Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to read a Sara Shepard. She is known for her twisty stories and I usually really enjoy them. This was not my favorite of hers. I couldn't connect with Lenna very well. And I wanted more current-time storyline but the focus was more on the past and all the relationship issues between the girls. I wanted to feel a big suspense but instead I had a hard time sticking to the book.

Overall, if you are a Sara Shepard fan you might still want to give it a chance. If you go in realizing this is going to spend a lot of time on the past you might really get into it.

I’m going with 3.75 stars… it was a ride for sure and definitely gave me PLL vibes at times. But there was something about the writing & pacing of this one that I didn’t vibe with for a lot of it. It felt a little draggy at times? And repetitive. But I enjoyed the story overall!

Thank you to Dutton Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story focuses on Lenna and Rhiannon. Rhiannon ghosted Lenna over 2 years ago. Left town, blocked her number, and Lenna hasn’t heard from her since. Now, Lenna is married with a newborn and is burnt out. Suddenly, Rhiannon reaches out offering Lenna a chance to escape to a “mommune,” a community of mothers living off the grid with their children.

This book was interesting, but Most of the book felt like women just bickering back and forth. The characters consistently infuriated me, and who disappears to go off the grid in a desert with no details and leaves their husband a note? Yikes. Despite how frustrating the characters were, I found myself wanting to know the ending. I did enjoy the ending though and didn’t guess the twist. Overall I give 3.5 stars.

i’m currently undergoing an exercise for my manuscript where i ask myself how each scene is possible to help identify plot holes, half-baked descriptions & unnecessarily complicated twists. it’s very clear this author did not do the same exercise. everything that occurred in this mother’s commune-gone-wrong felt so out of left field, the entire plot suffered as a result.

I really enjoyed this book. It had somehow spots but the book as a whole was engaging and suspenseful. I was really rooting for the characters, all of them, even the unlikable ones 😂. I liked the multiple viewpoints and timelines. I definitely recommend giving this one a shot!

I read this twisty story way past my bedtime. So good! I will have to find more from this author because I loved this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you #Netgalley

So many twists and turns in this read! The story is told from three perspectives, Lenna and her two newer friends Rhiannon and Gillian. Each woman has their own insecurities, jealousy and secrets. Years pass when Lenna hears from her old friend Rhiannon who convinces her to come visit an all women compound she is living at. While there Lenna is forced to face her past and quickly learns that the compound is also full of its own secrets and who can she really trust? I enjoyed the story line, but felt it was dragged out a bit.

Lenna is an awkward girl with anxiety issues, and has a hard time with life and relationships, so when cool girl Rhiannon befriends her and helps her find a job she can’t believe her luck. She would do anything for her best friend. Then Rhiannon leaves her without a word and lenna becomes friends with Gillian. Gillian is so strange and very controlling and manipulative- But are any of them really friends? Everyone has so many secrets. And someone gets killed because of them. Later, when lenna has a husband and new baby Jacob, Rhiannon gets in touch with her and tells her about an amazing community in the desert she belongs to called halycon, where women and their children live together and support each other- lenna goes to visit and the secrets and lies start to surface. In the isolated locked down commune nothing and no one are what they seem! So much action and so many twists! I loved every minute of this book. Thank you NetGalley for the advance digital copy

Give me any thriller or horror story about a commune and I’ll usually be down to read it. This turned out to be quite entertaining, despite following a few tired formulas.

Lenna met Rhiannon at H&M of all places, and they become quick friends. Like, weirdly quick friends. They form a very codependent relationship, with Rhiannon constantly jealous of anyone else being in Lenna’s life. Lenna, despite protest, became friends with Gillian, aka @gilliananxietybabe. As her user name suggests, Gillian has extreme social anxiety and is trying hard to make friends. She and Lenna start hanging out, and that’s when things fell apart with Rhiannon.

Two years later, Rhiannon returns and invites Lenna to a community, Halcyon, in the deserts outside of Tucson. It’s a group of women living together, making a village to raise each other’s children, and living off grid. Lenna leaves her husband Daniel with just a note and brings her infant son Jacob to the middle of nowhere.

The community, or “mommunity” as they call it, is full of interesting people, along with tons of kids and animals. We have:

Melissa, a community teacher and homeopath who just had a baby, and Naomi, her twin sister

Amy, who also helps as a teacher and does construction

Ann, who takes care of the animals and plants

Sarah, who is currently off getting IVF treatments

Marjorie, the woman who runs the community

Coral, the chef, and

Gia, a former socialite turned Halcyon’s bookkeeper

The rules, at first, are pretty normal: do your chores, be respectful, don’t use plastic or litter, oh and you CANNOT talk about anyone’s past. As her visit progresses, the women there keep trying to get Lenna to stay, but she just wants to go home to her husband. I must say, her character is quite naive, and a bit annoying. The ending was also missing something, but I still enjoyed this book! 3.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to Penguin Group - Dutton, Sara Shepard and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on February 20, 2024.)

