Thank you NetGalley and thank you to the publisher st martins press and Minotaur books for the opportunity to read this one early in exchange for my honest review.
Honestly I felt like this one was going a little slow for me in the beginning but as I got into the groove of the book and really trying to figure out what was going on, I just keep turning the page faster and faster and thus ignoring my home duties. Oh well there is always time to do housework but not enough time to read. lol 😂 Sam and Alexis found a house that they loved that needed a lot of work but it was in a great neighborhood or so they thought. They moved in and got to doing necessary repairs but then more and more things were going wrong with the house AND the neighborhood. But they couldn’t pull out now with so much invested on their home and twin kids and a nanny that counted on them for a roof over their heads. But a man was found dead the husband of a neighbor and it was said to be murder.
As the days weeks ticked on with no suspect in sight the suspense got to be a lot and Alexis was starting to see or hear things or was she?! Hmmm yes it started slow but then as I went in to continue reading I was trying to guess who done it, I didn’t guess and we’ll boom bam that came out of left field, wow did I not expect that! Great book. I first for me for this author but I’ll defining be looking for more upcoming or past books to keep me up late at night.

A twisty novel that captures your attention. A good novel, but I was able to guess the end! I thought it was a good plot with a lot of thrilling moments!

This book was less “Desperate Housewives” and more “why do I care about a single one of these awful people”?

Alexis and Sam move into a fixer-upper in a wealthy D.C. suburban neighborhood. Several weeks after moving in, their neighbor’s husband is mysteriously murdered with no leads.

While Alexis is feeling unsafe in her own home and snooping around the neighborhood, she uncovers nothing about the murders but several various affairs happening amongst the neighbors.


The end was twisted (and not in a good way) and just felt abrupt and rushed after 80% of a slowwww burn and wanting to constantly punch Alexis’ horrible husband Sam repeatedly in the face. I didn’t understand any of the motivations of the characters at all and they all irritated the hell out of me — happy to close the book on their stories.

Not a winner of a domestic suspense for me at all.

What a twisted neighborhood Sam and Alexis choose to move to! Makes me glad my nearest neighbor is a mile away. This isn’t a fast-paced book, but it’s definitely worth finishing. Good job with your first novel, Ms. Adelman.

Thank you, Minotaur Books and NetGalley, for this ARC.

A three star book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. I usually live these domestic thrillers but I couldn’t get invested with the characters in Adelmam’s novel. I was able to figure out the mystery and it fell flat on me.

This had such potential to be a solid thriller. Nothing really new in the story of betrayal and neighborhood drama. I had the killer down by the beginning, the end of the book was clunky.

I throughly enjoyed this book. I will say tho, I saw the ending coming. As someone who reads romance & mystery/thrillers it was very easy for me to guess what had happened. Another thing that really bothered me was the main girl Alexis. I understand that she was a black women living in a prominently white neighborhood, but it was 2013. I don’t think her race would’ve been that big of a deal & she gave off pick-me girl vibes. Other than those two things tho, I loved this.

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman

304 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Release Date: June 20, 2023

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Murder Mystery, Neighbor Relations, Affairs, Dangerous Situations, Washington D.C. area

Alexis and Sam are about to be parents for the second time. Their son is still a toddler so the idea of the four of them in their row house sounds like a nightmare. They find a listing of a fixer-upper in a posh neighborhood in Virginia. Sam is an attorney trying to make partner and Alexis is a consultant on maternity leave. Their neighbors appear to be the upper crust of society, but appearances may be deceiving.

The book has a steady pace, the characters develop throughout the story, and it is written in the first-person point of view. Alexis is a mixed-race woman in a white society. She is unsure of herself and second guesses all the time. She blames herself for other people’s actions. I would have liked her better if she was more assertive throughout the book. If you like who dun it books, you will enjoy this read.

This new domestic suspense novel follows along with a lot of the other "new neighbors and murder" trope. I was surprised how much I didn't like most of the characters and it irks me when the narrator is blatantly dumb. Alexis's husband Sam is very much verbally abusive the entire book and it's not even really what the story is about! I enjoyed reading this but it definitely didn't stand out from other similar books I've read.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Well wasn’t this a juicy, secretive, deceitful, and devious neighborhood? This one had twists I didn’t see coming! Dragged a little in the middle, but ended strong.

