This was my first Karen Cleveland book and I really enjoyed it. Beth Bradford is a CIA analyst married to a lawyer living in a beautiful house with their 3 kids on a cul-de-sac near CIA headquarters. She is very friendly with the other families living on the cul-de-sac and most of them work for the government. Beth has been working on a case for many years tracking The Neighbor - someone sharing classified information with the Iranians. Her life starts unraveling when she is abruptly removed from the case, her marriage falls apart, and she and her soon-to-be ex-husband sell their home after their youngest child goes off to college. Beth can’t let go of the case she was removed from and becomes suspicious of Madeline Sterling - the woman who bought and just moved into her former home. But many of Beth’s former neighbors have been keeping secrets for many years, and one of them could be The Neighbor too. The story moves back and forth in time as Beth remembers events of the past that she now realizes are tied to her case. The book was hard to put down and I recommend reading it when it’s published in July. Thanks to #netgalley #ballantinebooks and #karencleveland for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was an fascinating look at the kind of work an analyst for the CIA does. Our main character and her family live on a cul de sac that a dangerous operative also lives on. After they sell their house things get interesting in her old neighborhood.

This book started out slow for me, I tend to not love a book with many character introductions within the first few pages as it tends to make remembering them harder. As the book went on it was key to the set up of the cul de sack and development of characters to do it the way it was done and I ended up really enjoying this book.
Lots of twists and turns, some a little predictable once you go back to the introduction of characters, but still it was very enjoyable and once I got into the book I breezed through it. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Beth lived the perfect life. With her husband and three children, they lived on a cul-de-sac where all the families gathered together in the evening to watch the kids play. All the kids grew up together. All the families work for the government and everyone loves their jobs. The perfect life for all, until it wasn’t! Beth and Mike sell their home in the cul-de-sac as their last child goes to college. Mike announces that he is not moving to the rental with Beth, as he is leaving her, and for some reason she has been released from her duties of finding a mole that is assisting the Iranians to access the U.S. intelligence system that she has been looking for 15 years.

The story is told from the perspective of Beth, as such you the reader know she is not crazy, however the author does a good job of also showing you the perspective from everyone else, which from their perspective, Beth has cracked under pressure. She begins to see the mole in the person that purchased her house, then in an old neighbor, then a different old neighbor, etc. In the end, she identifies the mole, and thwarts this malicious attempt, but will there be other attempts? Beth is sure there will be, as there is a new mole.

The author did do a great job of leading the reader astray and providing he logical explanation for why what the clue appeared to be wasn't what you were led to believe. Good character development, you truly felt what Beth was feeling, without frequently saying what she was feeling.

I really like this author and the premise of this book was interesting. I did feel it fell flat in the middle and could have had better pacing but overall a quick read! Thanks for letting me review this book to Netgalley and the publisher

This book was a fairly quick read. While following along with CIA agent Beth, we tried to discover who "The Neighbor" is. The main character Beth was not particularly likeable and honestly just annoyed me throughout the book. The book was kind of slow to start and in the end left we wanting to read more to figure out who this neighbor is. Overall, I would say this is a decent read and I'd say if you like mysteries you might go for it.

I am grateful to NetGalley, the author Ms. Cleveland and Ballantine Books for providing this ARC novel.

I read the previous novels in this loosely-connected series and was really looking forward to this entry, hoping for perhaps some interaction between the interesting women who featured in the other stories. I read it and had to stew a bit about my thoughts. I ended up feeling quite angry about the characters and their actions.

Our heroine is having an empty nest crisis with her husband and her children. Then, she is demoted from her supposedly-important intelligence posting . . . yet she tells us it’s been years since she uncovered any helpful or actionable data. Huh? So she freaks out and decides to investigate for herself, with plenty of out-of-office time to follow people, break plenty of laws getting to classified information, and generally accuse everyone around her of being traitors.

And what a bunch of losers these long-time friends are! All elite senior level government bureaucrats, they find it easy to betray their country for money. Victims of that horrible college debt load or cost of IVF, they are easy targets for the Russians.

Nobody comes out of this looking good from the outside. The story is interesting and there are several twists that I didn’t see coming. I just felt very depressed at the decline in responsibility and faith in our intelligence community. If that was the author’s goal, she accomplished it, but it doesn’t bode well for our future.

