Well., well, well, that was interesting, wasn't it?

Twin sisters, Talia and Tabitha, live next door to each other in their beautiful suburban town. Between remodeling basements and throwing birthday parties, the sisters run a bakery together. Talia is more down to earth, married to the high school sweetheart, while Tabitha is about showing off, married to the hunk with the great job.

When a mystery writer moves in next door to Talia, the sisters become captivated by this mysterious woman Anne.

Something seems off. Talia sees someone in Tabitha's garage apartment. Anne's home is too dark. Tabitha's husband seems to be hiding something. After tragedy strikes, Talia's husband is spending way too much time with Tabitha.

The two sisters find something from their past inside Anne's home, and it appears that Talia and Tabitha may be the next characters in Anne's mystery series.

I found the audiobook entertaining enough, and I wanted to find out what happened next. The narrator, Patricia Rodriguez, does a great job narrating the characters.

Audiobook earns 3.5 stars, rounded up tp 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook! This story follows three perspectives, Tabitha, Talia, and Anne. Tabitha and Talia are twins living in a small town running a bakery. Soon, Anne Graves comes and moves in next door to the twins. They soon become suspicious of her and try to figure out her motive for coming to their cute little town.

I liked this book because I couldn’t necessarily predict the twists until about 80% of the book when the climax hit. It was a decent audiobook with an engaging plot, and the author does a fine job of keeping you guessing. The last 20% of the book was a bit slow, I think the resolution could have been sped up and explained quicker. You will be satisfied with this ending! Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select, and Storm Publishing for allowing me to listen to this book ahead of publication and give my honest review. This book comes out March 4th, 2024.

This was an extremely quick read, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was entertaining.

This narrator was .... a lot. There was this AWFUL laugh that she would do that made me sick, and it was for EVERY character. When a character would yell, I would have to turn my volume down because the narrator would actually start screaming. If I had actually spent money on the audio version, I would have been mad.

As for the story itself, it was predictable and kind of dumb. I wish there had been more characters from Tabitha's POV, as I found her way more interesting than Talia. I also wish we as readers had been clued into the twins' early lives earlier on in the book; when you don't find important details out until the end, it's kind of a cop out mystery.

The blurb to The Secrets Next door pulled me in straight away. Twins, Tabitha and Talia who are also neighbours, have a women move into the neighbourhood. Ann, who is a writer, has a familiar look about her. But I guess that's usual for authors isn't it. Strange things start to happen as Talia befriends Ann, but Tabitha, who seems to be Jealous, gets suspicious.

This one, for me was a slow burn. The narrative did feel a little jerky and didn't flow as much as I would of liked as the characters and the world building ( well street and town anyway ) were being fleshed out. The 2/3 of the book felt a little better as the pace picked up and the lies started unravelling. There was some foreshadowing around the twist at the end which tied the storyline up and I found that I wanted to see how it ended.

This book was narrated by Patricia Rodriguez. I wasn't sure about the pacing of her voice to the book. I did however speed the audiobook up to 1.5 as it felt a little too drawn out and slow.

Thank you again to Netgalley, Sally Royer-Der and Dreamscape Select, Storm Publishing for the eAudio of The Secrets next door

⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Starting off with the narration - I hated it. Patricia Rodriguez is not my favorite narrator and I probably wouldn't listen to anything else by her. Her infliction is just not great (way too breathy and weird emphasis on random words) and she doesn't differentiate voices enough, making it hard to figure out who's talking. What's worse, this book is dual POV of two sisters and, if I miss the name of the twin at the beginning of the chapter, it is so hard to figure out whose POV I'm listening to. The narration ruined this book for me and it's hard to tell if I would've liked it better had I just read it myself.

Onto the story - it had promise. Twin sisters are also neighbors, and when a woman moves in next door, weird things start happening. That being said, one sister is 'nice' and the other is 'mean.' Both are experiencing these weird going-ons and each has their own marital problems throughout the book that leave the reader suspicious.

This one was kind of a slow burn, but it did pick up about halfway through, with lots of secrets and lies to unravel along the way. Definitely more of a domestic suspense/suburban paranoia novel than a thriller, but an enjoyable read for the most part. I had difficulty connecting with the characters for a reason I can't quite put my finger on, except that maybe the issues causing all the drama seemed petty and immature. The narrator of the audio version did not differentiate well between the voices of the twins, so I often lost track of who was speaking. In addition, her portrayal of the male voices was unconvincing. In particular, Grant's voice was breathy and just plain weird. I probably would have enjoyed this one more if I had read it myself instead of listened to it.

