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.

Beth had the perfect life. A wonderful husband and three children, two girls and a boy. Her youngest kid just went to college in Virginia and she is now feeling so alone. Her marriage is nothing like it used to be and her work is now taking her off a case she has put so much time and effort into. Beth feels like the whole world is passing her by and she is just stuck in time in her life where nothing is going right. She is determined to solve the case and put herself back in the game. Will she be successful? I was given an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Meet Beth, a mother and wife who works for the CIA- and for the last 15 years has become obsessed with finding a spy referred to as "the Neighbor", a person infiltrating U.S. intelligence agencies through recruiting agents through blackmail.

Beth is also in a huge turning point in her life: her youngest child leaves for college, her and her husband sell their beloved home, he announces that he's leaving her, and worst of all- the CIA abruptly pulls her from her case.

All while, Beth knew she was getting close to solving the case and the Neighbor's identity- she keeps trying to solve the case even though all of her privilege's are revoked and she is not trusted by her colleagues anymore. A new family moves into their home and Beth believes it isn't a coincidence. What happens next?

Right from the beginning, this book captured my attention and toward the end, there were many twists; one predicted but the ending caught me off guard!

I thought it was interesting and apparent after reading this book and finding out that the author spent eight years as a CIA analyst, she made the government details easy to understand. This is my first "spy" thriller persay, and I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Living in the northern Virginia area very close to the locations that were mentioned I felt a real connection with this book. It starts off strong but then becomes slightly confusing with so many different characters but overall this was a very enjoyable book.

This one gripped me from the start and I kept suspecting literally everyone. I didn’t know where to turn and the story was creepy.

Karen Cleveland’s 2018 debut, Need to Know, was one of the best books I read that year. I’ve read all her subsequent thrillers — but with diminishing returns. And this time, she lost me. Beth Bradford, the main character, is supposed to be a CIA agent, but her actions—and reactions—are totally off the rails. I could’ve done with less “it’s her/no, it’s him/oh, it’s got to be her . . .” The final twist was interesting but hardly earth-shattering —and not a surprise considering Cleveland’s other ending twists. And she used the word ‘cul-de-sac’ about a thousand too many times.
Thanks to @netgalley for an early read.

For any woman to say good-bye to a house where she raised her children and had a good marriage would be a whammy. Add to that, putting her last child in college and looking forward to an empty nest is going to be a double whammy. But both of those were planned and expected. ON THE SAME DAY her husband told her he was leaving her and then when she went into her long time office at the CIA to have some feeling of normalcy, she found out that she’s been demoted and will have to relocate to another building (away from her colleagues) and will lose access to all the work she’s done ferreting out a mole. WOW! Quadruple whammy!

With all of the above hitting her at the same time, it’s no surprise that she goes off the rails. She starts spying on the couple who bought her house, even following them.

After 40% with getting nowhere except caught up in more drama and angst, I decided this book was not for me. I appreciate the ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Ballantine Books, in exchange for an honest review.

3 for neutral. Unfortunately, this one was just not for me or my at least my mood! Will definitely update if able to finish, but the beginning just didn’t grab me!

I’ve read several of Karen Cleveland’s novels and have always found her work to be engaging and compelling. She knows how to tell a story, knows how to keep me guessing. And because she is a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, I feel like I’m in good hands when she’s walking me through agency culture and procedures.

The New Neighbor has an intriguing premise. Three families, all living on the same cul-de-sac, each home inhabited by one or more government employes, all with sensitive government jobs—and one of them is an agent, known as The Neighbor, who has been turned by a notorious Iranian spy who holds a deep grudge against the U.S. Beth has been working for fourteen years to try to unearth The Neighbor’s identity. Just as she feels she’s getting close, she is suddenly pulled off the case and sent to an outlying CIA facility to teach. At the same time her youngest child has just left for college, she’s sold her house and is leaving her comfortable life, and her husband is leaving her. Talk about upheaval! But Beth has not lost her commitment to unearthing the truth and she continues probing, going around agency protocol.

What follows is a skillfully-woven plot that keeps us guessing. Probably not a good idea to read this book at bedtime because it will keep you turning pages late into the night.

The plot twists are abundant and surprising, right up to the final chapter with a reveal I never saw coming. Really a fun read!

I struggled to finish this one as the opening chapters are just one character going round and round saying that someone is the Neighbor! I really wanted to like this because I've heard such great things about the author, but this one was not for me. I'll try another one by her!

