Due to my own PTSD, I was hesitant to read The Cottage. Once I got the courage to start reading, however, I could not stop. It seemed as though I started one minute and was halfway through the next.

Kate lives with the awful memory of her husband’s murder. Her own yard is a constant reminder of how he bled to death as she watched helplessly. Just as she is beginning to feel stronger, the vandalism starts again just like it did two years prior just before her husband was gunned down outside their home.

Thinking another set of eyes on the property will make her feel safer, she rents out the cottage her estranged sister used to live in during the off season. As she becomes more comfortable with her new tenant, the intrusions into Kate’s life become much more personal and invasive.

As soon as she sees Rebecca, her sister, Kate can see a change. Getting to know the new Rebecca and seeing how happy her children are to have their aunt with them, Kate begins to let down her guard and trust Rebecca, putting the past in the past to make a fresh start with her sister.

When Kate discovers the truth about her husband’s murder and who was involved, she discovers a betrayal that changes her life forever – not just hers but also the lives of her children.

Daniel Judson serves up a thriller with all the right ingredients – lies, betrayal, murder, and plot twists. Some parts of The Cottage seem a bit mundane – play-by-play accounts of how Kate does chores, cleans the pantry, etc. Once the reader gets through the unnecessary aspects of the book, the story becomes more and more interesting and shocking. There were times when I wanted to stop reading – too much of the day-to-day in some cases, and in other cases unsure of whether I could handle what happened next. Nonetheless, I am glad I finished. The Cottage is filled with love, loss, unimaginable betrayal, murder, and suspense – everything one needs to deliver a best seller.

Full review to come on Instagram closer to Pub Day. Thank you to the publisher Thomas & Mercer, author Daniel Judson, and NetGalley for a review copy.

A very quick and easy locked room thriller to finish in one of two sittings. The writing was good!! The pace is steady and picks up by the end.

I received an eARC from Net Galley. It was a decent thriller though I felt like I saw what was coming though maybe not the extent of how it was all intertwined which was a bit unreal.

Overall decent but not amazing. The writing style was not the best and I didn't always like how the author wrote the main female character.

And there are some typos:
P233 - sentence says "among which are the deed to the house; the twins' birth certificates, as well as her own; her and Derek's social security cards..." But - wrong name - her husband is Leif. Derek is the neighbour.

P381 - sentence reads "...Leif was like a brother to me and I'd rather not harm him children." Should be his. not him

Not one of my favorites. I couldn't tell what type of book it was going to be. Sure, there were break ins, her husband was murdered years ago but I never felt the suspense. Plus I figured it out early. Just OK.

i enjoyed the ending and the way it was all wrapped up but unfortunately the road to get there was not my favourite. at times the pacing felt too slow for my liking and other times (maybe this is me being used to more fast-paced thrillers but) the tension simply wasn't there. all in all i think it's a great book to first get into the genre or for those who enjoy a slower read.

The Cabin was a very slow read for me and I found myself taking my time to get through the book.

After the murder of her husband during an attempted home invasion Kate Burke turns into a timid introvert that has stayed static for the past two years.

After a series of property damage incidents - Kate realizes that the the vandalism is starting again just like before her husbands murder. The suspects were killed during the botched home invasion 2 years prior. So the question is who is behind this vandalism? High school kids looking for trouble or someone so close that they are entwined Kate’s family?

Thanks for the advanced copy of The Cottage from Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer, this one comes out 11/2!

This book had so much potential, however it just missed the mark for me. There were too many ultra detailed descriptions of chores being done, that I thought I might have been reading a chore monologue. Jokes aside, this one really has great bones, it just wasn’t for me!

This was a book I just couldn’t connect with. The writing felt choppy and there was an insane amount of dialogue that was unnecessary and confusing at times. Also, keeping up with names was difficult because the author would switch between full names or just their first or last. Barely halfway into the book, you already have an idea on who was behind the murders and didn't leave anything up too imagination, it was jsut spelled out for you. There didn’t seem to be much character development and the flow of the book was very abrupt. Overall, this is not a book I would recommend or reread.

Another good book from this author. I will definitely read anything he writes based on his previous work. His characters are one of his strongest writing abilities. They are realistic and believable. I definitely did not see the direction this story was taking. It caught me totally by surprise, and that's a good thing! Kept my interest all the way through.