Sally Royer-Derr’s The Secrets Next Door took me on a wild ride! This book was engaging and mysterious from beginning to end. I’d not spent time with any previous work by this author—though I do plan to change that.

The narrator did a great job with separating the voices of the characters and the tone fit perfectly.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC of this audiobook. This book had a really entertaining story. Twins, who live next door to each other. They run a bakery and are basically best friends. Until a new neighbor moves in who shakes the sister’s relationship. If you like twin mystery stories this one is a fun one. I also enjoy when authors write about a main character being an author. I always think that is entertaining. I enjoyed this thriller and recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook! I enjoyed how this played out and was worth the end. At times I felt like the main characters were ridiculous and annoying but that comes with the territory of being wealthy white women with too much time on their hands and a propensity to be nosy neighbors.

DNF

i struggled to connect with the characters and found the pacing just too slow. I wouldn’t describe it as a thriller as much as suburban drama ?

I love a domestic/neighborhood thriller and this one didn’t disappoint. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to listen in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’m confused by 5 star reviews of this book, especially the audio book which folks have mentioned as the narration was miserable.

It was whiny and over acted. If I wasn’t reading it as an ARC I would have stopped it as it took all I had to carry on and I wasn’t calm as I would rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

The character development was bizarre as with all the set up at the beginning of the book. The choices the twins make down the road do not make sense with the extensive background given. I haven’t looked but I expect this is a new author as the prose is frustrating. I feel they would be better suited writing for the YA or Middle Grade genre with their writing style.

It’s a relatively short read/listen and still 1/3rd of the book wasn’t about anything except adjectives describing random things that has zero to do with the story.

This is a case where the horrible narration completely impacts the book. I’m not understanding how some of these narrations have been accepted and published.

The premise is decent and some scenes are mildly engaging at the end of the book. So maybe when it’s released digitally or paperback it’ll be easier to swallow? Although the twists were completely predictable and there was no suspense build up because of it.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6299317814

The Secrets Next Door by: Sally Royer-Derr

I listened to this as an audiobook and I did enjoy the Narrator's voice. I did not enjoy the story it as I hoped. I found it confusing at times and I am not sure if it is because the point of view changes between chapters and two of the main characters are twins with very similar names and lives. It did not strike me as a thriller like I was expecting. The ending did have a good twist though. I will try another Sally Royer-Derr book to see if the characters were just not as engaging for me.
Thank you to Net Galley, Sally Royer-Derr, Patricia Rodriguez, Dreamscape Select and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to preview this audiobook.

#NetGalley, #DreamscapeSelect #Storm Publishing #TheSecretsNextDoor

This audiobook was short and dramatic for sure. I listened to it all in one sitting and it was entertaining enough for me to continue.

However, I still don’t fully know what it was about. I feel like it was just a random story that had twists and turns. Initially, nothing happened other than two twins randomly suspect their new neighbor of being off and stalking her. The characters are all horrible besides maybe Ann. Talia is so naive and Tabitha and Zach are both horrible. In the beginning Talia acts like Zach is the best thing since sliced bread, but it seems she randomly starts to say things that do not jive with how she initially describes him. It seems to come out of nowhere.

The narrator was good and easy to understand. Her laughing was super weird and creepy a few times though.

All in all, it wasn’t a horrible listen. It was entertaining enough.

This was a good book. It kept me engaged and I wanted to know what was going to happen. There were several twists in the story that I didn’t see coming which made for a good read.

So, by reading the synopsis it seems that you will be reading from Anne’s point of view but this is not the case. We have the opportunity to have a glimpse of both twins’s thoughts in between chapters and to be honest, this wasn’t executed well as the sisters had bare to none difference in their personality on paper. They had the same voice, so it was a bit difficult to follow who was Talia, who was Tabitha and what happened to whom.

As for the story, since we focus on the twin’s present life and both of their relationships, it was a bit boring after a while and you actually don’t connect with anyone.
As a plus though, I found Patricia Rodriguez’s narration quite nice.

3.25✩
➸Thriller

TW (slight spoilers): mentions of blood, attempted murders, murder, alcohol, manipulation.

