I wasn’t sure I was going to read Next to Heaven because of the bad press around the author. - but I’m a sucker for hype. Set in ‘New Bethlehem” (aka New. Canaan) it was fun and salacious. Was it satirical or true to life? Hard to tell. The writing style drew me in but read this for the characters, not for the plot which doesn’t really pick up until about 75% in. I was glad I read it.

The snippet originally had me thinking there would be multiple parties and unhinged debauchery. Instead it was more of one party as a catalyst for the whole plot line woven into their “normal” lives falling into catastrophe as a murder is thrown in the mix. I went back and forth between audio and ebook, and the repetition of phrases sequentially makes much more sense and a better flow narrated rather than written. In written format it’s clunky, but in the audio it’s the perfect emphasis. The narrator really did a superb job with the book as a whole.

I had guesses for the whodunit and the journey there was enjoyable. The characters were confusing initially, especially since they are all so layered and there are multiple POVs. The dynamics between all of the couples were explored well and realistic.

Great for lovers of unreliable narrators, vigilante justice, and a smidge of spice. Overall a quick and easy read, perfectly paired with a quiet summer night and a glass of wine.

This was a really great book! I first would like to address the writing style of this author, which was quite unique. I’ve never read another author that writes like James Frey. He had great character development. He would repeat the character's thoughts—several times—and I felt it was very effective. It helped strengthen how very strongly they felt about a certain issue. Secondly, I want to address the storyline, from the first page I was captivated. I was always wanting to read more and that’s always a good sign in a book—I was especially anxious to get back to certain couples and find out what was going on with them. It just was just a very, very unique storyline. Also, even though I thought I knew what had happened, I couldn’t figure out how it happened; and so I felt it was very well done. If you like a good mystery, with a twist, and a great ending—you'll love this book. At the end, one of the characters was even given a punishment that was justified—if not legally—at least from a humanitarian point of view. I can’t more highly recommend this book. I am going to be looking for other books by this same author!

A fun read when you know the area that James Frey is writing about. His writing style is one that I really like and while the characters are not always likable they are believable.

Thank you for a digital ARC of Next To Heaven, but I will not read nor support an "author" who uses AI.

Say what you want about James but he tells good tales. This was entertaining, salacious and down right funny. The facts that these situations actually would present themselves is beyond me. I don’t travel in the “new Bethlehem “ circles but I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of the parties.

Favorite Quotes:

Despite their advantages, rich people were rarely ever cool, though they spent huge amounts of money trying to achieve it. And cool people were rarely rich because they were lazy, and part of being cool is not giving a f*. But rich people and cool people often interact because each has what the other wants.

He thought laws were made for people who weren’t smart enough to figure out how to break them.

Alex could feel his hands shaking; it felt like his blood had been replaced by some poisonous liquid made out of a combination of self-hatred and shame.

her only plan was not to make any plans. To sleep late and keep the workouts light and go to the movies and take long walks and eat a little more than she should and drink a little more than she should and allow herself the beauty of boredom, the joy of unproductivity, the pleasure of being still.


My Review:

I fell into this cleverly penned tale and found it evocatively detailed, cunningly paced, highly entertaining, and delightfully snarky. I do loves me some witty snark, and this crafty scribbler has been quite gifted and generous with sprinkling it throughout his characters’ encounters and inner musings. The characters themselves are reprehensible, selfish, snobbish, and deeply flawed; in other words, realistically depicted for most of the upper class.

I tore through this book - a definite page turner. I love the way the mystery was teased out slowly. A great read!

Book was confusing I do not reccomend book was hard to follow with unlikable characters put in my dnf pile sounded like a good plot

I requested this book via Netgalley without doing my due diligence and research on the author and his stance on AI. After I was approved for this ARC I soon was made aware that this author not only condones AI but uses it as a tool in his writing. And I feel it is unclear as to whether or not this author used AI in the creation of this book. As such, I’ve made a personal decision not to leave feedback or engage in reviewing books where AI has any role in the writing process.
I believe that true creativity comes from authentic voices and lived experiences that can only come 100% from human authors. In cases where that line becomes unclear, I find it difficult to read and review the work accurately.
This is my own preference as a reader, and I encourage others to make their own decisions about AI assisted writing.

