4 stars! A suspenseful, easy and entertaining read!

Alice and Leo purchase a home in a tight knit gated community known as The Circle. Alice is excited to make new friends and feel a sense of belonging in this new neighbourhood while Leo holds back from socializing too much. Soon after they move in, Alice senses something isn’t right. She begins to question her neighbours intentions and doesn’t know who she can genuinely trust, including Leo.

This was the perfect read for me during a really busy time. The shorter chapters were easy to fly through. The pace and flow were consistent and kept me highly intrigued and invested. Each chapter had my curiosity building and my suspicions changing. There isn’t a lot to overthink with this book which I loved - it was exactly what I needed at the time I read it. There were some questionable elements to the plot but the writing was so smooth and addictive that they didn’t bother me.

I truly love this author! I’ve read all of her books and highly recommend them if you want an addictively suspenseful and entertaining story without having to think too much. They are books that you can just sit back and enjoy as the plot unfolds, keeping you intrigued to the last page. Nothing too intense or gripping, but extremely enjoyable nonetheless. They all follow that same formula of slowly building up tension and suspense and throwing some great unexpected twists and turns in the mix.

Thank you to St Martins Press for the physical review copy! I am already looking forward to what this author comes out with next!

This book is OUT NOW!

I loved this clever thriller. The characters were well developed, and the story kept you at the edge of your seat.
As always, B. A. Paris crafts an intriguing tale. Highly recommended

I included this title as part what's new in suspense, mystery, and thrillers in the month of July. I promoted on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram. https://www.bethfishreads.com/2021/07/22-mysteries-thrillers-suspense-novels.html

Look for my audiobook book review in AudioFile Magazine.

Even thought I figured out who the bad guy was early on, it was still enjoyable to read how the protagonist, Alice, gives in to her fantasies time and time again. She indulges her imagination beyond what any normal person would do, so it was fun to watch her go off the rails.
Holding her new boyfriend to high standards , Alice fusses and obsesses about a murder that happened before she moved into the house. But any reasonable standards by which to evaluate information seems to escape her and she reacts to each new revelation in an over dramatic fashion.
I enjoyed reading her story, and things move pretty quickly and the ending is more or less satisfying.

Alice moves with her partner Leo into a new home that has a horrible history, one that raises her suspicions of all her brand-new neighbors. I unquestionably appreciated The Therapist in that Sunday afternoon, read it as fast as you can way. The B.A. Paris mystery is laid out and the suspects are not improbable in that way that can be frustrating. It’s effortlessly consumed and very well-paced, and I appreciated the way Paris focused on Alice’s state of mind as she grew increasingly paranoid and desperate for answers. It’s a fun, read in one go, type of mystery.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This was a good, quick Mystery/Thriller read. Alice and Leo move into a house in a gated community called The Circle. They think they've moved into the home of their dreams, but Alice quickly realizes that's not the case. Two years before, therapist Nina was killed in the house, allegedly by her husband. Alice starts digging into the murder, convinced the husband didn't kill his wife.

The more Alice gets to know her neighbors, the more she suspects they have dark secrets of their own, and that they know more about the murder than they are saying. Alice's obsession with the murder puts a strain on her relationship with Leo, and as Alice keeps digging she puts her relationship and life on the line.

This was a quick and easy read. I enjoyed the book, but it's not a very deep or twisty mystery. Alice's character was pretty flat. The death of Alice's sister is eluded to several times in the book, but why Alice feels so deeply about it is never explained until the end of the book. The explanation is unsatisfying, as is the fact that it's dumped on the reader and then quickly dismissed and never explored. This was an unnecessary plot point that added nothing to the story, especially the way it was handled. It was enough that anyone would be weirded out by living in a house where someone was murdered, nothing else was needed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book and like the author's writing style.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. All opinions are my own.

