When I received this from Netgalley I had no idea it was part of a series. Imaginary Strangers is Book 1 of Minka's Dangerous Strangers series.
Expected publication 7/23/24

Camille Prescott has it all. A doting husband, two children, a charming home in a seaside enclave, and a beautiful, fixed smile that exudes normalcy. But behind her polished mask lurks a much different Camille―one with a padlocked vault of secrets. Raised by a vindictive and psychotic woman, Camille has gone to great lengths to bury her past and for good reason: if her mother ever finds her, she will kill her. Minka is a mastermind at writing flawed, complex characters and this one did not disappoint. The book allows the reader to be a fly on the wall during Camille's therapy sessions and her childhood is revealed. Simultaneously, he child is coming home using phrases and telling stories that only Camille and her mother would know, right?

Thank you to Netgalley and Minka Kent for the Advance Digital Copy and I am looking forward to Book 2

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I've never read a book by this author, but I really enjoyed Imaginary Strangers. It's a fast-paced plot and characterization, and the book doesn't drag. I couldn't believe I had gotten through the 74% already.

Camille had a traumatic childhood with an abusive mother. Sadly. No teachers or neighbors called CPS for her or really looked after her. She leaves home at 17 after contemplating drowning her drunk mother in the pool. Lucinda is a shadowy character from her past, a 1 dimensional monster. We meet her as she's a mom of 2 small kids, having married a doctor. All is well until her daughter Georgie has an imaginary best friend at school, who knows things that she shouldn't know - as a 6 year old kindergarten student about her mother. Camille investigates by deciding to volunteer at the school and discovers a teaching aide at the school is suspicious to her. Camille is convinced that Lucinda hired her to get to her through her daughter.

Camille uses the school's fall break to follow "Imogen Carey" around and places a tracking device on her car. She asks her mother in law Jacqueline to visit to help watch the children, and she acqueises. However, Camille isn't really getting anywhere with following Imogen. When the school accuses Camille of stalking Imogen, she's banned from school grounds. Her husband asks her to get a head CT to rule out medical conditions like a tumor. Camille comes to a startling realization in the doctors office, and from there on out, it's a wild ride. I wasn't expecting the person who was planting things from her past to trigger her. I had a difficult time with the believabilty factor, I guess. Yes, Camille has issues including diagnosed sociopath, but she clearly cares about the well-being of her children. The ending was delicious as well.

TW for childhood abuse, possible death of a parent, mental abuse, and disordered eating abuse. 4.25/5☆ The book is out July 23, 2024 .

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC of this novel.

The opening scene in Minka Kent’s latest thriller reveals 17 year old Gabrielle, checking on her drunken mother, who has lost consciousness in the bathtub. Exhausted by the stress of taking care of a woman who is reckless and abusive, she thinks about turning on the tap and watching her drown, an act she considers ‘exhilarating’. It’s not the first time she’s considered killing the vicious Lucinda, just the first time she’s acted on it. But Lucinda, (never ‘mom,’) wakes up. Furiously. And it is, yet again, Gabrielle’s. As her murderous mother forces her head under water, she finds herself ‘overcome with pure rage.’ Gabrielle asks herself, ‘Why should I be the one to die? I didn’t spend seventeen years in hell only for it to end like this’.

Since this is the opening act it’s not giving anything away to say that both survive and the daughter is thrown into the streets, her send-off ringing to her mother’s declaration that she will kill her when, not if, they next encounter each other.

Thirteen years later, Gabrielle is Camille, married to the handsome, loving, hard-working physician Will, living in a plum neighborhood, with two beautiful children, Georgie and Jack. She has not merely survived, she has transformed, and is living a fantasy version of the good life. Except that Georgie, only three weeks into kindergarten , is seemingly showing signs of the antisocial tendencies that have afflicted the women of her family. Lucinda was definitely sociopathic. Although better equipped to fight it, Camille recognizes that sociopathy is deeply in herself too. Will tries to assuage her concerns, and she pretends, with him, that she believes his reassurances. Lying, she admits to herself, is what holds together their marriage and ´beautiful little family.’

The problem with this kind of what she calls ‘infallible glué’ is that it isn’t. The rest of the story shows how, little by little, slowly but with increasing intensity, things come unstuck. Threats appear for which known defences don’t work. Identities built for survival purposes cannot survive, nor can the relationships constructed on them. And when it’s all grounded in the relationships of mothers and daughters, the stakes are as high as life, death, and all that you’ve ever wanted.

In Camille, Kent has created another of her tough, emotionally contained, perpetually on guard female characters, who has had little choice but to be that way. But Camille is more than a mother made over-protective by unrelenting childhood abuse—she is a sociopath too. She knows it, and therapy has helped her deal with some of its tendencies. Unlike her own mother, whom she would have liked to kill, and still would, or her equally evil mother in law, her motive force is to protect her children, at any cost. Is sociopathy curable? Are sociopaths made or born? The author raises these questions, but they are not answerable, given the nature of the disorder. More to the point, is Camille justified in her hatreds and the lengths she contemplates going to if love is her motive?

