating read showing the secrets that family can keep from each other. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a page-turner. 4.5/5 stars

Imagine returning home after a couple of days away to find another couple has bought it, moved in, and all trace of you is gone. Then realize even the proceeds of the sale are gone. You are homeless and broke. That's what happens to the lead character of this book. The story then backtracks to explain what led up to it.
The story is a bit difficult to imagine some parts happening, but overall I really enjoyed it. Lots of twists and plenty I hadn't foreseen. Well done!
I received this book through netgalley in exchange for feedback.

Oh my gosh - I feel like I have just gotten off of a roller coaster reading this book - so many twists and turns and mystery and suspense. I found this book to have an original plot and to be quite a page turner. I am thankful to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with a copy for my honest review. I have already gone and bought this book in hardback to keep with my collection of favorite books.

The plot of this story was very captivating. Through all the twists and turns, it was easy to stay interested and believe in what was happening. Loved this book!

3.75

This book started out with a bang! Grabbed me right away. I only wish it could have held this intensity throughout. Midway I found it becoming repetitive and I just wanted the story to move on.

Bram and Fiona are estranged, though they continue to share their home for the sake of their children. Only they don’t actually coexist in the home. With a completely different take on parenting, they take turns staying in the home with the kids. Strange... but ok!?🤷🏻‍♀️

Only when Fi comes home early one day she finds another couple moving their belongings into her home. All her furniture and personal possessions are gone! And when she tries to call Bram, his phone is no longer in service! Is this a bad joke? How could another couple be staking claim to her home?

One bad decision (after another) and the desperation that follows.

The premise hooked me. The first third had me glued to the pages as the story unfolded from both Bram and Fi’s POV, delivered in the most unique formats. After somewhat of a stall midway you’re dragged back to an ending that...Blahhh!! Definitely rounding up for that ending!!

Thank you to NetGalley Berkley Publishing Group and Louise Candlish for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Fiona Lawson arrives in South London to find moving trucks and strangers moving into her house. She immediately tries to contact her estranged husband, Bram, but his phone has been disconnected. Perplexed after her short vacation, Fiona is forced to investigate these strange events. She quickly discovers that Bram is missing and her name was forged to facilitate the sale of her home.

Fi decided to end her marriage after repeated indiscretions by her husband. Their split was amicable and they decided to co-parent their two boys while maintaining their house. Given their past, Fiona lacks a clear motive for Bram’s actions. She decides to dig deeper into his past to unlock clues about his disappearance.

This was a twisty novel by Louise Candlish which is presented with alternating points of view from each spouse. This leads the reader along a mysterious path which unveils some shocking truths. Our House kept me engaged well past my bedtime!

(3.5 stars)
Our House was uniquely brilliant in the sense that you just did not know what was going to happen next or why the main male character, Bram, did what he did. It was eerie, breathtaking, and such a good read; I couldn't put this book down.


"They didn't tell us that the worst disasters would be those of our own making."

The overall premise of the book caught my attention and intrigued me like no other. I couldn't imagine coming home to a house that is no longer mine or trying to understand why my own husband would sell it out from under me. It was a mystery in and of itself, but Candlilsh gives us so much suspense with the way she sets the overall book up to be read. It was brilliant and kept me wanting to know more at every single turn.

The characters were interesting enough. Fi was your typical wife in my opinion. She loved her family, took care of her house, went to work, and tried to be a decent human being. I think a lot of women can relate to her in the sense of being married awhile and having a husband, kids, and house to maintain. In some ways I thought she was morbidly obsessed with her house and the community that she lived in, but some would probably call it pride. Bram was a man who loved his family, but sometimes loved himself more. He drank a little too much for my liking, but I feel like Candlish showed a realistic family in most ways.

Like I said, the plot kept me coming back, but in some ways there was just too much detail. Maybe Candlish added all the little things to help us better understand and relate to the characters, but for me it made the overall story drag in some areas. I felt as if the pace slowed and sped up all in the same chapter and it was a dizzying feeling. This doesn't take away from the main issues of the book and plot though. I still felt this was a solid story with an okay climax, and twisty ending.

