This was a different reading experience. The pace is absolutely frantic, but the plot moves at a snail's pace. My best guess is that the author was trying to capture the disjointed thought process of a sleep deprived stay at home dad and after a couple of chapters I was starting to follow it...but at the beginning I was completely lost. Adam is obsessed with the young woman who lives next door. His already strained marriage has become worse since his wife caught him looking from their window across to hers and he can't ignore the fact that he hasn't seen his young neighbor in days or that he saw her ex-boyfriend doing something extremely creepy and his truck has been sitting there the entire time. The plot leaps between characters and won't let you forget for an instant that it's set in Portland. It all ties together by the end, but at that point I didn't care what happened to anyone.

The plot was interesting but i could not engage with any of the characters. Maybe that is what the author intended?
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

DNF at 32%. Unreadable. Really flat and boring and the story was not progressing at all. The characters were terrible and unlikable. The writing is not very good. Wayyy too many run-on sentences!

Another mini review where I could take or the leave the book. This book was a bit boring, the characters were weird. They weren’t weird in the way you want more of them, but weird like I’m done with you, NEXT. I couldn’t find a foot hold to like a character, relate, it was just meh. Not a great book, not a horrible book. Just meh. I’m also starting to get over the novels where a mother resents her child or finds them inconvenient. I’ve read a lot of them recently and I’m over this type of character right now.

This book was really difficult to get into. Most of the time I could not keep up with what was going on with the characters or the storyline, perhaps it was me.

The author’s writing style is very unique and it does take a bit to get into. Once you get into it, it flows easier. It’s about an exhausted stay at home dad and his exhausted new mom wife. A neighbor across the street goes missing and we don’t know who to trust

This book was okay, but not quite at the level of suspense I enjoy. Pretty much everyone in this book is promiscuous and highly unlikeable. I hate the level of arrogance, insanity, and compulsions. It's like people don't think, just do in this book and if they do think at all it's at a level of abnormal obsession. I found myself disappointed in the ending as well, there was no surprise ending. I received a free copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

A psychological story for sure. A stay at home Dad Adam is having challenges with his wife. He also likes to watch a neighbor across the street. It's not going to be pretty for the characters.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and to Crooked Lane Books.

After losing his job because he’s an idiot, Adam is a resentful SAHD to a newborn while his wife, Sarah, teaches. Adam has taken interest in his neighbor, Ali, and has been fixated on her while her ex-boyfriend Kemp/Crispin (I don’t get why he has two names) has been acting suspiciously near Ali’s home. Sarah, apparently, has been having an affair with Kemp who is her boss’s son.

Everything is told in multiple POVs. It’s all convoluted. A lot of rambling. More of a domestic fiction than thriller. Everyone is carrying a bunch of secrets. None of the characters seem all that redeemable and I didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books. The Neighbors We Want is out now.

I, eventually, got on to this story a little. For some reason, it started slow & I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters. It aggravated me that one character kept being referred to by 2 different names throughout the book. Bla.

It was interesting enough. Nothing to write home about, but interesting enough I guess.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This was just not what I was expecting after reading the summary.
It really wasn’t a thriller at all. I didn’t care for the characters. The story itself was a bit confusing at times. Definitely not a book I enjoyed at all.

This book had potential, but turned out to be quite strange throughout. Lacking suspense, a weird plot and with little character development, this was just not an enjoyable read for me. All of the characters were appalling and not relatable. This was a dual/listen, but I ended up not liking the narrator because of the storyline. Unfortunately, this is not a book that I will recommending. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ARC and ALC of this book.

Thank you, Crooked Lane and NetGalley, for the advanced copy.

The novel was okay. It definitely wasn’t a thriller. I don’t think I’d classify it as a mystery either. Maybe just contemporary fiction… I wasn’t rushing to devour this novel, but at the same time, the pace was fine enough that I didn’t put it in a DNF pile.

Adam is a stay-at-home dad to a newborn while his wife teaches. As his marriage starts to breakdown, he becomes obsessed with the neighbor. Her sudden disappearance after an odd sighting of her ex at her house leads Adam to try to learn what has happened. Will he solve the mystery and be able to save his marriage?

2.5/3 rounded up.
The Neighbors We Want is the story of a stay-at-home dad, Adam, who has found himself unusually interested in the neighbor across the street. One day he believes that she has gone missing and that her ex-boyfriend has something to do with it. As his investigation grows, secrets and lies begin to come to the surface.

I really did think the story itself was interesting and so was the climax/ending. But the characters were all just so insufferable that it made it difficult to actually enjoy reading it. As the story went on, they each just got worse and worse. I do think that it was intentional for them to be awful and there was a good point in there about how essentially boredom, selfishness, and discontent with life can cause people to do things with awful domino effects they weren't intending. But I wish there had been a character with some redeeming qualities who I could root for.

I am sure some readers will enjoy this book, but this was just not for me. It took a long time to get into and I just took me awhile to get through. This should be categorized as a domestic drama not a thriller. It was just a bit too slow paced for me. Thank you, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
3 star

As others have previously mentioned, this book was pretty strange. I didn’t hate it, but didn’t exactly love it either. It took about 30% in until I found myself wanting to continue and see how the story unfolded/ended. I think my biggest peeve was the random little political things sprinkled in that just didn’t have any significance to the story and weren’t necessary. I did end up enjoying the story once it got going even though the characters were pretty messed up in their own ways. While this book might not have exactly been for me and my tastes, I’m sure there are readers out there who will love it.

This one was hard to get through, I couldn't connect with any of the characters and found the suspense to be lacking!

This book was okay. I didn’t think it was amazing but it was alright, it was a little difficult to keep up with the multiple story lines at times.

This book was really difficult to get into. Most of the time I could not keep up with what was going on with the characters or the storyline, perhaps it was me. A stalker type situation between neighbors - a married man and his hot younger neighbor. Just not a huge story line and hard to follow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.