I rolled my eyes throughout this entire book. I had high hopes for this one being that she previously wrote pretty little liars - books and a show that I adored. However, the writing in Nowhere Like Home felt very juvenile for me. The characters choices and actions all felt very young and unrealistic. I just didn’t enjoy reading this one and I hate that these characters had babies brought into these situations.. felt a bit unnecessary and hurt my momma heart.

TBH, I wasn’t looking forward to reading this book based on the initial reviews. And I get it, most of my review will be negative (sorry lol). But the thing is, this book entertained me. Sometimes that’s all I need from a book. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this one.

The plot didn’t really keep me on the edge of my seat, but it did keep me wondering. I didn’t want to put it down because I wanted to figure it all out. I liked that all the characters were grey — some more flawed and chaotic than others.

What I didn’t like:

I don’t think the social anxiety was addressed properly, and it really wasn’t that relevant to the story.

The characters could have been fleshed out more. I wanted to know more about Lenna’s relationship with her husband. I also didn’t really understand why everyone felt so enamored with Rhiannon.

All in all, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.

After mysteriously disappearing 2 years earlier, Rhiannon contacts Lenna inviting her to visit the women’s-only commune, Halcyon, in Arizona. Lenna spontaneously decides she’ll go in hopes of reconnecting with Rhiannon. Lenna hadn’t even arrived to Halcyon and she already grows suspicious. She’s quickly immersed into the life of living in the commune and one by one learns of the “rules” the women must live by. Lenna is hesitant about her suspicions until a resident returns to Halcyon, throwing Lenna into a tailspin, worried her past would be revealed.

New and old relationships are tested and you never know who you can trust.

Lenna’s friend, Rhiannon, disappeared a couple years ago, so when Lenna receives a call from Rhiannon, she’s shocked. Lenna is overwhelmed as a new mom and from hiding secrets from her past, so Rhiannon invites her to the “mommune” where she lives—a commune named Halcyon of women and children escaping their troubles and conventional life. However, with the community located in the desert in the middle of nowhere, and with a locked gate at all times, Lenna begins to grow suspicious ands fears she made a grave mistake coming to Halcyon.

The synopsis of this book gave me creepy cult vibes, and I was here for it! This suspense/thriller is full of toxic and twisted female friendships, and touches on mental health issues such as social anxiety. The book is took in a dual timeline, alternating between present day and two years prior, as well as the multiple perspectives {but primarily Lenna’s}. The characters were well-developed, but all are so weak-minded and naive that they drove me a bit crazy. It was a page-turner for sure, but overall I just wasn’t sold enough on the plot/ending, so just an “okay” read for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for my gifted e-ARC!

This book was a wild ride. Friendships, betrayals, secrets and a remote ‘mommune’ in a desert location. This book is told in dual timeline that really helps set up the story and dive into the characters. The first of present day of Lenna arriving at the mommune. The second is two years in the past when Lenna and Rhiannon are friends with Gillian getting to know each of them. I know I kept asking myself who is telling the truth, who is being real and who is being a fake friend. The last half of the book really kicked up intensity and flew by. It’s twisty and different than your typical mystery books. Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Nowhere like home is a fast-paced thriller. Set over two timelines, the story follows a new mother, lenna, who reconnects with an old friend Rhiannon and is invited to a community in the Arizona desert Rhiannon lives called halcyon. While there, Lenna sees another familiar face and begins to suspect she was brought to halcyon for very specific reasons. The timeline jumps back two years to lenna and Rhiannon’s early friendships and what secrets they were keeping from one another that led to Rhiannon disappearing from lennas life. The points of view alternate as well as the timeline, shifting between Rhiannon, lenna, Sarah, and social posts from Gillian, another friend who plays an intricate role. What transpires over the timelines is a story of obsession and toxic female friendship , murder, and intrigue. I find this to be middle-of -the-road-interesting plot and set up with halcyon, but the execution didn’t quite land. I found the shifts in the points of view slightly unnecessary and felt that it could be have been trimmed by maybe one less. It was also difficult at times to remember which timeline the reader is in. However, a fun read and many fans of pretty little liars and twisted psychological thrillers should find plenty to enjoy!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lenna, a new mother, gets contacted by an old friend Rhiannon. Rhiannan disappeared from Lenna’s life years ago. Rhiannon reaches out to Lenna to invite her to be apart of her new life, where she lives off the grid with a group of other mothers, women, and children. Once she arrives, suspicious behavior and secrets are uncovered. I really liked this! It definitely kept me guessing and I read it fairly quickly. My only disappointment was the ending, it just felt incomplete to me.

