I have previously enjoyed this authors books, unfortunately this one did not hit the mark for me. It was made up of extremely unlikable characters and none that I found remotely relatable. While I think the story certainly had some interesting developments I did not enjoy it as much as I would have hoped.
Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this early reading copy.

Somebody's Home by Kaira Rouda is a recommended novel of domestic suspense.

Julie (Cohen) Jones left her wealthy, controlling husband Roger and their large house to move into a house she has purchased on the other side of the tracks in Oceanside, Orange County, California. She has taken her seventeen-year-old daughter Jess with her, but Jess is not thrilled to leave her wealthy lifestyle behind. Jess is intrigued with the good looking young man living in the carriage house, Tom Dean. His father, Pastor Doug Dean was involved in a scandal and he and his second wife, Sandi, sold the main house to Julie. Now she has moved into the main house and Tom, who has no where to go, is supposed to move out of the carriage house in a couple days. But Tom is angry at his father and he has other plans.

At the opening of Somebody's Home we know that someone is in a woman's home who shouldn't be there. Then we go back in time a couple days and the actions that The narrative is told through the points of view of Julie, Roger, Jess, Tom, and Sandi. None of the characters are particularly likable and all the men are downright loathsome. Sandi is the only character who at least elicits some compassion and sympathy. All of them are depicted as caricatures of a type of person rather than realistic real people. It is a challenge to become invested in any of these characters.

This novel alternates between almost too many points-of-view while setting up the plot and developing the story, which results in a slow build up of tension. The action is very slow through most of the plot, but there is enough foreshadowing that bad things are going to happen soon to hold your attention until it actually is set into place. Once the action actually takes off, it escalates quickly, but the alternating narrators become a hindrance on the build up to the final ending. The ending is action packed, but it seems it could have been presented in a better manner. In the final analysis, Somebody's Home is entertaining, but the slow build up and cardboard caricatures were a drawback.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Thomas & Mercer.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

DNF at 10%. I can handle an unlikable character but I can’t stand any of the people we’ve met in this book and I don’t want to spend any more time with them so stopping here. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Julie Jones leaves her husband and takes her daughter Jess. They find a house and decide to settle there and begin their new life. But the house has a tenant, who lives in the adjoining apartment and he doesnt want to leave. This is his parent house and now that they sold it, he has no choice. But he is not about to leave but will demand the house back by making Julie's life miserable.

The nightmare has begun and instead of the peace Julie though she would get, she has nothing but fear and creepiness. A great read having you wonder just what will happen next. I went from scary to angry and then just hate for what the family went through. But you will enjoy every chapter.

Release date is January 18, 2022 so pre-order it today.

One thing you can say about Kaira Rouda's books, at least the ones I've read: they're not formulaic. First book I read was one of my all-time favourites; second book was totally different but still a 5-star read; third book was a disappointment; and this one was a real mixed bag.

There are many characters in this book and we get the story from five different viewpoints. Julie has left her wealthy husband Roger and taken their teenage daughter Jess to live in a home she bought from Sandi and Doug. Doug's son Tom has been living in the carriage house but has agreed to vacate the premises a couple of days after Julie and Jess move in. I'm not even going to try to synopsize the plot for you. Suffice it to say that there are almost as many plot lines as viewpoints, none of which are developed to any extent and some of which are pretty weak. You've got your domestic abuse, incel culture, white supremacy, religious zeal, and philandering, to mention a few. Probably some triggers in there too.

In spite of the negatives I actually kind of enjoyed this book, probably more than it deserved, and the ending was pretty exciting and tension-filled. I can't really recommend it though. You'll just have to take a chance and maybe you'll like it and maybe you won't. I'm certainly very curious to see what this author does next. 3.5 Stars for Somebody's Home!

My thanks to Thomas & Mercer via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

Available January 18, 2022

Well I’ve seen lots of good reviews for this one, but I’m gonna be in the minority with this and say that I just didn’t get the point of this. It was all over the place and disjointed. None of the characters were like able and most of them were underdeveloped to the point where I just didn’t care what happened to them.
There are a LOT of characters, and each chapter switches POV, which is fine, but it also made them stay on the surface and though each of them had multiple issues, none of them really given the chance to explain the reasons behind them.
Julie has left her super controlling husband and taken her daughter and moved to the “other side of the tracks”. Sandi and her preacher husband have sold their house to Julie after Sandi’s husband is caught in a scandal and he gets demoted to a small country church to work on his problems. Their adult son lives in the carriage house on the property and has decided he’s not moving and has some less than ideal friends hyping him up to make stupid choices.
There just wasn’t anything that I can take away from this that makes me want to recommend this one. But again, I’m in the minority.
Thanks to the author and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my review.

