I love a good slow burn novel, but unfortunately this one was a bit too slow for my taste. The characters and the plot just didn't gel for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I had to DNF this book and I wish I didn’t… the book started off slow and it kept going down that path… The plot was interesting but not enough for me to keep going :(

This book was quite different from the neighborhood thrillers that I usually read, but I enjoyed all of the crazy twists, as over-the-top as they were.

Beth Bradford is a CIA analyst who appears to have it all, but her world suddenly comes crashing down after dropping her son off at college. Her house has been sold, her husband has decided he wants to end their marriage, and to make matters worse, she has been removed from a case that she’s been working on for fifteen years. Now a woman named Madeline has moved into her cul-de-sac home, and though she seems to be taking over what once was Beth’s perfect life, she suspects Madeline has ties to Iranian intelligence. From the moment Beth jumped to this conclusion, everything spiraled into a tangled web of suspicion where no one is to be trusted.

Overall, I thought the book was quite enjoyable and definitely intriguing at times, though the plot seemed a bit far-fetched. I did find the twists at the end surprising. I had my own suspicions, but the manner in which they panned out was still shocking.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing a copy of this book to review.*

2 stars

I honestly really didnt care for this book. it wasn't anything spectacular for me. It took me a few days to read and I had a hard time picking it back up when i put it down to go do something.

It was really slow going and seemed a little just off to me. I didn't like the main character and the fact that she has so much going on, being an empty nester, getting a divorce and selling her family home. To add to it she is being removed from the case she has been working for almost a decade. It just felt like too much and it wasn't for me.

thank you to netgalley and Ballantine for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 3.5 stars for a story that teases right to the end.

The cul de sac is full of families who work at the Agency as they call it, CIA that we call it. They raise their kids, have wine and fun together, but do we really know those we are close to?

Beth and hubby Mike bring their youngest off to college and come home to finish packing up their home as the movers are due to arrive. It turns out it is not just their home, but their lives they are packing up. Spoiler alert** Mike announces he is moving out, but not with her, which is not exactly a shock that he wasn't happy, but that he would leave just as she thought they'd have time to work on their relationship.

Going off to work, she learns she has been demoted off the case she has worked on for 15 years. She knows bits and pieces of the new intel, but is prohibited from learning more. That makes her decide to figure it out for herself. Who is the Neighbor? What cul de sac are they referring to- hers? What about the new family who moved into her house? Is Madeline the new neighbor in more ways than one?

At times it seems like she is seeing proof where there isn't any and it's obvious that some feel she is losing it or has already lost it with her allegations. Stick with it until the end. It's worth it.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

The narrator and hero, Beth, is both likable and unreliable. Like the characters she interacts with, we readers never can be sure whether to believe her and her claims about what’s going on. Conversely, we never can be sure she isn’t just about to “crash and burn” and lose absolutely everything. All of which adds to the tension of the

3.5 stars, actually.

My first thought when I finished this book? Thank goodness the story doesn't take place on a bigger cul-de-sac. If there'd been more neighbors to accuse, I don't think I could have made it to the end.

You see, CIA counterintelligence agent Beth Bradford has long been on the trail of a spy nicknamed "The Neighbor" - a person who has been recruited by an Iranian uber-spy solely for the purpose of recruiting others in and around the D.C. area (reminiscent of the popular TV show, "The Americans" starring Kerry Russell and Matthew Rhys). On a day-to-day basis, Beth lives a relatively normal life with her husband Mike; the last of their three children just took off for college and the empty-nesters are packing up to leave their beautiful but too-big home on a cul-de-sac near the Langley military facility where she works. Like Beth, at least one person in her half-dozen or so neighbors' families has ties to Langley operations, and they've all formed a close friendship over the years.

Until, that is, Beth's house is purchased by a youngish couple sight unseen, and clues turn up that suggest The Neighbor has ties to a cul-de-sac. Other clues lead Beth to suspect the wife may be the person she's been looking for - but out of the blue, she's unceremoniously yanked off the case and reassigned to another facility teaching new CIA recruits.

To say that doesn't sit well with Beth would be an understatement; instead of letting others take over "her" investigation, she begins a relentless obsession with proving herself right - even if she has to tromp on legal and ethical boundaries to do it (over and over again). Each time she finds a new target - the one who she's certain must be The Neighbor - her cycle of angst begins all over again, and her efforts to confirm her suspicions threatened to cross the line into silly. Very soon, I grew weary - especially since fairly early on I'd pretty much figured out one "twist" and had a pretty strong feeling about another (I was right on both counts).

