With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Elisabeth Carpenter is an author who I always attempt to keep up with. Out of all of her books this is probably my favourite. A three way narrative, Joanna, the abducted woman, Scarlet, her daughter and Alex, a murderer. It is his narrative which is the most complex, covering the years from when he was a teenager, his time as a student, gradually moving forward to his life in modern day. His story was both terrifying, but also showed how needy he was. The author demonstrates very well how a difficult childhood could contribute to wrong decisions being made. And whilst I obviously couldn’t agree with them I could understand his reasoning. Sort of. What was evident though, how much he was failed by he system, how everything could have been different if he had received help from those who could.
Even though there were only a handful of characters it took me a while to figure out the connection. There were a few who appeared often in the background who played a more significant role than in other books I have read. This could have been confusing but it wasn’t. Instead, it just added to the story, suggesting that the past could come back to haunt you.
Another brilliant book by this author, definitely one I would recommend if you fancy a book you can read in one sitting.

The Family on Smith Street by Elisabeth Carpenter is a very gripping read!
Such a page turner.. I couldn’t put it down with all the suspense and twists and turns throughout.
The characters were great, the plot was excellent and the style of writing was perfect.
This story has multiple POV’s and timelines which made for an intriguing time.
So cleverly written with shocking twists that are revealed along the way. Absolutely brilliant!
Carpenter has written an another utterly addictive psychological thriller with real emotional depth and the tension keeps you turning the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

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

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

Thank you to Elisabeth Carpenter and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy. While I did have a few things from the story that I felt were left unanswered, it was really a good read. The character developments and they way the lives entangled at various stages of life were well done. I felt some of the back story was a little rushed, as was the ending. There was definitely more that could have been done to add more depth to the story, but overall, it was a quick read that kept my attention, and I looked forward to reading.

A decent tale of deceit, murder, and lies.
Joanna is snatched one night and she’s desperate to be liberated. Her daughter, Scarlett, is beside herself with worry while her father seems to be anxious.
I figured out who the villain was really early on but the whys had me stumped until Carpenter was ready to reveal them.
The question remains: do we ever really know the people we hold,the closest??

Joanna is being kidnapped by when she went out at night for work. When she did not return back in the morning, her daughter, Scarlett voiced her concern with her father who doesn't seem to be surprised about it. Meanwhile, back in the late 1980's and 1990's, a man is hunting down women, killing them and using a fake identity to live a double life.

If you had read My Lovely Wife or Housemaid, then this book is one such type of thriller. There were many POVs but it wasn't very confusing. There were some twists and turn although I did kind of predicted what the ending was going to be. The book was actually a page turner and divides between past and present. I actually enjoyed reading the past rather than in the present. So if you are looking for a fast-paced family based thriller, then try this book out--worth four stars in my opinion!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Joanna and her friend, Amy went out to the pub for someone’s leaving do. Walking home alone, Joanna texts her husband, James, saying she will be home shortly. The next thing is her world goes dark. She wakes up in a locked room chained to a bed. The next morning, Joanna’s daughter, Scarlett, gets up to find her Mom never returned from the pub the night before.

Alexander (Alex) Buchanan is rooming with his college friend, Simon Kennedy. They are different personalities and are from different backgrounds. Alex has some hidden secrets from his past, while Simon is from a wealthy family.

The story goes back and forth in time and covers the disappearance and murders of several young women. This serial killer has never been found. I admit that I had a difficult time trying to keep up with the characters but it finally started to fall into place. I liked the characters of Joanna and Scarlett. I wish the story had given more clues so that it would have been a bit easier to follow.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

What a freaking ride! This was full of twists and turns. I couldn’t put it down! It’ll have you thinking one thing, then second guessing it! Very good read!!!

The Family on Smith Street is quite the page turner. A little dark in places but full of twists and turns that kept me wanting to read more. Quite enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Title: The Family on Smith Street
Author: Elizabeth Carpenter
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: August 14, 2023
My Rating: 3.4 Stars
Pages: 281
The following blurb got my attention ~
A happy family. A picture-perfect street.
A secret someone would kill for. My husband James and I love living on Smith Street, with its neat
houses and friendly family barbecues. Our daughter Scarlett grew up playing outside with the other
local kids
Story is told in two timelines from the POV of Joanna -the kidnapped mother, Scarlet – the daughter; and the kidnapper –told in present day. Then there is the POV of Alex in the late 80’s and 90s.

