I received an advanced copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
A convoluted, wild plot with past/present timelines with extremely toxic, co-dependent relationships between several women. An intense, sometimes confusing and even overwhelming plot with multiple unstable characters and an intentional commune setting thrown into the mix. This book was exhaustive, outlandish and not something I would recommend to others.

✨Book Review - Nowhere Like Home✨

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌑

*I was provided this book free of charge by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

As always, Sara Shepard delivers! I have been a Sara Shepard fan since the early days of Pretty Little Liars and I preorder everything she writes.

I loved the call back to the A like character from Pretty Little Liars. I love an unknown character that pulls the strings and drives the story. I enjoyed how in this story, going to the authorities wouldn’t really solve anything, unlike in PLL where I felt that going to the police would have solved a lot of things.

The story was believable and I always love a good cult story so I loved that aspect.

It was well written, and the one thing that I felt brought it down to 4 stars instead of 5 was that it ended on kind of a cliff hanger but not enough that I felt there was going to have a second book. If there was a promise or enough of a cliff hanger that I would expect a follow up, this would be 5 stars! But the lack of a full resolution was a little frustrating.

Overall, I always highly recommend everything by Sara Shepard (except that one book we won’t talk about). She has been one of my all time favorite authors since I was a teenager and I love that her books are leaning more toward adult now.

Nowhere Like Home comes out in less than a week, so make sure you preorder!

This is twisty, dual time line, multiple POV thriller that, well, no spoilers. Lenna has been struggling since the birth of her son and when her old pal Rhiannon show up, she impulsively takes the baby and flees to the desert community where Rhiannon has been living. Their back story- how they became friends and what happened two years ago, spools out slowly and includes Gillian, who is jealous of their relationship. In the present, there are some coincidences that work and others that, to be frank don't, but that doesn't mean that this isn't compulsively readable. None of these characters are especially likable (I think that's part of the point) but the women in the desert are intriguing. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Shepard's fans will be pleased and new readers equally entertained.

Lenna and Rhiannon are friends, until Rhiannon suddenly disappears. Two years later Rhiannon reaches out to Lenna and invites her to join a “mommune” - a community of women in the desert. But after Lenna arrives she fears it may have been a mistake.

While there’s a lot of interesting ideas here - motherhood, friendship, secrets, lies, and twists - I really struggled with how slowly this one moved and the extreme ending. None of the characters were compelling to me and their motivations were lacking. I did however like the alternating perspectives and past/present timelines.

Thank you to Dutton and NetGalley for an electronic copy of this novel.

This was very twisty and suspenseful! I actually loved the ending, I didn't see it coming. I love a cult story!

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much @DuttonBooks for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 20 February 2024)

SYNOPSIS | Lenna used to have a close connection with Rhiannon until she disappeared. A few years later they reconnect & Lenna learns that Rhiannon is staying at a "mommune" in the desert. She is intrigued enough to join her for the weekend with her baby with the hopes of rekindling their old friendship.

WHAT I LIKED:
- that we get to read both current day & past timelines

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the pacing dragged throughout
- I sadly didn't become invested in any of the characters or their relationships to each other
- the conflicts felt very juvenile & overall it felt kind of silly
- it reads like YA instead of an adult thriller
- the ending

Lenna is startled when out of the blue she gets a call from her old friend Rhiannon who disappeared from her life without a trace. Rhiannon is now living in a remote desert community where women and children look after each other. Being a new mother herself, Lenna decides to visit Rhiannon for support and answers. Once there, Lenna starts to get suspicious of this community and the residents that live there. When a member returns to the community Lenna realizes that she was brought here for a reason and that she has not escaped her secretive past.

This book has it all stalking, secrets, problematic friendships, sabotage, revenge, communes, even murder? Told from multiple POVs and timelines it threads together a story that captured me from the beginning. Loved the added topic of new motherhood and the struggles that brings. I was not expecting the reveal and it shook me.

i really enjoyed this book! The format of this book alternates between past and present tenses. It’s told via MPOV’s. As a reader it was very easy to follow the storyline and engage with the characters. I found I was hooked from the beginning and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Just when I thought I had things figured out another twist came out of nowhere and threw me for a loop. Fantastic read. Thank you for the chance to review this book in an exchange for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this book, however the execution was lacking. It started off great, but then it dragged out for entirely too long. There was too much distrust between characters and also a lot of really strange choices. Like why is Lenna going to this women's commune with her 5 month old son? Every parent knows the first year is the toughest because of the lack of sleep and I think Lenna just couldn't think straight and her brain was off. Rhiannon was all over the place. I did enjoy Gillian. I felt she was going into full stalker mode and I enjoyed her storyline. Overall I think it could have been probably 50-100 pages shorter and a little more cleaned up. The ending was definitely wild and I didn't see it coming.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Dutton for my copy of this ARC which publishes 2/20/24

While the book moves around at a fairly fast pace and is somewhat intriguing, some plot points are never really adequately explained. For instance, why would Lenna take her child to a place she knows little about and why would she not tell her husband where she was going just to catch up with some friend she hasn't seen or heard from in years? There is no indication that her husband was abusive or she needed to escape him in any way so it seems like she was just being selfish.

It doesn't make sense that she would urgently feel the need to catch up with Rhiannon either. Their initial friendship was brief and not very healthy on either side. It is not understandable why either one of them would remember it so fondly and/or want to rekindle it. In fact, there are not really any healthy friendships in the entire book. The relationships in general are mostly toxic. Although at times some characters do express genuine concerns for others and act accordingly, for the most part, each of these women is just out for herself and acts accordingly. It might seem at first like this is going to be a book full of great friendships and found family vibes, however, that is not the case at all.

