Who murdered Nina Maxwell? Was it the husband, neighbor or stranger? This was a fascinating book. It had 2 plots really, who murdered Nina and who is Leo, woven all together to make a brilliantly written story that leaves wondering who done it. I didn't figure it out till the reveal. I loved it. Really great book.

Thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy of this book.

The Therapist is the story of Alice and Leo. They’ve just bought a house in a gated and exclusive London neighborhood called “The Circle”. This is Leo’s dream house and while Alice is hesitant, she loves him and agrees to move there with him. As Alice tries to adjust to the new house and living in London, she decides to invite the neighbors over for drinks. As she gets to know her new neighbors, she also learns that there is a sorted past that has come along with the house that Leo has neglected to share with her. Her house was the site of a viscous murder and the woman who was murdered also happens to share the name of her sister who was killed, years before, in a car crash with their parents.
Tons of twists and everyone is a suspect. This was a little slow to get started but then had a steady pace until the end. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I absolutely love every novel I have read by B.A. Paris, and The Therapist is no exception. I love books that grab you from the start and this one did just that! Review below ⬇️

Alice and Leo have not been dating long, but things seem to be moving in the right direction, so when Leo asks Alice to move in with him, she says yes! They buy a house in London in a neighborhood called The Circle. The Circle is a gated community with twelve houses built around a square. Alice and Leo live in number 6.

Alice decides to get to know the neighbors and invites them all over for drinks. Leo isn't happy about it, but goes along. Alice gets strange vibes from some of the ladies and doesn't understand why. One neighbor arrives late and Alice assumes he is Tim, a neighbor who was having trouble finding a babysitter. Everyone has a good time, and Alice is starting to feel more at home until she finds out that the man she let into her house isn't Tim, and that Leo neglected to tell her that a lady had been murdered in their house and that was why he was able to get the house so cheap. What follows is more deceptions, more lies and eventually Alice figures out that no one is as they seem and she can't decide who to trust. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and though I figured out what was actually going on, it was great fun seeing how the author tied everything up! 4⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, St Martin's Press and B.A. Paris for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was such a frustrating read. The main character doesn’t make the best decisions and that was really difficult to go through. It was a quick read and I liked how the thriller aspect of it kept me intrigued. However, the ending was over-the-top.

This was a great suspenseful story set in London that focuses on the truths kept hidden between couples. Alice and Leo have moved in together in a perfect little neighborhood that seems too good to be true. When Alice discovers that a murder has occurred in the house before she Leo owned it, she becomes obsessed with getting to the truth of what really happened. Twisty and fast paced, this novel reminded me why I enjoy books by B.A. Paris. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

When partners Alice and Leo decide to purchase a single house so that they won’t be traveling back and forth visiting each other, Leo is the one to surprise Alice with his purchase of the perfect home. It’s in a gated community and is being offered at a lower price than it’s worth, so he can purchase it with his funds, and she can rent her house out. Perfect! Right? Not-so-much. Leo failed to inform Alice of one very important fact: Nina, a therapist, was murdered by her husband in this very house. At least that’s what everyone assumes, since shortly afterward Nina’s husband commits suicide.

Will this news be enough to run Alice off? She loves Leo and he’s purchased the house because he thinks it is perfect. Maybe learning more information from her neighbors will help her decide.

Once again I find myself in the minority with my thoughts and review. Though this started out interesting, I soon tired of the plot and it felt like it was dragging. Yes, I wanted to see how it ended, but it just didn’t have enough to support the whole middle of the story. Plus, I’d guessed the ending. Of course, not every bit of it. But enough.

My Concerns
The characters weren’t developed enough for me to really care about them. And the story was too drawn out and repetitive.

Final Thoughts
My three-star rating doesn’t in any way mean that you shouldn’t read it. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but if you check reviews you will see that many don’t just like it, they love it. I would suggest that you read this one and make your own decision.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the ability to read an advanced copy and review the story.

