Lillian is a ho hum wife and mother who goes through life happy birthday not completely fulfilled.. Until a chance encounter leads to an affair which makes her feel alive and excited. Of course her secret life is found out in the worst way and the consequences are life altering. This book makes you think about the old saying. The grass is always greener on the other side…..or is it?

O.M.G this book was amazing. I couldn't read it fast enough. I loved the characters it in. The story was will written. I would get it 4.5 out of 5.

Lillian is a celebrity obituary writer who learns her husband is having an affair. Amidst her anger, she enters into a relationship with another man, and during a reckless night, her affair is caught on video and quickly goes viral. The aftermath is devastating, and A Familiar Stranger turns her world upside down. The author deftly and meticulously lays the foundation for what’s to come as the slow build up in the first half of the book absolutely explodes in the second half, with tension filled chapters and shocking reveals in this spellbinding thriller. Don’t be misled by the character-developing, low-key beginning, as the payoff is well worth the wait as this book totally takes off to places you won’t see coming. I received an arc of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read a wide variety of Psychological and Domestic Thrillers, and through the American Facebook reader groups discovered the 'fast, fun and flowing' authors such as Freida McFadden and Natalie Barelli. I've seen A.R.Torre often mentioned and recommended alongside these highly entertaining authors so was eager to try one of her books.

It's certainly fast, flowing and easy reading. It starts out as a husband and wife Domestic, Lillian is a loose canon, borderline binge drinking alcoholic hanging on to her job and an obituary writer, she suspects husband Mike of having an affair. Mike is very unlikeable from the start. We meet Sam, Lillian's gay best friend and Lenny the drunk cemetery worker, so there are some different and original characters.

The first half features a 'Countdown to Death' so you know something bad is approaching.

After the death everything changes and it all gets a bit wacky.

I enjoyed the flow of the first half but the second half reminded too much of Kiersten Modglin's 'throw the kitchen sink full of curveballs' into the mix style, which just kills it off for me. I can't take it seriously anymore.

A fun, fast read if you enjoy that style of plotting, but unfortunately I don't.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer

"Maybe that's what my husband was keeping from me. A search for another life more exciting than our own."

Is it boring when life gets too comfortable? How to save your drowning marriage, when love and everything else has left the room? David and Lillian are struggling to save their whole world from collapse, but everything will go downhill when David's cheating sees the light of the day.

Everything Lillian had is falling apart - the life she had, her career, relationships, it all seems like a distant memory, and the midlife crisis gets real.

When someone reveals a nasty scandal, it becomes too late to do something that would save the day, the marriage, or the life Lillian and David once had.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the first half of this story. Also, there is no doubt that A.R. Torre's books are the perfect fit when your soul is having cravings for some good old domestic thriller. She knows how to write a compelling story that will get you hooked up before you even notice.
The second half of the book didn't win all the stars. It took some weird direction but however, I didn't mind at all.

A solid fast-paced thriller full of suspense, well done A.R. Torre! 🙌

Oh my gosh! The stakes just get higher and higher in this compulsively readable book! It’s difficult to write about just how brilliant and what fun it is without spoilers – but it’s packed with lies, deceit, misdirection, disloyalty and edge-of-your-seat tension.
Lillian, who is bipolar, suspects her husband of having an affair. She doesn’t know how to exist without him and can’t believe he would break up her family. Things spiral further downwards when she’s fired from her newspaper job, and realises she’s defined by her marriage and being mother to Jacob. She feels her life is all but over. All that remains is her dear friend, Sam, who gets her through her worst times.
Lillian decides to try on a more exciting personality, and then meets Dave, who’s everything her boring, calculating husband Mike is not. Just as things start looking up for Lillian, she’s crushed again. A TikTok video shows her cavorting sexily with David on his yacht. Worse, it repeatedly refers to her as Jacob’s mama. Nothing could be more mortifying for her son, and Lillian, with Mike’s help, sets out to do all she can to limit the damage.
But is Mike really on her side? Is he the honest, meticulous man she thinks he is?
Soon something unexpectedly awful happens, which threatens to upturn Mike’s carefully calculated life. I adored the almost cheesy way in which his life is thrown into deadly disarray. I also loved the wonderful cemetery worker, Lenny, who had befriended Lillian and was now her fiercest protector.
The ending is utterly fabulous as it dishes up one surprise after another.
This is a fabulous read – full of humour, believable characters, fraught relationships and loads of action. Highly recommended.

Wow, this is my perfect kind of psychological thriller, with the protagonist getting herself entangled in a dangerous love affair which might just ruin her family. A tense read!

A. R. Torre has done it again! What a gripping, thrilling rollercoaster of a ride! Love all Torre's books and looking forward to the next one.

I am a big fan of A.R. Torre having read this book and The Good Lie. Both are awesome stories and I was glued to the pages as I kept reading. I was left wanting MORE MORE MORE from this author.

In A Familiar Stranger, Lillian is a writer of obituaries and bored with her husband. When she meets a man who gives her attention, she invents an entirely new life for herself. I just loved the premise and writing style.

PLOT:

Lillian Smith leads an unexceptional life, writing obituaries and killing time with her inattentive husband and disconnected son. Then she meets David, a handsome stranger, in a coffee shop. Lured into an affair, she invents a new persona, one without strings, deadlines, or brooding husbands.

