Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski. Thank you Graydon House for inviting me to participate.
Publisher: Graydon House
Published: October 12, 2021
Source: ARC E-copy via Publisher
Summary:
GOOD MOTHERS…
Never show their feelings.
Never spill their secrets.
Never admit to murder.
The annual Halloween block party is the pinnacle of the year on idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive. An influential group of neighborhood moms—known as the Ivy Five—plans the event for months.
Except the Ivy Five has been four for a long time.
When a new mother moves to town, eager to fit in, the moms see it as an opportunity to make the group whole again. This year’s block party should be the best yet… until the women start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose the quiet neighborhood’s dark past—and the lengths they’ve gone to hide it.
As secrets seep out and the threats intensify, the Ivy Five must sort the loyal from the disloyal, the good from the bad. They’ll do anything to protect their families. But when a twisted plot is revealed, with dangerous consequences, their steady foundation begins to crumble, leaving only one certainty: after this year’s block party, Ivy Woods Drive will never be the same.
From award-winning author Tara Laskowski, The Mother Next Door is an atmospheric novel of domestic suspense in which the strive for perfection ends in murder…
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed Tara Laskowski’s debut novel, One Night Gone, so I was excited to see she had another book coming out…and that it was set around Halloween. And I’m so happy to say it is another winner.
This book totally grabbed me from the start and is once again another atmospheric, suspenseful read. This author really knows how to keep you on your toes wondering just what is going on. I loved that there is this sense that not all is as it seems with this group of women and that there are definitely secrets that are just begging to be revealed.
I definitely got some Desperate Housewives vibes from this one, but on a much darker level and I loved it as that was one of my favorite shows. There is this sense that these characters, the Ivy Five, are not quite as reliable as you want to believe and of course that just hooks you further as you try to figure out what happened in the past and what might happen on Halloween night.
This book is perfectly paced. The two timelines really keep you on edge and you slowly start to see how everything is connected. The added mystery of the threatening notes just sparked my interest even further as I tried to work out who was sending them, to no avail. And then there is the Ghost Girl urban legend…that really just added to the overall creepiness of the book, but I loved how it all tied together in the end.
If you are looking for a thrilling, entertaining read for this spooky season, look no further. This book has a little bit of everything and it really kept me engaged and guessing the entire time. I definitely recommend this one.
Tara Laskowski
About the author:
TARA LASKOWSKI is the author of One Night Gone, which won an Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and Anthony Award, and was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, Left Coast Crime Award, Strand Critics’ Award, and Library of Virginia Literary Award. She is also the author of two short story collections, Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons and Bystanders, has published stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Mid-American Review, among others, and is the former editor of SmokeLong Quarterly. Tara earned a BA in English from Susquehanna University and an MFA from George Mason University and currently lives in Virginia.
Author links: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads
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