This book was a difficult read for me. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on. I did finish it, but it just wasn’t for me.

I’ve tried several times to pick up this book but it disagrees with me. DNF due to losing interest (really didn’t like writing style)

Middle stars for fairness

A twisty, breath taking read! Full of twists and turns. A dark thriller, great debut from Sharon Dieting. Grace moves with her two daughters nextdoor to a very creepy man Leland. She finds out that he is a suspect in the disappearance of a five year old little girl Ava Boone. Grace becomes obsessed with finding out the truth but soon starts to realize she can't tell what's real or just a dream.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy.

This book was a wild ride and definitely never boring (the cardinal sin for thrillers in my book). Doering successfully created a building sense of tension, anxiety and darkness in the mind of her narrator, simmering at first until it reached the boiling point. This was thrilling and at times uncomfortable to read. Grace, our narrator, is mom to a three year old girl. When Grace and family move next door to a creepy suspected child abductor, Grace begins to grow obsessed with the idea that her neighbor kidnapped and murdered another missing child, and her own daughter may be in danger. The reader lives claustrophobically inside Grace’s head as she grows more and more obsessed with what her neighbor may be doing in his house, and whether he has designs on her daughter. When things take a dark turn, we wonder whether the danger might actually be closer to Grace’s home than her neighbir’s.

There were lots of promising things in this debut. I really liked Doering’s writing style. The way she built tension, anxiety and madness in the mind her narrator was skillfully and scarily done in a way many other authors in the genre can’t seem to achieve. But the plot of the story was rather disjointed, with numerous things straining credulity (I would love to list them, but don’t want to spoil). Some of these plot points created holes or problems in the story that were never satisfactorily explained. Certain parts of the story were drawn out too long for me. I also found the ending to be a letdown, especially in context of the building tension.

Overall, Doering is a talented and scary new voice in the thriller genre. I foresee great books from her in the future . This one just wasn’t quite there yet for me. But I’ll definitely read her next one. 3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley, Titan and the author for the advance copy!

I compare this to Alice in Wonderland. A darkly twisted tale with some humor and some crazy. A newly divorced mother of two, a boy eight and a daughter just three, moves into a neighborhood that’s supposed to be safe. She quickly finds out her next door neighbor is a suspect in a little girl, her daughters age, kidnapping. Grace is beside herself. Unable to sleep, she runs at night to try to help. Guilt, fear, medications, loneliness, sleep deprived, and obsession with her neighbors possible guilt, drive her into some actions beyond smart and some she isn’t even aware of. Is she going crazy or what? Engrossing read that will take you on quite a journey.
I liked it and yet I am not sure if she’s a fierce momma or a out of control crazy momma. Thanks to NetGalley, Titan Books and Samantha Doering for this ARC. For a debut book I think Samantha did excellent and will be writing many more people will be excited to read.

I just finished reading She Lies Close by Sharon Doering and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations! I've read a ton of mysteries involving missing children, but if you asked me to give you details about one, I probably wouldn't be able to. While plenty have been great- full of suspense and shocking twists- they just don't have characters that stick with me. Doering's take on the popular theme caught me by surprise as I found myself laughing and connecting with the protagonist in a way I hardly ever do. There's one point in the story where the main character is annoyed at being delayed on her way home because all she is looking forward to is taking off her pants. (Lady, I feel you!) That's not to say the plot doesn't check all the genre's boxes; it is suspenseful and creepy and sad in all the right ways.

Grace Wright is a recently divorced mother of two who is just trying to survive each day. Her first priority is taking care of her young children, which seems all the more challenging when she realizes her next-door neighbor is a suspect in the disappearance of a local girl, Ava Boone. Grace does her best to appear "normal," but it's not hard to see that she's a hot mess. She already struggles with ADD and anxiety, and on top of that her insomnia is keeping her up for days at a time, causing her to hallucinate and black out in the middle of the night. She obsesses over her neighbor, convinced he is grooming her three-year-old daughter to be his next victim. One day, she thinks she sees little Ava in her neighbor's house and that pushes Grace to act. She breaks into his house and finds disturbing evidence that only make her all the more certain he is responsible for kidnapping Ava, but no one will listen to her concerns. When the neighbor turns up dead, Grace finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.

