I have yet another unpopular, maybe popular? opinion. I was hooked on this author after reading Behind Closed Doors, which I loved. Sadly, everything after that has been steadily declining for me. This one sounded promising and the reviews have been quite positive and I was curious.

When Alice and Leo move into a beautiful house in a safe and gated community, they can’t believe their luck. But every house has a history, and for Alice something just doesn’t feel right in her new home. As she adjusts to her new life and tries to make friends, a devastating secret is revealed, her new dream home was the scene of a murder.
Suddenly Alice’s obsession with the victim begins to spiral out of control.
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This was more like a domestic drama for me not a thriller, until basically the end. I thought the story was weak, as well as the main character. She was wimpy and whiny and I kind of hated her and Leo. I don’t feel that anything really happened for the majority of the book except for Alice’s teeter tottering on suspects and pulling the victim card. Again, this is just my opinion and I’m sure many have and will love the book, it just wasn’t for me.

First line: My office is small, perfect and minimalist.

Summary: When Alice and Leo move into their new home in an exclusive gated community in London they see this as the perfect beginning to their life together. But as Alice meets her neighbors, she learns about the dark history of her new home. After this discovery, Alice becomes obsessed with finding out what happened and who was involved.

My Thoughts: B. A. Paris always writes a fun, twisty thriller. They are always very fast reads. Something that will keep you reading until you finish the book late at night. This one kept me wondering throughout. Everyone is a suspect. Even with a headache I finished this book because I had to know how it ended. There is lots of misdirection to throw the reader off.

I admit that it was nothing groundbreaking or original. It was just plain fun to read! I have been in a slump with lots of 2 star reviews so it was nice to find something that kept me interested and wanting to read. If you want a quick summer read then this would be it.

FYI: Violence.

I love “unputdownable psychological thrillers,” and because I was a huge fan of B.A. Paris’s Behind Closed Doors (2016) and I enjoyed Bring Me Back (2018) and The Dilemma (2020), I was happy to receive a copy of The Therapist from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in return for my honest review.

One of the things I love about this author is she is the mother of five girls and waited til they were grown to start her writing career in earnest. She has made up for lost time, with a string of entertaining books that seem to feature unlikeable millenials in weird, often dangerous situations.

The featured couple in this story are Alice and Leo, annoyingly self-centered millennials who are moving their year-long long distance relationship into a new phase, as they move together into a house Leo bought for them in a fancy gated community. Alice is enraged when she finds out that the reason he got a great on the house is it was the scene of a horrific murder of a previous resident. She is so creeped out by this she can’t bear to stay in the house, and she is just generally freaked by everything. The neighbors are a bit puzzling, and you KNOW there is something off about the whole thing, but it isn’t clear exactly what or who is the cause. Ms. Paris does her usual excellent job throwing out clues that generally lead nowhere, and sometimes lead to the next clue. Alice is a sympathetic character as she struggles with her growing suspicion of Leo and his “coercive control” and she begins a relentless search for the truth about what happened in the house.

I’m giving this one five stars because I got totally lost in it for an entire day, and that is just what we all need during this pandemic. Great buildup of suspense and (for me) a satisfying resolution.

This was a decent story, but it was a little slow for me. I was not fond of the main character so it made it hard for me to like a lot of what was happening. So much was based on her obsession with a therapist who lived in the house before her and her murder.

This is so much better than B A Paris's last novel The Dilemma. That one was not up to the normal caliber of her previous books. She redeemed herself a little in my eyes from that one at least, but this still was not as good as previous novels. I'm hoping she is getting back in the groove and the next one will be even better.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for granting my wish and proving me with an ARC for review. I absolutely loved B.A. Paris’ Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown, so I was very excited when I was able to read her newest book The Therapist!

When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they've dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive.

As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.

Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem.