Oh Alexis....why are you so naive? She really irritated me about how wool over the eyes she was.

The comparison to the popular tv show about desperate homemakers is relevant. A great read and kept me wanting to see where everything was going.

Money makes everything better, right? Not necessarily in What the Neighbors Saw! In this book, Alexis (who is pregnant with her second child) and her husband Sam (who is on the precipice of becoming a partner at his law firm) move into a dilapidated Cape Cod in an upscale DC suburb. Their new home requires constant, expensive renovations, and shortly after their move, their next door neighbor Teddy is murdered, shaking the exclusive community. The lonely and troubled Alexis befriends Teddy's widow Blair, but their friendship is tested when the truth behind his death slowly comes to light.

I loved this book! The story alternates between Alexis and Blair's perspectives and touches on some serious topics, including racism and eating disorders. It definitely took a while for the action to pick up, but once it did, I couldn't stop keep reading until the end (which featured two unexpected twists). If you enjoy domestic suspense / slow burn thrillers, then I think you'll love What the Neighbors Saw!

A copy of this review will also be posted on HelloLittleHome.com in early April.

So as someone who lives near where the book is set, my biggest pet peeve is that this exclusive area that's described as so white and affluent is in reality nowhere near as white. At all. You will find more diversity in these upscale neighborhoods than in so many other areas around DC. So if the author is writing from experience, it was a pretty unique one. The other issue is that most readers can't relate to first-world problems of the highest order as portrayed in stories like these. The families always have so much money and ridiculous high-paying jobs, yet the characters still have time for all this neighborhood drama. Oh no, you didn't make partner at the firm? Your salary won't increase by tens of thousands of dollars so that you can actually afford the overpriced mansion you purchased? You might have to sell one of your multiple cars and not give your spoiled children yet another expensive gift they won't take care of? Poor you.

But I digress. Alexis and Sam are the new neighbors who move into the worst house because it's all they can afford (at a mere one to two million, I forget, some ludicrous figure) and Alexis in particular is obsessed about fitting in. She befriends Blair, who she sees as the queen of the neighborhood with the best house, best looks, and other materialistic attributes. Then Blair's husband dies under suspicious circumstances and everyone freaks out because rich people don't have crime. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but only slightly so. Soon the perfect facades of these perfect people start unraveling and secrets are spilled and everyone is hiding something. Affairs, mostly, no surprise.

Alexis is ridiculously naive and Sam is a jerk so I can't say the characters are too likable. The more that is uncovered the more you can't believe how terrible these people are. And how cliched, as well. These neighborhood dramas are all the rage right now, so an author has to bring something new to the table if they don't want to be lumped in with all of the others. I didn't feel that this book did anything better than the others I've read in the same vein. It's good for what it is and if you like these 'Real Housewives' type of stories then you'll love this one. But it's just not for me.

What The Neighbors Saw is a well-written, compelling debut by Melissa Adelman that delves into the minds and hearts of neighbors in an upscale suburban community. The story is told in two unique POV, in alternating chapters, which makes the book easy to relax with and follow. The picturesque setting of the wealthy neighborhood is so well described that when a body is found by a trail in the nearby woods along a river, we can visualize the placement. The characters are well defined and relatable, especially since each has a unique ethnicity, personal challenge, and inner demon. No one in the book is perfect, though they all enjoy enviable wealth.

The marriages and friendships in the story are all dysfunctional, especially those of the two women telling the tale. This reviewer developed a strong dislike for protagonist Alex’s husband, Sam, who repeatedly undermines his wife by criticizing her and calling her names like “old lady.” Though she’s just given birth to their second child, he remains unsupportive with childcare, his marriage, or the renovation of their new home. Alex has severe body dysmorphia, and though she is thin and beautiful, is bulimic and sees herself as unappealing.

There is a wide assortment of neighborhood couples in the story to follow, a few red herrings, and a mystery not revealed until the final chapter. A good read. I wish the author much success in her writing career.

This review will post to Bayside Book Reviews at https://baysidebookreviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

A comedic mystery about the goings on in an 'exclusive' neighborhood inhabited by dysfunctional families when one of them is murdered.