Those issues, though, didn't keep me from being just as eager as Beth to unearth the truth - keeping me glued to the pages all the way to an end that's far more complex than either of us could have imagined. Overall, it's a fast-paced story that was fun to read - one I think many readers will very much enjoy. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the pre-release copy.

Book Review: ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴇɪɢʜʙᴏʀ ʙʏ ᴋᴀʀᴇɴ ᴄʟᴇᴠᴇʟᴀɴᴅ ⭐️⭐️

Feckless female on parade. 🤦🏼‍♀️

⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Beth is going through a lot - empty nest, marriage dissolving, loss of a coveted work position, but she’s convinced she is solving her case locating an elusive Iraqi intelligence operative called “The Neighbor” even though it’s no longer her case. Beth uncovers nothing but mystery in her quest to find “The Neighbor”, but perhaps “The Neighbor” is closer than she thinks…

💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: I’m disappointed because of my biggest pet peeve (my review readers know this) - weak, inadequate, female protagonists. I felt soooo disconnected from Beth. At 40% I was already 100% annoyed with Beth - how she was hired or worked for the CIA is beyond me. She holds no patience, no common sense, is inept, impulsive, and totally irrational - and I understand her life is upside down, but it’s the cliché of clichés: women are ruled by emotion. This woman is too “emotional” to do her CIA job. (Sigh)… so yet another “professional” woman who doesn’t act like a professional under emotional stress (Unless “nitwit” is a new profession?)

The book had so much potential, opportunities for red herrings, a great wealth of characters to make it a guessing game of possibility, but the frazzled, off-kilter Beth made me feel like I just needed a muscle relaxer and a shot of Jack to get her anxiety away from me.

The book salvaged a star and stayed in the “just ok” category because Cleveland does tell a good story, it’s just not for me.

𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆𝗠𝗮𝗴𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Mystery/Domestic Fiction

😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: If the feminist pet peeve of mine doesn’t bother you, you’re good!

🙅‍♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Those who abhor weak female protagonists.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for knowing how I roll and appreciating my honesty.

Thank you to @randomhouse and @netgalley for the eARC. The cover for this one is super spooky, so I was excited to read this one!

Beth Bradford starts of the book sending her youngest child off to college. She’s having a bit of empty nest syndrome, but is trying to take it in stride. She and her husband are selling the house they raised their children in and are moving on to the next stage of life.

Only, she’s dealt a mental blow upon arriving home. Then, when she goes to work she’s dealt another blow. As a CIA agent, Beth’s biggest case is taken away from her…the case she was planning to immerse herself in more deeply to avoid her empty-nest pangs.

This one was…good. It was what I’d call fine. I was a bit annoyed with Beth in many parts of this book, but I was also annoyed with other characters as well. If you’re a serial thriller reader then you’ll probably like this one, but not necessarily love it. Solid 3 stars for me.

Really really annoyed this book! I loved the CIA/FBI aspect of this. I thought this book did a great job of keeping me guessing-I always felt on the edge of my seat. When I thought I figured it out, it would I throw me another twist. I also really loved the short chapters.

In The New Neighbor, author Karen Cleveland returns to familiar territory. Her protagonist, Beth Bradford, is a CIA analyst working counterintelligence in a division dedicated to Iranian intelligence services. The focus of her efforts is Quds Force, Iran's external operations wing, and one of their high ranking commanders, Reza Karimi. The Agency has long believed Karimi is striving to gain undetected access to the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. If he succeeds, Quds Force will have "the keys to the kingdom" -- full access via the intranet to top secret information. "There's nothing more dangerous, from a national security perspective." It is believed that Quds Force has already planted malware in locations external to the intelligence community -- for example, in power plants -- that just needs to be activated. It's a project Beth has been working on for two decades and during that time, she has disrupted many attempts to breach security by ferreting out Karimi's recruits.

But one recruit has evaded Beth for fifteen years. Known as The Neighbor, he or she is an access agent, recruited for the purpose of recruiting others, usually foreign intelligence service employees who prove to be valuable assets because they are difficult to detect since no one suspects them of wrongdoing. Most of them have security clearances and access to sensitive information they can pass on to their handler. Over the years, numerous conversations have been intercepted, suggesting that Karimi is moving incrementally closer to his goal.