I absolutely loved Pretty Little Liars. This was a great departure from Rosewood. The relationships were toxic and the lies and secrets were awful. I enjoyed the alternating POVs, which made the book a fast, easy read.

Important things you need to know about Nowhere Like Home:

Pace: Medium to Fast

POV: Mainly 3rd person (Lenna, Rhiannon, and Sarah). There are some chapters told from the 2nd person (through Gillian’s Instagram posts) and one chapter told from the 1st person.

Trigger Warnings: Nowhere Like Home contains sexual assault, murder, pregnancy, toxic friendship, abandonment, kidnapping, violence, and the death of a parent. If any of these trigger you, I suggest not reading the book.

Language: There is mild to moderate swearing in Nowhere Like Home. There is also language used that might offend some people.

Setting: In the Present Day chapters of the book, Nowhere Like Home is set on a momune just outside of Tucson, Arizona. The past chapters of the book are set in Los Angeles, California.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Present Day: A new mother with a colicky baby and a husband isn’t helping, Lenna is drowning. So, when an old friend surfaces after two years and tells Lenna about a momune in the desert outside Tucson, Lenna jumps at it. But, once she gets to Halycon, Lenna notices that there seems to be something off with the commune. From barbed wire and padlocked gates to outrageous joining fees to cell and internet service being blocked, Lenna begins to think this paradise is more of hell. Only when she sees another familiar face from her past does she realize someone brought her here for a reason.

Past: Lenna is stuck at a dead-end job when she meets Rhiannon, a bright and vibrant editor at a well-known magazine. They instantly click and become the best of friends. But, when Rhiannon unexpectedly leaves, Lenna becomes friends with Gillian, who works at another magazine in the same building. But Lenna’s friendship with Gillian is strained, shadowed by Rhiannon’s absence. And Gillian starts to act more and more unstable in the passing days. Everything comes to a head one rainy afternoon, and the aftermath leaves Lenna, who already suffered from anxiety, a mess.

What happened that day? What is Lenna’s secret? Why did Rhiannon make contact with her out of the blue? Is the momune a place where Lenna can find peace? Or will Lenna be forced to face what happened two years ago?

My review:

I was intrigued when I saw that Sara Shepard had written this book. Like millions of others, I have watched Pretty Little Liars on TV. While I wasn’t a big fan of the show (it wasn’t up my alley), I did like the thought behind it. So, when Penguin Group Dutton sent me a widget containing this book, I decided to read it. Having read it, I was a little disappointed.

Nowhere Like Home has dual storylines. The first follows Lenna, Rhiannon, and the momune residents during Lenna’s first few days there. The second storyline follows Lenna, Rhiannon, Gillian (via her Instagram posts), and Sarah (who comes later on in the storyline). Both storylines were well-written and well-fleshed out. The momune storyline felt flat to me. It was less fleshed out than the storyline that takes place in the past. But they kept my attention focused on the book, and I didn’t get lost following the characters, which was a plus.

The storyline with momune did strike a chord with me. I have three children (as most of you know from my blog’s bio). My oldest had severe colic (it was discovered that she was lactose intolerant later on down the road). My SO was like Lenna’s husband; he couldn’t handle the crying. And sometimes, I wished I had a village of women to help me with her. I liked that the author also showcased how Lenna’s trauma over what happened to Gillian affected her. The not knowing and keeping it affected every aspect of her life, whether she knew it or not. I was surprised at who was behind everything and how that person connected to Rhiannon and Lenna.

The storyline that takes place two years before everything did explain a lot. It showed how Rhiannon and Lenna met and how Lenna and Gillian met. Rhiannon was a little shifty and kept things from Lenna (but, when it was revealed what, I was surprised). Rhiannon taking off was unusual for her, but the reason was surprising. The only thing that even bothered me was Lenna’s friendship with Gillian. Right from the beginning, I didn’t like Gillian. She was creepy, so I wasn’t surprised when what happened to her was revealed.

The mystery angle of the book was well-written. I was shocked at who was behind everything at the momune. There was a brief hint at it when Gillian got drunk (over two years before). I also got why Rhiannon was forced to do what that person wanted (her lies were figured out).

The author also tackled the mysteries brought up in the storyline set in the past. There was an explanation as to why Rhiannon left and about her backstory. I felt so bad for her, with everything that happened. And I also understood why she did what she did. I also liked that Sarah’s role in everything was explained. It cleared a lot of confusion around what happened that day on the trail.

