It had been quite a while since I dived into a psychological thriller. If you'd have seen my reading this time last years you'd have seen nothing other than thrillers as they used to be my favourite genre!

This is the first BA Paris book I believe I have read and I had heard a lot of hype about the authors other books through Bookstagram so I was so excited to give this a go!

I loved the idea of the story being set in a closed community that makes you wonder what hidden secrets there are behind each house. I love thrillers that constantly keep you guessing and there were a few things that came to light that I was shocked to discover and a few things that I thought were going to happen that didn't!

I like how Alice's character was developed and we got to know more about her and her past. I would have loved to have got to know her neighbours slightly better and seen their characters develop slightly more.

The ending came to me as a shock and I did gasp to myself at one point! It was totally unexpected and quite well executed. Altogether, The Therapist is a decent thriller and I will definitely be picking up more of B A Paris' work in the future.

Quote from the book:
“Do you know what Henry David Thoreau believed? Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder".

Thank you to Netgalley, HQ and B A Paris for an arc copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was ok but it didn’t wow me I’m afraid.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

An enjoyable read with many plot twists and turns that keep you guessing to the end! I liked how this book was paced allowing you to keep your interest piqued throughout the entire book.

I feel that the name of the book was a little misleading as the therapist element of the story seemed to be almost part of the background rather than the focal point.

I did enjoy the authors style and will be keeping an eye out for more of her books to read.

This is my second B.A Paris novel and although there were some bits in the first half that felt a bit repetitive and a main character who was a little annoying, what I’ve realised about Paris is that she knows how to keep her readers tense. There were so many moments once I hit the halfway mark where I was turning the pages because the plot just kept getting thicker. I stayed up till 2am reading this. Granted, I stupidly drank coffee at 5pm so that definitely contributed but I was glad it was this book that was with me during this period of wakefulness because I was desperate to know what the F was going on.

Read this if you love:
Books where you feel like you can’t trust any of the characters
Plot twists
Claustrophobic settings

Avoid if you hate:
Annoying characters

I am a huge fan of BA Paris and I love her novels, but this latest one is not one of my favourite. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but not as much as I hoped and expected. I couldn’t really connect to the protagonist and her obsession in finding out the truth about a murder that happened in the house she just moved in with her boyfriend and I found her actions a bit repetitive and the pace a bit slow. Even though, as the story progresses, we learn more about her past that may clarify a bit of her behaviour, I still had a bit of trouble relating to her – and also all the other characters in the story. The plot is twisty and suspenseful and the tension is always high (especially when the protagonist felt that there were someone watching her sleep at night) and I liked that there were so many suspects that I didn’t figure out the truth right were it was being revealed. All in all, this is an interesting and engaging story and I look forward to reading the author’s next book.

The Therapist was a fab psychological thriller that captured me from the start and didn’t loosen its grip until I finished.
Alice and Leo have decided to buy a house and live together, Leo has found the perfect house in a gated community called “The Circle” that’s located in Finsbury, London. Leo has managed to get this at a great price so only he has to sell his house and Alice can rent her cottage out in the country. Everything is going great until Alice finds out that the reason the house was so cheap is because a murder had happened inside it. Here Alice is determined to find out more but she doesn’t realise how many secrets are being kept from her.
I loved this book from start to finish, I think Alice was a good lead character and the writing made it all feel so believable so much so I began to feel claustrophobic myself in regards to the gated community. It seemed you could see inside every house from each other’s house and not move without being seen.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 ⭐

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this ARC from NetGalley and HQ publishing.

I didn't enjoy this as much as much as the Dilemma. I found it very slow for the first half, but I do understand that there had to be a build up in order for us to later question Alice.

The setting of the Circle felt very claustrophobic and definitely added to the story line, particularly later on.

My favourite quote:
"Wine seeps across the wood, like blood from a wound."

Another stunning read from a master wordsmith. Alice and partner Leo have just moved into a new house together for the first time. Leo has sold his flat and Alice has rented out her cottage. The new house is in a small private, gated community of 12 houses. Alice wants to try and get to know people as she misses the friends and neighbours she previously had and holds a drinks party as a way of breaking the ice. When afterwards she finds that there was someone there who no one knew her suspicions are aroused. On digging a little deeper she finds Leo has been keeping something from her that had she knew she would never have made the move. Many years before she lost both her parents and sister Nina in a tragic accident. Now she has a strange connection with anyone by the same name. What happened and was the real perpetrator caught or is someone still around ? Oooh!! B.A Paris has a brilliant skill with words that quickly builds the tension which made me want to turn and turn and turn. I liked Alice and felt for her predicament having been put in a seemingly untenable position but with nowhere to go. A very cleverly thought out, well crafted plot (as always) and one I couldn't put down. One life- live it

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I got hooked into this book very quickly. Alice was very likeable. What should have been a new beginning for her and Leo turned out to be a nightmare. I loved the closed community setting and the interesting characters that lived there. Who could be trusted? Many lies existed and the ending was very dramatic.