Story starts when Joanna does not return home after a ‘Girls night out”,
Scarlet the daughter, as well as James the dad are lost as to what might have happened.

Next part of the story is Alex Buchanan who is troubled
It certainly seems that he may have something to do with the present day kidnapping.

Story had me curious and the ending twist was a total surprise.
I am a big audiobook fan and actually listened to this story first. Typically I love audiobooks especially when the narrator is great at performing the characters. However in this case I liked the book better.
I found the characters over use of profanity got in the way of appreciating the story; hearing profanity is something I really don’t like.
I enjoying reading Ms. Carpenter’s ‘Author’s Notes’; she tells us that as a writer she loves exploring reasons that make people act the way they do, and the lengths they will go to protect the people thy d love. Additionally she likes to inject a little love and humor into her books.

More about the Author: Elisabeth (Libby) Carpenter has written seven novels. She lives in Preston, Lancashire with her family. Loves the north of England, setting most of her stories in the area – including the novel she is writing at the moment.

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 14, 2023.

★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)

How well do you really know them...?

How has it been so long since I've read Elisabeth Carpenter? When her debut "99 Red Balloons" was published, I devoured it it was THAT good! And when a debut is THAT good, the bar is set that much higher and it is hard to beat. And this one comes close...very close.

Told through three different narratives, the story begins with Joanna who disappears on her way home one night after having a few too many drinks. She's clever enough to pretend to be walking up to her door when approached by a strange car but she's not quick enough to avoid a quick-thinking kidnapper from snatching her from the street. She awakes in a strange room that is eerily decorated much like her own at home...only it isn't. And she's tied up with a gag across her mouth. But why did they take her? What do they want from her? Surely, they have the wrong person. And the longer they hold her, the more she's convinced they have made a mistake. Nothing they tell her makes any kind of sense. She doesn't know these people. They have made a mistake.

Scarlett wakes the following morning surprised that her mum hasn't already beaten her to it, as she usually does. She gets herself ready for college and heads downstairs. The curtains are still drawn in the living room. Strange. And then she sees her dad still sprawled with his head on the table. Has he not been to bed yet? Wait...is he even breathing? Is he dead? Scarlett can almost taste the relief when she sees her dad slowly blink his eyes open. She asks him where mum is. Did she not come home? He assures her all is fine but Scarlett isn't stupid. Her dad may be saying all the right things but there's something he's not telling her. Does he know where her mum is?

Rewind back nearly forty years to 1985 and we meet ten year old Alexander, a young boy whose mother is an alcoholic and whose father may as well not even be there. By the time he's 14, his father has been arrested for his mother's murder and he is is shipped off to his maternal grandparents in Yorkshire. Life hasn't been kind to Alex but maybe now it will be. Because now he has grandparents who love him...like his mother never did.

As the story unfolds through the three perspectives, we are lead on a merry chase trying to figure out exactly why Joanna has been kidnapped and by who? And how do the two timelines intersect? It's clear as the past timeline starts to catch up that Alex is a very troubled individual. In fact, being inside his head was creepy but oh it was such fun!

We are fed snippets along the way - some red herrings, some real clues - but how to decipher the fact from fiction? There are many threads weaved around each other, cleverly crafted and deftly driven to give you just enough without giving too much away. And then twist after twist came, blowing everything out of the water. What I thought was true wasn't and then it was and then what the...? How did that happen? And when?

Elisabeth Carpenter has expertly maneovured each thread into an expertly woven tapestry. As you stand back, just look at the picture and I just think - WOW. She's done it again.

I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish which is the most important factor in a book. If I'm entertained, I'm happy. And happy I was. And thoroughly entertained. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, even though I was falling asleep. I just wanted to keep reading.

Another absolute winner for me. Now I really have to find time to go back and read all the others in between her debut to now. Until then, I can't wait to see what she delivers us next!