I was obsessed with the Pretty Little Liars series when I was a teenager, and Sara Shepard is making her return into adult fiction with a dark, twisty commune story with Nowhere Like Home. I've found myself slightly disappointed with childhood favorite authors branching out into more mature writing, but Shepard did not disappoint with this one!

Lenna is exhausted. Her baby is crying all the time, her marriage is suffering, and she is in desperate need of some relief. When an old friend re-enters her life offering a promise of solace and support through the "Mommune" she is a part of, Lenna is convinced this is the break that she needs. She heads out to the desert to join this community, but her own baggage is not a safe secret from the women living here.

This was the perfect amount of suspense to keep me coming back for more. Every time a section ended on a cliff hanger, I found myself saying "just one more chapter" because I needed to know what would happen next.

Told through multiple timelines and perspectives, Shepard does a fantastic job of winding together storylines to answer questions that initially lead you feeling stumped.

I will admit this started to drag on a bit for me and the ending felt a little on the goofy/unrealistic/rushed to pull it all together side, but this is one that really hooked me in from the start. I definitely recommend checking this one out when it releases, especially if you are a Pretty Little Liars fan!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

"If she lived her life backward , she’d do everything right. Everyone would."

I really enjoyed Sara Shepard's latest book for adults. Her crossover from YA has been seamless, in my opinion. She's a wonderful storyteller.

We start out meeting Lenna. Her old bestie Rhiannon has recently gotten in touch with her after a spat a few years ago. This all takes place in a 2 year timeline, which seems short but I just overlooked it.

Rhiannon always wanted to live on a commune with other women. She was tired of the rat race and not really looking for romantic love after all the suffering she's gone through in her life and it's admirable for someone to just admit what they want. She was an interesting character.

Anyway, Lenna is now a stressed new mom and Rhiannon thinks it would do her good to come stay with her in the desert on the commune. Lenna gets a wild hair and says yes for some reason and this place is neat. It's pretty much what you'd expect; they even have a gong to announce yoga, and presumably, other things. What could go wrong?!

All is not as it seems here though and as the past and present merge, the outline of a devious scheme begins to develop, but is it too late to escape? Can anyone ever really leave Halcyon?

This had a lot to say about the intricacies of female friendship, some of which was silly at times, but most interestingly, we saw the weaponization of mental illness. Some terrible things were done to others and excuses were always made, even when they said there were no excuses. That never truly landed and it was disappointing for me.

The journey on this one is better than the destination. I didn't really love the twist and ending but I had such a great time reading it that I didn't mind. Sometimes things don't end how you'd like, in real life or in fiction!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the chance to read and review!

This was a definite miss for me. I love anything with a cultish plot, but the characters were SO immature and annoying, and trying to understand ANY of their decisions was turning my brain into knots. I figured out the ending to the book pretty early on and did not enjoy the journey to the finish line.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC!

This book just wasn't for me! I did try to get through it and enjoy it. But I was honestly just not getting into it aftee a few attempts of reading it.

I would give a more detailed review. But I don'r want to dissuade anyone from reading it. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a great book! I kept formating my guesses and was off base for the big reveal. I love it when a book stumps me!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

There are communes and there are mommunes. Women who ran away from one thing or the other ended up in this mommune. But also, some of them were carefully recruited. They worked together, did their chores, but also they had enough fund for anyone who needed to go under IVF treatment.

Lenna ran to her friend, Rhiannon, even thought they haven't seen each other for a very long time. Their friendship was unbreakable, but at the same time, it was bit toxic. They were there for each other, but also they were destroying each other. No one could get between them. When Rhiannon left Lenna, Gillian came into play. She was little obsessed with both women, but she was okay with only having one as a friend. She had social anxiety, which made it hard for her to form friendships. When she realized there was no way Lenna would see her as Rhiannon's equals, she spun out of control.

Sara Shephard made me not miss the crazy twists and turns of PLL. She made me question friendships as she would do. For those who were HS students when PLL came out, now you can reach about 30 something version of it.

I'd forgotten how twisty a Sara Shepard book can get. You really never know what you're going to get, and everything and everyone is up for suspicion.
I'll admit I'm not big on the "lonely woman desperately reaching out for friendship' suspense novel troupe, seems like too obvious a plot but Sara Shepard naturally turned it into something else entirely.
I do have to wonder if this book was plotted out from the beginning, or if it was a choose your own adventure type of bulletin board kind of ride while writing because how one gets from point A to point 6 is beyond me. It's quite the adventure in trying to figure how who can be trusted and preparing yourself for whatever might come next.

3.5 stars. The story centers primarily on Lenna, who is navigating friendships with both Rhiannon and Gillian, both who have their own issues. A couple years after we meet Lenna, Rhiannon reappears from parts unknown and convinces her to join this off the grid community; Lenna could never say no to Rhiannon so she goes and realizes there is more at play then she suspected.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for this e-arc.*

This one was a slow burn for me. None of the characters were relatable or even likable, and read very YA for women in their late 20s/early 30s. That being said, the story had me questioning if this woman was entering into a cult and that alone kept me reading because I wanted to know after investing time into it. All in all, the ending was twisty enough for me to not be mad, so I can’t complain. Thanks to Dutton Books for my eARC. 𝗡𝗼𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲 publishes 2/20.

Lenna has not heard from her former best friend, Rhiannon, in two years. So when Rhiannon suddenly reaches out and invites her to join her at a mommune, Lenna is intrigued. But when she arrives, she realizes she may have not been invited there to rekindle her friendship. but instead to deal with a secret from her past.

This book took me forever to get through. The plot felt similar to quite a few I have read before, but was a lot slower. It took to about 40% before something actually happened. I found every character to be unlikable and it was tough for me to care about what happened to anyone. The ending was absolutely far fetched and not even in a way exciting enough to make up for the rest of the slowburn book.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.