The end of Nowhere Like Home was cathartic. Everything was explained. But, like Lenna, I wondered who saved everyone in that cave.

Many thanks to Penguin Group Dutton, Dutton, NetGalley, and Sara Shepard for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Nowhere Like Home. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

Thank you Dutton books for the view copy of this book. Sara Shepard offers an intriguing if uneven book with Nowhere like Home... themes that really capture me and a sense of unease and even creepiness with a powerful beginning. The plot develops with multiple characters, which worked for the most part but tends to slow down my engagement with a book, and some good twists that engaged me. The pacing though is perhaps more slow burn than the plot warranted, I love a slow burn but the payoff has to be there and it wasn't quite there for me by the end of the book. I still enjoyed it but there isn't quite enough with the plot to make this a big win for me. I am still interested in seeing where the author goes next with her work!

Nowhere Like Home follows a group of moms and their children living together in a commune in the desert in Arizona with no men allowed. All of the women have a past that they're hiding from. When Rhiannon invites her old friend Lenna to come visit the commune and check it out, Lenna decides that she'll make the trip to repair her rocky past with her friend.

I loved the Pretty Little Liars series and Shepard's other young adult novels so I was excited for this one, but it didn't live up to my expectations. The first half moved very slowly. I thought it could've been cut down to half of what it was. The second half picked up and kept me turning the pages, but the ending seemed a little too far-fetched and unrealistic for me. None of the characters were especially likable. Overall, it was an interesting story, but not one that I'd recommend to those looking for a thriller or good mystery.

Wow! Loved this story and the way it was woven!! Thank you Netgalley, Sara Shephard, and Penguin Group Dutton for the ebook!! I really enjoyed this story and couldn't get over the ending! Highly recommend!!

Nowhere Like Home by Sara Shepard is a slow-burning mystery with marvelous twists and turns.

Told in three parts by multiple narrators, this intriguing mystery starts in the present with Lenna Schmidt and her baby joining her former friend Rhiannon Cook at Halcyon Ranch, an all-woman community in the Arizona desert. Flashbacks from two-years earlier paint a troubling portrait of their friendship and its stark conclusion. The addition of stranger Gillian Winters into Lenna’s life leads to a shocking denouement that continues to haunt her.

On the surface, Halcyon Ranch is supportive place for women and children. But unsettling undercurrents put Lenna on edge as she attempts to resolve her former friendship with Rhiannon. Uncertain if she can trust anyone, unnerving incidents rattle her even further. The desolate and isolated surroundings add to her growing fear for herself and her baby.

Events in the present play out a little slowly but the flashbacks are fast-paced and provide captivating details of Lenna’s friendships with the very two different women. These depictions of Lenna's eagerness for female companionship reveal how she overlooks red flags in these burgeoning relationships.

Nowhere Like Home is an engaging mystery despite a bit of a slow start. The characters are flawed but relatable. Sara Shepard gradually hooks readers as the truth about the past and events in the present culminate in a shocking, twist-filled conclusion.

I read and watched the Pretty Little Liars series, which I absolutely loved. I really wanted to also love an adult thriller by Sara Shepard and had high hopes with this book. Unfortunately, by Chapter 7 (the 20% mark), I had not connected with the story or the characters. I just did not care about where the plot was going or what was going to happen with the characters. I'm sure that there will be readers for this book who love it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest book by Sara Shepard - 4 stars1

Lenna is struggling being a new mom. Her husband seems more aloof, her mom is dead, and she feels alone. When her old friend, Rhiannon, contacts her and encourages her to take a break at the female community, Halcyon, where she's living, she takes the leap and heads out. Lenna is also desperate to clear the air with Rhiannon and talk about what caused their estrangement. But things aren't as they appear on the surface at the compound.

Told from multiple POV, we go back in time 2 years with these characters to get the backstory of their relationship. We also learn about Gillian, who tries to befriend both Rhiannon and Lenna with mixed results. Her story also plays out with social media snippets. I will always be intrigued with cult stories and this women-only group was definitely interesting, highlighting female relationships. Social anxiety and mental illness plays a prominent role here as well, and all of the women had traumatic backstories. This one had you suspend belief a bit but kept me flipping the pages to see how it would all play out.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I found "Nowhere Like Home" by Sara Shepard to be an addictive, interesting & well written thriller that pulled me in right away & didn't let me go until its final page.
There was alot of unexpected twists & a surprising ending I never saw coming.
I would definitely read another book by Ms. Shepard.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the eARC! I was very intrigued by the premise (a sinister “mommune” sounded so interesting) and drawn to the author (Sara Shepherd of Pretty Little Liars fame) of this thriller.

