The Therapist is fast paced, creepy, exciting and has secrets to uncover along the way. I loved the resolution and the dénouement of the story had my heart thumping and my breath held. I thought the extended ‘locked room’ constraints of The Circle setting added an extra layer of claustrophobia and menace that was highly effective so that I found myself experiencing the same thoughts as Alice as I read.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Therapist. I found it exciting, thought provoking and hugely entertaining. It’s a brilliant read and let’s just say I shall be checking the doors and windows and I won’t be having therapy any time soon!

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of this great book!

This is my fourth book by B.A. Paris and I think it just solidifies my feelings that the books are always solid, but never really stellar.

I personally think this will make a great book to throw in your bag for a summer getaway. It's a quick read and easy to breeze through, it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat!

The pages are filled with unreliable characters and a naive main character. It got a little irritating at times HOW naive she was, but my favorite thing B.A. Paris does is wrap up all the loose ends in a nice little package by the end. All the things the main character overlooked, misinterpreted or wrongly believed was set right by the end.

3 1/2 stars, rounded to 3 on this reviewing platform.

This was a crazy good book! Timeline laid out with sheer precision. The characters were well developed and it was so easy to care for them (one way or another). Some I loved and some that I just wanted to slap. BA Paris does not disappoint. Great read and I highly recommend!
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Therapist by B.A. Paris never really grabbed me. I was mildly interested in where the plot was going throughout the book but was definitely not invested. I actually felt like I've read the book before. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters and Alice kind of annoyed me unfortunately. This book just wasn't for me and that's ok, I can see most people loving it. The audiobook was done very well however and I enjoyed the narration and how it moved the story along better for me.

B.A. Paris has done it again! I loved Behind Closed Doors, and I still remember reading that last sentence. The Therapist is just as great! I will be raving about this one!

I enjoyed this audiobook, but it was very slow in some parts. I really wanted parts of t to speed up. I liked the narrators; it was super confusing though that they used the same narrator for 2 different characters- it was super confusing and really threw me off. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.

This was a good one! Just creepy enough to keep me hooked, without making me scared to be home alone.

Like Behind Closed Doors, this book has a main character who you wonder about their reliability. Are they seeing or hearing things? Is it their own mental health or is it those around them?

I love how BA Paris gives clues to the twists, but includes enough red herrings to have you second guessing yourself all the way until the end.

Thirtysomething Alice and her boyfriend Leo have recently moved in together, taking up residence in a gated London circle that contains 12 homes. Before moving to London Alice lived in the country and Leo - who works in Birmingham - could only visit her on weekends. With a house in London, the couple can see each other more frequently.

Alice works from home, and feeling lonely, longs to make friends with the local women. So - without informing Leo - Alice uses a group text to invite the circle residents to a drinks party. Leo is a bit put out, but helps with the preparations for the gathering.

Alice doesn't know all the people in the circle, and accidentally welcomes an outsider to the party, thinking he's a neighbor. The man, named Thomas, turns out to be a private detective looking into a recent murder in Alice and Leo's house.

Alice, who can't even watch scary scenes in suspense movies, is COMPLETELY freaked out to learn of a grisly murder in her own home. Worse yet, Leo knew about the murder and bought the house anyway, without informing Alice of the tragedy.

It turns out a woman named Nina was killed in Alice and Leo's BEDROOM, and the prime suspect was Nina's husband Oliver - who later committed suicide. Oliver's sister is sure her brother didn't kill Nina, and hired Thomas to find the real killer.

Alice feels compelled to help Thomas, and becomes convinced the actual murderer lives in the circle. So Alice tries to surreptitiously question the 'suspects' during coffee klatches and lunch dates. However, Alice's maneuvers are blindingly obvious, and the neighbors don't appreciate the scrutiny.

As in most communities, there are undercurrents and secrets, among them the fact that the murder victim, Nina, was seeing a therapist....and no one seems to know who it was or why she was going.

Meanwhile, Alice starts to feel a presence in her house at night, and dithers between thinking it's a ghost and thinking it's the real killer sneaking into her home. Much of this happens when Leo is away for work, so Alice has to deal with it alone.