Short Summary:
On a leafy, suburban street, curtains are subtly twitched to watch the new neighbor moving in.

Anne gets exactly the welcome to the neighborhood she expects: a basket of homemade cupcakes delivered by the woman next door and her best friend. One wears a curious smile while the other studies her every move. When Talia and Tabitha leave, Anne throws the treats in the trash.

She knows what to expect from the new neighbors. Talia with her perfect husband and pale-peach sweater sets, and Tabitha who reigns as queen in the close-knit community. That’s why she chose this house.

But they don’t know what to expect from her.

And if they get suspicious, well they can’t uncover Anne’s secrets without spilling their own…

My thoughts:

This started off quite slow, and it took me a bit to realise that we had two PoVs (head slap), but in my defense they were twins called Thalia and Tabitha. (probably misspelled, sorry audiobook :] ) Around 20% in, though, the story kicks in! Honestly I didn't expect the story to progress in that way, but I was left in shock. I truly couldn't have predicted that! The characters themselves weren't that exciting and interesting to me, but I was very invested in Anne (and her cat). Overall this book wasn't bad, but wasn't also wasn't one of my favourites, that's why I don't have much to say..

✨Thank you NetGalley, Sally Royer-Derr, and the publisher for proving me with an ARC of this awesome book ✨

Thanks to Dreamscape & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was strange. It starts off very light, almost like a cozy - the main character is an identical twin named Talia, who lives next door to her sister, Tabitha, and shares a cupcake bakery business with her, and she's even married their mutual longtime friend who once harbored a crush on Tabitha. They live in an adorable little Finger Lakes town called Little Beak. Really, all they need is a quirky librarian and they would be in cozy mystery central.

But alas, it's not to be. Instead of a quirky librarian they get a famous mystery author living on the other side of Talia's house. The house was up for sale but the author, Anne, has rented it for an exorbitant sum, ostensibly so she can hunker down and finish a book series without distraction. Talia and Tabitha, who do everything together, go to welcome her to the neighborhood, and Talia and Anne become friendly, although Tabitha doesn't make that connection with Anne; she only sees Talia socially and has no interest in new friendships. The plot continues on with Anne behaving mysteriously but in no way threateningly until Tabitha insists on the sisters breaking in to her house using a key Talia has procured. Things begin to ramp up from there but it's all sort of ridiculous. No normal person would behave the way that Tabitha does, and I suppose we're meant to believe that Talia is so gaslit by her twin that she sees all of this as normal.

The story culminates with one of those solutions that you could never figure out on your own as it introduces a whole new backstory for a character out of whole cloth. The mental gymnastics required in order to find this plot point believable are beyond my abilities. unfortunately. This story needed a talented editor to keep it on the rails and apparently none was on the scene. The ending was disappointing but the story itself was also. Adding to the issue was that while Patricia Rodriguez has a fine voice and does fine dialogue, there is virtually no distinction between the voices of the two sisters. A few side characters get a slightly different voice, but following conversations between the sisters was challenging.

2 stars. Won't be reading any more Sally Royer-Derr

⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Secrets Next Door by Sally Royer-Derr, an audiobook narrated by Patricia Rodriguez was more like domestic drama with some thriller elements.
The main characters were adult twin sisters Tabitha and Talia. The dual point of view from both sisters was good as let us know both sisters on a more personal level.
I liked the narrator as the speech was clear, and I didn't have any problems following the story.
For a while, I wasn't sure where the story was going but around 80% things went mad, so many twists were coming in and I was constantly in a "WOW" position. The last 20% definitely earned an extra star from me!

Tabitha and Talia live in a small town, in the same neighbourhood, and run a business together, a popular bakery in town. They both are happily married and satisfied with their life until a mysterious neighbour Annie moves next door. Without explanation, Tabatha suspects that Annie has something to hide and is determined to find out the truth. Things escalate and get complicated as the story is unfolded step by step. Nothing is straight forward and there is a massive secret that ties up all three of them in the most unexpected way.

I absolutely love the cover of this book! Finally a good change from blueish covers with the yellow lights in the window!

Thank you, NetGalley, Dreamscape Select, and Storm Publishing for this copy!

This one was a little bland? I liked the mysterious aspects of the story. However, I felt they were somewhat predictable. Then the added premonitions at the end were kind of odd.
With all that being said it was a decent read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this title.