Lillian has never felt so reckless, unpredictable, or wanted. But as her affair with David intensifies, she withdraws from everything that’s real, even her closest friend. When evidence of her life as a secret lover finds its way onto her son’s social media, she risks ruining much more than her marriage or reputation.

As lies beget lies, Lillian’s two worlds spiral dangerously out of control. And betrayals run deeper than she imagines. Because Lillian isn’t the only one leading a double life.

I highly recommend this if you are in the mood for a suspenseful book and check out the other books by this author.

Out on Sept. 22.

Juicy, twisted and a lot of fun, this is the best thriller I have read in a long time. I definitely will be seeking out more by this author! Perfect for fans of the Alex Michaelides, Colleen Hoover, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

Lillian is in trouble, her controlling husband is cheating, her job is on the line, she is drinking too much and life is spiraling out of control. Lots of secrets, double lives and unexpected plot. Enjoyable quick read

** 5 stars for the first half, 3 stars for the second half **

Lillian Smith is boring with a capital B. She’s an ordinary wife, mother, friend… even her name is boring. She has an unusual job writing obituaries, but even that is less interesting than it used to be. Her marriage to her control freak husband Mike has been distant for the last couple of years, but it still comes as a surprise when she discovers he’s been cheating on her. Lillian is tired of being so unexciting and unappreciated that when she meets a compelling stranger in a coffee shop, she pretends to be someone she’s not. But Lillian isn’t the only one leading a double life, and someone is willing to kill to protect their secrets.

The first half of this book is so good! Told from multiple perspectives but mainly Lillian’s, this story sucked me in right away. The skillful way the author trickles out little pieces of the mystery kept me turning the pages. You just know things are going to go off the rails, and the ride to the top of the roller coaster is so suspenseful.

But then comes the twist. And while I’m a girl that loves a good twist, this is a TWIST, and it’s gonna be polarizing. While I give the author props for taking a risk, some readers will love it and some will not. I did not, as it gives the second half of the book a totally different vibe than the first half. This part of the novel is a bit chaotic and not always fully fleshed out, but still really entertaining.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Quite an interesting suspense novel, with a twist near the end that I didn't see coming. It's a little different from the regular wife-reacts-to-cheating-spouse trope, but the wife does react, in her own rather unusual way.

There were one or two inconsistencies in the character development and plot, but overall, a very worthwhile read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC of A Familiar Stranger. This is my second A.R. Torre book. I really enjoyed this one until the last quarter. It went a different, weird direction than I thought it would and left some plot holes. I also didn't fall in love with any of the characters. It was still a good read though. I never saw the twist coming.

A Familiar Stranger by A. R. Torre is a mystery thriller novel following our main character Lillian Smith. Lillian as a pretty normal life, she writes obituaries for the newspaper. Her somewhat distant husband seems to always have a plan for everything which leaves Lillian without too much to do. She is friends with a real estate agent and a local grave keeper and enjoys tweeting about mysterious deaths. But when she starts to suspect her husband is having an affair, Lillian decides that maybe her husband isn’t the only one that can keep secrets.

This is my first book by this author and it was probably not the best place to start. After seeing so many people rave about her books and then seeing this one as available as “read now” on NetGalley, I was eager to see what the hype was about.

I did not enjoy this book. At all. There were several continuity errors and grammatical mistakes. I know what I read was an early copy but I have never read an arc with this many errors. There was literally a continuity mistake on the first page of chapter one when the main character gets a bottle of laundry detergent. I am hopeful that those things get fixed in the final copy. I hated all the twists. I think this book had literally every trope that I don’t like in a thriller. I can normally suspend my disbelief but parts of this book were just so over the top, I just couldn’t.

I do think I am in the minority about this book. I have seen a lot of good early reviews so I think there is an audience for this. There is a twist in this book that I feel like will be a very deciding factor in whether or not someone enjoys this book. For me, it is something that I hated and feel like it was only used to push the plot in a different way. This just was not a good book for me and it’s sad because it sounded so intriguing.

I could not stop reading this book once I started ! It was so good ! I love the different POVs

Lillian needs excitement she’s sort of in a rut with her family, job and marriage. She finally starts enjoying her life and then something happens ! The ending was so unexpected. There’s so many twists and turns in this book. Thank you NetGalley for this arc !

This book captured my attention quickly and I wanted to learn more about Lillian’s story. I couldn’t put this book down.

Such a fun read! I started off thinking I had everything figured out. Iwas pleasantly surprised by a unique twist! Totally hooked me in! I can’t say what type of twist it was since it’s a spolier. Will read more of this author's books. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for a review.

Lillian Smith is a very plain, very uninteresting person save her fondness and ability for writing obituaries. When she learns that her husband is having an affair she seeks out an adventure through David, a stranger she meets in a coffee shop. As you might guess, this decision leads only to ruin as her son and husband are bound to find out. What Lillian doesn't know, however, is that her husband might have been orchestrating some of the despair all along. If you like an unique domestic thriller, wish you could reinvent yourself, or just like a twisty thriller, then A Familiar Stranger is for you!
#ThomasandMercer #netgalley #netgalleyreads

Another great book from A.R. Torre. I am not often surprised by twists in books but the big twist caught me so much that I could put this down after that. I loved the characters (good and bad), they were complex and not always likable but I feel that was intentional.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.