I really enjoyed this one! I loved how developed the characters were - I understood what motivated their actions, the dialogue was well-done, and the dual timeline and perspectives gives the reader just enough information at the right time. This book had me hooked right from the beginning, and the suspense/creep factor was high throughout. The ending was satisfying, and overall, I really loved this book!

Nowhere like home starts with a young mother disappearing in the early morning hours, running away to meet a friend at a "momune," a group of women living off the grid and raising their kids in their own safe setting. Leanna takes her young son to meet an old friend, Rhiannon, who had disappeared years before. Rhiannon tells Leanna there is a safe place for them with other moms, and Leanna spontaneously makes the trip to the Arizona desert to meet her friend and the rest of the moms. Told from present time at the group compound and the past friendship between Leanna, Rhiannon, and Gillian, the mystery of why Rhiannon disappeared and why Leanna felt the need to run away come to a head. Combined with the unknown pasts of the women of the group, it's not easy to know who to trust in this novel.

Overall, this story started out slowly for me, but picked up with the flashbacks to the past. I enjoyed learning about the "old" Leanna and Rhiannon and their friendship with Instagram influencer Gillian. I would recommend this book to friends and will look forward to the next from Sara Shepard!

Thank you to Dutton for the digital copy to review!

This was a fascinating thriller, full of layered and complex female friendships that went in such a way that I could not possibly guess. It was a little on the slower burn side but that was fine, and told from a few POVs and in two timelines which I loved. There was a common denominator that connected all of these characters and plenty of red herrings to throw you off. I loved this one and read it in a day, my attention was grabbed from the start and held until the very end. I was intrigued by the ‘mommune’ premise and it did not disappoint!

"How do you break up with a friend?" How far will you go for friendships? This book was a wild trip and although the MC got on my nerves sometimes, couldn't stop reading the story! I liked how the parts broke down between Lenna's, Sarah's, and Rhiannan's versions of the story. I would recommend this book to those who like thrillers and cult stories!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Toxic friendships, cult vibe atmosphere, middle of nowhere location should make for an interesting story but this was just ok. I found Lenna and Rhiannon not at all likeable, add in Gillian and the other characters and the story became unbelievable. I didn’t think it was a thriller at all. The twists were interesting though. 2.5 stars

When Lenna gets a call from her old friend, Rhiannon she is surprised and intrigued. Rhiannon had disappeared years ago, and they hadn’t been on the best of terms. More surprising is Rhiannon is living off the grid in a woman only community – women supporting women. Rhiannon invites Lenna who decides this might be the way to repair her friendship with the woman who once meant the world to her.
In a dual timeline, the lies and betrayals are rolled out. Support and suspicion will shift from character to character with each new chapter.
A cultish like book and belief will have to be suspended to enjoy this one. It provides plenty of twists, unreliable narrators and unlikeable characters. So if that isn’t your vibe, this one might not be for you. It was just too much of it all for me. But if you like toxic friendships, lies and secrets and unstable characters, this will give you all that!

Thank you NetGalley, Sara Shepard, and Penguin Group Dutton for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I had such high hopes for this one, but to be honest it fell a little flat for me. I didn't love the main character, to be honest she kind of drove me nuts. But I loved the cult vibes this book had, and all the crazy twists and turns that left me saying WHAT?!

3.5 star read for me.

This novel is wild. You have to suspend your disbelief to such a high level in order to enjoy the plot of this book, that it becomes almost impossible to ignore all the elements of it that are just ridiculous. However, I really did try to do that, and for the most part, I enjoyed the ride here. While it makes absolutely no sense that Lenna would pick up and leave her entire life at the drop of the hat because of ONE meeting with her old friend Rhiannan, as the plot moves forward, Shepard does a decent job showing the reader Lenna's motivations for her decision making. That being said, it's such a stretch, and what happens through the rest of the book is even more of a banana pants impossibility that it becomes almost comical. And there are zero characters here that you can root for as a reader, because they are all either completely nuts (unbelievably so) or so naive as to be silly (in Lenna's case). But again, I had fun with this one. I still found myself invested in the story and the characters enough to continue even as I was laughing to myself at the ridiculousness throughout. So, enter at your own risk I guess, but I did enjoy it.

I was intrigued by the premise of this one and ultimately did not fully predict the twists and turns this novel would take.

Meh, I wanted to like this more than I did. It was promising with the cult like feel of it all! I couldn’t get with the main character Lenna. She kidnapped her baby she shares with a partner because the baby cries a lot, and he doesn’t help as much, to escape to a cult. Whhhaaattttt. It was hard to get past her general look on everything.

That said, I enjoyed all the twists this novel did have after the midway point. The final twist was a huge surprise and I enjoyed that greatly. This was a good book. If you like cults and can get past Lena’s behavior, I recommend this!

Nowhere Like Home by Sara Shepard is all about that drama drama and gave me serious cult vibes. Told in 2 timelines, this slow burner didn't take me long to get into and held my attention the entire time. I loved Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series, but I have been really enjoying her adult novels as well, and this was a great little addition to her body of work. I wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters but that didn't stop me from being excited to see what would happen next, and I loved that we dug into their lives a decent amount. There were some great twists and turns in the second half of the book and things went from almost mundane to full throttle when we get to the very end.