The Therapist - B. A. Paris
Genre: Thriller
Star rating : ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

Thoughts:
B.A. Paris knows how to write a thriller that keeps you at the edge of your seat! I fell in love with her work after reading Behind Closed Doors. The Therapist didn't disappoint. I enjoyed the stalkerish feel in this book. I loved that It took me a while to figure out who the “bad guy” was, and she does a great job keeping you guessing to the very end. If you are new to thrillers, I recommend picking up B.A. Paris books.

Thank you, @stmartinspress, for the copy of The Therapist.

Without giving spoilers, I can say that this is about a husband and wife who move to an exclusive, gated community in London. The neighbors vary from friendly, to nosy, to avoidant, to hostile. And then there is THE mystery about the house and its previous resident. Not a perfect book, but more than good enough!

B.A. Paris is back! For me this book is right up there with the suspense of Behind Closed Doors. If you were a fan of that one, then I think you will enjoy The Therapist. It's hard to put down once you start it and will keep you guessing until the end.

Alice and Leo move to a gated community called "The Circle," where the neighbors are mostly nice but also secretive. Alice wants nothing more than to find friends and get to know everyone. She soon finds out that boyfriend, Leo, bought the house holding back a big secret about its past. Soon Alice falls into an obsession of trying to find out the truth about what really happened to the previous owners. Alice's main character flaw, which drove me crazy at times, was her naivety. She is a likable character though so that will make up for it. Like Alice, I suspected every neighbor to be a murderer at one point or another. It was like a game of Clue set in a gated community vs one house.

Looking for a fast paced domestic thriller? Pick this one up.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this copy for review.

This book focuses on a couple who just moved into The Circle. A cluster of houses in a gated area with a very close knit little community of neighbors. But of course nothing is like it seems and the main character Alice is obsessed with finding out what happened to the woman who used to live at her house. So of course. I wanted to read this. I loved BA Paris's books The Breakdown & Behind Closed Doors. This one started off incredibly slow....for like more then 75% of the book I was bored. The main character frustrated me and I found her incredibly annoying. I was also suspecting all of her neighbors so Paris definitely swayed me that way. Just when I was assuming I would not be loving this book...the twist happened. And I was blindsided. Just like Alice was and I felt dumb for not suspecting anything (just like Alice did). Any author that can get me to be completely unsuspecting gets a high five in my book. I will say, I hoped for more suspense or drama throughout the book. The ending was a blast to read but it was A LOT to get too. I'm not sure I would have finished if I wasn't listening to it. It was losing my focus a lot. BUT. The twist was fantastic. 3.5 rounded to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exhange for an honest review.
I have wanted to read a book by B.A. Paris for a very long time.
When I discovered that her newest book, "The Therapist" was available to review, I jumped at the chance to receive a copy.
I found it to be an addictive story that pulled me in & didn't let me go until its final page.
The ending was a totally unexpected surprise.
I will definitely be reading more books by this author.

The Therapist
BA Paris

The Therapist was such a compulsive read - it definitely had all the creeps and intensity of an atmospheric thriller read which I enjoyed.

This is a story of Alice and Leo who moves in to a beautiful home in The Circle - everything seems idyllic until it was learned that the previous home owners were part of a murder-suicide. Now everything quickly turns sinister as Alice becomes obsessed with discovering the truth.

This was a great read I thoroughly enjoyed.

Twists you won't see coming. B.A. Paris has done it again! Thoroughly enjoyed this page-turner of a thriller.

Huge thanks to B.A. Paris, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one early.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read The therapist by B.A. Paris. As usual, B.A. did a fabulous job keeping me on the edge of my seat...in fact one night after getting to a rather intense scene when Alice is alone in the house (or is she???) I am freaked out to hear someone trying to unlock my apartment door! They were at the wrong apartment, and apologized, but let's just say I didn't sleep well that night! While I thought the main character was gullible and somewhat stupid, I still liked her, and I kept reading to find out what happened next.
Alice and Leo buy a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is a wonderful house, a chance to start their new life together, but is their dream house too good to be true?
Then Alice finds about what happened in her new home, and why no one wanted to buy it, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before. Alice soon becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before....then starts to think someone is in the house at night? Who is it?
The Therapist is a great summer thriller, and while there are some plot holes I do recommend it.

