This novel is beautifully written, however it wasn't for me; I got over halfway through before deciding not to finish.

This wasn't because it was a bad book - not at all. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, though felt that this was mainly a matter of personal taste/preference. I didn't care for many of the characters and found the events too far-fetched. That said, I was initially under the impression that this was more of a thriller , but it's mainly a drama with a hint of mystery, focusing on the residents of an upmarket cul-de-sac, and their lives and secrets.

I love Amber Cowie's writing style - and the cover is stunning! - but this book just wasn't my cup of tea.

You just THOUGHT it was the perfect neighborhood...

Secrets lurk in any neighborhood, but some are more destructive than others. A simple accident can turn neighbor against neighbor, and make you question everything you thought you knew about the people you trusted. When Esme's husband accidentally backs over a neighbor, killing him, there are questions. The police charge him with second-degree murder, and as the trial gets set to begin, the skeletons come tumbling out of the closet. But which ones are going to cause the most damage?

A great read! I loved the book from start to finish!

This was a great book by a new author for me!! Was easy to read and follow along with the story and I really enjoyed it. Would love to read more by this author. I recommend this book and this author!! Hope you enjoy!

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Lake Union Publishing, for the ARC.
I think the best way to describe this book is that it would make a solid Channel 5 afternoon American movie. I wouldn't really describe it as a mystery or thriller, more a story of a close-knit community where a fatal accident occurs out of the blue, which results in secrets being revealed.
Raven Lane is a cul-de-sac of 5 large houses. Potential residents are 'vetted' by Kitty (who lives at the top of the close), the realtor. Only people of some wealth and fame get to purchase a house there. The story is centred around Esme and Benedict Werner; Esme was an actress, Benedict a model: now, Esme has a teenaged daughter Zoe and a successful restaurant she has built up. Benedict now runs his own modelling agency and is 'celebrating' one of his models obtaining a prestigious contract when the Accident occurs.
Aaron, a doctor working intermittently away in Syria, and his husband Torn Grace - a now successful author, are the newest residents of Raven Lane.
Benedict backs out his vehicle from their drive to purchase more supplies for potential guests.
The neighbours all have one view or another of the accident and concur that it was just that - an accident. Then, with Benedict taken-in for questioning, and the police starting to interview the neighbours, different stories start to emerge. Benedict's charge becomes 2nd degree murder.
What possible motive could he have? What exactly is going on?
As the community begins to shun Esme she turns for solace to her restaurant - her recipes and her newly-promoted Chef. We read her thoughts from her past to present. She has to contact someone from her secret past to help her husband in the present.
The story reveals lies and deceptions amidst neighbourhood dinners and parties, drug-taking and affairs.
I did need to skim-read a lot of recipe details at Esme's restaurant, and her reading Torn's book, because I found them mostly irrelevant to the main narrative.
Overall, this is an intriguing read of close-community life where an apparently accidental death leads to revelations enough to tear them apart.

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 2.5

Esme and Benedict Werner have the perfect life, or so it would seem. They live in a close-knit community in Raven Lane, where anyone wanting to buy a house is screened by the real-estate agent and fellow neighbour to make sure they 'fit in'. When one of the neighbour in this community is accidentally killed, life changes for everyone. Benedict is arrested as truths come to light that make it seem as though this death wasn't an accident at all. As the truths get deeper and deeper, the secrets and lies of this small community are brought to light. Life will never be the same on Raven Lane.

I've recently taken a strong liking to psychological thrillers. They have a level of suspense and are such page turners that I just love them so much. After finishing this book, I don't know that I would put it in the same category. Yes there were a lot of secrets being uncovered, but most of them I had worked out before they were actually revealed. I don't think the story line or the plot was cliche, I just think that it's easy to see what is going to be around the next corner through the power of deduction, and what would be the most 'shocking' or likely to happen.

The only character that I really liked was Esme, the characters were written okay, and they each had their own voice and identity in the story, but Esme was the only one that made me FEEL anything. I guess I felt a little bit for Zoe because she's just a kid at the end of the day and all of this would be absolutely horrible to go through. I felt sorry for Aaron simply because he happened to be married to the wrong person and his life will forever be changed because of what happened on Raven Lane.

The story itself as said above, wasn't exactly cliche but neither was it groundbreaking or surprising to me. I did want to know what was going to happen, but it wasn't a super enjoyable journey for me unfortunately. The ending felt a little bit rushed and too neat of a way to 'wrap everything up' and left me feeling somewhat let down. That was probably the only thing that surprised me in the story to be honest, was the ending as I didn't see it coming, so I guess the story did surprise me in the end (pun not intended haha).

