“We all wear masks. The challenge is keeping them in place.” Writing is different but I ended up loving this one. Great characters and story

Edge of your seat reading with twists that keep coming. Interesting characters in this story. Hard to put down and keeps you guessing until the end. Good read.

An intense thriller with plenty of twists that kept me glued to the page long after i should have been doing something else,

Thank you Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

What I liked
-I'm a Kentucky girl so I enjoyed the Cincinnati setting
-exploration or complex relationships
-the perspective of social media
-fast-paced
-twists and turns

What wasn't my favorite
-some points felt disjointed with the various plots at the same time
-the ending was meh.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such an awesome thriller. I finished this in one sitting! It was an intense read with plot twists that I've grown to love every thriller I read. If you're looking for an awesome weekend beach read, look no further....it will not disappoint!

Catherine McKenzie is an author that I found on NetGalley. There is a twist in every novel and it's always shocking. I can't wait to read every single one of her books.

Julie (Apple) Prentice is the author of a bestselling novel. Fearful of a stalker, she relocates her family to a small neighbourhood in Cincinnati. Pine Street is full of bylaws, gossip and nosy neighbours.

This novel is written in an engaging way, switching between past and present tense. With the twists and turns through the book, I was hooked until the very end!

Rating: 4/5

Fascinating fiction/thriller that takes the reader on a wild ride through the lives of this family. I was so engaged in the plot and needed to find out what was coming up that I couldn't put it down.

I couldn't put this novel down. Luckily I was on vacation while reading it, so that I had the luxury of reading it quite quickly. I kept needing to know the next part of how everything comes all together.

Told by two main characters, one female (a best selling author, Julie Apple Prentice) and one male (Julie's neighbor John Dunbar), this suspense/mystery/thriller with a bit of chick lit really held my attention. Julie is an author who had to move to a new city because she was being stalked by someone in her old hometown. Her family moved for a fresh start, but it seems like problems happen no matter where you live. I like how Catherine McKenzie tied in her own personal careers into this novel, being an author/lawyer herself even if Julie is completely a fictional character. I like how the novel jumps back and forth between characters from present to past. It all ties in nicely together. I loved how you don't really know what happened that was so tragic until the very end. Catherine did a great job of keeping the reader guessing throughout the entire story.

I liked that this novel by Catherine was the first one that had an actual setting (Tacoma/Cincinnati and references to Montreal). All of Catherine's first three novels were in unnamed cities and the other 2 were in fictional towns. It was nice being able to relate to some of the Montreal stuff being named/talked about (McGill, McKibbon's, etc), being in Montreal.

I also want to make a note that "The Book" that the main character Julie Apple wrote, The Murder Game, is actually coming out this fall, and I plan to read it next. I received a copy of Fractured from Netgalley for my honest review, and as well, just received The Murder Game as well from Netgalley. I am very excited to read that one next. I like how the two novels are tied together, it makes it very interesting.

I recommend this book!

Loved this fantastic book! Excellent characters and many twists and turn. Was very engaging, moved fast, and had perfect flow. Thank you NetGalley for the e-reader, all opinions are my own.

I liked this book - a little slow at times - but for the most part, it was very enjoyable. It kept my interest going, and it was hard to put down at times. I would definitely recommend to any avid book reader looking for a good thriller. Well done !

This story started out great then is slowed and was really wordy. Eventually it picked up and took a turn I didn’t expect. I wasn’t sure who was killed right up to the end. Good book!

This is my second stellar book by,Catherine McKenzie, she is fast becoming a favorite! This book sucked me in from the very beginning..... told from dual viewpoints... Julie a successful author who moved her family across the country to avoid a stalker.... and John the husband and father who lives across the street, who might be a little too interested..... it is also told from different time periods... from before the incident... and after the incident... the incident that changed everything... the incident that you don’t have any idea of what it is until very late in the book... did Julie get killed? Did Julie cause something to happen? Or did it have to do with somebody else? These are questions I asked myself throughout this book....

This book had such lively and well developed characters... in particular Julie, the author trying to get that second book written after the amazing success of her first novel.... the first book that was said to have been loosely based on real life events, but how close is reality and fiction? And now that Julie has moved across the country to escape her stalker has she just found herself in the middle of another nightmare? The nosiest neighborhood ever? Throughout this book there were exerts from the neighborhood newsletter that were downright hilarious and over-the-top! (Well they were hilarious if you didn’t live in that neighborhood)

So as I said this book sucked me in and I literally stayed up all night reading and then at about 85%...... when things started getting revealed, I was like did I miss something? This book was way too amazing to end like this.... I was expecting a firework show and I got a sparkler(Just one sparkler) that’s not to say I hated the ending... I was just expecting so much more.... it was a nice pleasant happy ending.... but I guess I didn’t want nice, pleasant,and happy.... I wanted fireworks!

I would absolutely recommend this book, it was a fabulous page turner, the ending just was a little lackluster... but the book as a whole was wonderful!

a nice mystery, that i think is more of a slower burning one instead of a thriller it was marketed as. Not a negative point at all. Its easy and enjoyable to read with interring characters and a good plot,

defiantly worth a read if you enjoy a different mystery!

At the beginning of the book, we know something terrible has happened in the neighborhood. You can guess as much as you want, but you probably won't figure it out until the end. The book goes back and forth from the present as everyone reels from this mysterious tragedy to a year before, when Julie and her family first move to town.

I didn’t love this book. I was bothered by the writing and the numerous improbable situations. Thank you for the copy!

Sorry to say that I tried to get through it several times, but just too slow to hold my attention. However, I did leave it in my Kindle library in hopes that I will return to it yet again at some point.

Another great read by this author. I've read two of her others - ARRANGED (romantic) and SMOKE (contemporary). I'm amazed that she has now mastered suspense in a way that reminded me of BIT LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty. McKenzie certainly writes in that stratosphere, and I look forward to reading others by her.

This author is a go to author for me. Page turning and fast paced. Liked this story and love this author

I liked this book. It took a while to get the time period and characters straight, but it was a nice read.