This is a fast paced story, ´thrilling’ though sometimes a bit cliched in writing and plot. Will is a cardboard character, forever ‘processing ,’ a terribly overused word. His mother Jacqueline the prototypical horrible mother in law, and then some. The cliches do work, and the story is not altogether predictable. For fans of this genre, it’s a definite must-read. And there is more to come. Lucinda is still out there.

I think I have loved every book written by Minka Kent so far. This one here – I feel like this one is my favorite of hers. An absolute favorite of hers. And, it most definitely has moved in to live permanently among my top reads of 2024.
The book’s story is horrible, yet beautifully told. The main character is a flawed human through and through, with the most beautiful soul and the most beautiful mind. Although Camille (the main character) is horribly broken, yet somehow she is one of the most wholesome fictional characters ever written. And, I hate to admit how relatable her experiences and thought processes are. I hate to go to those places the book took me – although, no, I do not hate going there per se, I hate admitting it out loud. Because once you read it, and once you put two and two together of me saying this, you will know so much about me that I have never told. You know, if that makes any sense. Yeah, I hope it makes no sense.
And that husband of Camille’s? He too made my mind go to places/memories I prefer not to go to, but for an entirely different reason than Camille. Either way, that too is another absolutely beautifully written character.
Back to the book: it has taken me several days to write this review. I finished reading the book, I absolutely loved every page (or %, more likely) of it, I devoured it. I wanted to scream from every rooftop about it once I finished reading it. I did some behind-the-scenes screaming though, I told a friend she must read add it to her pre-order list and then she has to talk to me about it as soon as she reads it. But it took me a weirdly long time to write the review.
This book deserves all the stars. Not just five. It deserves to be talked about and yelled about from every corner and screamed about from every rooftop.
This is NEXT LEVEL psych thriller. If you think you have read it all – ok, especially if you think you have read it all – you have to read this one. Trust me. Read it. Pre-order it. And read it asap when it is delivered at the end of July. Thank me later. You are welcome.

This book was so wild, I loved it. Camille was such a hot mess of a MC, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to shake her or root for her. I couldn’t put this one down. At no point did I guess what was going to happen. I look forward to reading more from Minka Kent!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this thriller by Minka Kent and was surprised by some of the twists throughout. It was a quick read and entertaining was my first book by this author and would read more from her. I give this one 3/3.5 stars and would recommend. I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

First off, this book is a total page-turner! 👀 Kent really knows how to keep you hooked from start to finish.

Let's talk about Camille – she's not your typical protagonist, that's for sure. Her backstory adds layers of depth, making her one of the most intriguing characters I've come across lately. You can feel her past haunting every page, which amps up the tension in this gripping tale.

If you're a fan of intricate plots and slow-burning suspense that leaves you breathless, this book is a must-read. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down!

As for the ending, it took me by surprise in the best way possible. While it wrapped up quickly, leaving me eager for more, the door is wide open for a sequel - and count me in for that journey!

Overall, if you're a fan of psychological thrillers, do yourself a favor and add this one to your TBR list ASAP! 🔥

I love every book Minka Kent writes and i knew i had to read this one. I admit it started out slow but i was hooked and flew through the book. Highly recommend.

Outstanding Thriller!!!!

✔️ Minka Kent
✔️ Twisty
✔️ Secrets
✔️ Phenomenal Writing

Thank you NetGallary for an early review copy of Imaginary Strangers!

This is another fantastic book from Minka Kent! There is just something about this book at hooked me from page one!

The character development was excellent! This book had plenty of twisty turns at just the right points.

I savored every word because I could not stop reading!

This is one of the best of 2024 thus far! A masterpiece that kept me engaged the entire time!

No spoilers with my review! This is a must read for 2024!

If I could give more than 5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ I would!

I have previously read The Memory Watcher and The Stillwater Girls and enjoyed both, so I was excited to be approved for this ARC!

Minka Kent’s books are very fast-paced, and I always look forward to seeing how everything pans out in the end. This one was no exception, and I genuinely didn’t see the twist coming.

It was still a relatively average read for me, as the details about the FMC’s childhood and her mother weren’t padded out enough - in my opinion, the book either needed to be longer to accommodate a more fulfilling backstory, or shorter to eliminate some of the unnecessary detail. However, this was still an intriguing read, and a genuinely great thriller.

Minka Kent never lets me down. Her books are fast reads with layered characters who catch your attention. I was surprised and happy with the ending.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

“A Venus flytrap, which manipulates its prey using flowers and pleasant scent, isn’t acting out of malintent– it’s simply existing the only way it knows how… the only way it can” (Location 4006, Afterword).