2 stars

I just reviewed another book saying how much I love police procedurals, so I feel a little weird here now, but the CIA / spy aspect of this just didn't do it for me. I liked our main character, Beth, a lot - or, I guess I should say I loved reading about her choices and thoughts, because she was wild & made a lot of decisions I don't think I would've. But overall I felt that the actual plot and things that the story was hinging on weren't engaging enough for me - I guess my line is somewhere between cop & CIA, who would've thought?


This was my first book by the author and, since I really did enjoy everything other than the main big crucial point / involvement, I'd definitely check more out by her & am not rating this low bc I recognize that the dislike of CIA stuff is a very "me" thing - I fully believe other people will enjoy this one!!

CIA analyst, Beth Bradford, has lost just about everything — her kids have moved out, her husband left her, she’s leaving the home she raised her kids in, and she gets back from vacation to find out she’s been taken off the case that’s been her life’s work. Now she’s stalking the new woman who bought her house, doubting all of her lifelong friends, and breaking all the rules at work — maybe she’s losing all she has left: her dignity and her mind.

This book was FUN. I’m not sure I would call it thriller, so much as I would label it mystery/suspense, but it was a quick + engaging spy novel and I had a blast reading it. I could picture the cul-de-sac so specifically and loved piecing the puzzle together alongside Beth. I think I would’ve loved if she went more rogue and used her class of analysts at The Kent School to help her solve even more of the mystery than the one thing she had them do.

Did I guess the twist and the double twist? Ugh, yes. That seals in the 3 star rating. Plus there were some loose ends I would’ve loved to see get wrapped up, but it was nothing that detracted from the book too much! But truly, all in all it was a delight! I love CIA-focused content and the fact that the author worked for the CIA made it even better.

This was the first book I’ve read by Karen Cleveland, and I’ve already added her others to my TBR list. The New Neighbor is a page turner, full of twists that will keep you guessing right to the end.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by our author and what a pleasant surprise it was! I really liked it, and will for sure be checking out her other books, both past and future. Rounding up to a five on this one.

CIA analyst Beth Bradford is removed from a case she has been working on for years and years right at the same time her marriage is falling apart, she is becoming an empty nester, and she is moving away from her friends that she has grown close to in her neighborhood. Most of the families that have grown so close all have ties to the CIA and are all keeping their own secrets. Beth begins to wonder if the case she has been so invested in for so long has ties to the neighborhood she is now leaving. Maybe it won’t be easy for her to walk away from the case.

There is something about a book like this where in the beginning you’re paying attention to each detail wondering if it will be important or be an obvious sign of something you missed down the road. I think it really helps to build the suspense and wonder. Initially I was worried I wouldn’t have enough knowledge for the CIA & FBI terms being used and jobs that were being introduced, but that passed very quickly and I was almost immediately drawn into and hooked on the story itself. It wasn’t too technical that it lost the entertainment factor. I really enjoyed the characters and found them interesting along with their jobs and families. This was one that kept me guessing the whole time and I was quite impressed with the ending.

Thank you to our author and Ballantine Books of Random House Publishing Groups for an eARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 'The New Neighbor' will be available tentatively on 8-30-22 according to information inside of the NetGalley book, 7-26-22 on NetGalley in the book summary, and 7-26-22 per Goodreads. I hope if you pick it up you enjoy it as much as I did.

Good book, I enjoyed and it kept me guessing. I was pretty sure I knew who the neighbor was but, you don't know until YOU KNOW! Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Beth Bradford was a dedicated professional in counter intelligence for the CIA, on the hunt for an elusive IRanian organization recruiting neighborhood spies in a cul-de-sac outside of Langley all in a plan to bring the US government to its knees. You would never know it. The Beth we meet has just been let go after 14 years on the plot and she has instantly fallen apart inside and out, along with the job, her marriage and her neighborhood. If the phrase “new neighbor’ was a drinking game I would have been passed out by page 15. She’s the new neighbor! No he’s the new neighbor! The new neighbor is down the street! . Everyone’s the new neighbor! As 99 percent of the neighbors work for the CIA or FBI, everyone, and I really mean everyone is a suspect. This is a domestic noir and the casual reader will realize the villain halfway through but we are driven to finish and discover an interesting epilogue suggesting a sequel. I didn’t find this novel at all plausible but it was my first foray into a new genre of domestic noir spy thriller.