As the story opens, Beth's is navigating several simultaneous major life transitions. She and her husband, Mike, an attorney on track to become a partner in the law firm where he practices, have just sold their spacious home in the quiet cul-de-sac where they raised their three children and developed close ties to their neighbors. They no longer need such a large residence with both of their daughters, Aubrey and Caitlyn, finished with college. Aubrey is a teacher who has recently married. After graduating from Georgetown, Caitlyn has moved to London to work as a travel reporter. Beth and Mike take eighteen-year-old Tyler to the University of Virginia and get him settled into his dorm room, before returning home to spent their last night in the house. They have rented an apartment in which they will reside temporarily while looking for a smaller home. Or so Beth believes. Their marriage has been troubled for some time, but they have agreed that, as empty nesters, they will focus on repairing their relationship and she will have more time to devote to finally tracking down The Neighbor. Mike reveals, however, that he has other plans. He has already rented his own apartment and has no interest in saving the marriage. For the first time in twenty-five years, Beth will be completely on her own. She's far from heartbroken, acknowledging in the first-person narrative through which Cleveland relates her story, "The truth is, I don't want him. I just want the life we used to have."

To make matters worse, Beth's boss, Dale, informs her, "You've been selected for a position at the Kent School." She's not only been taken off The Neighbor case. She's being involuntarily transferred to a teaching position and her access to the relevant database, Frozen Piranha, has already been revoked. Her protests are futile, and Dale will not share details about the latest intercept with her. She is no longer authorized to receive information about the case to which she has devoted nearly twenty years of her career. But she does see "The cul-de-sac" noted on the whiteboard in the room where the team brainstorms. Her coworker, Annemarie, won't discuss her transfer or the case with her, warning her, "Let it go, Beth." Beth is devastated and feels that her once-blissful life is suddenly unraveling.

Returning to her house, one of several perfect homes in a quiet, serene cul-de-sac that has always felt welcoming and comforting, Beth instinctually senses that something is amiss. "Something seems off. I feel unsettled," she observes. The sale of the house is consummated and the buyers, Madeline and Josh Sterling, who purchased it sight unseen, take up residence immediately. Beth becomes obsessed with Madeline, however. She is convinced that Madeline is not the person she claims to be -- a kindergarten teacher turned stay-at-home mother to three young children. Her suspicions are fueled when she observes a large gun safe being moved into the house, spies a vase of red roses on a table in the living room (a signal used by Iranian intelligence agents since the red rose is the national flower of Iran), and hears Madeline speaking in Farsi. Could Madeline be The Neighbor and the cul-de-sac referenced in the intercept the very street on which Beth lived for so many years?

Rather than accept the Agency's decision to unassign her from the case, Beth employs reckless means to continuing gathering information. She spends a great deal of time surveilling her former home and its new owners, following them, and even resorts to lying to a colleague to obtain a report she is no longer authorized to review. The latest intercept? "The Neighbor has found a new cul-de-sac."

To her former neighbors and friends, as well as her colleagues, Beth appears to be having an emotional breakdown that has caused her to become obsessed not only with the purchasers of her former home, but the other inhabitants of the cul-de-sac. But from Beth's perspective, she is determined to uncover the truth about Madeline and ascertain the identity of The Neighbor before it is too late to stop Karimi from breaching protocols and harming the nation's security interests. Although she recognizes that she is behaving in ways that appear erratic to others and taking chances that jeopardize her career, she explains that the potential benefits far outweigh the risks. Beth has never lost sight of the intercept that got her interested in the case so many years ago: "Remind The Neighbor to use the children." She recalls. "Using children to accomplish goals -- that was a bridge too far," It was the impetus for her commitment to the mission to stop Karimi and Beth will not be dissuaded, even when she finds herself in danger.