I absolutely hate not knowing how long the book is and for some inexplicable reason the page count of The Cottage has been made a secret all over the www. So I braved going in, not knowing the length of the commitment, based purely on the fact that the only other boom I read by the author wasn’t terrible. To be fair, this wasn’t terrible either. Just bland. And yes, too long, albeit most of it (an overwhelming majority of it, in fact) is dialogue.
Judson has been at writing thrillers for a while, so he has the basics down, but that’s about it. The plot is pretty thin, when it isn’t far fetched that is. For most of the book is just a recent widow who’s been terrorized by small but escalating acts of aggression, against her and her property. The latter of which includes a small rental cottage ($1500 a month, Connecticut is expensive, people).
So who’s after Kate? Local kids? Or a hunky new tenant? Or her estranged sister that’s come to mend fences? Or her seriously in debt neighbor? Or one of her late man’s brothers in blue? Read and find out…or don’t.
Don’t, if you ask me. There are entirely too many thrillers out there to voluntarily select a mediocrity. It seems I’m not alone in this opinion, going by other reviews on here, reviews that, to be fair, weren’t around when I downloaded this from Netgalley.
Like I said, it isn’t terrible. It’s just terribly mediocre. The author opts for strictly skimming the surface, there’s no character development, no psychological onion levels to play with, it’s all tell, no show, so everyone just tells…hence the amount of dialogue. It’s almost as if the book was deliberately inflated to a certain (mysteriously unknown and unknowable) page count to hit some contact, since this is definitely a case of pay per page not per word.
Quick and mindless and soon to be forgotten. Pass. Thanks Netgalley.

The writing style was a bit straight forward for my tastes; other reviews described it as similar to a screenplay and I definitely agree. The ending was good and was definitely a page turner, however, the writing style made me struggle to finish this book.

Such an interesting premise but failed to deliver due to the author's writing style and a cast of characters that seemed to be added as an afterthought. I suppose it was away to add a red herring and keep the reader guessing? The protagonist was not sympathetic at all but I assume that wasn't the author's intent.

I'm shocked at the lower reviews on here - I thought this was a deliciously woven tale of deceit and suspense. Widowed Kate is experiencing the same vandalism that precipitated her husbands murder - then blamed on a robbery targeting a local cop gone wrong. Throw in an estranged sibling, a new tennant in the seasonal cottage on her property, and a changing relationship with her neighbor turned best friend? There were so many tendrils of intrigue in this one that I really truly struggled putting this down each night.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, what an interesting premise but I could NOT make it through this one. The choppy writing and disjointed scenes made for such a confusing read and it got boring really quickly for me unfortunately.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Cottage by Daniel Judson.
Kate struggles with the death of her spouse from a terrible event - home invasion. She can't sleep and is starting to become paranoid that she will be victimized again. She starts to think her home is being vandalized and things keep getting worse. Kate is scared - someone is stalking her and she believes that maybe her husband's death was not at all random killing - maybe it was pesonal.

3 stars

So I finished it at one go. I couldn’t wait to see the mystery of whodunit revealed!!
The plot is tense and intriguing but the writing is very long-winded and the descriptions of small things are regularly spread in the prose.Initially these descriptions of ‘feelings’ or ‘perceived feelings’ from narrator’s point of view had built up an expectation in me, only to get deflated when I saw no intriguing outcome.

If the editing is done well, this will prove to be a page-turner.
Thankyou Net Galley and the author for letting me read ‘the cottage’

"A widowed mother is terrorized by a stalker with unfathomable intent in a novel of cold-blooded suspense by the Shamus Award–winning author of The Temporary Agent." -- GoodReads

I was sooo excited to get my hands on The Cottage by Daniel Judson.

Hands down, this was a great novel. The writing style is completely unique and not like anything I have read before. I was truly fascinated with how the story unfolded.

I do believe most of you will be able to figure out what is going on before the story concludes, however, that is ok!!! The story was still well developed and thoroughly enjoyable!

This is a psychological thriller with a stalker edge. If you like a good suspense novel, this is for you!

A good little thriller...story of a widowed mother being terrorized by someone. Rocks thrown through windows, vandalism, creepy phone calls. These are all things that Kate is dealing with. Is it related to her husband's murder or is something new harassing her and her family? A little drawn out at parts but still engaging enough to keep my attention with a few twists thrown in.

Oh my. There were just too many people piled into the story. It made me start to fade trying to keep up . I did finish the Cottage, but it was sadly a book I did not connect with.