Minka Kent, in her thriller "Imaginary Strangers," effectively creates an element of suspense and tension throughout the story through the use of characterization and carefully considered plot. Regardless of how much I tried to keep careful notes and annotations to attempt to predict the twists to come, I still ended up entirely surprised as the multiple twists and turns started to unfold.

Camille Prescott (narrator, 1st person POV), now lives a lavish life in San Diego, where she is happily married to a kind, loving doctor– Will Prescott– and mother of two young children– Georgiana and Jackson. Camille’s life is now everything she has ever wanted, but Camille has encountered a world of suffering and trauma after growing up in the care of her terrible mother, Lucinda Nichols. The novel begins by showing a scene where Lucinda is passed out drunk in the bathtub, unresponsive, and Camille has a sudden thought: “I could kill her. I could free myself from the misery, abuse, neglect, and cruelty that has stained my life these past seventeen years” (Location 80, Prologue). While this thought does not end up being fulfilled, the events that take place set the readers up for endless anticipation of what is to come as the story unfolds. Does Lucinda ever find Camille and encounter the opportunity to take revenge? What role does this opening scene play in relation to the rest of the plot?

Beyond the exposure to Lucinda as a possible antagonist due to her cruel, manipulative, abusive nature, there are many pieces of information that lead us to form various preconceived notions of our narrator. The situation that introduces the novel is complex– Camille is pondering the idea of taking her mother’s life, but this is because of the years of endless torture and neglect. Surely, the motivation for Camille’s dilemma is understandable and maybe even warranted. However, Camille then expresses that “the idea of taking a life–especially that of my own mother– is strangely exhilarating, a siren song to the dark side, a flood of power in a world in which I’ve never known such a thing” (Location 83, Prologue). This evokes questions from the reader regarding the narrator, Camille, as a character. Will our main character serve as a villain in this story? Will she end up murdering someone else, if not her mother, now that she has felt a slight amount of power that she could potentially hold?

It is stated that “whoever said there’s no rest for the wicked never met Lucinda Nichols” (Location 70, Prologue). Will Camille end up being more like her cold-hearted, vindictive mother Lucinda than she ever could have thought?

After surviving her childhood and despite the deep-rooted trauma that still affects her to the present-time, Camille is now what seems to be a picture-perfect wife and mother to her two young children. It has been thirteen years since the incident with Lucinda, who she has not seen since. Camille has taken every protective measure possible to keep herself and her family safe and secure, with her dark past hidden from even those to whom she is closest.

This is until her kindergartener, Georgiana, becomes friends with an imaginary friend named “Bestie” and then with “Imaginary.” What at first seems to be a harmless “imaginary friend” situation then evolves into something more concerning– especially when “Imaginary” starts teaching Georgiana games, disturbing lullabies, and making specific references to Camille’s childhood that are no longer able to be brushed off as strange coincidences. Camille becomes more and more convinced that Lucinda is behind this. If this is truly the case, then not only is Camille’s carefully-crafted persona at risk of being exposed, but she and her family are in danger. Camille will stop at nothing to make sure this does not happen.

Camille is determined to go to great lengths to protect her family– but, at what cost?


Kent explains in her “Afterword” the idea that drove her in her work: “By presenting a character who defies society’s stark categorizations, I hope to have sparked a broader dialogue around the complexities of mental health, the nuances and power of maternal love, and the fine line between survival and morality” (Location 4010, Afterword). It is no secret that Camille is a deeply flawed heroine for many different reasons. With that said, her all-consuming desire to protect the people she loves is something most people will find admirable, as well as relatable. In this sense, Kent is successful in highlighting Camille’s admirable personal qualities and bringing her true intentions to light so that readers are led to not only relate to Camille, but also to root for her. By using various literary strategies to evoke empathy in the readers towards Camille, Kent effectively challenges reader’s preconceived thoughts of Camille and her diagnosis (due to stigmatization in society).

Kent addresses readers in her “Afterword” stating that “if you’ve made it this far, it means you’ve journeyed through the labyrinth of ethical dilemmas and psychological tumult that constructs the world of our protagonist– a sociopathic mother fighting to protect her family at all costs.” Kent elaborates on this point by reminding us that humans are flawed, complex, and occasionally, morally ambiguous. I think this theme is one that made this such a fun read. After we were led to see Camille’s deep, dark inner thoughts and motivations in the Prologue and as the story progresses, it is only natural that we might be led to wonder whether or not she might fall villainous and ultimately end up following her mother’s path. This is where readers may make the common mistake: sometimes, when focusing on what we find to be “obvious” villain(s), we fall prey to the unsuspected… similar to those that fall victim to the Venus flytrap. To this, I pose the question: Will you be one of them?