Cleveland has once again crafted a tensely gripping thriller that proceeds at a consistently rapid pace. Beth is an unreliable narrator, and Cleveland deftly heightens the suspense by causing readers to question whether she is correct when she insists that "the ends justify the means. Everyone lies." Are her colleagues correct to be concerned about her emotional well-being or is she being subjected to workplace misogyny, marginalized and stripped of her responsibilities because of a stereotypical, arcane notion that a "hysterical" woman is inappropriately acting out? Beth remembers happier days when her children were young, describing how she was introduced to the neighbors who became her best friends, especially Alice, the federal judge who lives next door, and fondly recalling all the evenings spent sitting in lawn chairs in the cul-de-sac drinking wine, gossiping, and watching the children play. She also is reminded of specific conversations that did not seem particularly significant at the time but, in hindsight, contained clues to who might be the recruiter. As her rogue investigation proceeds, Beth suspects nearly all of her neighbors at various junctures, most of whom also work at the CIA. In light of the evidence she uncovers, she questions whether any of her neighbors were true friends or if, rather, they befriended her only to further an agenda. And she suffers horrible betrayals. She employs unconventional and unethical means to attempt to elicit confessions as she inches closer to learning the identity of The Neighbor.

Cleveland's clever story is contemporary and timely. In addition to illustrating the sexism to which Beth is subjected, Cleveland injects the well-publicized vulnerabilities of both governmental and corporate data storage systems and the U.S. power grid, and the ongoing student loan crisis also figures into the story. The evidence Beth discovers is nothing less than terrifying and, based upon Cleveland's background, believable. She credibly demonstrates the ingeniously diabolical lengths to which America's enemies will go in order to accomplish their goals.

Ultimately, Cleveland convincingly affirms that U.S. interests depend upon security professionals living up to the oath they swear to defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, especially traitors lurking among their ranks. And that it is not possible to ever really know or wise to blindly trust one's neighbors, no matter how beautiful and idyllic your cul-de-sac may seem.

CIA analyst Beth Bradford has it all, or does she? She is hit with a divorce she didn't see coming, but she should have. Her kids have all moved out, off to collage, living a life of their own. She is a dedicated CIA analyst, and she thinks she's at the top of her game. Until..... Can she put some of the pieces of her life back together so that she can move on, or will she destroy herself?

I enjoy a great neighborhood thriller and this one had all the makings of what sounded like a great one. A CIA agent on a mission? Count me in. However, it was a slow burn and never quite did it for me. I did not like or connect with the main character at all. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me.

Beth is a CIA analyst that has spent the past several years looking for an Iranian spy with the code name “The Neighbor.” She has dedicated her life to finding this person and is surprised when she is pulled from the team. Amidst the changes at work Beth is also experiencing several changes at home- an empty nest, selling the family home and marriage problems. Before Beth can truly move on and out of her cul de sac she becomes suspicious of the new family that has moved in to her home, especially the wife. Her tenacity will not allow her to walk away. Could this actually be the person she has spent the last few years searching for?

There are so many twists and turns in this story that I might have whiplash! I really enjoy Karen Cleveland’s books because of her insight and the realism she brings to the story. This one was a little off the mark for me. Unlike her other books this one seemed unrealistic. I appreciated Beth’s determination but I just couldn’t understand many of her actions.. The epilogue was not what I was expecting or how I had wanted the story to end. That being said it was an action packed thriller from start to finish.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley

3 ⭐️

Karen Cleveland is one of my favorite thriller authors and I’m always super excited for a new release! The New Neighbor is about CIA analyst Beth Bradford who has spent the last 15 years trying to track down an Iranian intelligence agent known as The Neighbor.

As things fall apart in Beth’s life, she’s removed from the case but she’s unable to let it go. She knows she’s close to finally finding The Neighbor.

Without giving any spoilers, I’ll say this wasn’t my favorite Cleveland book (read Need to Know and You Can Run IMMEDIATELY if you haven’t already!!) but it did keep me guessing and compelled to keep reading and see how it would end.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

The New Neighbor is a classic who-dun-it in a kind of Hallmark Movie format. Your "typical" CIA mom returns from vacation to find everything in her life twisted and turned upside down. Beth's kids are all leaving or have left home, the home itself is being sold, she is summarily dumped from her fifteen-year pursuit of a counterintelligence target, her personal and professional relationships all seem to be unraveling faster than she can process. But Beth is nothing if not strong and she fights through it all to save her country from a villainous attack years in the making while forging a new path for her new life. The New Neighbor is not a great genre thriller, but it is definitely an entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC.

This book was a wild ride for me. I didn't quite care for the first 50%...it was slow for me, and I really didn't like the main character Beth. She was convinced that she knew a lot of different things, but I was not convinced, and therefore I didn't like the multiple ways that she acted so unethically and with blatant disregard to anyone's privacy. I mean, I know that's what characters do when they think they're going to "solve their case' or whatever might be happening in the story...I just felt that she never showed any real emotions about anything happening in her life, and her only solution was to spy on people and drink wine with almost no repurcussions whatsoever. It just didn't sit right with me.