Was unable to download so cannot review unfortunately. I will come back to this once I’ve read. I enjoy this author so have high hopes

Neutral review due to not being able to review on Goodreads. This book was removed from the app. I enjoyed This for what it is. The story was solid but unsure if it was written by the author or AI.

The book featured somewhat interesting characters and a gossipy storyline, with a splash of murder mystery toward the end. However, the narrative and dialogue often felt more like a summary than immersive storytelling. The frequent repetition of words was too distracting.

Thank you to Authors Equity and NetGalley for the advance reader’s copy.

I've never read anything like this story. It was wild !! It starts out tame enough in the beginning . But then...
It starts out with Devon and Billie's part of the story. She dated a lot of important people, movies star, son of a billionaire, a tech founder to mention a few. But she needed to marry not for love but money. Her parents were ruthless in their demand that she do so to keep THEM In the style that they were accustomed to ! Billie turned out to be an abusive, violent but sexually and financially, EXTREMELY RICH man who just kept gathering more and more wealth and more and more enemies !
Belle and her man have their backstory next which is pretty interesting. Devon and Belle are best friends and each one of them HATE Billie with a passion.
Then more people are added and there stories which at first was kind of confusing to me but as I continued it flowed. With each person's story filled in so fully and well written I was twisting in turning when it came to "Who is gonna get murdered?" I was guessing right and left and I enjoyed that mystery. And when it finally happened, what things really ramped up and the ride got wild.
I kept thinking how does this author know so much about the exotic drugs, weapons and come up with 2 phones; one named Peace and the other one named, War. So clever !
There are several shocking turn of events that I never saw coming. I loved that and was thoroughly thrilled with the ending !! I smiled for quite a while after reading this book !

Not a fan of this one. There’s a lot of words for a very short story. Are all of his books written in this style?

Based off of the premise, I thought that this book would be great. The actual writing was not my cup of tea, and I thought that the "spice" was not well written. Throughout, there were so many repeated phrases and ill-used words that I really struggled finishing this. Honestly, it felt like this was written by a computer and not a human.

Thank you so much for this ARC! How is this only three stars? This book was WILD. Rich people behaving poorly is just the best, honestly.

The writing style was so unique and very nontraditional at times and I loved it. The characters were all great (in terrible ways at times) and the ending was incredibly satisfying.

If you are looking for part thriller, part sexy with sweet revenge, this is it.

I’m such a sucker for rich people drama — and this book delivered all of it. The characters are outrageously wealthy and completely unhinged in the best way. Power, sex, drugs, and drama spiral into inevitable disaster, and I was hooked the whole time. I ate this up!

An interesting, wel-paced novel. The characters are well-developed. The author captured the setting impeccably
I enjoyed this novel, however due to the sexual nature of parts, I would not be able to use it in the classroom, nor could I recommend it.

When I saw James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, had a new book out, I was excited to read it. This was despite him being “cancelled” for calling his Oprah’s Book Club best selling novel a memoir when it was later revealed that many parts of the story were exaggerated or fabricated. Ultimately, I remember thinking it was just dumb not to have called the book a work of fiction in the first place, and that it didn’t really matter because the book itself was so good. There is no way for me to disentangle my thoughts about the author himself and my feelings about Next to Heaven. The book has a promising set up: bored, ultra wealthy Connecticut housewives Devon and Belle set up a selective swingers party. The book felt like a poor man’s version of Apple series Your Friends and Neighbors. While it’s a fast-paced page turner, my two main complaints are that the murder doesn’t take place until 3/4 of the way through the book, and the writing is absolutely atrocious. So much repetition. So many choppy, repetitive sentences. So many lists. So many despicable characters. Was that annoying to read? If so, now you know what it’s like to read this book. TW: sexual assault/rape. Thank you to Author’s Equity and NetGalley for my ARC. It turns out the digital copy provided really was the finished novel and not just a rough draft. So stunning.