This novel has a lot of dark humor that makes it stand out from typical books in this genre. Grace is snarky and sarcastic, which I loved! If I could choose a fictional best friend, she'd definitely be in my top three. She comes across as so real and vulnerable which is so refreshing. The plot itself is solid, but I will remember She Lies Close because of the life Doering brings to her characters. Readers who are not fans of crass language or sexual details in their books should probably stay away from this one, but I'd highly recommend it to anyone else looking for a well-written mystery with memorable characters.

My Rating: ★★★★★

*Thanks to the author, Titan Books, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book drove me mad. The descriptions of what could go wrong...

<i>My neighbor will be deemed harmless, but will still move away. I will not die of rabies. The children won’t feel abandoned or unloved or guilty because I divorced their father. I will win a small amount of money, which will allow me to dig myself out of debt.</i>

Her internal monologues about what her kids are doing and the worry about the children...yet she leaves them alone to go running and she leaves them alone in an unfenced yard to answer the phone?

<i>Chuck, I have a little girl outside. I don’t have a fence. My door is, I don’t know, twenty, thirty feet from his, nothing between our doors but grass and trees.”</i>

And the irritating way she describes motherhood and her kids! Over and over again...

<i>Don’t consider what she’s like, that she’s a girl with an easy joy in her eyes, generous with her candy, mortified of bees, and will stand her ground when it comes to brussels sprouts and hairbrushes. That she has a bad habit of picking at the dry edges of scabs on her knees. That she dances and twirls even when there’s no music. That she loves cats and horses and anything you can sniff: markers, lip gloss, lotions. Don’t dare contemplate what she might have gone through. What she might still be going through.</i>

Some of the writing was poetic but the style should have been used sparingly. Too much in my opinion. Thank goodness this was a short book. Others have enjoyed this a lot more than I did so judge for yourself.

This is a fantastic, gripping psychological thriller from a debut author.
This writer made me want to isolate myself and this this book finished in one sitting! I had to know what was going to happen! She had me feel like I was losing my mind right along with the main character.

This story differs from other missing children stories, it is from the perspective of a newly divorced mother with two young children. She has moved into a new house to find that she is living next to a suspect in the missing child case and from there her mind goes wild with fear and desperation for the truth.

A psychological thriller with a build up that falls flat. 

After a family shattering divorce Grace Wright takes her two children and moves into a new house where they can start their new life. She knew it would be an adjustment. She didn’t know her new neighbor was a suspected pedophile and person of interest in the disappearance of Ava Boone. A girl the same age at Grace’s own daughter. 

But Grace knows she’ll do anything to protect her child. Even if she can’t remember the details the next day. 

Based on plot alone, this book should be a perfect fit for me. It triggers all the right instincts, it plays with the reliability of memory, and there’s a cold case to solve. ✅✅✅

But it wasn’t. 

I wanted to enjoy this book. It was well-written and the plot moved quickly, but there were so many subplots things started to move a little too quickly. There’s the cold case of Ava Boone, a rabies scare, possible hallucinogenic side-effects from medications (yes, multiple medications), sleep deprivation, the murder of Grace’s neighbor, a cop love interest, a repentant husband...
The main plot fell flat under the weight of so many detours and I was never able to quite empathize with Grace. In fact, by the end of the book I actively disliked her. That alone wouldn’t necessarily be a deal breaker for a psychological thriller, but this one does require you to care about the narrator to care about the story. 

And I just didn’t. 

I even set this one aside for a week after finishing it to see how it would sit after reading, but by the time I came back to review it I'd already forgotten I'd read it.

I think this is a case of "not the right book for me." Doering writes well, and the story may be a better fit for you than it was for me, but I still recommend you get this one from the library instead of preordering.

*Thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the ARC*

She Lies Close is a fascinating psychological thriller about how far a mother will go to protect her children. Grace is a divorced, struggling mother of two young children who has just moved into a new neighborhood only to discover her next door neighbor is a suspect in the abduction of a young girl. As Grace’s worries for her family mounts, she starts to investigate her neighbor. To what lengths will she go and just what is she capable of to protect her children?

The novel is well-plotted and moves along at a good pace. Grace is a fascinating character who is struggling with her own psychological issues, making her an unpredictable and unreliable narrator. Being inside the mind of an unreliable, flawed character is so intriguing and I went back and forth between liking and disliking her as the story unfolded. The author does a great job of vividly depicting the anxiety and overwhelming fear that she feels for her kids. This is a very strong debut!!

Thanks to @titanbooks and @Netgalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a great read! I read this is in a day as I could not put this down. The way Grace is portrayed is astounding. So many clues dropped , but so many are misleading. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I was proven wrong. When you can’t decipher between reality and dreams is when you’re in trouble!
Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grace is a mother of two young children and begins to obsess over the kidnapping of Ava Boone, a 5-year-old girl in the neighbourhood. This obsession begins after Grace learns she’s moved herself and her children right next door to a suspect in the case. Grace becomes more and more focused on her neighbour, but is also having issues such as hallucinations due to insomnia. As she unravels, Grace is left questioning what’s reality or not.

Grace translated well onto paper. I could feel her emotions and growing paranoia. The majority of the book is from her point of view so Ava’s case does take a backseat to Grace’s problems for the most part. Initially, I thought it was going to be about solving the case rather than a mother obsessing over the case, but Grace was relatable at times, if unreliable, so I didn’t mind this.

I enjoyed this book. I like the blur of reality and imagination, where the main character is unreliable so you have to guess what’s real and what isn’t. Grace’s obsession and paranoia does become a little repetitive at times, but overall, I was really drawn to the idea and I enjoyed the read of this psychological thriller.

This was a really interesting thriller that was written mostly in the main character, Grace’s internal dialogue.

After Grace’s neighbor is a suspect in a local girl’s disappearance, Grace worries herself to insanity. She can’t sleep, can’t focus, has hallucinations and starts making really rash decisions. It’s hard to tell what’s real and what is just a figment of her imagination. I really enjoyed this book and it was perfect for an early fall, rainy day read.

Grace works as a teacher and lives alone with her two young children. She is divorced from her husband who is a surgeon. She has recently bought a home in what seems to be in a nice neighborhood because she wanted a yard for the children to play in. Not long after moving in, she learns that her neighbor, Leland Ernest is a suspect in a child abduction case. Ava Boone, age 5, went missing some time ago and has yet to be found. While Leland has not been charged with her abduction, he remains a suspect. His nearness makes Grace very nervous.

Grace has big problems with insomnia and sleep for her is so elusive. In addition, she is taking Adderall for ADHD. Many nights find her up reading all kinds of article online hoping to get sleepy, but little helps.

Her 3-year-old, Chloe, is very precocious and Grace is so afraid that Leland may try to take her. In her quest to try and find Ava, she has a lot of crazy stuff going on in her head. Wyatt is 8-years-old and a pretty steady young boy.

As they days pass, Grace becomes more and more centered on Leland and is also having problems such as hallucinations due to her lack of sleep. Can she continue to cope on her own?

Some things are quite humorous as we recognize young children for the real kids that they are. Even the chapter headings are humorous. However, this is a dark thriller with some explicitly written scenes that may tend to shock readers. Do I recommend this book? Hard to answer that. If you are looking for a very unusual read, then you have come to the right place.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An unexpected psychological thriller.

Not a typical way of writing them as it is almost an internal monologue of Grace who’s daughter Ava has disappeared.

Grace is very well written and you really do get a very clear view of the nightmare she is living.

I would suggest that this book is fairly harrowing and chilling at times.

