Alice and her boyfriend, Leo, moved to a gated community in London, called The Circle. Here is where she meets new neighbours; Eve, Tamsin, Maria, each with their husband. Unfortunately, the house seems hold a dark past and Alice tries to dig further as she feels that not everything adds up very well. It's a psychological drama thriller by BA Paris. But I can feel that this one is a bit slow burner compare than her other books. I still enjoy the reading as with a few characters involved is really challenging to guess who is the real killer.

Alice and Leo decide that they have had enough of a long distance relationship and decide to move in together. Leo falls in love with and buys a house in The Circle, a secure gated community, while Alice is away on holiday with her best friend. But while Leo seems to think this is the perfect house, Alice can't help but feel that something is not quite right.

As Alice starts to learn a bit more about the gated community and her new neighbour's, she discovers there is a dark secret about her new home.
She learns that a therapist named Nina previously lived and died in the upstairs bedroom. As Alice had a sister named Nina who passed away in a car accident along with both of her parents she feels a kind of connection with the deceased therapist. As she delves into the mystery of Nina's death she begins to realise, along with the help of her new private investigator friend, that everyone in the community has a secret, even the one closest to her.

The book alternates between the past and present but with only four or five past chapters scattered throughout its not difficult to keep up with.

I have loved everything BA Paris has written and while this book had twists, turns and chills, it didn't capture my attention as much as Behind Closed Doors did. Saying that, I enjoyed this book immensely, even though I guessed the killer pretty early on, and would recommend to others once the book is released.

Thank you for the chance to read this advanced copy Netgalley, BA Paris and Harlequin Australia.

4/5 🌟

Thankyou to NetGalley, Harlequin Australia and the author, B A Paris, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Therapist in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I jumped at the chance to read a review copy of this book as I have read previous novels by the same author and highly enjoyed them.
The Therapist is a good, quick read that gets you in. The characters are interesting and well drawn.
Worth a read for fans of the genre.

*Yawn*

Rounded up to 2.5.

The Circle – A gated estate of twelve houses, built around a garden square. Alice and Leo are new to number 6, and Alice is eager to fit in and make friends. But her happiness is soon overshadowed when she discovers that the previous owner – Therapist Nina Maxwell – was murdered by her husband in her new home. And the more Alice learns about Nina's death the less convinced she is that the Therapist was indeed killed by her husband. And in The Circle, there are eyes everywhere.

In all honesty, I struggled to keep my eyes open. for most of it. Follow Alice's routine as she spends the first 70% going to the park, meeting and socialising with neighbours, chatting with old friends, discussing living arrangements, and even more mundane – working, eating, and sleeping. The Therapist is 90% drama/contemporary, 10% mystery/suspense. There's little development to the thriller plot in the first three quarters of the novel and what there is, was rehashed endlessly, with multiple conversations repeating the same information.

The pace accelerated towards the end – finally! – and included a couple of satisfying twists, one red herring, and some cleverly planted clues early on that I gave little thought to at the time that were crucial, but it was too little too late I'm afraid.

If you enjoy reading about Alice's trust issues, obsessive thoughts and behaviour, and her mourning her country cottage and struggling to adjust to London life, then you might relate to this more. There just wasn't enough to hold my interest or move the plot forward.

I'm afraid this is where BA Paris and I part ways. She started strong with Behind Closed Doors, and The Break Down, but has gone steadily downhill since.

I'd like to thank Netgalley, HQ Australia, and BA Paris for the e-ARC.

UK/AUS/NZ Publication Date: 7th January, 2021.

US Publication Date: 13th July, 2021.

Review to be posted on Goodreads and Instagram: 7th December, 2020.. Posted on Amazon on Publication Day.

I received an advanced reader copy via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

When Alice and Leo move into The Circle, a luxurious gated community in the heart of London, Alice is already on edge. Missing her country cottage, the prospect of making new friends worries Alice more than she’d like to admit. But soon it becomes evident that it’s not making friends she has to worry about, it’s the strange history of her new home that should be putting her on edge.

Ahhhh it’s so exciting to be reading a new BA Paris novel, because I am such a fan! I loved this one. I loved the subtle clues and the way the storyline twisted one way, and then another. My only critique is that I’m not sure the ‘therapist’ point of view added anything to the storyline, sure they were somewhat relevant in the end, but they didn’t reveal anything crucial to the storyline. Recommend to any lovers of a quick paced thriller with a kind of spacey narrator (not quite unreliable).