This was a good read! I felt as if the writer did an excellent job at making the main character seem relatable, and it kept me wanting more of the story and pushed me to keep reading to find out. A book that really gets you thinking about your neighbors in a way that you never would before lol

Who wouldn’t want to be a gracious neighbor. Loved this book! I want to read more by this author so bad! Looking forward to the next book!

Martha Hale is a socially award person, when new people move next door, she tries to be like her new neighbor. This story is about female envy and misunderstandings.

A Gracious Neighbor is the story of Martha Hale, a socially awkward wife and mother who longs to be accepted by her peers. When Minnie and John move in next door, Martha hopes for friendship, even before Martha realizes she knows Minnie from high school.

Martha has a rich interior life, perhaps to compensate for her loneliness. And while Minnie appears to have it all, beauty, money and a handsome husband, we learn that isn’t the case. Is she a bird in a gilded cage, like her pet, Bonnie?

Some of Martha’s behavior is cringeworthy but the reader understands the reasons behind her actions, due to the skillful writing of the author. There is a lot of tension, especially in the last 25% of the book - my heart was racing!

This book was well worth reading and I will certainly be exploring the author’s other novels (and I loved the author’s self referencing in the early part of the story!).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book!

Have you ever read a book that split your mind in half? I have no idea how to rate this book because my mind says something while my heart says something else.

This book is one of these work of fiction that is perfect for book clubs and discussions. The themes it touches are so many from the assumptions we make about other people, the way we continue to compare our lives to others and domestic violence/abuse.

I think the book was very well thought and it definitely left me thinking and wanting to talk about it. It even made me wonder about my neighbors, not only about how much I don’t know about what’s going on behind their door, but also how they are probably struggling to create an imagine to cover up what they thing they have to hide.

I think the author did a great job with Martha too. She made her into that noisy neighbor that is that way not because is looking for gossip, but because she is living a lonely life.

Martha grew on me, I found her annoying at the beginning and maybe even a bit slow, but - page after page - I saw how she was actually kind and had that feeling we all are that we are settling for something while we could have what others have.

Martha had a devoted husband that was not as good looking as John, but he was there for her emotionally and they had a very close relationship. She had a son that made mistakes as any adolescent, but had values and was growing into a good man. She had a job she was great at and made her happy even if she was not a famous artist. She had it all, but she was not completely able to see it because of the way we constantly are looking at what other people have.

I can’t give it 5 stars because I think there were some parts that were a bit boring at the beginning even if they were set to frame Martha, and because it was obvious what the plot was and what would have happened, but I think the author was more interested at painting a picture of Martha than create a mystery.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles. I really not the opportunity!

I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Let me start with the good. It’s a simple read.

That’s it.

As a character, Martha grated on me as though she was written into existence purely for the purpose of irking me. At 38 years old, she is incredibly insecure, to the point of being desperate and obnoxious. She consistently tries to ingratiate herself to the other women around her, their general disdain for her notwithstanding. To make up for what she believes is her lack of fashion taste and ability to mold to her neighbours’ “rich housewife” standards, she chatters nearly non-stop when she runs into anyone, not realising that it is precisely her inability to read social cues that turns people off. Martha displays a gross lack of discernment. She has absolutely no skill at reading people (if one had to sum up the entire book, it would be: read this as a warning of what happens when you make wildly inaccurate assumptions about others, and also what happens when you are too insecure to enjoy your own life that you are compelled to stalk someone else’s).

I despise Martha.

Her new neighbour Minnie appears to live the life Martha wants for herself. She has a beautiful, large house, and a rich husband; she is elegant and glamourous without being gaudy, and seems beautifully self-assured. She is everything Martha wishes she was. This quickly earns her Martha’s admiration, and ultimately, obsession.

Martha’s stalker behaviour escalates to the point of her breaking into Minnie’s house on several occasions. In her mind, these actions are all justifiable. “For the greater good,” she even says.

Besides Martha, all the other characters are bland and unlikeable. Minnie is set up to be mysterious, but I could not bring myself to care about her story.

Plotwise, I have even less to say. What even was the plot? And on that note, what was the point? I sense the author is trying to say that judging people without knowing the full story is dangerous, but it seemed as though she did not have much to say about Martha’s extremely creepy and stalker habits. Martha only concludes that she misjudged Minnie, and we are meant to view that as character growth.

What?

By the close of the book, nothing felt resolved. The ending was abrupt and left numerous loose ends, but I was so done with this book by the first fourth of it that I felt only relief that it was finally over.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Little A and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Friendship, drama, secrets, misunderstandings, social climbing. It's action packed getting bogged down with all the semantics.

I enjoyed this book mostly because as a woman who doesn't have very many female friends herself I could absolutely relate to the main character Martha but not in the same extremes that you see her dealing with in this book. Martha has big dreams and aspirations but honestly in my opinion not much motivation. She seems contented to be living on the outside of this lavish community forever wanting in but never really changing.

Now I can get behind someone who is comfortable in who they are as she clearly was because she never decided to conform to the Houston society around her. Martha is a work from home mother who edits professional photographers event prints & she's quite talented. One day working from home she spots new neighbors moving in across the street, a woman from her past and her husband. Minnie.

Martha's newfound obsession with trying to become Minnie's friend is extremely odd, but it got her through her day to day. I wanted to know by the end if there was anything to be suspicious of when it came to Minnie but I wish Martha wasn't so secluded.

A Gracious Neighbor by Chris Cander is a powerhouse novel!
Cander's writing is pretty amazing! She held my attention throughout the entire novel.
The characters were witty, engaging and very interesting!
They made me feel things I haven't felt while reading in a long time.
AGN immediately pulls the reader in, you'll care for the characters. You'll sympathize and cheer them on.
A very thought provoking, wonderful story!
I didn't want the book to end but I couldn't put it down.
This book hit the perfect spot!

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Little A,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

2.5 stars. Having lived in Houston most of my life, being very familiar with the West U neighborhood in which this novel is set, and reading a recent in-depth article about the author in the Houston newspaper, I was very anxious to read this. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed.

The main character, Martha Hale, is a socially awkward, middle-aged wife and mother who wants badly to be a social climber and to live in the world of social butterflies that most of her neighbors do. When a woman whom Martha knew (barely) in high school and whom Martha sort of idolized because she considered her a real up-and-comer, moves into the house next door, Martha thinks her path to social greatness — and to having a friend —is set. What follows is a pretty pathetic domestic story, with the focus being on Martha’s societal hangups.

Martha is simply a really unlikable character, as are most of the others in this novel. The plot line gets bogged down with way too much description and back story, most of the “action” moves at a snail’s pace, and the ending is merely just that: the novel simply ends. About half way through, I definitely thought this would be a DNF for me, but I soldiered on. Although some of the action picked up in the second half of the novel, overall this was still just a mediocre read for me.

Beautifully written story about envy, female friendships, secrets, and misunderstandings. This novel was described as being "empathetic" and I can see what that means from reading this. The characters are flawed, and things are intuited without being directly spelled out. I enjoyed that. I felt that the author trusts the reader to be a critical and nuanced thinker. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.