WOW!! This is an edge of your seat contemporary psychological thriller, one that you’ll not want to put down until you’ve finished it and definitely not one to start just before you go to bed!

The Circle is a gated community of twelve houses, arranged like a clock, facing each other on the outskirts of London, It is into a recently renovated one of these homes that Alice and Leo move, making this their first home together. It seems safe, with great neighbours, secure . . . but Leo didn’t tell her everything about their new home. There’s a secret . . . a grisly secret . . . and uncovering that secret will change everything for them and the other residents, putting some in great danger.

The story is told from the point of view of Alice. It is the sort of story that keeps you on edge, questioning what Alice sees, suspects, thinks and feels - second guessing as more facts and suppositions are revealed. There are plenty of red herrings to throw you off track and the twist at the end is brilliant. Getting to know the residents in the Circle, you aren’t certain just who you can trust and just who could be the perpetrator. If you enjoy psychological thrillers to keep you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages, don’t miss this book!

Thanks to HQ for my copy of this book which I have voluntarily read, couldn’t put down and have honestly reviewed.

B A Paris set her goals high with ‘Behind Closed Doors’ and ‘The Breakdown’ and I always read her books, she is an author am willing to forget a few ‘not so good as previous’ and after this will again continue with that theme, there is something about her writing that even when falls short of brilliant keeps you there
In this book Alice and Leo move to the ‘Circle’ an impressive gated small street in Finsbury Park, all seems well until Alice discovers her house has a secret, a dreadful one and not only her house, her neighbours have secrets too
The start and end are good, the middle repetitive and ‘bulking out’ the story for a lot of it,there are only so many times we can read the same emotions and thoughts without thinking ‘yep we know this’
The main characters and in fact all supporters are lacklustre and a bit feeble in lots of ways with only 1 neighbour Tasmin having any stand out personality and a glimmer of interest from me
As say the ending is good, in fact the last 10% was for me 100% more exciting than the previous 90% and I am glad stuck with it for that, but it wasn’t a given I would and although will without question read her next book it has left me with a ‘disappointed feel’ overall

6/10
3 Stars ( just )

Thanks to Net Galley and H Q for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
Alice and Leo have just moved in together to their new home, 6 The Circle. The house has been empty for almost a year.
Leo was able to purchase the house at a reduced price and it is only after they have been there for a number of weeks that Alice learns that one of the previous occupants, Nina, was murdered there.
Alice invites her new neighbours around for drinks and they have a gate crasher. Alice becomes obsessed with firstly finding out who the man was and why he crashed their party. She further obsesses about what happened to Nina, who murdered her and when?
Alice and Leo’s relationship crumbles around them as she investigates. She sways between thinking Nina’s husband Oliver was guilty of her murder, and is suspicious of most of her new neighbours.
I found the story to be slow paced and then a rushed but not quite right, or believable ending. Not my favourite book from this author.
3.5 stars

This is the first B A Paris book I've read but it definitely won't be the last. Alice has moved to London after spending most of her life in a village. With no family of her own, she's hoping this will be a new start with her boyfriend. Moving into a gated community, Alice quickly discovers that the neighbours are a mixed bunch - some are friendly while others are openly hostile. Then Alice finds out that the previous female owner of the house had been murdered there by her husband and suddenly The Circle feels a very unsafe place to be. A claustrophobic read and tense throughout, this book kept me reading late into the night as Alice attempts to find out the truth.

for me, this book was slow paced to begin with and I found it hard to get my head round who was who. I loved the idea of the circle and the exclusiveness. But I did struggle to remember who was married to who and their connection. However, once I had figured it out and the book picked up pace, I became invested in the book, trying to figure out and piece together the clues of who the therapist was
Although I did not guess the ending or who the therapist was, I did not get the wow shock factor I have got from this authors previous books
I am a huge fan of this author and I feel that because of her absolute bestseller of a debut, subsequent novels are always compared to that
I highly recommend this novel and this author will always be an auto buy author for me

The Therapist, is a novel which grips the reader from the start with its first-person narrative which is written in such a way that, as a reader you are being told the story rather than reading it.

The main character of the story is Alice, who was named by her elder sister, Nina whose favourite book at the time is Alice in Wonderland by C.S. Lewis. However, both Nina and her family were killed in a car accident which Alice thinks the driver did not get punished enough,

So when Alice and her partner Leo, move into a gated community in London, which Leo paid for on his own so Alice can keep her house in the countryside and everything seems perfect.