Beth works in counterterrorism at the CIA. Life as she knows it is slowly unraveling. Her youngest child has just left for college. Her husband has told her that the marriage is over and he is leaving. And, probably the unkindest cut of all, she is unceremoniously removed from her team at work, and all her clearances are revoked. All of these changes occur early on in this book, and things do not slow down until the end. It is full of red herrings that keep the reader guessing. With all of the clues and things that may or may not be a coincidence, it is hard to know what to trust. Much like it would be in the real world, Beth does not know what is meaningful versus what is not. Neither does the reader. While I thought there were a couple of plot points that didn’t really ring true, the author is a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, so she would know. All in all, this was a propulsive and entertaining domestic thriller that I would definitely recommend.

I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. NetGalley neither asked for nor received any editorial input.

I spent most of this book feeling like I was on a chase to hunt down The Neighbor which is exactly what I hope the author intended. I was flying through the pages to find out who it was: this neighbor, no, maybe that neighbor. Maybe even the new family who moved in? A great read that surprised me at the end!

This was a fun and twisty…very twisty thriller. It’s going to be loved by people who love as many twists as a book can offer up! Now I’m looking around my own neighborhood and wondering… I really enjoyed this one. Everyone, and I mean everyone is a suspect. I enjoyed the often funny neighborhood gossip, the drunken soccer moms with high power jobs and the relatable train wreck Beth. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Last child moving out of the house and ready to throw her new found time into her job, only to have her job taken away from her and her husband ask for a divorce. Now she's convinced someone in her neighborhood is out to get her and everyone starts to think she might be a little bit crazy. Some good twists and turns but it drags a little in the middle. Good final twist.

Beth has built her CIA career around stopping The Neighbor, an asset of Iranian Intelligence. She returns from vacation to find she has been removed from the case and forced into a teaching position alongside other aging agents. When she learns there was new evidence, Beth won't let anything stop her from uncovering the truth.

The Neighbor asks the question, do you ever truly know the people you are close to.

Cleveland's latest book is hard to put down, but equally hard to buy into. In her quest to catch "the spy in the neighborhood", the main character (who works for the CIA) jumps from suspect to suspect faster than she consumes a bottle of pinot grigio. The New Neighbor is not a great thriller, but it is an entertaining read. I do feel like Cleveland's books (and I've read them all) are starting to all run together.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House for the ARC.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. Don’t get me wrong; I am thrilled that I read it. It’s just that for the first half of the book I really did not like the main character, Beth Bradford. Granted, Beth had a tough break. Just at the point where she and her husband, Mike, were sending their last child off to college and they were free to enjoy some quality time together, all heck erupts. First, Mike announces that they would not be purchasing that new, smaller home as they planned—even though the home they raised their three kids in was already closed. In fact, Mike was leaving her altogether. Then, when she got to work at her office at the CIA, she learned that she had been downgraded from an analyst to a teacher of raw recruits. This, just as she felt that they were closing in on the Iranian spy case that she had been working on for most of the past two decades.

Yea, Beth had a tough break, but as things spun out during the first half of the book, Beth seemed less like a career CIA person than an out of control amateur. At one point, one of the characters said of Beth that she desperately needed a psych eval. I had been thinking that for most of the first half of the book.

Somewhere about the middle of the book, Beth finally found her legs and began to move with strength and intent. What bothered her most was that the “new neighbor” was in the neighborhood she and her family had long called their own. These people were her good friends, her best friends. But only this raises the question of how well any of us knows the people whom we call neighbors.

From the middle of the book onward, the book slowly winds up with the kind of suspense that made it hard to put the book down. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip through the identification of the covert foreign agents. My only disappointment was that the ending of the book seemed a bit hurried with not all threads clearly wrapped up.

I enjoyed the opportunity to read this book and appreciate the opportunity NetGalley and Ballantine Books gave me to read it. As promised, this is my free and honest review.

I love thrillers and primarily read them as my genre of choice but hadn't read anything by Karen Cleveland yet. This didn't disappoint! It definitely put her on my radar and I am really looking forward to sharing feedback because I feel like the majority of my bookstagram friends aren't familiar with her either and I think they will really enjoy it as well.

I wanted to love this book so much because I love Karen Cleveland, however none of the characters were likable. She is chasing a terrorist called the Neighbor, but theres no background on the handler other than he is deep in Iranian intelligence. There were so many twists in the final 1/3rd of the book. I finished because I wanted to know the ending but it left me unsatisfied.

Cleverly written novel of suspense and good onvestogative work. Beth, CIA, moves out of her house on a cul de sac that she has lived on for years. She and her husband seperate and Neth takes up a craY past time of following, lurking, and investigating the new neighbor. A suspenseful and creative novel.