I like Karen Cleveland novels, and suspense / mysteries. Not a huge fan of CIA novels as it turns out. Overall I would recommend for someone who likes all of the above!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

This book was so slow that I skimmed through the beginning and almost DNF’ed it. It started picking up about halfway through and I really tried to like it but it was very repetitious.

Beth, a CIA agent, is a narcissistic character that I hated throughout the book. She had spent over fifteen years trying to find “The Neighbor” who is a spy within the CIA. She’s suddenly transferred to a new department and locked out of The Neighbor investigation. Beth can’t let go and decides to investigate on her own terms without the CIA knowing about it but The Neighbor knows she’s snooping around and will do anything to try and stop her.

I found myself confused around the end of the book and really struggled to finish it. I feel like the book had so much potential but there weren’t any “oh my god!” twists or suspense, it was rather dull.

The premise of this was fantastic, unfortunately the delivery was a little off.

I found that whole "woman goes crazy" thing was a bit overplayed and something that turns me off. The pacing was also super off - it was a slow build, then crazy fast paced, then slow, then haphazzardly finished.

I just feel like thrillers anymore are fantastic or let me down and I found this one to let me down.

I can't remember the last time I read a novel involved the CIA. This book has a good flow to the story with Beth being the center, an agent hanging on to the case she was taken off involuntarily. Lots of good conversations and believable storylines. Friendship, marriage and neighbors, all relationships are put into test. The truth won't be revealed until the last page and not one you expected either.

I was so excited for this book after reading the synopsis - I studied global studies and global terrorism in college, so a CIA story about an Iranian spy operation seemed right up my alley. The suspense of neighborhood drama had so much potential but this story fell *incredibly* flat for me.

First of all, the details of the intelligence operation had me rolling my eyes. It is so unrealistic that an Iranian operative would have been living right under a CIA counterintelligence agent's nose for 17 years that the premise became almost laughable. The story just became more and more ridiculous as the book went on, rather than becoming more suspenseful. There was one small reveal at the very end that I liked, but otherwise I wish I DNFed this.

I also had a problem with the way the narrator was portrayed as unreliable. She is a powerful woman with a lot of career success who just happens to be going through a hard time, and I feel like that was really monopolized against her to try to make the reader distrust her. I am just REALLY over portraying women with mental health/substance abuse issues as unreliable simply because of their mental health struggles. Ugh.

All in all, I really wish I'd passed on this book - I was unimpressed, and would not recommend it to anyone.

Maybe it's the current state of affairs in the world, but this book bummed me out. It started slower and picked up the pace with lots of spy action, but the CIA vs Russian intelligence and Iranian agents just started to feel a little too real and not as cathartic as I expected.

I know others will like the main character as she comes into herself and goes fully rogue from work (how dare the CIA pull her from a case she's been forever just when it started to click for her!) and life in general when her last kid heads off to college and her husband says it's finally time for divorce. Not sure if it was just me and my annoyance at her basicness or what, but Beth made being a spy so dull for me and I just felt removed from her for the majority of the story. I almost quit in the middle because I got bored, but I kept going and the end was bonkers enough to make up for it.

If you want a spy thriller that feels a bit more grounded than 007, but you still want to be a little shook up at the end this is the book for you.

FANTASTIC, FAST PACED, FABULOUS! What a book!
First off it took me about half way through the book to order Karen’s other books. I need to know why I had not heard of her before this book?! More people people need to start talking about her.

We start the book with things going all wrong for our lead character Beth: kids moved away, husband leaving, and she gets reassigned from her case she’s been working on for 15 years. You follow Beth becoming more obsessed with her old case and finally getting the break shes needed but with no help from the CIA. Oh Beth - the woman becomes slighlty un-hinged and made me nervous with her every move. (Ok fine I started acting like Beth because I could NOT put this down — I needed answers!) Beth and I both HAD to know the answer to who is the person she has been looking for - for 15 years.

Great writing that was easy to read and understand. Interesting cast of characters. One main timeline but with helpful flashbacks to before where the story starts. Stunning ending that you won’t see coming.