That is until someone turns up to house-warming drinks, and is only seen by Alice and one other guest, things start to go down the rabbit hole fast. Particularly when that mystery person contacts her a few days later to say that the previous owners of the house are both dead after one of the owners who was also called Nina was found murdered.

From then on Alice helps the investigator, to try and find out who the killer is.

This book was definitely well written, which at some time or another most of the people in the story, are suspected by Alice of being the killer, including her partner Leo.

This is because everyone in the story has secrets, and these are drip fed into the story one by one.

What I really liked about this novel is that while it uses a number of tropes in telling the story, it alters them just enough to make this type of novel fresh. With the locked room being a gated community.

The gated community feel of the novel almost makes the whole story, like a murder in a village rather than in London where the book is set.

All this makes the Therapist a really enjoyable mystery thriller, which will probably one of the best books of the year if you decide to read it.

The Therapist is a slow moving mystery set in an exclusive luxury estate in London. I wouldn’t really call it a thriller as it’s not very thrilling. There’s not much going on apart from the main character’s continuous ruminating, whilst she is usually looking through a window... There are also many phone calls, chats over teas and coffees as well as descriptions of clothes and interiors. The whole premise of the book is rather ludicrous and although I am prepared to suspend disbelief when reading fiction, this story was just too improbable. I’ve listened to some parts on audio and narration was good.

Another brilliant book from BA Paris.
This one had me hooked from the first few pages and I just had to finish it today to find out how it ended.
Alice and Leo decide to live in together and they find a lovely house in a gated community in London.
Alice prefers living in the country but is persuaded by Leo to give it a go.
Things start off well but then Alice finds out that the previous owner was murdered by her husband in the bedroom.
She finds out that Leo knew about this before buying the house and is very hurt about him not telling her.
They decide that Leo will move out for a bit after another discovery about his past comes to light but Alice can’t bring herself to go into the bedroom.
The neighbours are very close as there are only twelve houses here and slowly Alice gets to know them all. However she’s not convinced that Oliver, the husband killed Nina so starts looking into things with the help of a private detective.
We also have chapters from the past but it’s not clear who this is until the end of the book.
This is a gripping psychological thriller that well and truly had me hooked.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I never repeat the blurb. An enjoyable and easy read from the consistently high quality writer that is B.A. Paris. Only got 4* as I guessed the villain although not the main protagonist's story. Guaranteed to keep your attention.

It's only a month since I read a BA Paris book and was thrilled to receive an ARC of 'The Therapist' ahead of its publication on 15th April. Thanks to NetGalley, @hqstories and @baparis. This is the fifth book by Paris and equally as page-turning as her previous novels. As a lover of the domestic thriller this definitely did not disappoint. It follows the story of Alice and Leo, the new owners of a beautiful house in The Circle, a gated community in Finsbury Park. Alice can't believe her luck in finding a house she loves, welcoming neighbours and the same close community feel she left behind with her beloved cottage in Harlestone. Despite being committed to her new life at The Circle, Alice has the safety-net of being able to keep her cottage so she could re-think her future plans if need be. But why was the house in the exclusive neighbourhood of Finsbury Park so cheap and why was it standing empty for over a year? When Alice discovers a grisly secret about the house and the therapist who lived there, all future plans become unclear and Alice spirals into an obsessive compulsion to uncover the truth. As with her previous novels, Paris keeps us guessing and those red-herrings are tucked so neatly into the narrative that just when you think you have everything figured out, there comes the curveball. The community was one I really liked, the idyllic setting with the heady scent of jasmine lingering in the air as well as neighbours taking pride in their properties in this exclusive neighbourhood. However, the reluctance for the neighbours to discuss exactly what happened to the therapist, Alice's loneliness as her partner works in Birmingham for most of the week and her obsession for shouldering culpability for past mistakes all bring us to a dramatic and unsuspecting denouement.

I really enjoy B. A. Paris’s books so was thrilled to be able get this ARC read of her new book compliments of @netgalley.
Alice And Leo are taking the next step in their long distanced relationship.
Alice who owns her own cottage in the countryside is moving to London to be with Leo.
Lei has found the perfect house for them to buy at a bargain price.
This new house is one of twelve in a secure gated community called The Circle and It is in a really quiet seclusive area in the heart of London.
Unfortunately the house has a dark grisly past that Leo has kept from Alice.
Alice is shocked to the core after stumbling upon the awful dark secret about the house.
The Circle & it’s residents are also behaving strange & keeping secrets of their own.
Alice becomes obsessed in finding out what the hell is going on in this strange community.
This book is full of intrigue suspicion & betrayal with danger lurking not too far away.
This story pulls you in so you just have to keep reading to get to the bottom of it all.
I’ve always enjoyed how this author puts a story together .
Full of suspects you can’t make up your mind which one to go with.
Enjoyable read