I did not enjoy this book. The characters were flat, and drove me crazy. I know they made stupid decisions to drive “the story” forward, but it didn’t endear them to me. At times I wanted to scream over the obtuseness of the characters. I felt it was a slow read, and I just couldn’t connect. I didn’t feel that it was twisting or innovative, it felt very run of the mill. Not cute enough to be a cozy, and not hard enough to be called a thriller. And to say I hated the ending is an understatement, the resolution with Cathy and Steve made me angrier than all the other poor decisions combined. I’m not saying I wouldn’t give this author another chance, the writing style and voice were fine. It was the story content I couldn’t connect to.

This one was a bit flat for me. It wast super thrilling and there were a lot of details surrounding June’s food, garden, and tea. It was very obvious very early on what was happening. Overall an ok read!

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Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The premise of this book sounded intriguing, but it fell short. The writing used a passive past tense that made the action feel less exciting and more like a to-do list for the day. I couldn’t figure out why June’s children were being so rude to her or why they would take the side of their cheating father, June’s ex. I also couldn’t understand the killer’s motive to target June, who by all accounts is a normal homebody in a quiet neighborhood. Even the big suspenseful moment towards the end felt unimpressive, and the ending felt a bit too tidy. I just wish there’d been more showing and not telling for the character’s personalities. In all, I wasn’t too happy with this book, although I did enjoy the small extra details like the meals June made.

(Review posted to the Storygraph)

Couldn’t get into this one at all. Kept hoping it would get better. Sorry. Just felt bored and predictable

This book was a thriller from the start that kept me wanting more page after page! It had a very engaging storyline that kept you wonderinng whodunnit. Very well written mystery.

This was just not the book for me. I had a really hard time with the way the author wrote, it just felt kind of juvenile to me. I didn't really care about the characters and the plot didn't really excite me at all throughout the book. It all felt predictable and generic to me and I was bored. I really wanted to like this because the synopsis sounds super interesting, but it ended up not doing it for me.

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. I almost stopped reading several times, but pushed through to the finish, and was not impressed. Not one character is likable, and the ending was predictable. This one missed the mark for me, would not recommend.

Thank you to the author and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. #Theperfecthome is in fact anything but. June, our protagonist, who seemingly lives in the perfect home tending to her garden, and all the ins and outs of modern suburbia living finds herself in the midst of neighborhood nightmare. This book reminded me of the Tom Hanks movie, The Burbs, in which strange things start to happen around poor June. Her garbage is set on fire, there's a snake in her house, and oh yeah, there's the new renter neighbor with his loud car and eyes for her daughter. As a side note - any dog lover will be thoroughly annoyed at the description of the new neighbor's pitbulls being 'hounds from hell.' It's all in how they're raised, and anything that demeans animals irks me.
I really wanted to love this story. I was confused at times and found it difficult to follow. I found myself flying through it just to finish and get some characters cleared up.

I found this book to be enjoyable, I read it quickly and it was welll written with well developed characters and a good storyline, I would have given it four stars except that I guessed who did it and why and so for me its only a 3 star

Thank you Netgalley and Inkubator Books for the copy of this book. I knew who the culprit was and why early on in the book, but that was okay for me. The enjoyment for me is getting to know the characters and the quality of the writing. I could not get past how much I disliked all of the characters. This was probably deliberate so they would all be suspects but it was not plausible that none of them had any good traits.
It got tiresome reading about what food June made and what she did in the garden.The unneeded descriptions were distracting so it was hard for me to connect to the writing.
If you want a fast-paced story and do not need to have a connection with the characters, this book is for you.

A really well written thriller that twists and turns just enough to avoid being predictable. Some promise with the characters, although June could have been more likeable and, objectively, made better choices with how she dealt with situations! Definitely worth reading, although may make you see your neighbors foibles in a new light!

