A gritty, intense, fast-paced, riveting, artful melding of stunning psychological thrills and nail-biting suspense. An edgy mystery full of dark secrets, shocking plot twists and pulse-pounding, palpable tension. A MUST for fans who thrive on superbly-written, unputdownable thrillers!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

That was definitely something!

Pros:
- Dives into female friendships
- Is good at making you want to know what happens next
- Love a good POV switch to go back to another character and get what actually happened
- So incredibly OTT you could not put a gun to my head and ask me to guess what happens

Cons:
- Girlie didn’t just have anxiety she was mentally ILL
- For the love of god please stop using Instagram posts in books, especially ones that don’t make any sense
- The dialogue just wasn’t great, half the time people wouldn’t say these things
- The most sane/relatable person in the book was a murderer??
- Hated all the characters, every single one

Overall, I was curious what was going to happen. The ending was a bit meh to me but Gillian just drove me bat shit crazy anyway so I guess that’s probably why I didn’t care that much. Wasn’t the worst but I also won’t think about it ever again!

I normally read a book in day or less. This book took me a week of reading and putting down thinking what?? (And not in a good way). Not that it was bad, it was confusing. I felt like I started one book and halfway through, it changed to another. Loosely stitched together. Even with that, I know who did what, and why,
Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this advanced copy.

Not my favorite. I'm not a fan of cult books, so I'm probably not the right audience for this one. I did enjoy some of the other aspects of it, so it may be a great book for a different audience.

As soon as I saw the author of Pretty Little Liars was delving into adult fiction, I knew I had to read it.
This was close to being 4 stars for me.
I loved the idea of a commune for moms, and I can easily see this all happening in real life.
All of the background stories were woven together nicely to make the twists believable. I also enjoyed the multiple POV, but I think there were 1-2 too many flashbacks, or maybe it was their placement. Either way, a solid start into adult fiction and I can’t wait to read more.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Part of the reason I picked this book up was because I was a Pretty Little Liars fan. This book beat all my expectations and became my first 5 star book in 2024.
This book was two stories interwoven into one. We get a great picture of Lenna and Rhiannon’s friendship from a few years ago in LA. Then we see their time at Halcyon commune in Arizona. I really enjoyed both parts.
This book also did a good job at making everyone look super suspicious. I was questioning everyone, even Lenna, at times. I had no one I could trust.
The pacing was great. It never felt slow to me. I was at the edge of my seat until the very end, and I was never disappointed.
We also get multiple POVs with 3 different people. I felt like this was done perfectly to show us the secrets and histories of these important characters.
This book was so great, and I definitely recommend it.

Nowhere Like Home is my first Sara Shepard novel and I finished it within a day. I absolutely was taken by this mystery of complicated and toxic friendships, trauma, and a "mom-une."

The writing itself was a nice mixture of atmospheric and tension along with the actual plotline between the characters. Shepard balances the narrative between three characters and does it with ease; she easily captures their individual voices and distinctions between them.

While I felt like it started a bit slow and confusing to me, everything quickly began to unfold. Shepard left an amazing amount of clues and hints along the way, but even so, I didn't guess the plot twist. She kept me on my toes and guessing, which I loved.

The twists and turns were delightful and I was racing to finish Nowhere Like Home.

Nowhere Like Home reads just like a season of Pretty Little Liars, fitting for a new novel by Sara Shephard! Lenna has found herself feeling complacent with life and out of touch with motherhood. She yearns for something more. When her long lost friend Rhiannon suddenly pops back up in her life and invites her to visit her women-only commune, Lenna jumps at the chance to run away from the real world for a short period of time. But once Lenna arrives at Halcyon, she may never leave. This novel goes back and forth between present time on the commune, and the past when Rhiannon and Lenna's friendship took off, and ultimately ended. This book definitely kept my interest, but was absolutely far fetched, again, in the vein of PLL (like literally I was expecting Rhiannon to be revealed as A.) But if you can suspend your belief, Nowhere Like Home will take you for a wild ride into the world of cults, obsession, and revenge.

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

I read a good majority of the Pretty Little Liars series and was pretty hooked on the TV show, so I was pretty excited to have a chance to read Shepard's latest thriller, Nowhere Like Home. At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. I couldn't relate to the characters as they were all moms or trying to become moms, and I wasn't quite sure how the mystery aspect was going to play out.

However, all of a sudden, the book took off and I was sucked in. Around the 30-35% mark, it starts to move a whole lot faster and I couldn't put it down. The twists in Nowhere Like Home kept coming too. While I wasn't crazy about the characters, I did find they were all well-developed. I felt like they may have been developed the way they were so the reader had a hard time liking them (just my opinion.)