One thing that I found I really did not enjoy was the story within the story. One of the characters, Torn (who's name constantly jolted me out of the narration because it just didn't fit right, even though we get an explanation about his unusual name it still didn't fit right for me), is an author, and his book The Call is a best seller. Throughout the book, Esme reads The Call and we do too, I found it to be a little bit annoying because there was nothing to symbolise the start of the inner story, there was no italic font, marks, quotation marks, anything so, I basically had to guess where it began and where it finished. I found the inner story to be incredibly boring to read and didn't really see the point in it being there in the first place. I understand how it ties in, but it just seems unnecessary. I actually skipped over it after the first chunk that we are introduced to because I just did not care about it in the slightest and wanted to get back to the actual story and find out what was going to happen next. So in my opinion, the inner story could have been edited out and nothing would have been lost.

I can't help but wonder, why did Esme seem to attract arseholes? Nearly every male she deals with is an overbearing arsehole and it just bugged the hell out of me. She seemed like a super capable woman so I don't know why she didn't just tell them all to get fucked.

That's all I can really say about this story to be honest. It just didn't really work for me unfortunately. If you like a story that is full of secrets upon secrets, and soap opera-y type story lines, give this one a go.

The truth can bring out the worst in the best of friends.
Esme and Benedict Werner have an idyllic life in a tight-knit community until an accident in their cul-de-sac ends in the tragic sudden death of one of their dearest neighbors. After vindicating eyewitness accounts morph into contradictory memories, suspicion, and unaccountable accusations, Benedict is arrested. Esme’s life, too, is changed forever.

As the neighborhood largely turns against her and her family, Esme has time to think about her past and what to do next. Then her fellow residents start looking deeper, questioning one another, and themselves, about hidden lies and betrayals. Esme has more than her share of secrets. And the consequences of what happened on that fateful late-summer evening on Raven Lane are far from over. When the mask of civility slips, can friends and neighbors recover from seeing the monstrous truths beneath?

I thought this was going to go a little bit differently then how the plot went. It was a good enough story and I thought it was interesting, it was just a little slow for me at time.

#RavenLane #NetGalley
Pub Date: 12 Nov 2019

Its not often that I say this but I almost wish this book was a little longer, I NEED more.

I feel like this book is for fans of suburban drama Desperate Housewives-esque tv shows. Its so dramatic and fast paced that I found myself not wanting to do anything but read one more chapter, then one more.

Its difficult in the beginning because you get character after character and it took me a while to remember who was married to who, while I can't say I was particularly gripped by any one character, the story itself it so addictive and exciting that I was invested very early on. It explores some dark themes which sometimes I'm wary of but the author gets across the point of why its in the story without going into unnecessary detail for the horrible bits and I appreciated that.

The story is really clever, we get the plot of the book and then chapters from a book that a character is written thrown in in a way I have never experienced before. I REALLY liked it and thought it was such a smart move from the author.

The book was more of a tense drama/thriller than a murder mystery that I was expecting but I'm ever so glad I picked it up. 5/5.

Description
The truth can bring out the worst in the best of friends. Esme and Benedict Werner have an idyllic life in a tight-knit community until an accident in their cul-de-sac ends in the tragic sudden death of one of their dearest neighbors. After vindicating eyewitness accounts morph into contradictory memories, suspicion, and unaccountable accusations, Benedict is arrested. Esme’s life, too, is changed forever. As the neighborhood largely turns against her and her family, Esme has time to think about her past and what to do next. Then her fellow residents start looking deeper, questioning one another, and themselves, about hidden lies and betrayals.
Esme has more than her share of secrets. And the consequences of what happened on that fateful late-summer evening on Raven Lane are far from over. When the mask of civility slips, can friends and neighbors recover from seeing the monstrous truths beneath?

My Review

Raven Lane starts off with Esme and Benedict like any other couple. Discussing celebrating Benedict's success and deciding to invite some of the neighbors to "par-tay". It's almost the end of the summer and their daughter is away attending a conference. There are only five houses in the cul-de-sac and all of the neighbors have secrets. Soon we see that Esme and Benedict are involved in a fatal car accident that leaves us wondering if it was indeed an accident or murder.

This is a page-turner that keeps you guessing until the very end. Secrets and betrayals are abound when someone is murdered. I had it all wrong, every time I thought I knew what would happen next, I had it all wrong. The characters were well written.

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I give this book 4 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

TL; DR: Fun, complex, unexpected, relatable.