This hurts my heart, as I loved the authors' previous 2 books. This was hard to get into. Now, once I did, about halfway, it was pretty good. I just honestly may not have ever gotten to that point it if it wasn't an ARC. The story is told from multiple POV's, which I normally enjoy, I just felt it was hard to keep up with everyone and I spent a lot of time thinking "Uh, no way!" It was also hard to find a character to root for. Overall, not a bad story, per se, just felt a little rushed. I did enjoy the last half and do look forward to more from Ms. Rouda! Few write whackos like she does!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Kaira Rouda and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC.

Julie is making a new start, taking her daughter Jess and moving across town to get away from her controlling husband Roger. She hopes to turn the house on Cherry Tree Lane into a home for the two of them, but there are a couple of problems. Roger doesn’t want his trophy wife to leave, and he’ll try everything to make her come back. Worse yet, the previous owner’s son is still occupying the carriage house on the property. Tom was given the weekend to pack up and move out, but this troubled young man has no intention of going anywhere.

The intriguing first chapter hooked me right away, but what followed didn’t quite live up to the initial promise. The story is fast paced and kept me turning the pages, but there was almost too much going on. POVs from five unlikeable characters who didn’t sound much different from each other. So many different issues – domestic abuse, incel culture, white supremacy, religious hypocrisy – but they mostly get surface treatment. Tightening up the focus would have made this good book a great one, but it’s still an enjoyable quick read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me an advance copy of this book.

I couldn’t finish it. I made it 90% of the way through and just quit caring. It all seemed beyond far fetched and I couldn’t suspend reality enough for this.

This is the second book I have read by this author and this one was just as good! She writes in a sarcastic, tongue in cheek way which makes the book which deals with serious stuff, fun to read. It is like a guilty pleasure laughing my way through the book. The characters are characters of self and just over the top, wicked. There were two stories lines that intersected and how she wove it through the setting was successful. I personally like the southern California setting because that is where I live and I knew exactly what she meant. I recommend this book if you are looking for something fun, but over the top devilish too. It was a good one!

I was so looking forward to reading this book. The premise sounds really interesting. However, after reading 100 pages of the book, I lost my interest. The plot meanders a lot which has becomes repetitive. I am frustrated that this book wasn't for me.

Pub Date: Jan 18th. 2022

***Thank you Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

Julie is the perfect trophy wife. She lives a very privileged life with her super wealthy husband in a million dollar house at the Pacific Ocean. But one day she has enough of her loveless life. She packs up her seventeen year old daughter Jess and moves to a much smaller house she recently bought. Julie is so eager to start her new life that she agrees that the eldest son of the family who lived there before can stay in the carriage house for another couple of days. But it turns out that Tom is not willing to move out. He is angry at the world, at his father for letting him down. Jess is not happy about the situation. She is a spoiled rich kid who wants to keep her careless and luxury life as it is. But over the course of a weekend their lives will be changed forever.

I enjoyed “Best Day Ever” from the author and I was excited to read another book from her. I still enjoyed this one but I did not love it. There are multiple point of views but unfortunately they sound all the same. So there is a lot of telling and much of it is repetitive. This thriller is more on the slower side and could have done with lesser POVs and more action. It is still a quick and nice read and I would read another book from Kaira Rouda.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for providing me with this e-ARC.

Another thank you to @letstalkbookspromo for allowing me to join this tour!

Somebody’s Home is a multiple POV suspense thriller that takes place in a small but rich Southern California town. The main characters are Julie and Roger, their daughter, Jess, along with Sandi and her stepson, Tom. Together, these 5 lives will clash in an unsuspecting way one November weekend.

Julie and her daughter Jess are leaving Roger and starting over at a house across the tracks. After purchasing the house from Sandi and her husband Doug, Julie is excited to finally begin her new life, one free from Roger. Unfortunately, her new home isn’t quite so comforting yet, what with Tom still living in the carriage house. Sandi promised he’d be out by Sunday, but Tom has other plans. As each person’s story unravels, we’ll see them all come together in an unexpected way.

I have to be honest. This wasn’t my favorite thriller. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we only had one or two POVs, rather than 5. I think it would have worked better if we’d only seen into Tom and Julie’s lives for example. For me, it felt too much like the same person was speaking in every POV, which made it harder to remember who I was reading at the moment.