WOW. Okay, I was kind of slow to start this and was not ready for how wild and twisted this would get - it did not disappoint. It took some getting used to with all the characters introduced but soon I felt like I was living in the circle among the close knit neighbours, gossiping about one another. There are some ‘past’ chapters that were really nice to include and kept me guessing until the very end how it is connected to the main story. The paranoia and suspense that builds up in this book really made this a fun and exciting read. You can’t trust ANYONE in the Circle! Highly recommend checking this one out - in stores July 13th!

The Therapist tells the story of Alice, a woman with emotional baggage, who moves from the small town she has always known into a gated-community in London with her boyfriend, Leo. It does not take long for Alice to recognize her neighbors are not quite who they seem to be and for her to learn the former owner of her new home, a therapist named Nina, was murdered in the master bedroom. Alice is drawn to Nina's story and does not believe she was killed by her husband. Alice cannot stop herself from trying to discover the real murderer. As she begins her search, she begins to doubt the intentions of everyone around her.

I truly enjoyed this book. If you are looking for a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout, this may not be it. However, the author draws you into Alice's world, develops her story, and keeps you guessing until the very end.

B.A. Paris' first book, Behind Closed Doors, continues to be my favorite thriller. Although, I do not feel the writing in her latest novel is quite as strong as her first novel, it still is a must read! B.A. does a fabulous job of developing her characters and continues to make you want to keep reading to learn more.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed above are my own.

This novel was recommended to me by a local librarian after she'd read, and loved, Behind Closed Doors, a previous book by this author. I was new to the author, but I'm now a fan - this was a nicely plotted and sinisterly written thriller with lots of questions that need to be answered coming up as you read. I thought the heroine was a *little* excitable and weirded out by the house being the site of a murder, but I could understand being a little freaked out by thought - maybe not as much as she was, though. This is a story of relationships and neighbors and is well written and entertaining. Your thriller-loving patrons will enjoy this book!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for my ARC and ALC of The Therapist.

Alice and Leo are in love when they move to The Circle, an exclusive gated community in London. But the shine quickly wears off as Alice learns more about her home and neighbors. Nina Maxwell died in Alice's house - and will the secrets surrounding her murder come back to haunt Alice?

I love a good domestic suspense! Main character Alice comes across as a bit naive, like many thriller protagonists, but I think that comes with the territory. This book may feel like a slow burn, but the last 20% were totally worth it to me! A twist ending that actually fits with the plot - sign me up. I was very satisfied with the ending as well as the red herrings that came before. I do think the middle could have been shortened a little - I didn't care for Alice and Leo's relationship drama as much as the other plot points - but this was still a solid read.

If you're looking for a mile a minute thriller, this may not be the best choice, but if you like suburban drama, I'd give this one a try. I think this one is better than Paris' recent book The Dilemma but not as compelling/dark as Behind Closed Doors.

I always forget how much I love B.A. Paris's writing until I start another one of her novels and then her talent is hard to ignore! I've loved some of her previous works, including Behind Closed Doors, The Break Down, and The Dilemma. She writes in the domestic suspense genre, which is important to know. I would not describe her novels as thrillers, but they keep me up reading late into the night regardless. If you're unfamiliar with her work, you should really check out some of her books. Her latest release, The Therapist, would be a great place to start!

Much like her previous work, The Therapist is a slow burn with a lot of character development and tension that builds with each page until an intense climax. The reader follows Alice, a woman who moves into a gated community in London with her boyfriend, Leo. Hoping that this will be the start of their happily-ever-after, Alice blissfully moves into one of the twelve homes in The Circle and immediately tries to make friends with the neighbors. It doesn't take long before Alice learns that the former owners of their new beautiful home met a tragic end in an apparent murder-suicide. The murdered woman shares the name of Alice's sister who, along with their parents, died a long time ago in a car accident. Because of this coincidence, Alice becomes obsessed with the details of the murder and is not ready to accept the murder-suicide label as fact. Enter a mysterious stranger who crashes a party within The Circle's gated community, which sets Alice off on what may or may not be a delusional trip down the rabbit hole.

If you've enjoyed B.A. Paris's previous work, you're sure to enjoy this latest novel as well. If you haven't read this author before, then you're in for a real treat!

*Thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

THE THERAPIST BOOK REVIEW

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Drink rec: Sangria 🍷

THE THERAPIST is the kind of book that will have you saying “just one more chapter” over and over again until you’ve stayed up way past your bedtime😂 I was hooked on this one and seriously couldn’t put it down!

I really enjoyed the setting of all the main characters living in a small, creepy gated community called The Circle. Although there were a lot of neighbors to keep track of, I liked how each of them were suspicious and I had a few different theories of who I thought the killer was.

After reading Behind Closed Doors, I was prepared for a dark thriller but this turned out to be a pretty middle of the road domestic thriller. While I enjoyed it, I wasn’t shocked by the major twist and I felt like some parts were pretty drawn out.

Overall, THE THERAPIST was an entertaining domestic thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat! Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy—OUT 7/13!

I have read all of B.A. Paris books. I have enjoyed them all, especially Behind Closed Doors, and like this one too.

This book is set with a very slow pace. If you are expecting action and suspense nonstop, you won't find that within these pages. What you will get are characters who will make you think if they are involved in the plot and some questions that will dig into your mind and make you wonder what exactly is going on.

Alice and Leo move into a house and Alice comes to find out the previous owner was murdered. Lies are told and truths are hidden. Strange things keep happening to her and you have no clue who or why.

The main character, Alice, irked me a little throughout this book. Her reasoning for doing certain things just didn't add up to me. They just didn't seem fitting. I struggled with her.

While I enjoyed this book and would recommend it, it's definitely not my favorite B.A. Paris novel but it could be yours!

The Therapist – B.A Paris

Alice and her long-distance boyfriend Leo decide to take the plunge and move in together, and Leo has found the perfect house. A townhouse nestled in a small, gated community, close to all the London goings-on, and at a great price too! Alice will even be able to keep her country cottage that she’s so fond of. As the duo settle into their new home, Alice impulsively decides to invite her neighbors over for drinks via the local networking site, WhatsApp. While most are friendly and welcoming, she senses that one of the women is very reserved and doesn’t understand why.

Strange things then begin happening. Leo is awakened from sleep one night, convinced that someone was standing by the bed, looking at him. They search the home, but there’s no sign of an intruder. Alice learns accidently that one of the visitors to her home was not the neighbor he claimed to be. She is further astounded when he returns to the neighborhood days later and tells her who he is and why the interest – and what it was that happened in that very house a couple of years ago.

Horrified that Leo has kept information from her, she distances herself from the relationship, all the while becoming obsessed with the woman who lived in the house before them – a woman who happens to share her sister’s name. Who was she? What happened to her? And what aren’t her new neighbors telling her? As Alice attempts to delve into the past, her neighbors seem very uneasy and want her to leave the past where it belongs – which makes Alice even more determined to set things right.

But nothing is at is seems, and in trying to put the past to rest, Alice may just have re-awakened a monster…

All I can say is, wow!! I was caught right up in this novel from the first few pages, and I was just as captivated – and taken in – by the characters as Alice was. I was completely stunned by the end, and am still sitting here, saying, “Wait…what?”. I actually had to go back and read a few sections to see what I might have missed – or how I could re-interpret some passages. An enthralling read!! My first read from B.A. Paris, but most definitely not my last!

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from #Netgalley & St. Martin's Press in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit Netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

This was a fun and quick thriller that centers around a woman who moves into a newly purchased house that her partner has acquired in a gated and elite community. She tries hard to meet the neighbors and become friendly with them. Early on after moving into the home, she throws a get together with the neighbors and a man shows up who was uninvited but plays himself as being one of the neighbors who the couple have not met yet. Then he returns on a different day and claims to be a private investigator who is trying to look into the case of a murder that has occurred at the home this couple is now in. The police believe they have arrested the correct person and the case has been closed. Over time, unusual things begin to happen and the protagonist is desperate to solve the mystery. Twists and turns occur throughout the story leaving you turning the pages to find out the full story.
This is a fun, page-turning beach read for the summer.
#TheTherapist #Netgalley #StMartinsPress

The Therapist is an engaging thriller! It tells the story of Alice who moves into a new house with a secret. I read it in one day and was surprised by the ending. This is the third book by B.A. Paris that I have read, and it is my favorite. I would highly recommend it if you like suspenseful novels as much as I do.