This book hooked me from the beginning! It was hard to put down and the only reason I did was because of life and work! Trigger warning-this book does touch on child abuse/neglect. Some of the scenes I read were so heartbreaking.
The story starts off with the main character, 17-year-old Camille, and an incident that occurs between her and her abusive mom. After this incident, her mom threatens her and warns her that she will kill her if she ever sees her again.
The story moves ahead with Camille now married and has two children. Her life is perfect as she has made the best of it even though she went through such an ordeal as a child. Now as a mom herself, everything seems to be perfect until her 6-year-old daughter starts talking about an imaginary friend. Her daughter starts recounting some of the things that Camille went through as a kid, which terrifies Camille because that was something she had left in the past. The rest of the story progresses with Camille trying to find out if her mom is back and trying to get back to her through her kids.
Since she never told her husband about her past, it is hard for her to talk to him about what she believes is going on. During this time, Camille suggests for her mother-in-law, Jacqueline, to go visit as an added layer of security for the kids.
What I love about this book is that it is very quick paced and keeps you intrigued wanting to know what will happen next. I absolutely loved Camille’s character. I didn’t expect the twist at the end.
Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer. All opinions are my own.

Great story. This tale looks at mental health / illness and the way it walks among us . Camille is a mother and wife with many secrets. This story is suspenseful and intriguing and I didn’t want it to end. Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for my review.

Imaginary Strangers is the latest thriller novel from author Minka Kent. Ms. Kent has written a suspenseful novel full of surprises and twists. I have to admit, I did not see the major twist coming at all.

In this this novel, the protagonist is a woman named Camille Prescott who on the outside has it all, a handsome doctor for a husband, two beautiful children, and a big home in a very wealthy neighborhood. But Camille is hiding secrets. Mostly about her childhood which was an unpleasant one thanks to her abusive and cruel mother, Lucinda. Even though Camille has gotten away from her and it’s been years since she has seen Lucinda, she is always looking over her shoulder in fear that Lucinda will show up and ruin her life. One day her daughter comes home from school talking about her new best friend, a teacher from her school. A friend that knows a lot about Camille’s past.

The story is told from two perspectives. Camille tells her own story in the present and we get a glimpse into Camille’s past via sessions with her therapist. Ms. Kent’s writing style really puts you in Camilles’s state of mind and how she is processing the things that are happening. If you are a parent, it really makes you think, how far would I go to protect my kids?

Imaginary Strangers will be available on July 23, 2024. Thank you to Ms. Kent, Netgalley and publisher Thomas & Mercer for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest critique.

I would rate this book 3.5 ⭐️ so I bumped my review to 4.

A seemingly perfect suburban mom will do whatever it takes to keep her family safe, but is she the only one who feels that way? 👀

I was really captivated at the beginning of the book but then I got sort of bored with the story in between the beginning and the end. I feel like I wanted more thrill, more angst, more “oh my gosh” moments. Overall I enjoyed the book and I’m glad I read it.

I find the human brain so fascinating and learning more about mental health through a novel is always a plus for me. I really enjoyed the afterthoughts by Minka.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this ARC kindle copy in exchange for an honest review.

Publish date: July 23, 2024

I flew through this book. I love anything that delves into sociopathy or psychopathy and this hit the mark. Great read.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book was that it was definately too short!

Minka Kent can do no wrong for my taste! A twist you'll love and a fast paced read for me!

Thank you #NetGalley #Thomas & Mercer for this ARC

I thought it was good..a little slow but definitely picked up. I have read a bunch by her and Unmissing is still my favorite!!!!

This book was shocking, unique and kept me on my toes wandering where this was going to go. It starts off with a bang as we unveil all the horrible things our main character Camille endured from her abusive psychotic mother. This then leads to her being diagnosed as a sociopath later in her adult life.

From the get go this book had me wanting to read because of the synopsis. Camille and her Husband lead an idyllic life with their two small children. She has everything she’s ever wanted, but deep down she’s hiding a dark secret past. It starts to resurface when her six year daughter Georgie meets an imaginary friend that seems to know all of Camille’s past trauma that she has never shared with anyone except her therapist.

Its main theme is as a mother how far would go to protect your children?

This Cover art drew my attention with it showing a woman surrounded by a Venus fly trap. Just as a Venus trap lures its prey in. I know now why this tied is so smart. The foreshadowing of her feeding a Venus fly trap and how the author ties this into the story is genius. As it’s described, a Venus fly trap manipulates its prey using its flowers and pleasant scent, isn’t acting out of mal intent it’s simply existing the only way it knows how to survive. I won’t give much more away, but I did not see the major twist and reveal at the end.

This ends on a cliffnote which makes the readers wonder what happens next. I noticed this is listed as first in the series, so I’m curious and eager for the next book.

Thank you Minka Kent and Negalley for the opportunity to read this ARC! I hope I get the chance to read the 2nd when this comes out!