This was the first time I've read from Karen Cleveland, and I have to say I was impressed. She had me guessing and flipping pages wondering what was going to happen next. I liked the twists and turns and being on the journey with the main character . I also enjoyed the flashbacks and how everything led up to the final moments. This is a great book if you're into CIA conspiracies and intrigue.

This book started out strong, but fell super flat in the middle where it was hard to keep me interested. I am glad I kept reading for the ending / epilogue, but definitely not my favorite read lately.

And so who's minding the store?

Apparently not Beth Bradford, CIA Iranian Intelligence officer at the headquarters in Virginia.

Back up the bus and try to parallel park this one in a tight spot. 'Cause Beth is having a bit of difficulty here. Beth, wife/mother, has been working at the CIA on a particular case involving a dangerous threat to our national security for over seventeen years. Iranian Reza Karimi, a Quads Force commander, has been trying to infiltrate U.S. Security through one of his operatives called "The Neighbor". Beth has been hitting brick walls while trying to break through all of this for years.It appears that we may be dealing with a homegrown variety.

And life is shifting the once stable ground for Beth and her family. With the last child off to college, Beth and her husband of twenty-five years decide to sell their spacious home. Only Mike has been honest about their failing marriage and he's moving on. Beth clutches tightly to the memories on that cul-de-saq and can't quite let go. And, believe me, it's affecting her.

This emotional turmoil is leaving Beth so unsettled that it's now costing her a transfer out of her Iranian Intelligence Unit. She's farmed out to the Kent School for the CIA where she's teaching intelligence analysis. Beth doesn't give 100% there either and dismisses her students early almost on a daily basis.

Beth now suspects the woman who bought her house on the cul-de-saq to be the operative known as "The Neighbor". She's even taken to sitting in the shadows at night staking out her old house. Beth's life is no longer finely buttoned up. The threads are unraveling. Her boss won't even consider Beth's accusations.

The New Neighbor had elements here that could have skyrocketed. When an author chooses a very weak unbelievable central character to carry out the storyline, weakness just leaves splotches all over the place. At no time did I buy into Beth's capabilities as a CIA intelligence agent. She dispensed excuses and trivialities like a vending machine. With this being Women's History Month, please give us a female who is on top of her game and extremely professional in her deliverance of her duties.......no matter what. And lacking that, we were left with a vapid read that went nowhere. Truth is truth.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Random House (Ballantine Books) and to Karen Cleveland for the opportunity.

Thank you to Ballantine & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I love the cover of this book it really grabbed my attention.
This drew me in right from the start. Had me turning pages fast wanting to know what would happen next. Kept me guessing and changing my mind who was the neighbor the entire time. Then ended with a Great twist.
It’s true you will do Anything to protect your kids
Now I want to live on a cul de sac& work for the agency!
I have posted this review on my Goodreads profile

I’ve enjoyed all of Ms. Cleveland’s books and was very excited to get an early look at it. It did not disappoint. The twists and turns kept me guessing — and Beth the protagonist as well. It was a little tiresome that a smart CIA agent would emphatically accuse different characters one after the other of being the bad guy. But the resolution was clever and and the kicker at the end was even better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my ARC of this stellar novel. As it turns out, Karen Cleveland herself is a former CIA analyst which makes the backdrop of this story all the more realistic. Loved the plot and how you’re constantly guessing who the “Neighbor” is. Worth the read. To hit bookshelves July 26th 2022!

Perfect neighborhood, idyllic family, purposeful career. CIA analyst Beth Bradford appears to have it all. Until she moves out of her forever family home on the brink of divorce right when her son goes off to college. Beth is moving from the cul-de-sac she’s long called home, and the CIA has just removed her from the case that she’s been tracking for 10+ years: monitoring an Iranian intelligence agent known as The Neighbor.

This book gave me some “Woman in The Window” vibes since Beth appears to have an alcohol issue early on in the novel. Is she an unreliable narrator? I loved the whodunnit chase of trying to figure out who’s behind this on their cul-de-sac, no one can be trusted and everyone is suspect. If you are looking for a fun, fast-paced mystery, this move is worth a read. I’ve never read any of her other books, but it appears she writes a lot about CIA with personal experience to tout.

The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland tells the story of a group of neighbors who are passing secrets to Iran and trying to break into the CIA network. Wow! What a creative story. Loved the characters and the plot kept getting better the more I read. Will definitely look to reading more from this author. I couldn’t put the book down I wanted the book to keep going. I will definitely recommend this book. Thanks for letting me review this book.