The ending was strong and I enjoyed this book.
Thank you Dutton Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had what could be an interesting plot and was a quick read. However, I struggled with the unlikeable, juvenile characters. It all seemed very silly. 2.5.

Sara Shepard is a master at writing a triller that draws you in with all the secrets and lies. This book like Pretty Little Liars is based of the lies that we try to hide. The three women highlighted in the book have some pretty big things that they don’t want any one to know. Yet when they are all brought together to a mysterious compound in the middle of the dessert, secrets star to be revealed.
This book is laid out beautifully. There are three parts each of them allowing the reader to get a glimpse into the past and the present. Both building up the readers knowledge of how we got to where we are today. Each part is written in the perspective of a different friend. Each reviles more of the truth. Sara always has an ace up her sleeve though and readers will love how twisted together these women’s lives truly are.
Thank you so much to Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

DNF @ 25%

I was excited to check this one out after loving the author's previous work in my younger years.

However, I struggled to immediately connect to Nowhere Like Home like I did her previous work. The premise from the blurb sounds interesting, but in execution, the pacing was pretty slow and it's hard to suspend belief for some of the actions of the main characters.

The writing also felt pretty simplistic and young despite the older MCs. I found I didn't truly connect with these characters nor did I care what happened them.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Part 1 of this thriller is an absolute banger. I was super invested in Lenna and how she ended up at this commune and what secrets the commune was holding. Then as parts 2 and 3 unfolded I slowly started losing interest. Getting the other sides of the same story two other times kind of felt redundant. Some of the motivations for the characters didn't make sense, especially in the final pages. I still don't understand why Lenna was so attached to Rhiannon. There was a lot of telling, but not a lot of showing if that makes sense.

I will hand it to the writer she knows how to grip you into a story right off of the bat. I just wish the pacing would have been as consistent as it was in the beginning.

I loved how this book had such a mysterious and unsettling vibe. I really had no idea how everything was going to play out and it definitely kept me guessing the whole time. I loved how the book was structured with past and present timelines. It kept me wanting more since you find out pieces of the puzzle a little bit at a time. There are so many layers to the story and lots of twists that had my mind spinning!

Thank you so much PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for the arc!

This story centers around Lenna who had friendships with Rhiannon and Gillian. The friendships were troubled and codependent but surprisingly Rhiannon reaches out to reconnect with Lenna. Lenna jumps at this chance because she has been having difficulty adjusting to motherhood while holding a dark secret. Lenna goes to the commune where Rhiannon lives and enjoys spending time with the other mothers but something doesn’t feel right there. The story unravels with the past’s secrets finally being revealed along with a current secret.
I felt like this book was lacking character depth, Lena’s anxiety seemed to be to blame for everything. I do like the choice of having the commune be a place for moms to live together and share their motherhood journey and advice. Overall the final twist just didn’t add anything to the story for me.

A thrilling adventure into the desert with a bunch of women, who all have secrets that they are keeping from one another. Only when one tries to leave is when secrets are shared and everyone turns out to someone they weren’t.

If you're interested in reading about an intentional community (and the weirdness therein), this isn't exactly what you're after. The characters are interesting and it does take a few surprising turns, but be warned-- the community is the least interesting aspect of the whole novel.

Lenna gets an invitation from Rhiannon, a friend who disappeared years ago. She wants her to come to a women’s community called Halcyon. Lenna believes she has hidden motives. Secrets and lies are revealed.
This story alternates between past and present and was a thrilling read. Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this ARC that will be released February 20, 2024!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sara Shepard, and Penguin Group Dutton for an early copy of Nowhere Like Home in exchange for an honest review.
I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of this one because I absolutely adored this authors PLL series! As always, Shepard delivers a twisty story full of secrets, suspense, and drama! I enjoyed the dual timeline and the different POVs we got while reading the story.
The concept of the story was newer to me (which I always appreciate) and the ending had me questioning what really did happen out in the desert.
Be sure to put this one on your TBR as it comes out on 2.20.24!

This is about two friends, Lenna and Rhiannon. The book is told in 3 parts, both past and present. Rhiannon
invites Lenna to stay with her at a community called Halcyon. People go to this place as a rebirth, a fresh start. People don't talk about who they used to be.

There is another friend named Gillian. Lenna remembers Gillian while at this community. The two of them, standing on that ravine, the gray morning drizzle. Her twisted smile. Her sneering laugh. The pebbles, scuttling beneath Lenna's feet. And then, her scream. What really happened to Gillian?

Lenna needed to tell her husband, Daniel everything. She needed to tell him the hold Rhiannon had on her, the lies Gillian told her, but also that she'd bought into those lies, that these two women had pulled at her arms like she was a rag doll, manipulating her one way and they another.

Wild Ride, Twisty Story, and a Slow Burn! 3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book is set to release on 2/20/24.