Search This Blog







2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (2)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa (2)
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine (1)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York (4)
- North Carolina (2)
- North Dakota
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas (1)
- Utah
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (1)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.* (1)
International:
- Australia (2)
- Canada (1)
- England (5)
- France (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (1)


2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge



2025 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
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

Listening
If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell


Followin' with Bloglovin'

-
Movies That Suck - Mysterious Island6 minutes ago
-
-
-
Monthly Round-Up: March 20255 hours ago
-
-
Lethal Prey by John Sandford6 hours ago
-
Safe and Sound10 hours ago
-
What I Wore in Australia10 hours ago
-
-
-
Ghost Of A Holy War By Yardena Schwartz15 hours ago
-
The Rainmaker by John Grisham19 hours ago
-
-
Sunday Salon: March 30 202520 hours ago
-
-
-
Murder at the Palace by N R Daws1 day ago
-
Bookish Quote of the Day!!2 days ago
-
Nonfiction Books on BookTV2 days ago
-
One Word Titles A-to-Z3 days ago
-
-
-
A Review of Nor Gloom of Night4 days ago
-
-
-
-
I have been reading...1 week ago
-
-
February 2025 Reading Wrap Up3 weeks ago
-
-
-
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery5 weeks ago
-
-
-
-
I'm Still Reading - This Was My October4 months ago
-
Review: The Duke and I7 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus8 months ago
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years 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)


2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
2023 - Middle Grade Fiction
2022 - Middle Grade Fiction
2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

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