No one is without a past, and you cannot escape your past regardless of how hard you try to create a new life in a new environment. Trying to live a perfect life is the definition of trying to live a lie, and lies never live forever.

Thank you Netgalley for a chance to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I really liked this book. I liked where the author was going with the story. It kept me invested and constantly guessing. The thrill factor was very good. Every time I thought I had something figured out I was wrong. This was a true thriller in my opinion. My rating is 4 stars

Definitely kept me on my edge of my seat. I haven't read a good thriller in quite some time and am glad I found this book. The suspicion of the main character and not sure what to expect from one page to the next kept me ready for hours on end. A wonderful read.

What can I say, firstly thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the Ecopy of this book.

I thought the book was going to be more than it was and would be predictable and I would guess the ending.
I found at times I couldn't put the book down and needed to see where the story was going and at other times I was bored.

This was my first book by Amber Cowie and I will read another book of hers I just hope the second one is better.

I don’t really know what to say about this book. I dove in thinking it would be predictable but that wasn’t the truth. I had no idea how this book would end and that is what a good book is for me.. I started this book late afternoon and found I couldn’t put it down, I needed to see where this story was going. This is my first book by this author but I promise it won’t be my last! I just hope she is a quick writer so I don’t have to wait to see what her next book is.

Like many thrillers I've read in the last couple of years, the premise is strong but the story is pretty unrealistic and that's where the books lose me. I felt like Raven Lane was well written but I had to suspend belief in reality more and more as it went on and that never leaves me feeling good about a book.

Its not really a mystery, but more of a story of family secrets.
There is an accident commited by Benedict (Esme's husband) But is it really an accident?

Ok, so I wasn't sure what to think with this. There was some mystery but then also a lot of people turning against a couple who they have known for years. So yes, the book started off really REALLY strong, and then it sort of became unbelievable. I just felt very disconnected to the story and to the characters.

3 for neutral. Couldn’t get into it, slow paced for me, but will update review if able to at a later date.

Raven Lane is an upscale little cul de sac where all the neighbours know each other and attend parties at each other’s homes. They even have a resident realtor who vets anyone wanting to buying a property- on the rare occasion that one becomes available.
Benedict has been arrested for his part in a tragic accident that killed his neighbour. But all is not as simple as it seems and soon he and his wife, Esme, realize that past secrets and betrayals will be revealed.
I liked the author’s easy reading style of writing. The characters were all fine and well developed, although I think a lawyer would be disbarred for telling a client to do what he told Esme to do - or perhaps I’m naive Anyway, all round not a bad read by any means.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book kind of dragged on in the beginning but the ending was good. I did like the way the characters developed throughout the story and the writing was very good.

I was pretty much so-so about Raven Lane. On the plus side, it's very well written and the characters are well developed. On the downside, I just didn't buy a lot of the premises. The story revolves around the owners of five houses in a cul-de-sac, one of whom is a realtor, who we're meant to believe controls who gets to buy in the neighborhood based on how successful and/or artistic they are. The main characters are Esme, a former actress, and Benedict, a former model. They are involved early on in the book in a fatal car accident that involves another neighbor, a gay author named Torn. (Torn? Really?!) The minor "mystery" of the book is whether the accident was intentional or truly accidental. The remaining characters are Torn's husband, who works for a Doctors Without Borders-type organization, a boring couple of musicians, and Esme's best friend and her wannabe author husband. The neighbors apparently have no other friends because they spend all their free time together having crazy parties, dinners, and block parties. There is also a sub-story that is the new novel that Torn is in the middle of writing. I had a real problem with this sub-novel as it's written by a man and described as a "feminist retelling of motherhood and rape." Talk about man-splaining!!! Absurd!

My final issue was with the extremely contrived ending that is meant to describe the car accident and subsequent repercussions.. I've come to realize that I need at least one character in a book that I like or with whom I can at least empathize. I didn't find that here. In summary, the book is more about secrets than a true mystery. Again, it's well written, but it just wasn't for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this pre-published book.

The residents of Raven Lane appear to live a near-idyllic life, a enclave of hand-selected successful artists, they appear tight-knit and community-minded. This is called into question when one summer night, Benedict Werner, former model backs out his car into his neighbor, Torn Grace, killing him.

Slowly, we learn that the residents of Raven Lane aren't as happy as they appear...

Overall, I enjoyed the book. While it did contain some errors, nothing that a proof-reading session wouldn't correct, it was well-written and absorbing. I'm not sure I enjoyed the twist at the end, perhaps because I found it unsettling. Maybe this was deliberate?

Overall, I would recommend this book.