This one was overall a decent story. Carrie is adjusting to married life to a rich lawyer husband quite nicely. Then comes the husbands dark secret. That, coupled with the sudden disappearances of several young girls in their idyllic community has the whole neighborhood on edge.

The good: The writing was quick paced. There are several misdirections that keep things interesting. Carrie is, overall, a decently likable character.

The.. not as good: The secret Carrie is keeping seems like small potatoes compared to her husband hiding a whole grown child from her. I was pretty irritated when her "horrible confession" was finally revealed. There was a LOT of repetition in this book (like 3 different times she mentions being safer in her car in a Walmart. Like - we get it - it's bad.)

SPOILER AHEAD
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Okay: Marnie- YES! I had a hunch once it was revealed that Mark was involved and supposedly the suspect. I actually said out loud, "huh, would have made more sense for it to be his wife!" Then BOOM - prologue says, "I KNOW RIGHT?!"
But my excitement was short lived because WHYYYYY drag TJ into it?!!! I was super bummed. It was perfect as Marnie; Carrie not knowing her BFF was cray, that she killed an {innocent} man (innocent as in not a murderer, but be so fr, a total creep) and tying it in a nice crazy bow. I was super sad that they dragged the kid into it because why? He was mad at his mom? No thank you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

She thought she had it all, the designer clothes, the handsome rich husband, the fancy mansion in a gated community… what she wasn’t expecting was a full-grown stepson to ring the doorbell. One she never even knew existed! Suddenly her secure little world if flipped upside down. Her handsome rich husband is keeping secrets and this gated community isn’t so safe when the neighbors teenage daughters start turning up murdered!

What secrets are these posh neighbors next door really hiding behind their closed doors? Is the darling little Stepson a serial killer or is it just an unfortunate coincidence?

I love me a good thriller and this was a new to me author. I wasn’t sure where this was going to take me at first, but let me tell you, it was one heck of a ride! I will be looking for more of Fisher’s books in the future!

Not sure how I feel about this book. I read it in a couple of sittings, but didn't like the writing. I can't imagine inviting someone to live in my home without knowing them. As for telling the village gossip my deepest darkest secrets... that surely is a huge no-no!!
I had several suspects in mind for the murders, but not really TJ, even though he didn't have valid alibis, and couldn't answer questions.
All in all, a choppy, unrealistic book, with a good twist at the end.

I am giving this a 3/5 for the twist.

On her one-year anniversary, Carrie meets the stepson her husband never told her about. As if that were not stressful enough, teenage girls start to go missing in her gated community. With a husband that is clearly not telling her everything and a stranger who is her stepson now staying in her house, Carrie doesn't know who to trust outside or inside her home.

One of my ultimate pet peeves is a first-person POV character keeping something major from the reader. It always comes off as disingenuous. This book had this happen in spades. The MC sees someone in a suspicious position and says something to the effect of 'Omg I can't believe he is here...' And then... nada. She doesn't let us know anything, but she does keep thinking about what she saw without mentioning who the shocking person was. It's artificially forced and frankly lazy. "I wonder if anyone else feels it or if it's just me. Then, no one else has seen what I've seen. No one else knows what I know." Yeah, Carrie. Including the reader! Who was there with you!! This is a cheap attempt at building tension when your mystery cannot stand on its own two feet. At one point our MC is talking to the police about this person she saw and the way they both spoke around it was so unnatural that I just had to throw my hands up and not care anymore.

While I think the premise had promise, I hate to say the execution wasn't there for me. Aside from my pet peeve, everyone in this book acted so off-the-wall in an uncanny valley way. There is an epilogue that I almost missed and that had a couple twists — one of which I predicted and another I did not. The pacing is what this book had going for it. It was a fast-paced read and I was able to finish it in one day.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

4.25/5 stars! This was such a page turner. I wasn't convinced by this premise but the author is a wordsmith. I kept waiting to guess the ending correctly, but I never figured it out til the author spoonfed it to me. Great psychological thriller.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it was a fairly quick easy read but on the other, I wasn't crazy about how it was written. It felt like a silly person, telling you a story at breakneck pace, without regard for how it's being received. The pacing was odd.

Then the main character behaves ridiculously and trying to attribute her behavior to her being young or to having a "secret" doesn't wash. Carrie is 28 not 18, she can't be so naive and impulsive. Also she spends so much time telling us that Marnie is the biggest gossip and busybody but that's the person who is her best friend, AND that's the person that she confides her big "secret" to. Make that make sense.

So when the titular Stepson arrives out of the blue, on her anniversary, Carrie inviting him not only inside her home, but to stay in said home before even speaking to her husband seems odd but we don't yet know the power of the mysterious 'secret' and what she 'deserves' to endure because of it.

When the neighbors begin to go missing and/or turning up dead, of course gossip turns to TJ, the only new thing in this wealthy gated community but Carrie keeps defending and protecting him, even when he can't explain his absences, or shows up with scratches and implausible excuses. This makes ZERO sense. She doesn't know this man from Adam. Her husband hasn't explained why he kept this child a secret from her, nor why they don't seem to have a good relationship, nor why he thinks it wise for him to just move in.