The story really starts to stretch credulity at this point, since a scaredy-cat like Alice would surely skedaddle from the house instead of staying there night after night. Moreover Alice seems obtuse about obvious clues, and one longs to point her in the right direction. (I've found that some of Paris's other books have a similar problem, with protagonists that don't behave in a believable fashion.)

The tale moves along to a dramatic climax that has some big surprises.

This isn't a flawless book, but it's an engaging story that would probably appeal to many mystery lovers.

Thanks to Netgalley, B.A. Paris, and Harper Collins Publishers for a copy of the book.

I've read and loved all of B.A Paris's other books and this one was certainly no exception. I just love her style of writing because I'm always left surprised by the endings and they're always fast-moving thrillers. This is another psychological, domestic thriller that kept me interested and entertained throughout. However, I really didn't like Alice or the way she handled things at all and found her to be a pretty weak character. I would have liked better development of her and of her and Leo's relationship in general. Overall, she was hard to relate to and her character is my only complaint. I feel like I should have been able to figure out the ending but I was once again shocked and love that B.A. Paris always goes back and explains all of the red flags that the readers might not have caught. She will continue to be one of my favorite authors and I look forward to her next book.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and the author for the ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book will be available: 7/13/21

Kept me guessing until the end! The narrator was very engaging and kept the book quite interesting! I enjoyed the different points of view in this book and thought that the story was well crafted! Looking forward to more B.A. Paris books :)

What can I say but WOW! This book is a psychological thriller meets ghost story meets mystery meets closed-room thriller all rolled into one!

Alice and Leo move to a new house that is situated in a gated block of houses that form a square overlooking a park. Alice soon discovers that something terrible took place in the house just a few months before they moved in and she begins to investigate. As her investigation continues, she herself becomes part of the action!

I don’t want to give away any more of the story than this because there are so many fun twist and turns this book takes. This book had so many elements of a psychological thriller that I always enjoy: an unreliable narrator, a cast of characters all of which are shady, and cliffhangers at the end of chapters. I will also add that the way this book was set up with a gate around the house and community, it almost took on the feel of a “closed room“ mystery.

This book was a well-paced “slow burn.” There were parts of it that were “slower”, but that really worked for me to draw out the creepiness factor of the book. If you are a B.A. Paris fan, you will not be disappointed in this book!

I will also add that I listen to this book on audio and the narrator was amazing.

I reviewed this book on Facebook, Goodreads, and Netgalley.

Special thank you to #Netgalley and #Macmillan audio for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I thought the NARA raider did a great job telling the story. There were definitely a lot of different characters, not main characters but definitely a lot of names to get used to. And she did a great job being able to distinguish them from one another.

The story I felt went a little slow in the beginning. But about halfway through it picked up and I was looking forward to seeing what was going to happen next. This book will definitely make you question who you can really trust!

I have enjoyed several of BA Paris' other books so I was excited to get this one to listen to. <spoiler> The story was interesting enough to keep you listening but this is definitely one where the title works against it. </spoiler> The story was well laid out and there are times when it twists and turns and makes you second guess yourself but unfortunately, I figured out the twist before the ending. The narration was well done, no complaints.

I'm picky with thrillers. They are either way too farfetched, predictable, or some combination of the two. But I always find myself wanting to read them come summertime and it can be hard to find one that works for me.

Thankfully The Therapist worked for me. It is about a couple moving into a gated neighborhood called The Circle. Alice, our main character, didn't know that the house they moved into was previously where a murder took place. Once she finds out, she can't help but become obsessed with the case and to find the true murderer.

At times I thought I had predicted how it was going to end, and I was close but didn't completely predict it which is a huge, huge plus for me.

Also, I listened to this one and thought the narration was well done so if you're an audiobook person, give this one a try!

3.5 ⭐️
Moving in with someone can make someone anxious. Alice had no idea the home Leo buys for them has secrets. Secrets that everyone know, but her. In this exclusive neighborhood called “The Circle” where all the homes face each other your neighbors have
the best views of all the comings and goings. As Alice builds friendships with her new neighbors she soon finds out the secret everyone has been keeping. Alice still grieving a huge loss has a difficult time trusting anyone.