I was provided a free copy of this book by @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
When Alice decides to move in with her boyfriend Leo, she thinks they find the perfect house in an exclusive gated community! That is until she is informed (not by Leo 😒) there had been a brutal murder in the house. Not convinced the killer isn't still out there Alice begins to try to piece together what happened, the only problem is she's not sure who she can trust!
This one definitely kept me guessing, although I got frustrated with Alice at times! There were some obvious things that she kept dismissing or explaining away and I wanted to yell at her! 😂 Overall it was a pretty good book, just not amazing for me.
This is my first B.A. Paris, so I can't really compare it.
But if you're a fan of suspense, it's worth an add to your TBR, and the good news is you don't have to wait because it was published today! 😁
#NetGalley #TheTherapist

Wow! I loved this book. B.A. Paris did not disappoint with this book. It was suspenseful right to the end. Poor Alice, still upset 20 years after the death of her parents and sister. Her sister Nina was her best friend and she is gone. But Alice still feels her presence at night and still misses her very much. Leo, the boyfriend, buys a house for her and Alice to start living together and begin their new life. What he forgot to tell her is that a woman named Nina was murdered in that house. She finds out from a stranger who crashes her "drink" get together with her neighbors about the murder. Alice becomes obsessed with the murder and trying to find the real killer. Her relationship with Leo is in jeopardy because of the omission of truth. The story takes off from there with Alice playing private investigator with the real private investigator party crasher. It kept me anxious and on the edge of my seat through the whole book. If you are looking to escape into a psychological thriller pick up this book. Happy Publishing day! Thanks to #stmartinspress, #netgalley and @baparisauthor for an ARC of this book.

It took a few chapters for me to really get reeled into this one but once I was, I couldn’t put it down. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but loved the ending.

Alice and Leo move into a lovely community, but everything is not as it seems. Nina, who lived in their house before them, was a therapist. Alice wants to know more about what happened to her but her neighbors are being obtuse. A really great thriller!

I love a good thriller, especially one set in England, and this one did not disappoint. Gilda and her boyfriend, Leo, move into an exclusive neighborhood in London, The Circle. Gilda receives a less than warm welcome from some of the neighbors and has a drinks party to try and get to know everyone. After the party, Gilda learns that a man who did not belong had infiltrated his way in and soon after she also learns that her house was the site of a murder just a couple years prior.

Nina Maxwell and her husband, Oliver, were well liked within The Circle and so they were all shocked when Nina was murdered by Oliver who then killed himself.

Gilda meets someone who gives her reason to believe that it wasn't Oliver who killed Nina and she becomes obsessed with finding out the truth, despite The Circle being less than cooperative. I suspected every character at one point or another and all the twists and turns kept me flipping the pages to find out what happened. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers, this is definitely one to pick up.

Thank you SO MUCH St. Martin’s Press for gifting me one of my top favorite thriller authors’ books!
———
B A Paris is back with a bang with yet another compelling domestic thriller! If you even remotely enjoy this genre, do not miss this one!!!
Do you like reading about neighbors keeping deadly, unresolved secrets? What about a new house keeping dark secrets too? Then pls allow me to present to you…The Therapist!

Alice and Leo move to house No. 6 in a new gated community called The Circle. The house seems to be everything they imagined…until Alice quickly discovers it has a very sordid past. Even worse? The neighbors in the other houses, and Leo, knew about it but didn’t disclose to Alice.

And so begins trails of suspicions, lies and betrayals. One of the neighbors whispered into Alice’s ears 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲! What do you do in a gated community when you’re new and can’t trust anyone including your partner? I’ll emphasize again, read this book if you enjoy domestic thrillers!!! Go in as blind as possible!

B.A. Paris always has atleast one main character who is at odds with themselves, questioning everything. The soliloquies of the person are so often disturbing and creates a tense atmosphere to the reader, which I enjoy because it makes me feel like I’m right there in the story.

If you are the reader who likes to try solving the “whodunnits”, the author provides ample clues and little tricks and a final curveball too. I never figured it out so when I reached the final pages, so many things made sense and I was like “Dammit, how didn’t I figure this out?!” All in all, a great entertaining thriller!

Every time there is a new B.A. Paris book out there, I get so excited. She has easily become one of my favorite authors. Her new book, The Therapist, is out today. I received an advanced readers copy. This did not influence my opinion on the book.

The Therapist did not disappoint. I love how the author keeps coming with these amazing stories, without losing her essence, and even though none of her books after Behind Closed Doors have been that dark, but still, thrilling enough to keep us wanting more.

I can honestly say I would ready anything B.A. Paris writers, and cannot wait for her next book.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the free Advanced Copy in Exchange for an honest review.

4.5/ 5 stars


The Therapist is my fifth book by this author. And IMO it is her best book since Behind Closed Doors!

The Therapist is an amazing and riveting psychological thriller. The narrator is 35 year old Alice (1st person POV). She moves in with her boyfriend Leo into a newly renovated house in The Circle (a gated community).

Her neighbors have secrets. The house has secrets. Everything about this book captivated me completely.

The beginning was so good. But this book only got better and better!