The book is written in the first person with June as the main character. She is happily living in a house, on a street, in a neighbourhood in Ireland, (but you don’t actually find this out until many pages into the book where it is mentioned almost as an afterthought) where she has lived happily for many years with her now adult children and an ex-husband who hangs around like a bad smell. The street goes downhill with the introduction of the neighbour from hell and several unpleasant events occur, each one more menacing than the last, which leave June believing she is being targeted for some reason, but why? And by whom?

This review is of a free copy via Netgalley.

To be honest the first 25%-30% of the book didn’t grip me at all. In fact, if I’d have paid for this book I might even have discarded it before getting that far, but I didn’t want to let the publisher and author down by doing this. The book did flow well and was an easy read that didn’t require much concentration, but I did not feel compelled to pick the book up again after I had put it down as nothing really seemed to happen, there wasn’t even much shock factor about the first couple of unpleasant events.

However once I had persevered, and got past that point, things did seem to pick up and I was intrigued to see what happened next. When I was away from the book I would find myself casting my mind back over what I had read, thinking about the plot and the characters and found myself wanting to read more. Best of all It did have a good believable ending with all loose ends nicely tied up and explained.

A little bit to predictable for me this book was, your typical who done it, new neighbour in a neighbourhood and someone dies and then who’s next …

Quite enjoyed this one. June is a single parent who lives in a nice, quiet cul-de-sac with her two young adult children. Nothing much happens in her street. Until a muscular, tattooed man moves in 2 doors down. He works on cars loudly in the street, has music blaring and has two very aggressive looking dogs. Her quiet street is no more and things go from bad to worse. Things start happening to unsettle her and there's even a murder. The ending really wraps things up in a nice little bow.

While I enjoyed this book, I found June to be quite unlikeable and a neighbour I would hate. She's nosey and a busybody whose inner monologue tends to drag on a bit. Overall 4 stars.

i really liked the story line and found it interesting and I didn't guess the ending til about the 70% mark. but this only gets 3 stars because I found the writing repetitive and one character was introduced twice and then finally given a description over half way through the book. The author reminds me a lot of mark edwards but whereas marks books are simple reads this one threw in random long complicated words for absolutely no reason at all and they kept pulling me away from the story

A very interesting read with vibes of Pacific Heights vibes to it. The story kept the reader guessing from one moment to the next what was really going on. I found it to be a good read and would recommend it to my friends.

This story sucked me in within the first couple pages.
I have to say that the book worked really, really well for me as I enjoyed everything - the prose, the characters, the description.... And the ending was excellent.

Inkubater Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

I was given a free digital copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. I am truly grateful for every experience. However, I was extremely disappointed in this book. I could not wait to finish it and not because it was so good... in fact quite the opposite. The cover of this book is intriguing. The summary and reviews lead you to believe it is going to be an epic psychological thriller. I was completely disappointed. I was put off by the authors style of writing from the start. The sentence structures and wording flowed strangely, and there are bit that seem so random and irrelevant. I am the type of reader who sees the story in my mind's-eye as I read... like a movie. I struggled with this because I was so put off by the flow. I found myself pushing through though because I wanted to know what this big plot twist was. I thought SURELY any minute now.... but there isn't one. I was bored to be honest. I also felt like I have read this exact story somewhere else... only better. It was very generic. Another thing that bothered me about this book was the descriptions and scenes were very repetitive and not well developed. Unfortunately, I did not find this book met my expectations for psychological thriller. It did however drag on and on. Finally, I hated the characters... and not like you want to hate a character in a good book like they just were not well developed and therefor not relatable or likable. This book is a dud.

Good book, well worth a read! It started off really interesting, hooks the reader straight in. Within a few chapters you don’t want to put it down! It’s a quick and satisfying read, if not a little predictable! The authors writing style was great and he really transports you into the book as you read it. Would definitely read another of his books.

I would have to give this 1.25 stars rounded down.
I could not wait to finish this book and not in a good way, unfortunately. The writing and descriptions were very repetitive, this was not nor physiological or thrilling, but it did seem like it was a little torturous, as it seemed to go on forever without much to say.
The storyline fell very flat, it was not 'edge of the seat', it was very slow-paced and easily guessable.
I did not enjoy this book at all, unfortunately.