It was a very light thriller, but not the intensity that B.A. Paris usually commands. I really enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook. Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and of course the lovely author B.A. Paris for this advanced audiobook book. Publish date July 13, 2021.

While this book was engaging and I was intrigued to see what would happen, the main character was just too conveniently dumb for the book to get any more than 3 stars. A great beach read, this book is one that you finish and forget. There were some twists I didn’t see coming and the pacing was perfect, but the main character missed so many obvious clues and made many assumptions that simply did not make sense. It felt very convenient for the story and made the book quite frustrating at times. To be clear, I still finished this book in a day and would recommend it for a quick thriller that you can’t think too hard about. A solid 3 star read.

I enjoyed all the twists and turns throughout. I never figured it out— even the last chapter shocked me.

B.A Paris does not disappoint. I could not wait to get back to this story to see how it ended. The Therapist is a great story that will keep you on the edge of your seat guessing who could it be. Must read.

The Short Version: A not so thrilling thriller; a not so suspenseful suspense novel that probably should have been killed during the outlining stage.

The Long Version: I got to listen to an audiobook version of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

This long version will be shorter than usual as this was a slog of a book and I can’t dive too deep into the mess without spoilers.

The two biggest problems here are the protagonist and the plot, which of course makes for a terrible recipe.

Alice, the protagonist is moving in with her long distance boyfriend Leo on a trial basis and they move into this luxurious house in this gated community, which we find out later he got on a huge discount because someone was murdered there (dun dun dun!). Right away Leo makes it clear he doesn’t want Alice, who works at home, to make friends with their neighbors.

Ok so right there, I loathed Alice. First, she’s moving into a house with her boyfriend and she has no idea what he should be able to afford, and had no involvement whatsoever in the house hunt, like not even touring homes? Doesn’t exactly sound like a winner of a relationship. Layer on top of that the whole Leo trying to keep her isolated in this giant house and she should have already been out, but no, this is all wonderful! (Cue giddy laughter).

Hard to believe, but it gets worse from there. Alice has a terrible personality and makes awful choices all the way through. By the end I was almost rooting for the murderer because Alice did not deserve to survive when she put herself in that situation.

The plot too was a mess. The ultimate killer wasn’t that hard to figure out, and there were countless red herrings seemingly thrown in to extend this tale, because the meat of the narrative was weak.

Oh and Alice only finds out about the murder because a PI sneaks into the gated community and crashes a party they're hosting.....doesn’t exactly seem like a great gated community when strangers just waltz in whenever.

There was a lot of repeated information also, and it left me thinking there wasn’t enough of an idea for a book and they stretched it and twisted it so they could pump out a BA Paris novel and cash in.

Even the title was a bit misleading. The woman who previously died in the house was a therapist, but that fact wasn’t integral to anything really. More evidence this book was weak in its construction

The only really good thing about this audiobook was the narrators performance. I really struggled to plow through this one until the end, and if I had been reading, I’m pretty sure I would have closed the book and walked away. The narrator did some SERIOUS heavy lifting manufacturing some maintained interest while the plot labored along and Alice continued grating on my nerves with terrible choices. Bravo to her doing an exceptional job under trying circumstances.

Overall a 2. Not something I recommend for anyone not already a huge B.A. Paris fan. Also a full point of that 2 is for the narrator’s performance. Really worked hard to salvage a mess of a book.

Component Ratings
Idea/Premise: 2 out of 5
Protagonist: 0 out of 5
Supporting Characters: 3 out of 5
Character Development: 1 out of 5
Prose: 3 out of 5
Plot: 1 out of 5
Pacing: 1 out of 5
Narrator’s Performance: 5 out of 5
Ending: 2 out of 5

Well, that was very good. Talk about a quick, addictive read. I have loved BA Paris. Behind Closed Doors is to this day a favorite. The Therapist....it was pretty darn good.
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I love the premise. You have this gated community in London and basically....you suspect everyone. Technically the murder case has been solved so it runs through your mind. Are we dealing with an unreliable narrator? Who should we trust? I really enjoyed it. It had a readability that kept me completely invested. I’m going to recommend it. I would compare it to...if you like Girl on the Train. Or even Lisa Jewell. Pick it up!