Author: Sue Watson
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: May 2019
Genre: Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: I suppose everyone has regrets, wonders what if? People all have their reasons for living here. Who knows what lies behind the pretty curtains and the well-groomed lawns of Mulberry Avenue?
Lucy has a lovely husband, a job she adores as a teacher, and a house on Mulberry Avenue that she’s decorated just the way she wants – from the floaty curtains and the softest bed linen, right down to the perfectly-chosen velvet cushions on their comfortable sofa. Life isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty close.
She’s also got Amber. Her newest friend and neighbor. They’ve got so much in common. Even if Amber’s life sometimes seems a lot more glamorous and exciting, she shares Lucy’s down-to-earth sense of humor, and Amber seems so interested in Lucy and her life, it’s like they never run out of things to talk about.
But then Amber starts acting strangely, claiming her life isn’t all it seems, talking about how she thinks she might be pregnant, and confiding in Lucy that she’s started getting threatening messages.
She’s scared, and the only person she can turn to is Lucy. She wants to stay at Lucy’s house until things calm down.
Lucy wants to protect her friend. But can she really trust Amber? Because sometimes other people are not all that they seem. Sometimes they have secrets. And they’d do anything to keep them…
My Thoughts: I believe one of the telling signs of a truly talented author is when they can draw their reader in with interesting and entertaining stories in more than one genre. I became a fan of Ms. Watson’s work with her heart-warming Christmas themed women’s fiction stories, but she really shows herself to be a master storyteller with her novels of suspense. The Woman Next Door was my first choice in the many she has already written, and it will not be my last.
This story centers on the friendship between Lucy and Amber, though I felt that the friendship was one-sided on Lucy’s part. Lucy befriends Amber after she tries to welcome Amber to the neighborhood and is met with quite a chilly reception. When Lucy and Amber next cross paths at the neighborhood book club, Amber appears to have undergone a personality change or perhaps a lobotomy because she appears to be quite the opposite of the woman Lucy first encountered. They become very close friends and though Lucy struggles with the way Amber treats her, she buries her feelings for most of the book and never tells Amber how she feels.
On one of their nights out, Amber mentions she has been receiving disturbing text messages that are beginning to frighten her. Lucy immediately wants to help her friend and though I found that to be admirable, I was immediately suspicious of Amber and her motives. After several occurrences from an unknown stalker, and the discovery that Amber is pregnant, Lucy and her husband, Matt, have Amber move into their home, where they believe she and the baby will be safe.
This story twists and turns and kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what will happen next and who is stalking Amber? Is there really a stalker? Did she make it all up for attention? Is the stalker someone close to her, drawing her in, waiting until she is the most vulnerable before they strike?
Ms. Watson weaves a tale of suspense that keeps the reader guessing. The characters are well developed but not easy to figure out. The lines between good and evil are very blurry in this story and left me wondering just who can be trusted.
Lucy is a very likable, though very needy character. Her inability to have children has weighed heavily on her, so she compensates by trying to be the perfect friend. I wish she had displayed more of a spine instead of allowing Amber to treat her like an afterthought.
I never warmed up to Amber. I never trusted her but as the story unfolds, Amber is revealed to be a weak character who needs people to feed her need to be cared for and taken care of. In Lucy, she finds the perfect nurturing and mothering that she has been looking for.
My Final Verdict: I highly recommend this story to readers who like having the rug ripped out from under them just when they think everything has been resolved. Don’t get comfortable, readers. Ms. Watson has some aces up her sleeve that I never saw coming. I look forward to reading more by this very talented author.
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