5 stars - Get this book pre-ordered today! Book out July 26, 2021

Thank you Random House Publishing Group & Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Book currently reviewed on goodreads. Will be added to my social accounts in my March recap and will promote the book with review in July.

Beth is not having a good day. Her youngest son started college and she and her husband Mike have sold their now too big family home. A lifetime's worth of memories was packed into boxes but those were expected. The ones at Beth’s office however definitely are not. She has lost her analyst job at the CIA because she hasn't identified her target in the 15 years she has been looking. Not fired just moved to a much less classified area but to Beth, losing her focus on the target known as The Neighbor is just too much.

When Mike tells her their marriage is over, a crappy day just went farther off the rails. Sigh. I'm going to say now that I don't know what it was about Beth, but I just never warmed up to her. She's kind of glad Mike is gone because now she can focus exclusively on finding The Neighbor. Yep, even though she's off the team, has lost her security clearance, and made some rash assumptions, nothing will get her to give up. I don't know but if I got kicked to the curb and demoted, I think I'd probably give up. But maybe a real CIA agent would not? I've read some truly convenient and bizarre plots because after all, I'm reading fiction, right. But the identity of The Neighbor, how Beth tracks them down, and the ending just had me rolling my eyes.

I don't want this to sound negative because there were things I enjoyed. Wanting to figure out who was a good guy and who was bad meant I was never bored. But I just also never wound up caring about Beth, her career, or The Neighbor. Sorry Beth, lots of other reviewers seemed to like your story. So maybe it is just me.

3.5 stars. This book was an absolute trip and I felt like I was going through lunacy with the main character. It was a quick read and kept me interested but I think the twists should be spaced out more. Once you get one twist you don’t have time to process before the next one comes and you can easily get confused… but maybe that was the point?
This looks like it might be a series and I see the setup for the next book, which I’ll read, because the characters drove me insane and I need answers.

3/5 - When CIA analyst Beth's last child goes off to college, she and her husband separate and sell their longtime home in Langly suburbs. Beth is soon taken off her primary case, "The Neighbor", with little explanation, and quickly becomes fixated on the buyers of her former home as her new primary suspect.

This was a fun read, but I must say I am so tired of the trope of smart, accomplished female characters making bad decisions time and time again. I found it unbelievable that a CIA analyst with decades of experience would be so reckless & irresponsible - it became grating throughout the book. And the element of "sad woman who has lost everything and is now drinking too much and everyone thinks she is crazy" felt tired, as well. Overall it was an enjoyable (if not believable) read. The twists were fun, the setting was great, and the small community of interconnected characters was compelling.

How well do any of us truly know our neighbors? I was hooked from prologue. This book has everything you want in a thriller. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, there’s another twist and turn. This is definitely a must read!

A fast paced story of intrigue in this gripping thriller.
It seems like Beth has everything - lives in an idyllic neighborhood, starting her life as an empty nester and then her world collapses. It’s hard to tell if Beth is being paranoid because she is so entrenched in the world of espionage that she can’t look at reality.
I loved all the twists and turns and found the book hard to put down. I would definitely recommend it.

Karen Cleveland did not disappoint at all with this story. Lots of twists and turns. I definitely would recommend this to friends who enjoy reading spy thrillers.

Absolutely enthralling! Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this free galley of The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland.
This is the first novel I have had the pleasure of reading penned by Karen Cleveland but I can assure you it will not be the last.
The story centers around CIA counterintelligence agent, Beth Bradford, and her search for a mole for Iranian Quds Force known only as The Neighbor.
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The first day of the novel focuses on Beth's empty nest, selling her home and ending her long-term marriage. Things only go downhill from there. She learns she has been removed from the case focusing on finding the indenity of The Neighbor. Does this character fall under the pressure of all of these life-changing events? Heck no! She refuses to give up her search even when it leads her to her own cul-de -sac and her group of friends, when her job is threatened or even when her own life is in jeopardy.
This is one heart-pounding, thrill ride of a book and is not to be missed.

