This was definitely not what I expected when I requested this book. Not my type of thriller at all. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you netgalley and blackstone publishing for an arc of this book in exchange for a honest review

This is about kate who is secretly a erotica writer who lets her husband sleep with other woman on his business trips and then uses those experinces and writes them into her books but then a new neighbor named annie moves with her daughter and at first kate is smitten with annie however it turns out annie has secrets too big ones who could destroy all their lives.

I was very let down by this, the plot sounded very promising however i just didn't like how it was executed because it really isn't a thriller it feels feels more like a marriage drama / marriage in trouble kind of book, and i found all the characters to annoying and kind of have no personality at all, and the drama was so unnecessary and stupid in my opinion i did like some parts of the ending but other parts were very predictable and the whole time i knew what the plot twists were gonna be so there was really no shock factor. The writing was easy to read however i just wanted to throw my kindle across the room, the dialogue was so weird and at points disgusting. Unfortunately this wasn't for me and i wish i dnf'd it.

How I really wanted to love this one. I just felt skeezy reading this. Spicey but not in the way you want it to read. This book was billed as a thriller but at least half of it is about an erotic novel that an author writes based on her husband’s affairs. The husband and wife agree to him having affairs as she is sex-averse but finds that her husband ‘s affairs inspire her to write erotic novels. There are lots of descriptions of sex. The thriller part comes late in the book and it was okay…. This novel had a unique premise but not for me.

This is a great thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Kate and Matt are married with 10-year-old daughter Finley. Kate writes contemporary erotic fiction under a pen name but uses Matt's exploits with other women as fodder as she is sex-abhorrent.and he needs the outlet anyway so it's a logical arrangement for both of them, But when new neighbor, Annie moves in on their block she and Kate become friends and Kate learns her husband, Clayton died rather mysteriously. But Annie is so helpful and begins creating herbal concoctions to help Kate appreciate sex with her husband. But of course, there's always more to the story and this one's a doozy!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

This book was a struggle for me and a disappointment because the synopsis sounded so intriguing. In my opinion, the first half was cheesy, so I just couldn’t get fully invested. The second half definitely got better because the suspense picked up and my curiosity peaked with wondering which character was going to crack first. There was a twist… even though it was predictable, I did find it slightly clever with how it ultimately wrapped up.

Overall, not my favorite book but did have qualities that I enjoyed. As aways, don’t let this deter you from picking it up! I’ve seen lots of people love this one!

WOW, this was an addictive read that I could not put down! It’s a unique thriller, like none other I have read before and I loved every minute of it. It had the suspense and spicy that I want in my spicy thrillers. I highly recommend you add this to your TBR because this one is not to be missed!

I truly can’t wait to see what Kusel comes up with next! I will be first in line for her next release.

***Many thanks to Lisa Kusel and Blackstone Publishing for my gifted copy in turn for an honest review!

Sexy suspense was huge in the 90s, and I think it's time for it to make a comeback! This book about an erotica writer with writer's block and an unconventional marriage was filled with twists and turns and humor. It should appeal to fans of books like Verity.

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel. Thank you to Netgalley, #partner @bibliolifestyle, #partner @blackstonepublishing @thrillerbookloversthepulse and @lisaKusel for my #gifted copy! My opinion is voluntary and my own.


Happily married couple Kate and Matt have a peculiar arrangment. Kate is sex abhorrent. She does not enjoy sex, has no interest in it nor does she ever think about it. Matt, on the other hand, is very sexual and must have his needs met. Kate, no longer interested in pretending to enjoy sex, allows Matt to sleep with other women under the following rules. Never sleep with the same woman more than once. Don’t fall in-love.

Not only does Kate encourage her husband to sleep with other women, she asks him about every encounter, gathering every minor detail and using those details to write her very successful erotic novels.

My thoughts:
☁️☁️☁️
This book was UNPUTDOWNABLE! I turned these pages so quickly and read it in just a few hours! I was glued to my seat! SHOCKING surprises! Just loved it so much!

Fans of Freida McFadden and Kirsten Modglin will DEVOUR this one!

The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel was just full of surprises!
This book will keep you hooked right up to the last chapter. So many twists and so many surprises. I loved it!

Thank You NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The curiosity got me to read this book based from it’s synopsis, because yeah, never have I ever heard or met anyone like Kate - I mean where she let her husband have one night stand with others and wanted to know every juicy details of those? Damn girl definitely got me puzzled there hence I dive in with not knowing what to expect.

I love the writing, and the plot are great too - it’s carefully been served to readers with their backstory, characters introduction, and more through character’s pov. Seems a lot but actually neat and make the plot growth understandable from chapter to chapter. Manage to pulls me into the story and I love the twist and turns as well, even though I can guess which is which / what is what throughout the story and towards the end, everything including the whole plot are satisfying to read indeed.