I will shout from the rooftops that the audiobook is the way you should read this book, and Brittany Pressley killed it with her narration of all of the various viewpoints. She is one of my favorite narrators and even as the only narrator for multiple POVs, she is perfection. There is an obsession aspect to the story as well that gave me female friendship You vibes, and who needs anything else when you have friends like the ones in this book? Nowhere Like Home may have not been a 5-star read for me, but it was completely enjoyable, and if you like Shepard's other adult novels (like me), you should definitely like this!

Have you ever been so enamorate of a friend that you would follow them anywhere? Yeah, me neither. But I know there have got to be people like that and Lenna is one of them. She has no qualms picking up an leaving her husband, infant son in tow, to head to a commune-like community in the middle of nowhere to reunite with Rhiannon, her girl crush.

At first, it seems nice, almost relaxing, to be surrounded by only women, off the grid. The food is good, and she can actually rest and has help caring for her infant son --a far cry from life with her husband. But the longer she stays, the more it becomes clear that she's not allowed to leave on her own. Nothing is as it seems.

Nowhere Like Home is a twisty story where absolutely nothing is as it seems. Shepard does a great job creating an ominous retreat that's both homey and terrifying all at once. This one is available now!
Special thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for an advanced ebook in exchange for my honest review.

This story revolves around two friends, Lenna and Rhiannon, unfolding in three parts spanning both past and present. Rhiannon extends an invitation to Lenna to join her at Halcyon, a community known for offering a fresh start devoid of past identities.

As Lenna reminisces about another friend named Gillian during her stay at Halcyon, memories of their past encounter resurface, raising questions about Gillian's fate. Lenna feels compelled to confide in her husband, Daniel, about Rhiannon's influence, Gillian's lies, and her own susceptibility to manipulation by both women.

With its wild ride, twisty narrative, and gradual buildup, this book earns 3.5 stars in my rating.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy

I loved this one probably my favorite book I've read this year. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to thriller and lots twist and turns. Keeps you guessing until the end. I would give it 5 put of 5 stars

I wanted to like this one. I was excited to read this thriller, But I struggled to get into this book period. It took me such a long time to read, I didn't really like any of the characters and couldn't grasp the plot

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This seemed like a book right up my ally w the cult aspect. But I found it to fall a little sort. These 20 something fight about everything and all have bad relationships. The main character gets amnesia and can't remember what's going on. It just wasn't for me.

This one was just so-so for me. It was written well but I just wasn’t drawn into the story like I thought I’d be. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

i think i aged out of the pretty little liar's universe awhile ago and this book should have gone with it. nowhere like home as a story didn't grab me like the tv show or the books (PLL) did.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Lenna is a young mother with a small child who seems to cry constantly. She is anxious and distraught. When an old friend, Rhiannon, who she hasn’t heard from in a couple of years, reaches out and tells Lenna of this wonderful “mommune” she lives on and suggests Lenna come for a visit to experience having help for a few days. Lenna thinks about it, and after a couple of days decides to take her son and leave early in the morning to go visit. She leaves her husband, Daniel, a note with not much explanation and never talking to him about it and never disclosing things from her past that affect her decision.

As Lenna and her son travel to the commune in Arizona, she realizes how isolated it is and how she’ll be cut off from cell service, etc. Her anxiety is further heightened by the locked gate on the property that requires a code to open and only one woman seems to have the code. The women on the commune appear friendly, but Lenna is wary of the rules and how no one is supposed to talk about their pasts or ask questions of others’ pasts. Lenna desperately wants to talk with Rhiannon, to try and clear the air about their past, but never seems to be able to get her alone to do so.

Someone else from Lenna’s past shows up at the commune and Lenna feels strongly that something else is going on here and decides she needs to leave - but can she?

The story moves along well. It was a quick read and had me interested to see where it was all going. The characters were not very likable, I have to admit it was hard to cheer for any of them. It was difficult to understand the draw different characters had for one another when there were so many red flag moments.

Thank you @netgalley for the e-arc of this read!

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

First I want to thank NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton and Sara Shepard for a digital ARC of Nowhere Like Home.

Nowhere Like Home is a pretty good mystery/thriller book. When I finally found out what was going on I was stunned, didn’t see it coming whatsoever! It kept me on my toes.

Lenna is a first time mom to Jacob who cries constantly and doesn’t seem to have much help from her husband, Daniel. Lenna gets a call from her old friend, Rhiannon, who previously disappeared into thin air without a word. Rhiannon lives off the grid at a women’s only community or “mommune” called Halcyon and invited Lenna to join the community.

Lenna takes Rhiannon up on her offer and is a state away via airplane before her husband is even awake. When she arrives, she’s not sure what to expect and has regrets about going. It isn’t until Sarah arrives back at the community from her IVF treatments that Lenna desperately wants to leave and never return.

Nowhere Like Home is read in a past/present format and in three parts so you get to know Lenna, Rhiannon and Sarah. You find out what got them to where they’re at now and why.