Some books are a roller coaster ride of emotions or dramatic events. This book is a large measure of both. From the beginning you know the decision by Alexis and her husband Sam to move to the dream home in the dream neighborhood is a big risk. The private D.C. neighborhood has both of them dreaming about their lives as an affluent power couple but their dreams aren’t made of the same outcomes. The home needs a lot of work and they aren’t aligned on what should be the top of the list and the relationship is suffering.

As the couple settle into their new life, Alexis learns she is pregnant with their second child. Alexis meets a few of the neighbors and has mixed feelings about their decision to move. But one of the neighbor ladies, Blair holds Alexis curiosity and Alexis settles into her new life. It isn’t long before strange events happen in the neighborhood including the death of Blair’s husband on the public trail near their home. Meanwhile, her relationship with Sam increases in conflict and his contempt for Alexis’ decisions and actions.

No one knows what goes on behind closed doors but a number of the neighbors seem to be involved in shady activities. Secrets abound as does the finger pointing about who the really bad actors are. This book is full of twisty drama and keeps the reader guessing about true motives and alliances. Even the ending has several dramatic and surprising twists.

After a bit of a strained start where most of the characters were difficult to like, the story surges to a page turner as I searched for the truth in the twists. This book is worth reading and I’ll be watching for this author’s next one.

This is a slow burn thriller that spends a lot of time developing the characters and describing the neighborhood. Despite the slower pace (at least slower than most thrillers I read), I couldn't put it down. The characters felt like people I've met- not cookie cutter binary good/bad people, but complex ones with mixed motivations. Overall, a fun read.

Desperate Housewives meet The Couple Next Door? Sign me up!

Our story begins with Alexis and her husband Sam, house hunting in a wealthy neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C. Normally they wouldn’t be able to afford to live in such an upscale neighborhood, but the house they buy is in desperate need of repair-basically in need of a complete gut and redo. The couple is expecting their second child, and Sam is desperately trying to make partner at his law firm. Lots of change and stress for a young married couple.

When their neighbor Teddy is murdered by an unknown assailant, Alexis wonders if they made the right decision about where they moved. Is the wealthy neighborhood actually safer, or will the same crimes happen in this new location?

Alexis becomes friends with Blair, Teddy’s widow, soon after the murder. Blair is not shy about sharing all the neighborhood gossip with Alexis. Affairs, assaults, and predators are lurking up and down the wealthy street. Who is to be trusted, and is the murderer among them?

I love a good mystery, and Alexis must too because she takes matters into her own hands to discover who killed Teddy and why. The first half of the novel was slow, but the pace picked up once the big secret was revealed. I resonated with Alexis’ character and her personal struggles, and enjoyed rooting for her along the way. Sam is a complete creep, and I would like to extend a big “F You” to his character.

Read this if you love:
🕵️‍♀️Solving a mystery
🐢Slower storyline, heavy on character development
❓Wondering who you can trust

TW
Heavy discussion on an eating disorder. I would not recommend this to someone that is newly in recovery.

I was pretty meh in this book. It felt verrrry slow moving for me and I found it much easier to put down than most mysteries I read. I think that maybe was the issue, it ultimately felt more like a family drama than an actual mystery. Sure, there is a murder in the beginning but most of the story doesn’t focus on solving it.

The writing is good and the story moves between the point of view of Alexis, whose husband and kids have just moved into this upscale community, and Blair the widow of the murder victim. I found Blair’s chapters more interesting but they are much shorter compared to the time we spend with Alexis. And so much of that part centers around how much a complete jerk her husband Sam is. I was torn between feeling like he was a caricature of an overworked husband and wondering why she ever married him in the first place.

I will say that the end of this book and the outcome of everything is decent, but it felt like such a slog to get there.

Sam and Alexis thought they found the perfect neighborhood and a house that would fit their needs. Yes, the house needs some work, but it was worth it due to the area it was in. Then a neighbor is murdered in the 'almost non-existing crime' neighborhood. After a while, it appears that this place wasn't the big bargain they thought it was. The biggest surprise to me was the way thing turned out. There was a slight hint to part of it but not enough of one to have it stick in the reader's mind and develop. Great job Melissa! I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.