Buckle your seat belts. You are about to take a bumpy ride. I literally read this in one setting. Beth Bradford raised her children in the ideal cul-de-sac. While the kids were playing outside, the moms would visit in their lawn chairs. Dads in the background, drinking cold brews. The kids are grown now, Beth's son is off to college. The Bradford family is selling the house and downsizing. After dropping her son off at college, the floor falls out from under her. She goes to work (at the CIA) and she has been removed from her case she has worked for 15 years. She goes home to find that instead of spending the last night in the house with her husband, she finds that he is leaving her. Her home and work life are in disarray. She throws herself in to solving the case she has been working for 15 years, even though she has been kicked off the case. At times, you may think she has lost her ever loving mind!! This book will take you on twists and turns and the ending will be just as shocking as the ride.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for allowing me to read this book and give my honest opinion.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC! I went into this book pretty blind, but I ended up being so pleasantly surprised.

Beth Bradford is going through a lot of change. She's been recently made an empty nester, her and her husband (who's also leaving her) are moving out of their beloved home and neighborhood, and she has just found out she's been taken off a case she's dedicated her life to for more than 15 years at the CIA.

One of those aspects alone is enough to make a woman feel a little disoriented, but combined, Beth's life goes into a complete tailspin. She is determined to stay on the case, and our nation's security is literally depending on her.

I absolutely loved that Beth was a CIA analyst, I feel like often in these types of books, the husband is the big shot, high security clearance career man. Beth was so competent and dedicated-- definitely one of those times you want to scream at every other character for not listening to her! But at the same time, I second guessed if I should be listening to her too?? Haha I highly recommend picking this one up when it comes out on July 28.

I rated this five stars, which I don't often do! A five star read for me is one that grips me until the very end, seems like a unique story line that I haven't heard before and has me thinking about it when I'm not reading it! This checked all those boxes and then some!

At first this story was intriguing, then the middle fell a little flat, and the ending was all over the place. From the middle of the book on, I thought this was going to be another “main character as a woman goes crazy and needs a psych eval because no one believes her and thinks she’s crazy” which put me off. It wasn’t that though.. Was Beth Bradford acting unstable? Sure, but she had many things happening in her life to cause her to be that way. I enjoyed the ending up until the epilogue, when you find out what you’ve been trying to figure out with Beth since the story started. Overall, an enjoyable read that keeps you turning the pages to figure out what is happening.

Karen Cleveland has done it again! The New Neighbor is a great thriller, surrounding the main character Beth, a CIA analyst. Her life gets upended when she divorces and gets rid of her house. A new neighbor moves in and Beth starts to think this woman has ties to Iranian intelligence. All of the neighbors seem suspicious throughout the book, and it kept me wanting to read until the very end!

The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland


Idyllic neighborhood, perfect family, meaningful career. CIA analyst Beth Bradford has it all—

Until she doesn't.

Now, facing an empty nest and a broken marriage, Beth is moving from the cul-de-sac she’s long called home, and the CIA is removing her from the case that’s long been hers: tracking an elusive Iranian intelligence agent known as The Neighbor.

Madeline Sterling moves into Beth’s old house. She has what Beth once had: an adoring husband, three beautiful young children, and the close-knit group of neighbors on the cul-de-sac. Now she has it all. And Beth—who can’t stop watching the woman stepping in to her old life—thinks the new neighbor has something else too: ties to Iranian intelligence.

Is Beth just jealous? Paranoid? Or is something more at play?

After all, most of the families on the cul-de-sac have some tie to the CIA. They’re all keeping secrets. And they all know more about their neighbors than they should. It would be the perfect place to insert a spy—unless one was there all along.
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Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The New Neighbor. Wow I loved this book! I loved that I never quite knew who was suspicious throughout the whole book. I couldn’t stop reading this book and it truly kept me on my toes without being too scary. Loved!
5⭐️

I grew up in a neighborhood similar to the one described in this novel, and the early characterization of the relationship among the neighbors felt real and believable. While at times it was a challenge to keep track of who was who, the book was enjoyable overall. I guessed correctly who The Neighbor might be, knowing that those most touted as being guilty probably were not. The view of the inner workings of the CIA structure was interesting. Not the most intriguing book, but it held my interest and was worth the read.