Not bad, but after all the rave reviews, it was kind of disappointing. The characters fell flat and it was slow going in the beginning. The twist at the end was ok, but I had to push myself to get there.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC for an honest review.

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman was absolutely fantastic! Could not put the book down.
The writing is fantastic and will hold you in its hands until it is finished with you.
You can feel the tension build to the end.
This was my first from this author and now I can’t wait to read more!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Minotaur Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

My ng: the problem with a thriller of this sort is that you can be loving the book up until the 85% mark—and then have it all fall to pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Alexis and her family, and snooping on the so-bad-they’re-good neighbors in their tony DC neighborhood? But the big reveal left a lot to be desired.

I enjoyed it reading “What the Neighbors Saw’. A thriller that takes place in an upstanding community. Alexis and Sam buy a fixer-upper home in one of the fanciest areas of Washington, DC. Sam is wanting to make partner at his law firm, so he spends a lot of time away from the home. She soon befriends her neighbor Blair. And when Blair’s husband is found dead, everyone becomes a suspect. Who do you trust? Is it your neighbor? They soon discover that everyone has secrets.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press. Minotaur Books and Melissa Adelmann for the ARC for my honest review.

This was an intriguing book and I had to keep reading it to see what really happened. Enjoyed it and recommend to those that like a mystery.

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman

This book about Alexis and Sam who move into a fixer-upper in a nice neighborhood when one of their neighbors is murdered. The murder brings to light well hidden secrets.

I enjoyed it, it was a wonderful thriller. Well done Melissa Adelman!!

Rating: 4 Stars

Release Date: June 20, 2023

I received complimentary ARC copy of this book from its publisher and author (Thank you!! I loved being a part of this book) via NetGalley . This review is my honest opinion, I was in no way required to give a positive review.

Just finished reading “what the Neighbours Saw” by Melissa Adelman.

This book was about Alexis and Sam. They just move into a new affluent neighbourhood when one of their neighbours is murdered.

The book is very slow moving. I dislike the way that Sam treats his wife, who just had their second child. In the beginning of the book they seem like a very loving couple but as the book progresses Sam makes snide comments to his wife and it is really not necessary.

The book starts to pick up about three quarters through and gets interesting and hard to put down. It’s unfortunate that the excitement in the latter part wasn’t throughout.

Alexis and her husband, Sam, have purchased a rundown home in an exclusive DC suburb. Sam is about to make partner and Alexis is expecting their second child.

There is something in her past that she isn’t really saying much about but it can’t be great. And she will fit in just fine with the new neighbors. They all have dirty secrets.

When one of the neighbors is found dead on the banks of the river the entire community is shaken. As the police sort out what happened, ugly things come to the surface.

If you read as many mystery/thriller books as I do, you will recognize this trope. Cul-de-sac or dead-end road, someone is going to die. Someone is cheating on their spouse. Dirty secrets are exposed along the way. And it’s always the person you think it is.

This was so slow I didn’t care who got killed. They were all rather slimy. It was a chore to finish.

NetGalley/June 13, 2023, St. Martin’s Press

PUBLICATION DAY: June 20, 2023

Be careful, the grass isn’t always greener. When Alexis and Sam move into their beautiful (but in dire need of renovation) new home in an upscale neighborhood that they never dreamed they could afford - they think it’s their chance at a fresh start for their relationship, and their young family. But the murder of a neighbour exposes secrets that were best kept hidden. What will Alexis and Sam discover the longer they live in this beautiful neighborhood? And will they wish they’d never moved?

PROS and CONS:
I feel as though this novel needed something more (action, plot, development) to keep the reader a bit more invested in the outcome. Time moved on in chunks with perspectives from Alexis and Blair (both off puttingly unlikeable most of the time) serving to provide more details, but I couldn’t say what was really driving this one? The ending was the best part, but I feel as though this book really could have been quite a bit shorter.

READ IT?
If you’re looking for…a domestic mystery with a slow burn - then this one’s for you!

3 Stars

I enjoyed this book a lot. Everyone was terrible, but I like that sometimes. Was a good way to spend a weekend. Solid domestic thriller and the ending offered a good, even if a little predictable, twist.

Murder, affairs, financial problems, and gossip are present everywhere. Even the most exclusive neighborhoods full of mansions and the extremely wealthy.

That's the premise of "What the Neighbors Saw" by Melissa Adelman. Alexis and Sam buy a new home in one of the fanciest areas of Washington, DC. The couple have one child and Alexis is pregnant with their second. They even have a live-in nanny, though this doesn't make Alexis feel welcome in her new neighborhood. As one of the (VERY) few minorities in the area, people tend to think she's the housekeeper rather than the homeowner. It doesn't help that she and her husband could only afford the house because it was neglected by its previous owners and needs a lot of work. Sam, hoping to make partner soon at his law firm, is desperate to put in a pool in the backyard, while Alexis wants to fix the parts inside the house that are literally crumbling around them.

