Search This Blog
June Reviews Link-Up
July Reviews Link-Up
August Reviews Link-Up
September Reviews Link-Up
October Reviews Link-Up
November Reviews Link-Up
December Reviews Link-Up
2024 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama (1)
- Alaska
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas
- California (3)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois (1)
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts (2)
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York (3)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (1)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (3)
- Utah
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (1)
- Washington (2)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.* (1)
International:
- Australia (1)
- Canada (1)
- England (8)
- France (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (2)
- Italy (1)
- Scotland (2)
- The Netherlands (1)
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Despite Intriguing Premise, This One Gets A Meh From Me
5:28 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
After her babysitter cancels at the last minute, Anne Conti reluctantly decides to leave her 6-month-old daughter at home and join her husband, Marco, at a dinner party next door. Plagued by guilt and anxiety, Anne can't relax, even though she checks on the infant repeatedly. During one of these drop-ins, the couple make a horrifying discovery—Cora is gone. Who would kidnap a baby right out of its crib? And why?
With no real evidence of a break-in, police suspect the Contis of abducting their own child. Anne suffers from post-partum depression and Marco's software design business is in trouble. Did one of them snap under the added pressure of new parenthood? As Detective Rasbach investigates, he uncovers a whole web of lies weaved between the Contis and their enigmatic next door neighbors, the Stillwells. No one is telling the entire truth, so what really happened to Cora? Can Rasbach wade through all the deceit and find out?
I dig psychological thrillers with intriguing premises, so The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena seemed like a right-up-my-alley kind of novel. While the story is intriguing enough that I wanted to keep reading, the characters in this story are a total turn-off. The cast is almost wholly unlikable. They're a desperate, selfish, cruel, and greedy lot, which made it impossible to care about them. Add to this irritant a predictable plot and a depressing-as-all-get-out vibe, and The Couple Next Door becomes only a so-so read. While I definitely wanted to know what happened to the baby, all in all this one didn't do a lot for me.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of Our House by Louise Candlish)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for language, sexual content, violence, and disturbing subject matter
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
1 comment:
Comments make me feel special, so go crazy! Just keep it clean and civil. Feel free to speak your mind (I always do), but be aware that I will delete any offensive comments.
P.S.: Don't panic if your comment doesn't show up right away. I have to approve each one before it posts to prevent spam. It's annoying, but it works!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(Atom)
Reading
Listening
Followin' with Bloglovin'
-
-
Daily Prompt 31 May Friday3 hours ago
-
-
Compared8 hours ago
-
Monthly Round-Up: May 202414 hours ago
-
Wyrd & Wonder ~ Sunbolt Readalong Week #415 hours ago
-
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown16 hours ago
-
-
Bookish Quote of the Day!!!20 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
Review: Ravensong by TJ Klune1 day ago
-
You Are Here by David Nicholls1 day ago
-
May Reflections1 day ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Bookshelf Bounty6 days ago
-
I have been reading...1 week ago
-
-
The Mayfair Dagger by Ava January1 week ago
-
Sunday Post 5542 weeks ago
-
Reading Recap April 20242 weeks ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
March Monthly Wrap-up1 month ago
-
-
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?7 months ago
-
6/25/23 Extra Ezra11 months ago
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
Grab my Button!
Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ▼ 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)
A cast of unlikeable characters would be too much for me as well. With so many good thrillers out there right now, unstellar (probably not even a word) ones are so disappointing.
ReplyDelete