Overall, I'm glad that I picked this book up. This year my goal was to read more suspense/thriller type novels and this fit right in. I was pleasantly surprised with this one, and loved it despite the drag in some areas.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This book sounded really interesting to me, the idea of what can happen when you don’t really know who your husband is, plus I’ve seem this book featured many times lately as a must read for the summer. I did end up enjoying it but the whole thing just felt overwhelmingly sad. For Fiona to have put so much time and effort into her house, her family’s home, and then to have it torn out from under her so suddenly, must have been unimaginably heart breaking. And the whole “end” of Bram’s story and the tone of his diary entries, you could tell how desperate he was and how hopeless he felt. The author did a really great job (I thought) of projecting the emotions of the characters in the book. And I think many other thriller fans would really enjoy the novel, I just hate feeling so hopelessly sad. There were some pretty good plot twists to the story, and I really liked the uniqueness of the plot line. While it wasn’t quite for me, it was still a really good book and I would recommend it!

Unfortunately, I was NOT a fan of this book. It was WAY too long and needs to be edited down, the asides were annoying and distracting, and Candlish has obviously never heard of Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory,” because, for this being a thriller, she certainly didn’t trust her reader to come to any conclusions on their own, which really took all of the bite and fun out of reading this book for me.

3 ½ Stars

Fi and her soon to be ex-husband Bram share custody of the boys and maintain the family home in an arrangement called the “Birds Nest” so as to not disrupt the boys lives. It seems like an ideal arrangement but for one day when Fi arrives she sees strangers move into her house except the house was never on the market.Frantically she tries to contact Bram but realizes he is missing after selling their house for almost 2 million dollars. Soon Fi starts finding out how little she knew her husband and everything begins to fall apart.

Our House is a domestic thriller narrated in a unique way. Fi tells her story through a crime podcast and Brams tells his via a Word document. The book starts with a bang and is a little slow in the middle but picks up again in the end. An interesting and a different premise makes this book an entertaining read  

I would like to thank Berkley Publishing Group  & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

Very interesting read with deception and shame and twists and turns at every corner and in very unexpected places.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

3.5 Stars

What happens when you return home only to find your home being occupied by another family? This is the premise of Our House, and it was very different from anything I’ve read recently. Told in alternating narratives and timelines. Fi and Bram are the narrators revealing their sides of the story.

While I enjoyed the storyline and premise of this book; I could barely tolerate Fi and her absolute cluelessness. With that being said, she did redeem herself a bit, in my mind, in the end.

One quote that really stood out for me and perfectly described my feelings for Fi was a tweet from a listener of the Victim…”@LuluReading I’m sorry, but this #VictimFi *is* a bit of a f*ckwit.”

I would recommend this for fans of domestic suspense.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

“Our House” was a very interesting read for me. The first few pages really drew me in, but then it got boring, and then it picked back up and took me on a crazy ride! Fi comes home from a trip to find strangers have moved into her home, and her soon to be ex husband is nowhere to be found. I felt there was a lot going on, but the author did a superb job of writing these characters. I felt like I knew Fi (even though at times I wanted to slap her for her naïveté) and I was even able to sympathize with Braham (even though he’s a horrible person!) I was quite shocked by the ending as well! Overall, this was a quick read, and worth it for anyone looking for a novel that is not like what’s out there now.

I would like to first thank NetGalley and Berkley for my complimentary copy to review.

This was an interesting read! OUR HOUSE pulls you in from the first few pages. When I initially encountered this book on Instagram I instantly loved the cover. I originally thought it would be an “Amityville Horror” type of house (in a modern form) but the story did not go that route.

From the very beginning, the reader is introduced to Fi who finds herself on the front porch of her home after a weekend away to discover someone moving in. That is terrifying in itself, but the story gets creepier the more you read. She's confused and is instantly thrown into a tailspin after coming to the realization that this isn't a nightmare. Infidelity and lies pop up throughout the entire ordeal which made this book an easy page-turner.

I enjoyed the opening and middle of the story the most. Candlish is a master storyteller. She kept me engaged and made sure to keep the pace moving. The events kept me guessing and I was instantly intrigued as to how Fi ended up in this situation. Her husband, Bram, was a piece of work. I did not like his character. His part of the story was written in a confession-type letter and it was easy to figure out what ran through his mind during this whole event. He wasn't man enough to even face up to any of his shortcomings which made him more of a coward to me. Over the course of the book, you eventually find out the truth from both perspectives and are even given commentary from a Twitter-like feed after each of Fi's chapters.

I felt compassion for Fi during the whole book until I got to the finale. The ending wasn't as thrilling as the other parts of the book. I would love to read a part two just to bind up a few loose ends, but I guess that is what Candlish was going for.

If you are looking for a mystery that teeter-totters on a thriller then this book is for you. A detailed plot with a good twist will help you make your way through this 4/5 star read.