This is my favorite book of B.A. Paris's to date. The reveals and complications that Alice encounters about her home, her loved ones, herself, and her neighbors throughout this story are interesting and engaging, and while there was at least one misstep that Alice took that had me screeching at her to be more careful and observant, I always felt like the tension simmered at just the right level. The fear of feeling like the danger is always INSIDE the house really came through, and obviously when you are newly arrived in a close knit neighborhood, it's hard to know who and what to trust as an outsider. The ending felt a bit rushed, but that didn't ruin an otherwise good story.

I love B.A. Paris' work. The Dilemma and Bring Me Back are two of my favorites, and when I saw The Therapist available, I couldn't wait to dive in.

When Alice agrees to move to London with her boyfriend Leo, she's not prepared for The Circle. The gated community seems idyllic, but beneath the surface, everyone is hiding a secret. After a welcome party reveals some disturbing truths, Alice becomes increasingly invested in the neighborhood's mysteries. What really happened between the previous occupants of her home? Is she really safe in the Circle?

I enjoyed this book and I think it's B.A. Paris' best to date.

Alice is an interesting character. While we see the events through her eyes, and she seems trustworthy, I wouldn't necessarily call her reliable. There's clearly some unresolved issues stemming from her past trauma, and while she's not untrustworthy, the fervor and determination with which she approaches Nina and Oliver's case puts the reader on edge. Is there anything happening in the house? Is Alice seeing things? I loved that added tension and thought it created a sliver of deniability that made the plot that much more suspenseful.

And talk about a cast of unreliable characters. Every voice we are introduced to has a secret, a shady behavior, a story. If you like your suspense with twists and questionable motives, this will definitely be the book for you. No spoilers, of course, but there was enough doubt that until the final riveting chapters, you really don't know who to point the finger at. It could be anyone.

There were a few little crumbs, but the major revelation was satisfying and executed well, even if some of the leaps to get there felt a tad rushed or on-the-nose. I think most readers will love the structure, especially with the anonymous flashbacks thrown in.

Overall, The Therapist is a twisty, layered examination of trust and trauma set against an idyllic gated community. I'd recommend to fans of The Boy, Desperate Housewives, or anyone looking for a creepy neighborhood suspense. Out in July, add this to your summer TBRs.

Big thanks to St. Martin's for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

I'd looked forward to this one, but in the end, I felt like the reader was being gas lighted.

As Alice is getting to know her neighbors, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Everyone is a suspect in Nina's murder. Alice is boring and obsessed, and no one is trustworthy because the author is manipulating the reader to keep up suspense, and counterintuitively, the pace begins to crawl and the suspicions become repetitive. (It's Tamsin, Will, Connor. No, Edward, Eve, Leo, Ben.)

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

July 13, 2021. Print length: 304 pages.

The Therapist, by B. A. Paris

Short Take: A great book for people who can’t handle much excitement.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello Duckies! Well, I finally broke down and made the switch from Nook to Kindle, and although the reading experience isn’t terribly different, the menus and settings aren’t the same, and I am just too old to learn something new so I’m a teensy bit frustrated with it. That said, I am digging the larger storage capacity, thinner & lighter device, and the waterproofness (is that a word? I genuinely don’t know) given my proclivity to spills. And I can’t help but feel a certain kinship with the protagonist of The Therapist as she gets all spun up working her way through a bunch of mundane stuff that nobody else really cares about.

In The Therapist, Alice moves in with her previously-long-distance boyfriend Leo, to an exclusive gated community in London. What she doesn’t know is that the last woman who lived in the house was murdered, and pretty much everyone in the neighborhood had a reason to do it. For reasons of her own, Alice becomes obsessed with finding the killer, even when it starts to look like he may be closer than she thinks.