Starting off with a bang the prologue is super creepy, and sets a tone that unfortunately isn’t quite achieved throughout the novel. Very much a slow burn, this novel is told in three parts, blending past & present and multiple POVs. What kept me reading was the multiple twists and the desire to know just what in the world was going on. All of the characters are unlikable or annoying - I had such a hard time connecting with any of them, they felt underdeveloped and the dialogue was cringey and had me distracted because it didn’t fit the ages of these characters.

The ending was certainly tense but didn’t have enough foreshadowing to be sustainable nor were the stakes high because I didn’t care about any of these characters. There was SO much potential here! This was a twisty, fast read that felt more YA than adult. It wasn’t awful but it’s not exactly memorable either.

I’m not going to lie. This book was difficult for me to get into. I did feel like it had a slow start starting with a ton of information that I did not find very useful in the moment, but after finishing I did feel like it gave great character development in a way knowing more complete detail surrounding each character.

There was a time while reading, where I was very engaged and couldn’t stop reading due to my eagerness to find out what was going to happen next. There was also a point where everyone was the villain, and I ABSOLUTELY LIVE for an everyone is the villain type of trope.

So, at times I did feel like the book did keep me on my toes, but towards the end, I felt like the plot became a bit flat and I just wanted things to wrap up. Also, the ending was just not climatic enough for my liking. It was an ok thriller imo.

Thank you so very much to Net Galley & Penguin Group Dutton for this ARC in an exchange for an honest review, as always I am so incredibly honored to have been considered.

Great and interesting premise, but pacing was off and it was a little confusing. It was difficult for me to relate to the characters and the decisions they made, and overall it was just a little tough for me to get through. It is a fine book, but not one that I would pick up again or go out of my way to recommend. I do think it would make a great TV show though!

Thanks so much for the advance copy for review, and good luck to everyone working on this book!

Content warning:

- Ableism
- Abuse
- Alcoholism
- Death
- Drug usage
- Kidnapping
- Mental illness
- Murder
- Pregnancy
- Sexual assault
- Violence

In Nowhere Like Home, Lenna, our main character, arrives on a mothers-and-women-only community isolated in the desert of Arizona. She’s there to reconnect with an old friend and work through some bad moments from her past—but the longer she’s there, the more she begins to question how easy it will be to get home. It features many of the vibes you can expect from a secluded, almost cult-like “mommune.” This story has a strong theme of motherhood and frequent mentions of pregnancy, so that’s something to consider if that may be a trigger for you.

I gave Nowhere Like Home a three-star rating because I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend or read it again. There were moments in which I started to feel more invested in the story, but overall, I found the pacing to be a little too slow in this one. I also thought the big reveal at the end was a bit lackluster, and was hoping for something a bit more surprising.

If you read Nowhere Like Home and enjoyed it, you may also enjoy:

- ¹She Started It by Sian Gilbert
- Only If You’re Lucky by Stacy Willingham
- The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Nowhere Like Home opens with a panicked Lenna in the airport with her baby wailing. Jason has been a big crier since he was born, and the constant upset is starting to get to Lenna, convincing her she’s a bad mother. It’s a big part of the reason she agrees to visit her friend Rhiannon where she lives out in the Arizona desert with several other women, despite the tense history between them.

The taxi driver shows some hesitation at taking Lenna out to the meet-up spot, but she ignores this and climbs into Rhiannon’s SUV when it pulls up.

Rhiannon takes Lenna back to the property, where Lenna starts to meet the other women. As she settles in, and becomes more unsettled, we learn a bit more about her history with Rhiannon.

Lenna and Rhiannon met back in L.A., where they became fast friends. Rhiannon got Lenna a job at her magazine as a copy editor. During the beginning of their friendship, they start to see another woman, Gillian, around the office. Gillian has an Instagram on which she posts about her social anxiety, and her wishes to become friends with both Lenna and Rhiannon.

Rhiannon doesn’t like Gillian and finds her to be weird, and especially doesn’t like her frequent advances. One day, when Gillian approaches Rhiannon, she mentions wanting to be friends with her and Lenna, and Rhiannon snaps back at her, saying it’s not going to happen.