As in for spices (since the said fmc is an erotica author) - I think it’s more plot than the spice, nothing crazy, and nothing much, relevant to the plot indeed. I don’t mind at all since I prefer more plot over spices anyway, and for me everything is just nice to the whole story. This is just a heads up for those who wanna know what to expect for spice department in here okay.

Also such a fresh view when there are some part that the author make it like we read inside what we’re currently reading - since the fmc is an author - yet those doesn’t confuse me with the story at all. Felt creative is all. Love how each characters delivers nicely to the whole story as well. Everything is well written indeed.

Overall, I think this book does delivers when it stated it’s sexy psychological thriller, and I’ve had fun reading it too, worth reading!

EXCERPT: 'Tell me what's happening with your book. Are you going to kill off Audrey?' He puts an imaginary gun to his head and pulls the trigger. 'Puh-kew!'
I roll my eyes. 'You're hysterical, Matt.'
'Right that.' He blows the smoke from his finger gun and stuffs it into the front of his pants before walking over to the closet.
'I'm still not sure,' I say to his back. 'Do you think I should kill her?'
'Audrey shouldn't have to die because she's obsessed with the guy. She can't help herself, right?' he says, taking out his blue Armani suit.
She shouldn't have to die because she's obsessed with the guy?
'I'm not so sure you're right about that,' I say, standing up.

ABOUT 'THE WIDOW ON DWYER COURT': Thirty-six-year-old stay-at-home soccer mom Kate Burke is happily married to Matt Parsons, although their marriage looks very different behind closed doors. Kate is no longer interested in having sex with her husband. So, while they still love each other madly, they make an arrangement: Matt can have one-night stands with other women on work trips, but when he returns home, he has to tell Kate about them—every juicy detail.

Because Kate has a secret life writing erotic romance novels, and Matt’s adulterous affairs are her bread and butter.

The family equilibrium is upset, however, when Annie Meyers, an eccentric young widow, moves to town with her daughter. At first Kate is smitten with this wild, witty woman, who gives her a much-needed break from the other picture-perfect suburban moms, although she’s not sure how much of her secret life she’s willing to share with her new friend. But it turns out Annie has secrets too—big ones that could destroy all their lives.

MY THOUGHTS: Wow! This was a surprise! A good surprise.

It will be well known amongst those who regularly read my reviews that I am not a fan of open-door sex. So why pick up a novel about a woman who writes erotic novels? You may well ask - It was the description of Annie Meyers, the wild and witty woman so different to the other suburban mothers that piqued my interest. As it turns out, it was a good decision, because this book was FUN!

It is so different to everything else I have read recently. I loved the characters - even the ones I didn't like! And the ending is the last thing I would have imagined, but it worked perfectly.

The descriptions of the sex scenes - we get it all secondhand, so it's not particularly graphic - didn't faze me at all. They weren't there for shock value, as is so often the case. They are an integral part of the plot.

This is a read best gone into blind. The Widow on Dwyer Court is my first book by Lisa Kusel. It won't be my last. It is fast-paced, outrageously unhinged and compelling.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.3

#TheWidowonDwyerCourt #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: I’m both an avid reader as well an author, which is why I like hanging out on Goodreads. The reader in me really enjoys combing through other people’s book reviews. I so appreciate when folks I follow or are friends with recommend new authors, or cheer me on when I begin a book they themselves loved.
When I’m not volunteering at my local food shelf, or long-distance parenting (my daughter is in college but the worrying never ceases), meditating or reading or cooking, I can be found writing at my desk overlooking Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to author Lisa Kusel for gifting a digital ARC of The Widow on Dwyer Court via Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley, for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #BlackstonePublishing for the book #TheWidowOnDwyerCourt by ##LisaKusel. This book is a wild ride that I was not expecting. Kate and Matt have a different type of marriage. Kate hates sex and has no desire at all to have it with her husband. She is also a writer of erotic romance novels. She makes an arrangement with her husband that he can have one night stands as long as he tells her every detail, for her novels. Enter Annie, a widow who just moved here with a ten year old daughter. And then things get very interesting.

Twisty, sexy thriller. The premise is intriguing: a spicy romance writer who doesn't like sex in real life, a husband with a "hall pass," a widow new to the neighborhood with a mysterious past. Put all three together and watch things unravel.

Kate has secrets, and her secrets have secrets. Annie is new in town, with secrets of her own. Conceptually, this was a super interesting book and nothing that I expected! It was a fast read, I definitely needed to know what happened next, and though very good, there wasn’t quite enough “thriller” in this one for my tastes (I just like fictional murder, ok?). I also wish the Ace rep was a bit more loud and proud. That said if you like the domestic suspense genre, this is definitely a book you’ll enjoy!