My sweet nerdlings, I’ve written before that there’s a difference between mysteries and thrillers, and this one is firmly in the “mystery” camp. Alice talks to a bunch of people, uncovers secrets, and eventually gets answers, but for the first 90% of the book the stakes are so low as to be nonexistent. She thinks there might be someone breaking into her house, but there’s no evidence of it, nothing to make the reader worry for her. Might be something bad, might be a bad dream, no big deal. Leo has skeletons in his closet but they are pretty tame and nonthreatening.

Also, Alice is just terrible as a character. She’s desperate for any kind of acceptance from anyone, male, female, old, young, doesn’t matter, so she absolutely believes whoever she spoke to last. She’s constantly changing her mind, and has no personality of her own.

There are entirely too many paragraphs & conversations revolving around living arrangements - you stay here till this day, and I’ll stay at this other place after that, and what about on Tuesday or maybe Thursday instead, and so on and so forth.

I hate to say it, but this book commits one of the cardinal sins: It’s boring. The bad guy is pretty clearly telegraphed from the beginning, Alice brings nothing to the table, and for most of the book, very little actually happens. Alice reads books, drinks coffee, talks to a whole bunch of people who are pretty much interchangeable, and makes plans to stay at her friend’s house or maybe for Leo to visit one of his friends for a few days or maybe for her friend to stay at her house or… you get the idea. Oh and sometimes she hears something, but it’s probably nothing.

The finale is decent, but by then, I was over it & just wanted to be done.

The Nerd’s Rating: TWO HAPPY NEURONS (and some coffee, because a) it sounded really good and b) yawn.)

Alice is a character that I didn't know if I could trust and some of her decisions frustrated me, but that is what makes a book that you want to keep coming back to. Leo also frustrated me and I didn't know where this book was going, but I enjoyed it! The Circle is not a community I would like to live in although it sounds fantastic. I understood why Alice wanted to get to the bottom of Nina's murder because of her sister being named Nina. I did not figure this one out! Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book! I did a combo read and listen and the audiobook narrator was great!

B. A. Paris has a knack for making you uneasy from the first page. All her books keep you off balance from the start, not quite sure if events are real or imagined. If your narrator is sane or insane. And no matter how much the characters move around - different locations, different cities, even different countries - the story still hems you in, it’s tight, confining, very enclosed. Which adds to the suspense and thrill and the certainty danger is right around the corner.

Once I started reading The Therapist I couldn’t put it down. And I could never quite get my bearings. Alice and Leo seem like a happy couple, haven’t known each other all that long but something seemed to click. And they are moving into a lovely newly renovated house in an exclusive gated community. Maybe a bit more Leo’s dream house than Alice’s, but she is eager to start a life with Leo, get to know her neighbours and become part of that community. She’s been sad and unwell since her parents’ deaths and this feels like a new start.

Except – except – something is a little off. Once Alice starts talking to the neighbours she learns a shocking secret about her new house, and she becomes obsessed with trying to find out what happened. And it was at that point that I became obsessed with the story and couldn’t turn pages fast enough. My questions never seemed to stop: is Leo not what he seems, did he do it, was he having the affair with Nina, is Alice not just sad and unwell but mentally ill, is she the killer, could she have killed her parents, why is Thomas there and what does he really want, is Helen even real, is there a supernatural element at work? On and on. Just when I thought I had things figured out the story would take a sharp turn and I would have to start over.

Author Paris populates her stories with characters who are hysterically suspicious on the one hand and altogether too trusting on the other. Often their actions make no sense, but that makes for a gripping story. Everything is told from Alice’s point of view, and that means all you have is her interpretation of things, and her retelling. And of course “the Past” chapters where the therapist talks through journal pages. But talks to who? What seems so straightforward at the start quickly becomes another mystery.

The Therapist is another powerful story from this author, full of suspense and danger that will grab you and not let you go until the last page. Thanks to St. Martin's Publishing Group for providing an advance copy via NetGalley for my review. All opinions are my own. I thoroughly enjoyed – and was scared by – this story and recommend it.