Things get even more preposterous when a big storm hits and Marnie's husband Mark leaves for a business trip to Florida. Sure. The roads are so bad that the detectives investigating the missing and /or dead women ride out the storm in their car because they can't get through, but miraculously Mark's flight went off as scheduled...surrrre.

In the end there are red herrings upon red herrings and everything is telegraphed to great extent. We eventually learn Carrie's non secret and it's so meaningless that you are reminded that she didn't actually have any motivation or reason to blindly accept and cover for TJ, her new stepson.

The final chapter, a sort of epilogue, took a moment to be clear that it was a different narrator but all it did was to again make me think why on earth would Carrie choose the one person, whom she has said over and over again was a busybody and gossip, as her closest friend?

This is the first book I have read my D.L. Fisher and I can assure you, it will NOT be my last. WOW.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Setting: Perfect home, perfect neighborhood, perfect husband, perfect life.
Plot: Carrie is living her dream life with her husband and best friend just around the corner from her. When suddenly, we are blown away by a knock at the door and the claim that her husband had a son, Carrie's now step son TJ, that she knew nothing about. Suddenly, girls start to disappear and fingers start pointing to the possibility of TJ as the number one suspect. Afterall, he did show up around the same time as the disappearance. Could TJ really be behind this? Is he really who is says he is? What other dark secrets could be being hidden?

Thoughts: I loved this read. It was paced well. Easy to read. Transitions were smooth and the epilogue really ties everything up. I could not recommend this read more. A true twisty thriller at its best.

Thank you #NetGalley, #Joffe Books and D.L. Fisher for the eARC. I can't wait for the next ride!

𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗞
Carrie Winter’s perfect life is shaken when a young man named TJ shows up, claiming to be her husband’s son. Hours later, a neighbor is found dead in her swimming pool, and Carrie can’t help but suspect TJ.

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡
This was such a quick, easy popcorn read! There are very few characters to keep track of, and the dual timeline gave it that extra bit of mystery.

Carrie was a fun FMC, especially when she decided to take matters into her own hands and do some investigating.

The characters overall did feel a bit basic, and the story isn’t particularly memorable or unique - but the twist was juicy and definitely made up for some of the areas that were lacking.

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗?
This would make the perfect vacation read since it’s so easy and simple to fly through. It’s fun, light, and entertaining - and the ending is a blast!

Thanks to @Netgalley and @JoffeBooks for access to this advance readers copy

The Stepson was a quick, twisty read that kept me entertained the whole time. It definitely falls into the popcorn thriller category, dramatic, fast-paced, and full of surprises. I didn’t see the twist coming, which made it even more fun to read.

I just wish there had been more character development. I didn’t feel very connected to anyone, and a little more depth would’ve made some of the big moments hit harder.

Still, if you’re looking for something suspenseful that you can fly through, this one’s worth picking up.

I Flew through this book, reading it in two sittings without much trouble. the writing style is simple and up to the point, making it more available to readers of lower English levels, as low as A2 even!

However, the plot did feel rushed at times and so slow at others. I also felt the characters were not as fully fledged as i would've liked. if all else fails this is still quite a decent read and ill definitely recommend it.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. Unfortunately this book just didn't grab me. I was not engaged with the characters and while the setting was crafted well, I did not feel invested in the story. References of TJ often seemed to be an afterthought, despite the premise of the book, and the tension was minimal. The epilogue was well-done (although it wasn't immediately clear that it was Marnie speaking not Carrie), and I did not see the twist coming, so that works in its favour, despite the epilogue being rushed.

An ok drama with some twists and turns.
Not really my thing and sadly i did a lot of skimming through.
Sorry for the poor review.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

Wow! I couldn’t put it down! It was fast paced, great plot and characters. Everything you would ever want in a great thriller book!

This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, action and crazy twists and turns had me glued to my kindle!

I’d highly recommend this book massive ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars!

I’m obviously not the correct target audience for this one. Although it’s labeled under mystery/thriller, in my opinion it reads more like a harlequin romance attempting to be a thriller. The writing wavered between almost reading like YA voice to over the top romantic attempts. It just wasn’t for me at all, but maybe someone else will appreciate the writing style.

I honestly tried to like it, because the premise did interest me. But I could tell from the first few pages that it was going to be a struggle. To be honest, after the first four chapters, I did a lot of skimming hoping it would get better.

It’s written in first person POV of the main character, Carrie. She goes in one breath from a bunch of different “oh gosh” utterances to paragraphs later swearing like an adult. Just completely confusing. I was honestly starting to wonder if eventually the book was going to reveal that she had a split personality—one side a young teenager who fawned ceaselessly over her sooo romantic, handsome husband, who literally (at least in her memory) says how he thinks her hands are far too beautiful to ever have to work again, and who falls at her feet holding her thighs professing his love for her for no good reason. Then we see the other side of her, who sneers and grits her teeth and gets overly anxious before anything has even happened yet.

I found the ending predictable yet written strangely. All of a sudden the epilogue is also written first person POV by a side character., revealing the “big twist”.

I wouldn’t recommend this one, and don’t have any interest in reading more by this author. I’m giving it 3 stars only because I think someone who regularly reads and enjoys this type of genre may like it more than I did. So I’d suggest reading other reviews to see if this book is for you.