There was so much suspense in this book! I love a neighborhood thriller. I have read a few books with a similar concept but I just cannot get enough! This kept me hooked throughout the entire book.

Alexis and Sam bought  the cheapest house in an upscale neighborhood. Sam, who originally was against this money pit, gets caught up in the high end atmosphere of the rich life. His relationship with his wife starts a slow deterioration which she finds hard to understand. Finances are a worry with so many things needing repair, and the live-in nanny does provide her with some freedom but his personality has taken an about face and she needs a friend to share her problem with.
   The neighbors all know each other intimately, which we find out, and that leads to some shocking stories of what transpires in the neighborhood. Each family happily tells tales on the other. Alexis tries not to be biased as the newbie wanting to make friends but she and Blair, the woman across the street, make a connection and she now has a confidant.
   It’s a story full of finger pointing, lies, privilege, and the occasional murder. The chain of events moved along quickly and then ended abruptly. I was expecting more to the plot after the final scene and I wanted more from the remaining characters.
   An absorbing soap opera type read that had you engaged with all the characters; whether you liked or hated them, they were never boring.

I really enjoyed this book! It combined a 'safe' neighborhood with suspense and an eerie, "we aren't really safe" feeling, which I love in a book! I love when I can envision the neighborhood. It had many twists and turns, and an ending I did NOT see coming! Love this book, and will recommend to my friends! Thank you for letting me read this!

Very slow moving and not the thriller I was expecting. Several times I contemplated not finishing it, but since I received the Kindle edition from NetGalley for my honest review I felt I had to. Full of boring details that did not add anything to the story.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Alexis is excited about moving. She can't wait to meet her new neighbors. When one neighbor is founded, everybody becomes a suspect. This book was an ok read.

I love neighborhood drama stories. So when I saw this, I knew I had to request it! I wasn’t disappointed. This is a great read! The characters are well developed. Some I loved, some I loved to hate. I did see one of the twists coming but not the other. I can’t wait to see what else this author comes up with! Thank you to Netgalley and Melissa Adelman for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Loved it!!

Such a good read - I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

WHAT THE NEIGHBORS SAW is a domestic suspense novel. The book is set in a well-to-do DC suburb and tells the story of Alexis Crawford, a young woman who moves into the neighborhood with her husband Sam and their young son. Alexis is immediately drawn to her glamorous neighbor Blair, who seems to have it all. But when Teddy, Blair's husband, is found dead, Alexis begins to suspect that there is more to Blair than meets the eye.
The novel is told from the alternating points of view of two women: Alexis, the new neighbor, and Blair, the widow of the victim. The other residents of the neighborhood are also interesting characters. There is the nosy neighbor who always seems to know everyone's business, the couple who is always fighting, and the young family who is trying to make it in the suburbs.
The author does a good job of creating a sense of unease and suspicion in the reader. The characters are complex and believable, and the plot is full of twists and turns.
One of the things I enjoyed most about WHAT THE NEIGHBORS SAW was the way Adelman explored the theme of secrets. Everyone in the neighborhood seems to be hiding something, and as the novel progresses, the secrets start to come out. This creates a sense of tension and suspense that keeps the reader hooked until the very end. Unfortunately, I felt the ending was a bit too predictable.
I also appreciated the way Adelman developed the characters, albeit in a stereotypical manner. Alexis is a sympathetic character, and I found myself rooting for her even when she made mistakes. Blair is a more enigmatic character, but Adelman does a good job of slowly peeling back the layers and revealing her true nature.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
A twisted domestic suspense of an affluent, nosy neighborhood where deceit, affairs, jealousy and also murder exists.
The book was OK, but dragged with unnecessary information about most of the neighbors. The last quarter of the book redeemed the plot.

2 stars ⭐️⭐️ for not DNFing

This book was described as “Desperate Housewives meets…” and I am sad to have it compared to my favorite TV show. I was hoping for more. The drama was kind of bland and the mystery behind Teddy’s death was just weird. I would skip this one. 🤷‍♀️

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Overall, an intriguing mystery and suspense. The story had an interesting plot, a few twists and turns, and an unexpected ending. The story started out a bit slow, but began to pick up in the middle.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The description of this book hooked me instantly and it was a quick, easy read with an ending I could not have predicted. Told between 2 MC's, this book is set in an affluent neighborhood. But behind the huge mansions, cocktail parties and picket fences lie secrets and everyone in this neighborhood has them.

Out of both MCs, Alexis was the most sympathetic. A mom of 2 young children, she's struggling with her husband who seems to hate her, her body which has changed after having 2 babies and her career. She's desperate for friends and unfortunately she picks the wrong one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.

"What the Neighbors Saw" by Melissa Adelman is a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The novel follows the lives of several families living in a seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood, where everything is not as it seems.

When a mysterious new family moves into the neighborhood, tensions rise and secrets begin to come to light. As the story unfolds, we are drawn into a complex web of relationships, betrayals, and dark secrets that threaten to tear the community apart.

