The entire plot relied on the male protagonist being the stupidest human being to have ever existed on the planet. I just couldn't believe his poor logical reasoning at all. The rest of the characters are also one-note: the mother is hysterical the entire time and doesn't use her brain once, their neighbor's only characteristic is being skanky, and the detectives are super unprofessional and aggressive. The writing often relied on telling instead of showing by blatantly telling you a character's...

STRUGGLES!First off, I listened to the audiobook for this and the narrator was just NOT my cup of tea.Even taking this into consideration, however, I'm not sure how much more I would have enjoyed it, if at all, if I had read the hard copy. I really do not feel like there would have been much difference. In fact, I may even have DNFed a hard copy, so I could give the narrator slight credit for at least helping me finish it.I went into this completely blind. I had heard a little buzz about it, mai...

It all started with a “what were you thinking?” moment! Then rapidly morphs into a parent’s worst nightmare. Anne and Marco have a dinner party to attend next door when the babysitter cancels at the last moment. Of course, being responsible parents, they have no choice but to cancel dinner. Right? Well...no! They make the unbelievably foolish decision to still attend. Their genius solution? Simply leave their 6 month baby home alone and just take the baby monitor! What!!?😳As you may have guesse...

One star is for me because I finished it. One more star because the author came up with some good character names. Cora Conti, Cynthia Stillwell, Detective Rasbach I'm looking at you.Well, that's about all the nice nice I can make.I can't get past the clunky, amateurish writing! If I heard "Marco said" "Anne replied" "Cynthia stated" ONE MORE TIME....oh my gosh. If you, as an author, are going to write a book that is almost entirely dialogue, wouldn't you make sure you were a damn fine dialogue ...

Wow . . . what was that ending?! OK, let me back up.There's no denying that this is a compulsive page-turner. At the heart of the story is a frenzied pulse running rampant and it’s addicting. Ending chapters with shocking revelations, casting doubt and making me waver on my belief of who was behind it all, time and time again, was pure magic. I read this book over the course of one day, simply because I couldn’t bear to put it down. I had to know who took baby Cora and WHY.With that being said, ...

ZERO SPOILERS!!!! ZERO SPOILERS!!!! LESS THAN ZERO!!! SAFE TO READ!!!!It's 3am....I just finish reading this -'sleep-killer'-story....My final HONEST REACTION?.......**HYSTERICAL**!!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I could roll on the floor laughing right now....SOOOOOO FUNNY .....GREAT WILD RIDE!!!!!!Really...I'm not sure if I'm laughing at myself - or the story - or both! A few random thoughts - as you know I'm not going to give anything away: ......This is a question for my women friends: When you are str...

3.5 starsA swanky rich couple have a six month old baby. The babysitter cancels at the last minute, buuuutt the husband really wants to go to that dinner party next door with the hottie neighbor. He convinces the wife Anne that it will be just fine to leave the baby by herself and check on her every thirty minutes. They return home to find the baby is now missing. Then all the secrets...gotta have secrets. Mom is struggling with post-partum depression. Could she have done something to the...

THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR is an outstanding debut psychological thriller novel from author Shari Lapena, and one of the best reads I have read this year! This novel, a child-abduction case, races along at an amazing speed, full of twists and turns, totally gripping the reader for the suspense ride from beginning to end. I kept flipping the pages as I had to know what had happened. I loved it! “They left their six-month-old baby (Cora) home alone and went to a party next door.” But with the monitor o...

3.5 starsThe first 75% of the book was terrific--lots of twists and turns, well-paced, interesting character development and relationships, I was eager to return to my audiobook every time I was away from it. I also loved that contrary to most thrillers that save the big reveal for the end, in this book, you find out who kidnapped the baby halfway through the book--so you get to watch everyone scramble and unravel from there on out. I liked it so much that I was mentally composing my 4-star revi...

Cynthia and Graham invite next door neighbours Anne and Marco to a small dinner party but tell them not to bring their small baby. Cynthia and Graham, themselves childless, are not child-friendly. The pre-arranged babysitter cancels at last minute so Anne and Marco decide, reluctantly. to go anyway, leaving baby Cora alone, taking a baby monitor and agreeing to take turns checking on her every half hour. So far so good.....until....Anne and Marco return home at one in the morning and to their ho...