I love a good murder mystery and I’ve always been so curious about living in a home where something terrible occurred - so this was right up my alley! Loved and will be recommending!

Alice and Leo are in a long term relationship. Alice owns a little cottage where she lives by herself but Leo has convinced her that they should move somewhere together. He purchases a house in a gated community called The Circle. This is their chance to be together in a new location in a home that may be just what they need to start life as a couple.

They haven’t lived in the house for very long when Alice discovers that a devastating incident took place in the house. Unfortunately, Leo knew what happened to the previous owners, Nina and her husband Oliver. He never disclosed the information to Alice before he bought the house and this makes Alice very uneasy. Nina was murdered in the house and according to the police, Oliver committed suicide after he killed his wife.

Alice is convinced that Oliver didn’t kill his wife and, at first, Alice is determined to discover what actually happened to Nina until she finds that no one in the community wishes to discuss the incident. As time progresses, Alice learns things she would rather not know. She no longer even feels safe in the neighborhood because something about the house and the incident is terribly wrong.

The book is labeled as a domestic psychological thriller. Most of the book was more psychological than thriller. Fortunately, there were a few moments in the book that lived up to the genre when the pace of the plot eventually picked up and mounted in tension as the conclusion came in sight. Overall though, the plot wasn’t robust enough to fortify the entire book.

The author spent too much time in the protagonist of this book, Alice’s head. She was a tiresome character and there were too many parts of the book where she mentally bantered situations back and forth multiple times. And then, of course, she proceeded to do just exactly what she thought she shouldn’t do. Consequently, parts of the book moved at a very slow pace making it difficult to maintain focus on the story.

The unexpected and twisted ending compensates for the otherwise slow pace and lack of intensity in the book. Even though it doesn't offer the same experience as the previous Paris books, if you are a fan of the domestic thriller genre you will still most likely find it to be a satisfactory read.

Alice and Leo have been in a long distance relationship for eighteen months when they finally move in together and buy a house in the The Circle, a development in the middle of London. It's a gated estate made up of twelves house designed to be especially safe and secure. But Alice soon discovers a horrible secret about her new home and becomes obsessed with Nina, the therapist who lived there before her. She starts trying to figure out what happened to Nina--at the expense of her relationship with Leo and her neighbors.

"It's only as I stand there, shrouded in perfect stillness that a thought slams into my head. I don't like this house."

This thriller was slow to start and was one of several locked neighborhood books I've read lately. I'm sort of over the trend of average folks up in everyone's business thinking they can solve murders. I didn't quite buy why Alice cared so much, even though there's supposed to be a "reason" for her attachment to Nina (she shares a name with Alice's late sister).

As with many of these types of thrillers, there's a cast full of mostly unlikable characters and a bunch of somewhat interchangeable neighbors. Alice forms an odd bond with a Private Investigator, Thomas, who is quickly added to the mix. She seems fast to accuse basically everyone she meets of nearly anything, so I suppose that added to the suspense/red herrings. The book does have a slightly ominous feel, though I think many of her problems would have been solved by simply changing the darn locks!

There are some good twists and the story held my interest once it picked up the pace. However, I'm afraid it will get lost in the swirl of recent locked neighborhood books and not stand out in a few months.

Thank you Netgalley, St-Martin’s Press and B.A.Paris.
I really enjoyed this novel, it was a quick read, loved the pace.
Alice is a great character, sleuth at heart, she is trying to solve the mystery of Nina’s death, two years prior.
Who do you trust, who had a hand in Nina's death? Who in the private Circle she lives in does she trust.
Secrets, secrets, everyone has secrets.
Until the very end I did not know who had done it.
Recommend 4 stars

Alice had been dating Leo for a year and half, seeing him only on weekends, when he suggested they move in together. He bought a house for them in a small gated neighborhood in London, and while Alice is nervous about moving to the big city from her small town, being in a quiet development with only 12 homes seems to be a good middle ground.