This is a thriller and suspense book like no other! I love the style of the book, being written in a podcast note and a journal entry. It will have readers looking at both husband and wife, wondering what happened and when the last shoe will fall. I kept myself up with questions that I finally answered with the end. Next time I will stay up reading the book instead of savoring each chapter. This is one book you will not put down!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for a free, electronic copy of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
After catching her husband having an affair, Fiona Lawson agrees to a “birds’ nest” arrangement, Fiona and her husband Bram will live in the same home with their children, but will alternate days, in order to keep some semblance of normalcy in the lives of their children. When Fiona returns home early from a business trip, she comes across two strangers living in her home. They claim they purchased the house legally and in fact, all of the Lawson’s belongings appeared to have been moved out. After many frantic attempts, Fiona is unable to reach Bram, and his phone is “not in service”. Fiona flies into a panic and quickly realizes that Bram has been keeping secrets from her—secrets that not only jeopardize her family’s home, but also her safety.
“Our House” was the first time I had heard of the author, Louise Candlish. I am actually ashamed of this admittance, as Candlish writes the types of novels that I normally would be first in line to read. I will now be making myself as familiar with her previous works as I can!
This novel is full of psychological twists and turns, and runs the reader through the whole gamut of emotions. Complete and utter disgust for the despicable and deplorable Bram, sympathy and a little bit of victim-blaming for Fi, and then of course the high-intensity drama of the novel will have you on the edge of your seat throughout.
Told from the standpoint of a podcast (Fiona’s) and a poignant letter (Bram’s), the reader is able to understand how the story plays out, from both standpoints. This was a unique and creative way to present the story, as well as the obvious benefit to character development. I did not expect to enjoy this type of storytelling, but the connection to modern life and technology makes this story all the more relatable.
“Our House” is unlike any novel I have read before. I was thoroughly impressed with not only Candlish’s talent at storytelling, but also at the engaging and suspenseful plot, and powerful relatability. The ending of this novel had its own unsuspecting plot twist, and I was thoroughly satisfied with the way it played out.
A new author for me (trust me, she won’t remain that way!) Candlish is able to tell one hell of a creative, addictive thrill ride of a story and I was drawn in from page one. A life lesson within its pages to be sure that will have you re-evaluating all of your relationships and debating how well you know those you think you trust.

Louise Candlish’s latest is about a woman, Fi, who returns to the home that she shares with her separated husband, Bram, in an unconventional arrangement only to find that it has been sold with another family living in it.

This was not one of my favorites. I felt that the writing was a bit clunky with the characters’ random thoughts at times. There was way too much going on. There were several different issues brought to attention but I did not feel that any of them were really resolved. Also, there was not any great question that needed answering in order to propel the plot forward, which I find is a typical and necessary device of writers of a successful suspense. The characters were not at all likable, which can be ok, but in this case I just did not care what happened to them. There were a couple of twists, but I saw them coming, so was not at all surprised. Overall, I appreciate the time and work that went into writing this, but it was not a good book for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing Group and Louise Candlish for providing me with a complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The first chapter in Our House is hands down one of the best first chapters I have ever read. It draws you in and lets you wander down many different paths of possibility. After I read that chapter I knew that I was in for the long haul.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
The book alternates point of view in three different formats. The first is via a "podcast" in which the wife, Fi, shares her side of the story. The second is via a word doc, that is the world's longest suicide note, from the husband, Bram. The final method is just pure observation of current and past events. What I took issue with was the podcast and the note. They both felt very unnatural to me and I can't help but wonder what would have happened had those been tweaked a bit to be a slightly different format.

In addition to those not quite believable formats I found the book to drag a bit in the middle. That seems unusual for this genre.

WHAT I LIKED:
I've already raved about that ingenious first chapter, but in addition to that I liked and was frustrated by the way the story progressed. You start the book thinking that the story could go many different ways and as you read and more is revealed, the outcome feels inevitable. Because of this, I could feel the panic that Bram is feeling throughout the novel much more acutely. Just when you think it's all over and your going to get your happy ending and neat wrap up another bump in the road is discovered and even more is revealed.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS?
Overall, Our House is very good read and is one I would recommend to anyone who can appreciate a slow burn. I would say that if you find yourself as impressed by that first chapter as I was, then you will very likely enjoy the rest of the novel.

****Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of Our House! ****

I was hooked on this book from the first page. The cutting back and before between husband and wife ratcheted up the suspense. The complexity of the plot and how it all tied in was very clever. However, the ending really got me. It was a marvelous end to a twisty thriller. I will certainly recommend this book to all my patrons who enjoy a good read.