I absolutely loved how Alice would tell us her suspicions at various points in the book.

The last part of the book was so thrilling. The ending was so chilling. This book had reveals that left me breathless. I absolutely loved this book!

Many thanks to @stmartinspress, @baparisauthor, and @netgalley for the early gifted copy of The Therapist, out today, July 13th!

BA Paris is an auto buy author for me. I’d read her grocery list, if I could get my hands on it. With her latest psychological suspense, The Therapist takes us on a trip to The Circle in London. Alice and Leo have moved to this gated community, but quickly find out their new house has a dark past. This picture perfect neighborhood has some secrets and not everyone is who they claim to be. This was an addictive, slow burn suspense that will leave you giving the side eye to your neighbors. Check it out today!

A quick read about a crazy person who spends a few hundred pages ignoring the real world in order to live in her own fantasy. There is a cheap twist at the end that wasn’t really a twist so much as an attempt at misdirection that seemed like cheating. Most characters were fairly flat and hard to tell apart. The actual events of the book didn’t follow in any logical order but it was fun to read.

“Do you know what Henry David Thoreau believed? “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

Title: The Therapist
Author: B.A Paris
Type: Standalone
Genres: Adult, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense

This book got me out of the biggest book slumps I've had this year. When I tell you that I read ZERO books in June I am not lying or kidding (I wish I was). Th truth is that June was a hard month for me emotionally and my reading mirrored my emotions. Hence, I knew that July had to be better and I decided to pick this thriller up as fantasy and romance stories were not making me happy. I am deeply thankful I did because I devoured it. I started it one day at work and I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop, and just like that I knew that my slump was over and my reading was back to normal.

The Therapist is an eery novel about a young couple who moves into a new apartment in London, in a closed complex called The Circle. If any of you are fans of horror movies and watched Netflix's 1BR this is the mood and vibe I got from this story: creepy neighbors and cult like behavior. Soon our main character Alice and her boyfriend Leo start feeling out of place in the new home and Leo even wakes up in the middle of the night thinking someone is in the room. As the couple starts to get used to living in the house and starts being friendly to the neighbors, an uninvited guest appears at Alice's house. Later he comes again letting her know he is a PI looking into the murder that happened in her house, a murder she had no idea even existed. She learns that Leo has been hiding things from her and her relationship unravels. She begins helping Thomas, the PI out to try and uncover the real murderer. However, she soon starts to realize that her neighbors all appear to be guilty and the only way of finding out is befriending Thomas and the others to ensure the crime is solved.

All of the character is this story are a little crazy and I believe this is the main driving force of the plot. Our main characters sister happened to be called Nina as well, and she died in a car accident. Hence, Alice's obsession with finding out who killed the owner of the house who also happened to be called Nina stemmed from her obsession of trying to get redemption for her sister's death. The way she starts unraveling and alienating the people from her life that love her and getting closer and closer to Thomas, whom she did not know, made it all so potent. I really had no clue the story would end the way it did, and it really made sense yet the author wrote so well that you didn't see it coming.


* I received this eArc from Netgalley and St. Martins Press in exchange for an honest review *

--- 3 stars ---

This will be another many people like that I did not. Do I standardly dislike the main character in every B.A. Paris book? Yes. Do I always say this is it? Yes. Have I continued to read them? Yes. I have no one to blame but myself. This author's books are an example of ones I think are hyped and fed to the masses by publishing houses that people assume are good because everyone is reading them but when I actually examine them as a body of work, I do not like. Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I loved this book. I feel like her best book was her debut Behind Closed Doors, and this one was up there with it. I loved that I couldn’t guess the ending and that it kept me up at night. I am definitely recommending this one!

B.A. Paris is one of my favorite reads each year. I unabashedly love these books where I can just suspend my disbelief for a few hours and lap it up like a cat with cream. Paris does it again this year, I am pleased to say!

Alice and Leo have recently moved to The Circle, an exclusive gated community with only twelve homes. However, Alice soon learns a horrible secret about the woman who used to live in her house, and as she investigates, none of her neighbors are willing to speak to her about the past.

There was a LOT of build up to the final “reveal”, and the ending was just okay--it felt a bit over the top in my opinion. While the book had a lot of characters, they were easy to keep track of and it made for plenty of potential suspects! Unfortunately, I strongly disliked the main character, Alice. She repeatedly made senseless and dangerous decisions, and acted stupidly throughout the book. However, it was incredibly fast-paced, and this is a suspenseful novel you can read in one sitting!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.