"Don't Be A Stranger" is a claustrophobic, slow-moving examination of an older woman's obsession with a younger man that just doesn't quite go anywhere. It's an intimate character portrait - Ivy is sympathetic but remote somehow, and it is difficult to really engage with what's happening on the page. It could also have been solidly 100 pages shorter. This one didn't do it for me, but perhaps someone who enjoys character study over plot will enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for an E-Arc of this in return for an honest review!

Somewhat did not finish this one, arriving at the halfway point I proceeded to skim the rest of the novel as it felt it was not building towards anything and was coming across quite dull and one-note. The writing shown here was not at all terrible in style, I thought it wasn’t bad at all and had a lot of potential to cultivate a peaceful but emotional novel, but the slow nature of the plot combined with the over-writing of a story not extremely interesting or exciting caused the novel to drag on and consequently drop my interest. The obsession with the main male love interest felt distant, and lackluster, him not having much of a personality or developed psyche, though I could see that was maybe purposeful so as to communicate an unwarranted desire from our main character, but in reality just caused a ceasing in interest to see where this relationship would go, which ended up being nowhere.

The main characters lore seemed contrived and could’ve been potentially very interesting but was briefly slotted in and very often overlooked in favor of this bland musician and her dull and repetitive daily life. I think some might enjoy this, those who favor quiet and slow storytelling, and a novel easy to follow as it doesn’t have a very intricate plot, but as for me, I found myself tempted to abandon it after 1/4 of the book and ultimately ended up not completely finishing it yet still having grasped completely the essence of the plot and vibe, as it could’ve been communicated in a much shorter length and with more nuance and intrigue in a quicker format.

I love the description of this story. I knew I wanted to read it right away. I didn't immediately connect with the characters, but I pushed through and thought the overall book was interesting. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Three stars.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me. I found myself unable to connect with the characters and did not finish the book.