4.5 stars. She Lies Close by Sharon Doering was a seriously twisted thriller. Grace Wright is a newly divorced single mom who has just found out that her neighbor is possibly a child abductor or killer. Little Ava has been missing for five months. Police questioned her neighbor in connection with the girl's disappearance. Her neighbor is creepy. He must have killed this girl.

Grace knows she has to protect her children from this neighbor, but she is losing her grip on reality making that harder to do each day. Grace becomes more and more reckless and delusional as her imagination stokes itself into an inferno of anxiety.

I really enjoyed this book and it was twisted. One criticism, it was at times confusing to only see Grace's world through her eyes. She had a hard time distinguishing between her delusions and reality and as a reader, I did too. The book grabbed my attention and was very good. I really liked Grace as a character and felt for her plight.

So it took me a bit to get into the book but when I did it was good. Some parts were chilling and really well done. Some not so much. Overall it was an okay book.

She Lies Close is an excellent debut thriller from Sharon Doering.

The book opens with the burial of a body, and a red, sparkly shoe falling out of “his” pocket.

We then meet Grace, the MC. Grace is newly divorced with two young kids, and she has ADHD which makes mine look like a minor focusing problem. Grace is relatable and hilarious, and is the perfect balance for a book that’s content is actually really disturbing but fun to read.

Grace is obsessed with a little girl who has gone missing, Ava Boone. Her next door neighbor, Leland, is a suspect, and she cannot stop worrying about Leland coming after her own stubborn, wild, 4 year old daughter. Grace hilariously gets into all kinds of trouble, and not so hilariously, begins to suffer a nervous breakdown or psychosis of some kind. She begins hallucinating and being unable to sleep.

This book is REALLY hard to categorize, because although Grace is seriously funny and we could probably be best friends if she was a real person, it’s also really dark at times. Child sex abuse, kidnapping, anxieties about everything under the sun regarding how you are messing up your children emotionally/or neglecting to protect them, murder, bloodshed, violence, infidelity, all are huge focuses. I’ve never read a book that is so funny while also being so dark. I loved it!

Grace Wright has just moved to a new neighbourhood with her two young children after leaving her cheating husband. What Grace doesn't know until a neighbour confides in her is that her new next door neighbour, Leland Ernest, is the prime suspect in the case of missing five year old Ava Boone.

Increasingly obsessed with the case, and desperately concerned for her own children, Grace will stop at nothing to find out what really happened to Ava. But when Grace's reality and dream life start to merge, she's not even sure she would recognise the real truth...even if it's closer to home than she might think....

I loved the sense of quiet menace in this book, and the author deftly managed the ramping up of Grace's mental health issues. I really liked the blurred lines between reality and imagination, which elevated what could have been a fairly standard thriller into something more. That. and the beautifully realised, complex characters, particularly Grace herself, who seemed both warrior-strong and as delicate as porcelain in turns.

A capably plotted, well-written, and sometimes harrowing novel - I really enjoyed it, and am already looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who provided me with a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Grace Wright, newly divorced from an adulterous husband, thrust into single motherhood with her two young children has got a great deal on a 3 bedroom house in a great neighbourhood. Or at least she thought it was a great neighbourhood.... when she realizes she has moved in next to a suspect in the kidnapping of a young girl her worry for her children escalates. Addicted to Adderall and struggling to make ends meet, Grace’s mind begins to unravel. From being attacked by bats, to insomnia, to performing the heimlech maneuver on a kindergartener, to sleepwalking, to murder suspect, was his fast paced suspenseful novel is a page turner.

I found the writing honest- the swearing and the mental back and forth, the constant worrying and the fear of failing as a parent. From misbehaving children and never knowing if you’re doing the right thing as a mom - what does a woman living alone do when her next door neighbour could be waiting in the wings ready to snatch her child? Especially one that is clearly struggling mentally - This was an interesting read in a new viewpoint on living next to a criminal.

Thank you for allowing me an advanced copy!