I would like to thank #ElisabethCarpenter, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheFamilyOnSmithStreet in exchange for an honest review.,/b>

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

This book is written through various points of views. There is Alex Buchanan, James, Joanna, and Scarlette.
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Alex Buchanan has his own secrets that he has been keeping since his childhood. Growing up in a home with parents that constantly argued, he decides to take matters into his own hands. With Alex too young to understand, his father pays for Alex's decision. Fast forward to college, like his mom, Alex starts to have his own problems with drinking, which begin to cause issues with his friend group. When a friend of the group goes missing, Alex's friends point the finger to him...
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On the outside, this family has it all together. But on the inside, this family is held together by secrets. When Joanna suddenly goes missing after a night out with a friend, her daughter Scarlett and husband James are left to their own devices. What they don't know is that Joanna has been kidnapped and is being held in someone's basement. They thought they had moved enough times to avoid the past surfacing, but when Scarlette finds a box in her dad's closet and leaves an anonymous tip to the authorities, everything they have been running from comes face to face with James and Joanna.
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This was a good book and was quite captivating. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would read more books from this author. The book had a good pace that held my interest as events began to unfold. This is your typical books about 'family secrets' but it was well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Great thriller. Really liked this read. Well done by the author once again.

I very much enjoyed this book and will look forward to her future books. Gripping and hard to put down. Thanks Netgalley,

I’ve read and enjoyed all of Elisabeth Carpenter’s books, so I jumped at the chance to read her latest, The Family on Smith Street. A mother goes missing from a suburban street where she has lived with her family, her husband James, and daughter Scarlett for years. It is an area where they should’ve been safe. It was the perfect place for them to raise a family until now. It is not clear what the kidnapper’s motive is, but it is clear that she isn’t the first person her kidnapper has taken, and time to find her alive, is running out.

Elisabeth Carpenter has written a dark and disturbing book, and there are definitely some shocking twists and turns, that turn the novel on its head, as we come to understand the reason why Scarlett’s mother has been kidnapped. You can feel the anguish that her family is going through as they struggle to come to terms with what has happened to them, especially Scarlett. Even though she is going through an unimaginable time and horrors most people can scarcely imagine, she still faces cruel comments from her fellow school pupils, and it is heartbreaking to see.

The novel does get even creepier following the abduction of Scarlett’s mother, as we come to realise that she wasn’t the first. But what happened to the other women who were in the same position as her? Was anyone else looking for them?

What this novel will make you think about is: how well do you know the people who you live with, and what secrets they are potentially keeping from you. This is what makes this book such a tense read as the truth finally comes out and there is a devastating finale. The final twists were for me, what made this book really stand out. I loved how Elisabeth Carpenter pulled everything together in some very dramatic and tense scenes.

If you’re looking for a twisty psychological thriller, then look no further than The Family on Smith Street. I really enjoyed it.

This is first book that I’ve read by this author and it certainly will not be my last. I enjoyed this one so much that I actually read it in one sitting. This is a tense and gripping read that once you start reading it you will not be able to put it down. Full of twists and turns right up to the final chapter, I loved it.

If you're looking for a spice free, easy read, this is it.
I loved the twists and turns in this story and the characters as well.
Joanna goes missing and her daughter, Scarlett, is trying to do some investigating and uncovers some deep rooted secrets.
Everything I thought was wrong, and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were well developed and the story was engaging. I recommend that others try this book as well. Well done!

This is the first book I’ve read by Elisabeth and I really enjoyed it. This story was so interesting. We meet Joanna who ends up getting kidnapped and has no idea where she is or who has kidnapped her. I enjoyed the 3 POVs. . I just kept wondering, who had kidnapped Joanna and what is going on with her husband.. who is he?! There was so many twists and turns, I couldn’t put the book down. I didn’t know what to expect every time I turned the page. I honestly didn’t think it was going to end the way it did. I’m looking forward to reading more books by Elisabeth. Thank you NetGalley, Elisabeth and Bookouture for the ARC!

A wife and mother is kidnapped on her street. She wakes up tied up and has to figure out where she is before it’s too late.

I think the story here is good. It gives you a good trace back to why this is happening to Joanna. However, the writing style was not for me at all. It felt like stream of consciousness in a thriller and I was not feeling it. That detracted a lot from the suspense for me.

There's been an abduction, Told by three different people and moving back and forth in time, this is a creepy twisty novel that will keep you turning the pages. Who is who? What is going on? The only thing that's for certain is that there's something very wrong Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers from me.