I did, however, enjoy the heavy topics included in this story. I feel like the author did a good job of giving us relatable characters, characters that a lot of people could connect with even if it’s because of their flaws. The ending left me quite shocked, as I didn’t expect everything to go down quite like that. Also, the build up was slow, and the ending felt a bit too rushed for my liking. Overall, this was an easy and fast read, but it left me wanting just a bit more.

Somebody’s Home releases January 18th!

Somebody’s Home is the latest thriller by Kaira Rouda. This is my 2nd attempt reading it so I am completely changing my review. This was a slow burn for me for the first 50% of the book (IMO) but after that, it really picked up speed. Julie was married to Roger who was a self-centered and controlling jerk. She decided to leave Roger and start a new life with their daughter Jess. Poor Jess didn’t want to move and Roger wanted them both to come back. A few things happened along the way that I won’t give away but it kept me on the edge of my seat.

This was a really quick and entertaining thriller. I enjoy all of the books by this author and this was one of my favorites. It was very fast paced and tense.
Quick synopsis: Julie has decided to leave her controlling and loveless marriage and along with her 18 year old daughter Jess moves to a new home across town. The home was previously occupied by a pastor along with his wife and three sons. The oldest son, an adult now, named Tom is from his first marriage and lives in the carriage house. Tom is supposed to vacate the house but he has no plans to do that. He feels the home belongs to him and can’t stand his father.

This is a must read for thriller lovers!

Big thank you to NetGalley for the early copy of this one

From my blog: Always With a Book:

I have been a fan of Kaira Rouda for quite a while now and I have to say, I am absolutely loving the new direction she is taking with her books. No one writes crazy, twisted characters like Kaira does!

This is the type of book where you just have to enjoy the ride…it’s a crazy, twisty one for sure and will definitely have you double-checking those locks when entering and leaving your home for a good long while. As a fan of unlikeable characters, Iwas in heaven! I’m not really sure if there were any I truly liked as they all had qualities I disliked and made questionable choices, but it’s like that car wreck that you just cannot turn away from and you need to keep watching to see how it ultimately plays out.

I think what really kept me engaged is the privilege here. It’s over-the-top at times and I found myself caught up in the drama of it all. Plus, the chapters were quick…the kind that just beg you to read one more and then another until you find yourself at the end before you know it.

This is definitely an addicting, binge-worthy type of read with such an entertaining plot. I loved how the different threads wove together, tangling in the most unbelievable of ways. If you enjoy domestic suspense, this is one not to be missed!

I know that there are polarizing reviews of this one--lots of people really loved this psychological thriller, but I'm joining in the group where this book just didn't work for me. I really liked Best Day Ever and The Favorite Daughter, but Somebody's Home felt clunky and underdeveloped.

The chapters rotate between a large cast of characters, which for me, caused them all to stay on the surface and never allowed us to get the depth of what was going on. There were so many "issues" and none of them were thoroughly explored. I never really understood why Julie left her husband (well, other than the fact that he was a controlling ass, but we never saw interaction between the two that made me root for her to escape him and get away. In fact, she barely moves a few miles away from him, so it wasn't really what I would call escaping. There was no restraining order, it was just oddly portrayed. I'm usually the first one to celebrate women getting away from horrible men, but I just didn't buy this one.

All of the characters were caricatures, living with their heads in the sand and never suffering any consequences for their choices or behavior. I didn't care at all for the stereotyping of religion in this one either, and even the white supremacist behavior was just surface level and readers never feel anything truly foreboding about it.

I'm just going to chalk this one up as a "miss" and will definitely read Rouda's books in the future, hoping this is a one-off dud.

I was absolutely excited for this book. I read this authors other book and couldn't wait for this one. Boy it did not disappoint. I loved how suspenseful this book was. Cant wait for more from this author.

This book is told from multiple POV's, so you get the story from different perspectives. You also get the sense that danger is lurking around every corner which gives it a suspenseful, page-turner feel. Unfortunately, all of the characters in this book are really unlikeable. It was difficult to feel any kind of empathy toward them, so by the end, you don't really care what happens to them. A good book with a lot of family drama and a good amount of suspense to keep you reading.

I enjoyed this one this story so much that I read it in 24 hours. The multiple points of view and seeing things from each character’s perspective was exciting and kept the story moving at a fast pace - I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I also really enjoyed that many of the characters were talking to themselves, in a way - they seemed to have inner voices reassuring them as they went along and that was really unique, at least to me. It was very different than anything I’ve ever read before and I like that. There were also parts that made me laugh out loud. All in all a perfect read! Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. It releases January 18, 2022.

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (books_by_the_bottle) shortly.