I’ll start by sharing that this author reached out to me personally to ask if I’d read and review her book - she was kind in her email and the book sounded interesting to me, so I said yes, and while I’ll still be honest in my review I do think that’s worth disclosing!

This book took me for a bit of a roller coaster ride in terms of my intrigue and enjoyment. From the start, I was generally intrigued by these characters but was wondering when the thrill or suspense would come in to play. It took quite a while, so I’m not sure I would even say this is a mystery/thriller. Think more Liane Moriarty domestic/suburban drama. The main character in this book writes erotic novels so a lot of this book is learning about her process and then reading some pretty spicy excerpts from the book she’s writing. I think that premise was really interestingly explored (she lets her husband cheat and then tell her about his experiences so she can put them into her books - wild) but personally I didn’t need to read that much of the actual book-within-a-book. Then as far as the new neighbor/female friendship plot line, it took me a long time to care about the two women’s relationship, but around 75% I was pretty hooked and by the end was actually surprised by some of the little twists that took place.

Overall this was definitely a book unlike anything I’ve read before, which I appreciate. I’m not sure it perfectly aligned with my personal reading tastes, but I can respect what I think it’s trying to do and would recommend it to someone looking for a twist on your typical domestic thriller - as long as you’re okay with reading explicit spicy scenes and about consensual (?) cheating between a married couple.

📚 PRE-PUBLICATION BOOK REVIEW 📚

The Widow on Dwyer Court By Lisa Kusel
Publication Date: July 16, 2024
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐✨
(Rounded up to 4⭐)

📚MY REVIEW:

The Widow on Dwyer Court is a fantastic book for those who really love domestic thrillers and also enjoy a fair amount of sexiness and spiciness in their books. The amount of sexiness in this book made this a different type of domestic thriller that stands out from its counterparts.

This was a pretty slow burn overall and the majority of the book was uneventful. I'm not even sure I'd really call it a domestic thriller -- it was more of a romantic suspense? I don't know, it just didn't feel like a thriller to me. I kept waiting for something thriller-ish to happen -- for basically the entire book.

As the book neared its conclusion, I kept wondering how everything could possibly wrap up quickly enough to resolve the storyline because it didn't seem like there were enough pages left. I read 90% of this slow burn book, and when something finally happened -- in the last 10% of the book -- it happened so fast and wrapped up so quickly that it felt thrown together and I didn't feel settled. And I was left with so many questions. Like, what just happened here and how did it happen, and huh?! I would have preferred for more of the book to focus on details of all the events that were smooshed into just the last 10% of the book.

I will say the writing itself was really good and I enjoyed the two alternating POVs of the female MCs -- I just wish the ending had more to it. While this book may not have been for me, I think fans of domestic thrillers about marital relationships with a spicy side will really love this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review!

#TheWidowonDwyerCourt #LisaKusel #NetGalley #ARC #bookreviews #bookrecommendations #domesticthrillers #spicybooks #thrillerlovers #thrilleraddict #bookcommunity

if you're into mystery books with lots of sex but almost no thrill this is perfect. and don't get me wrong, it wasn't as bad as you would think.

when I requested this via NetGalley I was looking for a short-ish mystery and the title stood out to me. truth be told, my first reaction was "ah yes, another "woman in the window" or something, but it was a bit different.

I'm a huge fan of mixed media and here we have a book inside a book, an erotic romance inside a mystery. the mystery appears closer to the end, but it is a good mystery. i was actually not expecting that to be the ending! that's why the book deserves a fair rating of 3 stars.

the widow on dwyer court is a solid read, I had a good time while reading it and I'm sure that people who love this kind of subgenre of mysteries will enjoy it a lot.

2.5 stars

This book was billed as a thriller but at least half of it is about an erotic novel that an author writes based on her husband’s affairs. The husband and wife agree to him having affairs as she is sex-averse but finds that her husband ‘s affairs inspire her to write erotic novels. There are lots of descriptions of sex. The thriller part comes late in the book and it was okay. This novel had a unique premise but this was not my cup of tea.

Thanks to the publisher for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was so different than what I'd expected from it, but not in a bad way at all. I was shocked by most of the characters behaviors and didn't always like them, but I'm so glad I waited for the conclusion to see how it all came together.

I’m not really sure what I’ve read . It was meant to be a thriller and there was about 30 or so rushed pages at the end that would fall into that genre . Most of the book I felt like I was reading (bad?)erotica - which I do not like so hard to judge if it was good or bad I guess but it definitely was cringy