Never feeling like she fit in, Alexis finally makes a new friend in Blair- one of the most respected people in the neighborhood. When Blair's husband is suddenly found murdered in a river behind the neighborhood, everyone becomes suspicious of one another. Could it be an outside that did it? If so, how did they get away with it without anyone seeing? Or could it be one of the neighbors? Everyone has secrets they're trying to hide.

I definitely enjoyed this tale of domestic suspense. There were many twists that I didn't expect and the ending left me reeling. I can't wait to read what this author comes up with next.

Thanks to St..Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This was a great domestic thriller. The writing flowed, was well thought out and easy to get involved in the characters. Recommend

The plot is a upward mobile couple moving into their dream home in a area of DC. A mysterious death of a neighbor puts the neighborhood on edge and soon secrets are found out about neighbors they thought were friends. The charcters were not appealing to me probably because they were well off and very entitled in their attitudes. That made them hard to like. The mystery at conclusion was not a surprise. .

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley. My review opinion is my own.

I was aboard the struggle bus for this one. It took forever to really settle into and I was filled with regret once I got there. The characters were completely unlikeable, it's rare that I can't even find one to root for. They were pretentious and self-absorbed with an unhealthy obsession with appearing to have the perfect life. I thought I had figured out the twist but was wrong, so at least there's that. Even so, this book fell flat for me.

I was provided the opportunity to read this in advance of publication by NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

A fast-paced who-done-it.

Sam & Alexis are upwardly mobile, fast-track executives with their second child on the way. They feel they need a Shadow Rd home address to confirm their upcoming work partnership promotions.

Neighbors Terry & Blair seem like the perfect couple with their 3 children, as do Jennifer & Jeff, Laura & Shawn who are all hiding secrets. Neighbor Mack is rumored to be a sexual deviant with connections! Terry is murdered on his morning run, then answering the doorbell on night, Sam & Alexis discover a naked young woman asking for help having just run from Mack's house. What else is going to happen in their new neighborhood?

A great read and some very interesting characters. Looking forward to more Melissa Adelman novels.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based on my honest opinion.

This is the first book I have read by this author, the characters were well written and who doesn’t like a suburban mystery with a snooty and dangerous cast? Alexis and Sam buy her dream home, it needs a lot of expensive repairs but the exclusive neighborhood make up for it. Not long after they move in their neighbour is found dead, murdered. As Alexis tries to sort out who to make friends with and who to trust, she also has to try to figure out what to do with the distance between her and Sam and figure out is there is a murderer in their midst.
This book had lots of good points but I felt let down by the culmination of events in the middle, I did enjoy the ending though. I would definitely read another book by this author.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow read for me, but I plowed through in the hopes of a good twist at the end. By the time I got there, all I could do was shake my head. Yes, the mystery was solved, but not in a way that rang true. It felt like the author was desperate for a surprise ending, but didn’t have a clue on how to pull it off. Disappointing.

Melissa Adelman is now an auto buy for me. Loved this debut novel! Thank you Minotaur Books for introducing me to this great author. I really liked this book and thought the surprises fit so well into the story. Having the storyline being completely different from other domestic suspenses was fascinating. The beginning of the story was a tad slow for me, but once I got to the mid mark of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Such a great domestic suspense and out of the box storyline. Again, thank you Minotaur Books for this ebook. Thank you Melissa Adelman and NetGalley as well for this great debut novel.

Alexis and Sam move into the neighborhood of their dreams only to find that they are living in a nightmare. The house they loved on sight is a money pit and the activities in the this elite neighborhood are scary. Their rich and influential neighbors have more skeletons in their closets than the average person. Murder, sexual predators, cheating spouses...the list goes on and Alexis wished for her old neighborhood.

The different twists and turns in the book were riveting but I was disappointed with the outcome. The characters were well defined and some of them was just easy to hate for their personalities. But it was a good quick read and I would recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my opinion.

Alexis and Sam have just moved into a fixer-upper Cape Cod in a very affluent DC suburb. They’re thrilled with the opportunity. Their lives are going exactly how they wanted- they have a young son, another baby on the way and Sam is on track to become a partner at his firm. It’s almost idyllic. A few weeks later, their neighbor Teddy is found dead on the banks of the Potomac River. The residents are rocked by this happening in their picture-perfect neighborhood. With the police struggling to find any kind of clues to apprehend the killer, tensions among the neighbors are high. Alexis finds solace in forming a friendship with Blair, Teddy’s widow. As they grow closer, alliances start to form and relationships are questioned. And with suspicions rising, long buried secrets start to emerge…

This really was a combination of Desperate Houswives and The Couple Next Door and I was here for it. I love reading about the filthy rich behaving badly. The sense of entitlement, the greed, the deceit- all amazing. And I always enjoy when the not-as-rich, aka Alexis and Sam, get completely sucked into that world having no idea what they’re in for. This had such a great mystery and a twist I absolutely did not expect, you really will be on the edge of your seat until the very end. An awesome debut- be sure to check it out when it releases on June 20th!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.