I enjoyed the last 50% of the book more. It moved super quick, and got very twisty. However, there were so many twists that I felt like I didn't even get to sit with one and think it through before the next one was coming, and that kind of took away the general surprise factor that would've been there. I did like the very ending, which I found the most surprising, but the rest of the book was either too fast paced, or too slow paced, and at times there was a lot of technical CIA/FBI stuff that I had a hard time following,

I'll admit, I don't read spy-type CIA/FBI books often, so this one might have just not been what I'm used to, and I can definitely see how someone who is more familiar with this type of book or either of the agencies in general might enjoy it a lot more. I did mostly enjoy the second half of the book, and I would recommend it to individuals who, again, like reading this style of book. However, I tend to like books with more emotional and character development, and this one almost had too much going on that I didn't care enough about, and not enough going on that I actually did care about, so it just wasn't personally for me.

I could not put this book down! Beth seems to have her life perfectly in order. As she drops her youngest son off to college, she and her husband return home to finish packing up their house as they are downsizing. To her surprise, things are not going as planned. Her husband announces that he is leaving her and moving to a separate place. Reeling from this surprise, she goes to work only to find all her things packed up as she has been reassigned to a teaching position instead of her normal duties as a CIA analyst. Most of her friends and neighbors revolve around her career at Langley. With her life in tatters, Beth catches a glimpse of the woman who has purchased her house. It seems to Beth that this woman has taken over the life she once had. She tries to maintain her friendships, but people are acting strangely around her. At work, she tries to continue her work on her target without access to parts of information she is used to working with. There are many twists and turns in this gripping novel and you will not be disappointed!

Also reviewed on B&N under 1IrishEyes430 and Kobo under IrishEyes430

The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland is a fast paced spy mystery set in a sleepy cul-de-sac. CIA Analyst Beth, everything is changing: her youngest child is off to college, her home is on the market, and she’s been kicked off the case that has defined her career. As she settles into her new life, she can’t let the case or her neighborhood go, and the deeper she digs, the more the two intersect.

Told in flashback style, Cleveland does a good job mixing Beth’s investigative suspicions with clues from her past. As everyone becomes a suspect and the truth is revealed, the plot jumps around more than it needed to but I liked the way the story wrapped up and set the stage for potential sequels. Overall a fun summer read for fans of spy novels and quick gripping reads.

I read another book by Karen Cleveland that I loved, Need to Know, so I was excited to read this one as well. But I was very disappointed. I can hardly believe it was written by the same author.

I spent a lot of the time while reading this shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the unbelievable stupidity and downright foolishness of the protagonist, Beth Bradford, a woman who has been working as an analyst at the CIA for many years, chasing down an Iranian spy network operating in the U.S. Far from the meticulous, carefully thought out behavior you’d expect from someone in this position, she reminded me of a teenager, prone to simplistic thinking and emotional outbursts. This sometimes led to crazy behaviors like divulging classified information to unauthorized people and jumping to wild conclusions based on the tiniest slivers of dubious information. For example, at one point she believes she has discovered the identity of a dangerous enemy agent, so she agrees to meet him alone in the woods in the middle of the night to confront him and thinks he might confess all to her while she secretly tapes it. What?!
Her wildly irrational behavior was the opposite of what I’ve always imagined an intelligence agent would do. At least I hope I’m not wrong. Yikes! What is scary is that the author used to be an analyst at the CIA. Is this the reality of what is going on in the CIA?! Another scary thought is that in this story, it was so darned easy for the Iranian spy network to convince recruited government employees to commit treason. Of course, people can be threatened or bribed, but that so many of them caved to the pressure was unbelievable. If this were realistic, the CIA would be riddled with traitors and our national intelligence would be worthless. Also, after being caught doing all kinds of illegal and frankly criminal things to continue an investigation she had been been barred from, there is no fallout when some of what she discovered is proven right. It’s no big deal that she illegally accessed top secret intelligence information and manipulated people to do it. It all water under the bridge. Again…Yikes!
When I first began reading, I had hopes that maybe this weird behavior was actually a clever ruse to throw people off and that she had a plan that made sense. Unfortunately, this was not the case.