Then, Rhiannon leaves work suddenly, and she’s gone for more than a month. During this time, Lenna and Gillian become closer, and Gillian does a lot of work to make Lenna question her friendship with Rhiannon.

Gillian talks a lot about her roommate Sadie, who is using IVF and trying to get pregnant. Gillian feels like she’s being forced out of the living situation and posts on her Instagram that Sadie is acting violently toward her.

Gillian starts to act a little more weird, saying more bad things about Sadie and Rhiannon and alluding to something bad from her past. Finally, Lenna realizes that Gillian texted Rhiannon from Lenna’s phone, telling Rhiannon to lose her number.

Lenna is furious with Gillian and confronts her the next morning when Gillian is out for a jog. The two get into a fight near the edge of the cliff and Gillian rushes toward Lenna like she might push her over the edge. After their scuffle, Lenna wakes up on a park bench with a pounding head, thinking Gillian went over the side of the cliff.

She carries this with her as she meets her husband and has her baby, keeping in the back of her mind that she’s a murderer. The police look into the murder, and even suspect Sadie, the housemate, for a while, but eventually rule that it was an accident.

Back at the community, Lenna is starting to become more unsettled. She finds out that a woman at the community who goes by “Sarah” is actually Sadie, Gillian’s old roommate, and Lenna starts to suspect Rhiannon of plotting something to drag up the past.

Rhiannon swears she had no idea the two of them knew of each other, and agrees to get Lenna out of there that night. When Lenna goes to meet her, she finds Sarah instead, who’s just as suspicious of Lenna.

The two of them realize that neither of them is responsible for their meeting, and Sarah admits that she was the one who pushed Gillian over the cliff when she found out Gillian may or may not have been messing with her IVF stuff.

Rhiannon is missing, and Sarah and Lenna work together to try and find her. They end up climbing up a nearby structure to get phone service, but while there, they’re confronted by another member of the community, Coral, who reveals herself to be Gillian’s daughter.

Coral, who was adopted after Gillian gave her away, found out what Sarah and Lenna did to her mother, and has been plotting her revenge by bringing them all to the community. She ties them up in a cave with Rhiannon, and starts to lay explosives around the area.

Another teen from the community, who is close friends with Coral, arrives just in time to save them. Though she’s carrying a gun, and coral is shot, she claims she wasn’t the one to fire on her.

Rhiannon, Sarah, Lenna and her baby, and the other teen all get far enough away from the blast by the time is goes off, but Coral is left behind.

The community dissolves after more information comes out about different members, including the leader, who drained the joint community account to pay off her own debts.

Lenna returns to her husband and tells him about everything, and the two of them are able to have a much stronger relationship going forward.

So, now that you know what happens in Nowhere Like Home, let’s get into some of my thoughts and criticisms for this book.

Nowhere Like Home is by Sara Shepard, who also wrote the popular Pretty Little Liars series. I haven’t read those books or watched the show, but based on what I do know, it seems like Nowhere Like Home follows the same vibe of a group of women all scheming to cover up murder and the secrets of their pasts.

The common setting choice of an isolated community for thrillers is expected, but not unwanted. I enjoyed the idea of a community of women as the basis for this story, and I liked that the community turned out not to be sinister (with the exception of Coral) and instead, just full of regular human flaws.

I think the choice to put all your characters into an isolated situation raises the stakes, but can also be kind of a crutch if it’s not done well. The setting creates automatic tension, which makes it a little easier to ignore our characters, which is kind of what I think happened in this case.

While I enjoyed the setting and think the desert also offers its own pressure for the characters—I was just hoping for a little more character development outside of the setting.

There are a *LOT* of characters in this one, which gives us a huge cast of people to suspect as the schemer, but also made the reveal not quite as interesting. While Gillian did kind of mention her trauma around birth in her past, I feel like there’s just not enough there to make Coral’s reveal as her daughter meaningful to the reader.

Coral as a villain also feels a little flat. Her grand plan is to round up the women and blow them up as revenge for the death of her birth mother, whom she never met. I’ll admit people do weird things for weird reasons, but this feels a little like the caricature of a villain rather than a real person doing awful things.

Motherhood, pregnancy, and babies are all very, *very* prevalent themes in this one, which may be uncomfortable for some readers, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to read this one.

Overall, I think a little more character development for our main characters, including Gillian, Rhiannon, and Lenna, may have really benefitted this story. I gave it three stars because I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend or read it again. It’s a perfectly good thriller with an interesting cult-aspect and a cast of women at the center.