Highly enjoyed this very well written book and look forward to reading more from this writer in the future !!

Hope Close by Tina Seskis was a fabulous read that had me totally gripped from the start. With a fantastic plot-line and brilliant characters, this was a superb and compelling psychological tale that held me captive throughout.

Set in a cul-de-sac in Surrey, in the heart of the English countryside, the story centres around the small community within. Three women, in particular live there - Layla, Joan and Nicole along with their respective husbands. There is also Andy who is a bit of an oddball that mostly keeps to himself.

What really made this a top-notch read was the depth of characterisation by Tina Seskis. Though the cast were mostly unlikable, it made for an underlying sinister undertone and chilling atmosphere, present for the entirety of the plot.

This amazing twisty tale of family, loneliness, pain and secrets, and how the past generally catches up with you, by new-to-me author Tina Seskis should certainly not be missed. A magnificent read and well worth five stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Amazon Publishing UK via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

“Quiet street. Perfect homes. Not so perfect lives”.
Andy Meyer moves into Hope Close a quiet, tranquil and leafy backwater in the English countryside full of picture perfect homes. However he soon discovers that behind those homes doors are hidden not so perfect lives. Andy is just out of rehab and is not feeling very sociable and so not wanting to meet his neighbours he sets about installing large gates to keep prying eyes out. Andy’s neighbour Layla lives in the grandest house in the close and to those looking in leads a wonderful life, however Layla is unhappy, married to a much older man and missing her son who her husband has sent away to boarding school. Layla forms a bond with fellow Hope Close resident Nicole who is also lonely and dealing with her own heartache. Meanwhile the busy body of the close, Joan thinks there is something dangerous about their new neighbour Andy, but no one is willing to listen to her suspicions. The past catches up with all the residents of Hope Close and it seems Andy is not the only one with a past and something to hide.
This is a wonderfully written novel which brings together a mix of great characters and the author weaves a story around them all. Her descriptions of Hope Close are so detailed that I could picture myself there amongst the residents. I liked how each chapter was given over to one character and written from their point of view. This is a domestic based psychological thriller full of suspense and drama. I was hooked from page one and the storyline had me hooked until the final page. A great read and offered total escapism as I was fully immersed in Tina Seskis’s world of Hope Close. Definitely recommend this fantastic thriller.

Hope Close is a beautiful little neighborhood in the Surrey countryside. Behind the beautiful houses lie ugly truths. Each family is fully fleshed out, secrets and dysfunction coming to the fore. Very readable tale of tight neighborhoods and the people who hide in them. It all comes to a spectacular confrontation while the fallout settles into the whole neighborhood. First time author for me and I look forward to her next!

I really enjoyed this story. A domestic saga with a mystery. Great characters all living in one cup de sac. A curtain twitcher, two disillusioned at home woman and a new mystery man. All have secrets which slowly come out during the story. The story of Andy, the new man living in isolation is enthralling and so cleverly written. I devoured this over the weekend.

I loved The Honeymoon by Tina so was eager to read this book. I found none of the characters particularly likeable and didn’t engage with any of them. There wasn’t a big reveal in my opinion and I felt a bit let down. Nevertheless, worth a read if you like an easy read with curtain twitching characters.

a nice neighborhood in the countryside with only 4 houses & in each lives residents with secrets. the story follows 4 of the neighbors, layla who is unhappily married and misses her son, joan who sticks her nose into everyone’s business and causes trouble, nicole who is lonely, who’s children have left to live their lives, and who’s husband pays no attention to her, and andy, the mysterious new neighbor who built gates around his house to keep his neighbors out.⁣
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going into this book i thought there was going to be a lot of suspense and twists and turns but i was wrong. this book was not suspenseful to me, it did have some twists that i liked and i feel like that’s what kept me from DNF this book. it started out slow and then it gave me a twist but i figured it out so fast that it didn’t even feel like a twist 🤔 this book was just a slow read and it only really started to get interesting about 85% through it.⁣

Hope Close is the story of four very different families living in a cul-de-sac called Hope Close. There is the mysterious new guy who keeps to himself and who is hiding a terrible secret...the lonely wife with the much older husband.....the desperate rich housewife who is obsessed with looking young and who is also hiding a secret from her family and then the older busy body who is spying on everyone and out to make everyone's life miserable. In other words just an ordinary street like you get everywhere in the world.

I found it an easy read and I like the style of writing. I felt like a peeping Tom looking in from the outside and you feel empathy for all the characters. Can we really judge people if we don't know them?

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Tina Seskis for the opportunity to read and review her latest novel. Just finished a glass of wine and this book - totally escapism reading and I loved it! 4 stars.

A well-to-do Surrey cul-de-sac with four houses and four very different inhabitants. There's the older couple, Joan is the local busybody, angry at the world. Nicole is depressed after her children moved out and her husband isn't paying enough attention to her. Layla is the newest wife of Charles, and mother to Henry. She's coping with her husband's insistence that Henry go off to boarding school at the age of 8. Then there's the mysterious new neighbor, who installed privacy gates and talks to no one, but we know that he just got out of prison and a halfway home. So very many secrets for one cul-de-sac!

Just a fun read but also one that teaches us about judging others.

I’ve read all of this author’s books and though I enjoyed this one it wasn’t as good as her others I felt.
It’s an overall OK read.

I'm quite disappointed with Hope Close. The story sounds intriguing and potentially scandalous but I felt it fell short of all it suggested. I didn't really warm to any of the characters. Their relationships and interactions with each other are fractious and don't feel genuine. The introduction of Andy should've made things interesting but this fell flat too. His interactions with the his neighbours on Hope Close are awkward and uncomfortable. The book is filled with curveballs that don't go anywhere and basically just keep looping round to keep you guessing who Andy is related to and what his secret past was. I just found it more frustrating than anything and found it a bit of a slog to finish.