Everything is new: living in the Circle, being with Leo more often, the neighbors. Just observing them from her front windows, it seems they all get along well and are involved in each other’s lives. So as a first step, Alice decides to invite everyone in the neighborhood over for drinks at their place; then she starts to get to know the women.

It doesn’t take long until she finds out a shocking secret about their home, and some odd remarks and attitudes she’s noticed in some of her neighbors now make sense. At first, she doesn’t want to stay, but then she starts to feel a connection to the previous resident, Nina, a therapist. So rather than moving out, Alice decides to stay, at least until she can piece together some of what happened and why. Everyone seems to be keeping secrets, even Leo, and Alice is afraid and nervous even as she feels compelled to solve the mystery. But she is opening herself up to danger the longer she stays and asks questions about what happened to Nina.

The Therapist is an engrossing thriller I read in one sitting. I had read B.A. Paris’ The Breakdown and enjoyed that, so I didn’t hesitate to pick up this new book. What makes it easy for me to recommend both books is their clean content. It seems pretty rare in books of this genre nowadays. So hats off to Paris for her skill as a writer and for not feeling the need to add in lots of profanity, sexual content and gore.

Alice and Leo move to The Circle, a gated community with nice houses and friendly neighbors. Though Leo seems less than willing to actually want to meet any of the neighbors, Alice makes it a priority to make friends with them so she doesn’t feel so secluded and alone while Leo is at work.

During a get-to-know-the-neighbors party, secrets are revealed about the last inhabitant of the house and what actually happened to her. Now that Alice is acquainted with the residents of The Circle, she can surely find out what happened to Nina, the last owner, right? Turns out that no one wants to talk about Nina or what happened to her, which makes Alice even more determined to figure out what really happened.

When Alice’s new friends continuously tell her to stop digging and leave the past alone, Alice takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of Nina’s untimely death, but what she doesn’t expect is someone who is determined to stop her from finding out the truth. In the meantime, all of her digging exposes secrets that Leo has been keeping from her too. Now, feeling even more alone than ever, Alice turns all of her energy to Nina’s past.

This book held my attention from the beginning. I really enjoyed how the story unfolded, though I can’t say I really liked any of the characters except the older couple living in The Circle. All of the other characters seemed too flaky and immature and annoying, though maybe that was on purpose to make the reader suspicious of everyone. (Spoiler alert: I suspected everyone at one point, so well done, B.A. Paris).

Alice’s character annoyed me the most because I felt she had too much baggage to be worrying about some previous house owner who she didn’t even know and her untimely death. Sure, I guess I would want to know the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, but I don’t think I would need- or want, for that matter- to know all of the details. That seems prying and insensitive and rude to me, but hey, no one was murdered in my house.
I felt like the pacing was kind of slow, but at the same time, I felt like I flew through the book. There wasn’t much happening between the big reveals except mundane conversations and arguments, so that was a little disappointing to me. I’m not really sure what I expected, but a little faster pace or some minor reveals in between could have helped.

The ending was the best part for me, and that NEVER happens. Review after review I say how the ending makes or breaks a book for me and I am almost never satisfied with endings. Satisfied is maybe not the right word here because I felt heartbroken for more than one reason, but the ending also completed the story and made sense. For that, this ending was the best it could have been. I was angry, surprised, shocked, and couldn’t read fast enough to find out what would happen. And if I cried while reading books, this ending would have brought me close to tears.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. There was nothing major that would deter me from recommending this to anyone who loves thrillers or B.A. Paris books. Sure, there were things I thought could have been better, but overall this book really worked well and came full circle (ha, see what I did there?) in the end. 5 stars for another great book from B.A. Paris.