Such a wild ride of thrilling suspense and mysterious events.

Lenna is married to Daniel and they just had their first child who is crying non-stop making her anxious and more suspicious about her friends from the past.
Gillian suffers from social anxiety and appears to be quite obsessed with Lenna.
Rhiannon was great friends with Lenna but she disappeared and now 2 years later reappears offering Lenna an escape to get away or take a break from her life at this women's community in the Arizona desert.

Hold on for this wild ride of events that happen in the desert making you truly wonder who's who, who's real, crazy or what's going to happen.

Started off slightly slow but once I got into it I couldn’t put it down! I just really enjoy the writing style of Sara Shepard!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2.5/5 stars

I have read several books by this author but i did not like this one. It felt like it dragged on forever before it got slightly interesting though i did not DNF it. Hopefully her future books are just as good as others she has written.

Shepard never disappoints! I ended up reading this twisty story late into the night because I couldn’t wait to see what happened. 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.

There is a lot of talk in this book about social anxiety, though I never really thought that Lenna showed up that way. That being said, there were definitely some unhealthy codependencies in her relationships. I found many of the characters to be likable and all of them to be believable. The book moves at a fast clip and I enjoyed the back and forth between current time and 2 years ago. The end was a surprise even when I thought I had it all figured out. It made me a little sad but it was well done.

Overall, this was another winner from this author and I challenge you to try to put it down once you get started! Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book and give it 3.5 stars. The mommune was an interesting topic that I was intrigued about and I enjoyed the second half of the book for that reason. There was a lot of mention of social anxiety throughout the book and all of the characters struggled with their mental health.
I did not guess the big twist, which always makes for a better ending. The biggest struggle for me was not feeling a connection to any of the characters. I also didn’t quite understand the husband’s thoughts in the end or role in everything. It felt like a loose end.

Such a wild ride of thrilling suspense and mysterious events.

Lenna is married to Daniel and they just had their first child who is crying non-stop making her anxious and more suspicious about her friends from the past.
Gillian suffers from social anxiety and appears to be quite obsessed with Lenna.
Rhiannon was great friends with Lenna but she disappeared and now 2 years later reappears offering Lenna an escape to get away or take a break from her life at this women's community in the Arizona desert.

Hold on for this wild ride of events that happen in the desert making you truly wonder who's who, who's real, crazy or what's going to happen.

WOW!!! This one had me hooked from the beginning. I loved how unique this storyline was about a "mommune." The twist was unpredictable and it really had me questioning everyone at the mommune. I loved how everyone was connected in some way and found all the characters intriguing. The writing was great and easy to read through. Highly recommend this book!

I completely devoured this book. I started it at an airport, continued on the plane even though reading on planes gives me headaches, and just finished it on my lunch break at work less than 24 hours after I started it.

The story goes back and forth between two years ago and the present day, so the chapters kept ending on cliffhangers that would make it impossible for me to stop reading. You really get to learn about the beginning of Lenna and Rhiannon's friendship while simultaneously learning about this new commune that Rhiannon's joined in the years since she went MIA.

In typical Sara Shepard fashion, I thought I had it figured out and something came out of left field (while still making sense when you think about it) and shocked me. I think the few things I did have figured out were just because I love all her books so much.

This kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through! I highly recommend this to any thriller book clubs out there!

Four women,Lenna,Rhiannon,Gillian,and Sarah’s lives intersected, and the results were not good. Told in the past and the present,Lenna received a phone call from Rhiannon and takes off with her baby, but not her husband to spend time with her old friend. The place where Rhiannon now lives,Halcyon is basically a cult were only women and children are allowed.
Soon Lenna realizes it was much easier to get in then it will be to get out. Everyone has so many secrets! Not just the main characters, but also all the women that live in this isolated desert location. I didn’t really get sucked in until the halfway point, but then I was furiously flipping the pages. Did I like how it ended? Mostly but there were a couple of things that I wish had turned out differently.

Lena has a dark secret and she’s on a quest to clear her conscience. Alternating between past and present this book is a fast paced read with twists you don’t see coming. Although this was a quick read, I didn’t find it quite fascinating or overly enjoyable. I found it a little predictable.