It's a shame because I loved One Step Too Far and The Honeymoon from Tina Seskis but Hope Close just didn't come near for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tina Seskis and Amazon Publishing UK for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hope Close is Tina Seskis’s fifth domestic-based psychological thriller and is every bit as addictive and captivating as her previous books. From initial perusal, the synopsis reads like a trillion other similar novels but in its defence, the author does a great job of depicting the small-town community living in which everyone knows everyone else and their business, or so they think, and many tensions fester underneath the surface of most peoples pristine facade. This time it takes place in a Surrey town and charts the intertwining lives of neighbours Andy, Layla, Nicole and Joan. Andy is a bit of an oddball who very much keeps to himself; Layla is the great pretender and for all intents and purposes her family life appears idyllic yet nothing could be further from the truth; Nicole who is unlucky in love and life; and elderly Joan the common local busybody who loves nothing more than to be the instigator or perpetrator of idle gossip about other residents.

This is a superb character-driven thriller mixed with aspects of women fiction/chick lit with tonnes of drama, secrets and twisty surprises throughout. What really makes this as addictive and engaging a read as it is though is undoubtedly the depth of characterisation, and although the cast are all pretty unlikeable it created a underlying sinister undertone and chilling atmosphere that run the entirety of the plot and emphasises just how deft and talented Ms Seksis actually is. The slow unfurling of everyone's secrets kept me hooked and I was ultimately intrigued at quite how the characters had managed to keep them under wraps for so long. It can often be a minefield deciding which domestic dramas to pick up as there are so many with almost identical plotlines, but I urge you to give this a go if you enjoy the genre as it is compulsive, gripping and absorbing from cover to cover. Recommended. Many thanks to Amazon Publishing for an ARC.

A few things I really like about this book was the neighborhood and some of the characters like Andy. He was super mysterious and I couldn’t figure out what he is hiding, but he still showed so much emotion. I also loved that the chapters were short which made it feel I was going through the book really fast. Going into this book i thought there was going to be a lot of suspense and twists and turns but i was wrong. this book was not suspenseful to me, it did have some twists that i liked and i feel like that’s what kept me from DNF this book. It started out slow and then it gave me a twist but I figured it out so fast that it didn’t even feel like a twist. This book was just a slow read and it only really started to get interesting about 85% through it.

A street with a lot happening and neighbours with secrets. This was an easy read with a few twists thrown in.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Hope Close by Tina Seskis features three women who live in a lovely neighborhood called Hope Close. The peaceful neighborhood changes with the arrival of a mysterious man named Andy who puts up a big gate, why? What is he hiding? Naturally, the women are curious and want to know what’s going on. But each of them has something they are hiding too…

Synopsis:

Hope Close: a leafy, tranquil backwater in the heart of the English countryside. But when Andy Meyer moves in, it soon becomes clear that picture-perfect homes can hide less-than-perfect lives. Fresh from rehab and with no interest in meeting his neighbours, Andy erects forbidding gates to keep the ghosts of his past—and any prying eyes—at bay.

Next door, in the grandest house, Layla is unhappily married to a much older man and desperately misses her young son, who has been banished to boarding school. When lonely Nicole from over the road confides her own secret heartache to Layla, the two women form an unlikely bond—until one of them attracts the attention of their mysterious new neighbour.

The only person to sense something dangerous about Andy is busybody Joan. But will her suspicions bring her more than she bargains for?

As the past catches up with the residents of Hope Close, it becomes clear that the intriguing new neighbour isn’t the only one with something to hide…

I love books like this where everyone has a secret. The plot was intriguing and I liked the characters. I love it when a book keeps me guessing and I’m not sure how things will play out.

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I was not a fan of this novel. I struggled to find a redeeming feature in any of the characters. They were mostly mean spirited, strange and bitter. The novel is set in England in a country town in a street called Hope Close. It is told from the point of view of several of the occupants of Hope Close who are mostly fueding, suspicious or spying on each other. The plot was so convoluted that I struggled to work out what was going on, and even at the end of the novel I still wasn’t completely sure what had happened. A total miss for me.

So gripping and intense!! I was hooked straight from the beginning. Great domestic thriller with a fast plot and well written characters

This story introduces the residents of a small cul-de-sac in Surrey who all have their issues. Suddenly a new neighbour shows up which nobody is sure about...it seems that the peace is disturbed by this intruder.
In the beginning i thought beeing pushed into some kind of desperate housewife-ish story which is not my cup of tea....but i was so wrong. All the charakters are very special and well constructed!
to me the story never seemed to be boring or superficial, on the contrary!
dive into the world of HOPE CLOSE to see for yourself and enjoy!
thank you very much for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Lots and lots of secrets in placid Hope Close. The arrival of Andy, who has his own things he'd like to keep hidden, starts a waterfall. Layla, Nicole, and Joan all lived quietly - or did they? No spoilers bit know that this is told from multiple perspectives. Pay attention to Joan as she's the one who prompts the others to look at both themselves and everyone else with a different eye. Is she right? No spoilers. There's no big drama or trauma here but that doesn't mean it isn't a good read with nice storytelling and characters. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A story of secrets, relationships, loss and new beginnings. Hope Close is a quiet well-to-do English countryside cul de sac. Life 'should' be easy here, but "you never know what someone else is going through". The four main characters are well developed, the plot moves along quickly with enough mysteries to keep your mind working. A good book that makes you adjust what you were thinking as the story unfolds, providing more bits of the puzzle as you move toward all the answers at the end.
Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book.