With a well-crafted plot, intriguing characters, and a healthy dose of suspense, "What the Neighbors Saw" is easily one of my favorite thrillers of the year. I loved the Desperate Housewives vibe, and the way the author kept me guessing until the very end. Overall, this is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers and domestic dramas. 5/5 stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

What the Neighbors Saw is about a family who moves to an affluent neighbourhood thinking it will be a great place to raise their family despite their home being a major renovation. However after they move in a neighbour is found murdered.

This was an easy read but not all that interesting, I didn’t see the end coming but it didn’t feel like a big reveal.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

I was captivated by the description. This book started off really interesting but the ending felt rather rushed. Thank you netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

liked the book and appreciated the surprises and the fact that the storyline ended up being out of the ordinary. I’d recommend it to those who like domestic suspense and are fascinated by an out of the box storyline

Alexis and Sam are a young couple with careers on the rise, one small child, and another on the way. They've been house-hunting for a larger place without much luck. Alexis gets a listing for a house being sold "As Is" in a tony suburb of DC. The home is quite large and half the price of others in its neighborhood because of the extensive remodeling to be done. Though Sam says that it's still too expensive, he agrees to go see it to satisfy Alexis' curiosity. They end up buying the house and are warmly welcomed by each neighbor. Who would have thought that they could live in such a perfect neighborhood?!

Perfect, until their neighbor Teddy is found murdered on the private neighborhood trail. The neighborhood is definitely on edge after that. As the police investigate the crime, Alexis becomes close with Teddy's widow Blair. Other strange things start happening in the neighborhood, and secrets begin to come out on all sides. Nothing is as it seems!

This is the author's first novel. She does a good job of engaging the reader, and some of the characters (especially Alexis and Blair) are complex, deep, and richly drawn. I look forward to reading more from this author. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

My thanks to Minotaur books for permitting me to access a digital review copy via NetGalley. Publication is 6/20/23, All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

I have to say I didn’t like a single one of the characters in this book. It isn’t that they were poorly written, but that they were very well written and believably horrible. Each person on the block embodies the stereotypes that are often associated with upscale and exclusive neighborhoods, from gossip to lush to sexual predator. The motive for the crime was unique and unexpected, illustrating the extremes people will go to in order to protect the facade of perfection they present to the world. This novel definitely exposes the rot behind the mask that wealth and privilege provide. The pacing was slow and I don’t really enjoy female characters written with a victim complex, so despite Adlemans skillful writing and character development I struggled to stay engaged with the story. This is in no way the authors fault and instead, is reflective of my reading preferences. Overall I give this three stars but I definitely feel this novel will appeal to a large number of readers.


This review will post on Instagram on 4/20/2023

I had such high hopes for this book, but my expectations just weren't met. I LOVE a suburban thriller, and I'm from Maryland so the whole area was very familiar to me. I really enjoyed the premise, and I thought the actual twist of the story was pretty well done, but on the whole I found this story to be predictable and none of the characters were remotely likeable.

Generally I find that these type of suburban thriller books don't have a lot of likeable characters, but some of them at least have enough HBIC energy that their attitudes aren't a deterrent. Unfortunately, our two main POV characters lack enough personality outside of being rude to everyone around them (who are also rude) to make them interesting, much less redeemable. And absolutely nothing happens in this book for so long other than different groups of people, usually Alexis and Blair, having drinks with one another, until the last 10% of the book, if that. Eventually, after Twist #1, you get Twist #2 to find out who actually did it, but they had been such a bad person the entire book that at that point I wanted them to be the murderer just so they would leave everyone else alone.

Plus, everyone here was wealthy, and Alexis & Sam were supposed to be the fish out of water...but they still purchased a 1.5 million dollar home and continued to make renovations, so it all felt a little out of touch, but that's a relatively minor criticism.

And for the love of God, it's not 2009 anymore. Stop using "ya" instead of "yeah" because nobody writes or talks that way.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS*** You really back yourself into a corner with the eventual solving of the murder when you only flesh out a couple of characters and give no other characters even the slightest bit of motivation to be the murderer. Everyone in this book sucks. Multiple characters have their chance to shine as a terrible person in some way or another, but none of their terribleness actually gave them motive to be the murderer! Every murder story needs a red herring or two to throw suspicion off the actual killer, but we never got it. We barely got anything. Of course the result was going to be what it was. ***OK done with that***

On the whole, there was so much potential that this book just didn't live up to. I would probably try another book by this author, however!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC of What the Neighbors Saw, which publishes on June 20, 2023

Thank you Net Galley and Publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this book! It was a fantastic read...kept me guessing who the culprit could be. I enjoyed the different point of views from the two main characters and really liked that they became friends in the neighborhood. I despised some of the other characters, but you are supposed to. Alexis' husband is a complete jerk. Which makes it more satisfying later! Fun domestic drama...not very thrilling but definitely entertaining...could easily see this as a tv show, like Desperate Housewives.