Nicole TropeBesprekingen
Auteur van The Family across the Street
Besprekingen
The Family Across the Street: A totally unpu… door Nicole Trope
In alternating chapters, the reader learns about Damon through the POVs of Marla, Sonya, and Athena. Each POV reveals how Damon conducts himself in different settings and relationships. At first, there are more questions than answers of a life with interlocking threads that may unravel faster than Damon can address locked in the silence of a coma. There is also a 4th and anonymous POV, and when the name was revealed, I was taken entirely by surprise. What a plot moment of Gotcha!
It was hard to put the book down, and I look forward to reading more of the author's writing.
In the first half of the book, I felt like a lot of Leslie's chapters were really repetitive and unnecessary, or could have been way, way shorter. The second half of the book was fast-paced and less repetitive.
The premise was so intriguing to me, the cover inviting. Unfortunately I was disappointed in the execution. Told in 3rd person, with alternating Leah and Katelyn’s current, young and mid story. It was easy to keep track of and usually I would have enjoyed it, somehow this just didn’t work. It was slow moving and disjointed. I really couldn’t connect with any of the characters.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.
This book had me hooked from the very first page and kept me reading right through the night. I am a relatively slow reader but I devoured this book in one sitting as I just couldn't put it down.
Fans of Lucinda Riley and Rachel Hore will love this book.
It well deserves every five star review it receives.
The characters lacked depth and development, making it difficult to truly connect with them. The plot, although initially intriguing, quickly became predictable and lacked any real surprises or twists. The pacing felt off, with certain parts dragging on while others seemed rushed.
Furthermore, the writing style did not captivate me. It lacked the descriptive prose and emotional depth that I look for in a thriller. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural at times, hindering the overall reading experience.
Overall, it failed to leave a lasting impression on me. While it may appeal to readers, I personally found it to be mediocre.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read and review this book.
Tina's day-to-day life on the streets as a sex worker and living a sober yet meagre existence in a squat were shocking and compelling, thankfully with a ray of hope Tina will work through her grief and reclaim her life.
There were countless times the author could have taken a misstep in this narrative, resulting in some serious eye-rolling from this reader, but she didn't! In fact, I was actually waiting for a disappointing turn in the narrative, fully expecting Tina to do something unbelievable or for Lachlan to act contrary to his age or character, but again, it never happened.
Instead, I found myself worrying about the two characters during the day, and wondering what their futures held in the remaining pages. We're given multiple character perspectives, and the plot kept me engaged the entire time. I was relieved to find a satisfying ending filled with hope without once glossing over any of the trauma that had passed beforehand and the healing still ahead.
Ultimately The Boy Under the Table by Nicole Trope is a story of hope and courage and I couldn't help but be moved by it. Highly recommended for fans of Australian crime writing, or those seeking a refreshing take on the missing/kidnapped child trope in fiction.
Twenty eight years later troll dolls from Rachel’s childhood keep turning up not just in her new home but in her husband’s car and where her daughter can find them too, she is undoubtedly scared thinking her father had finally found her and worried at what he will do now. She cannot confide in her mother as she is in a hospice now with not much time and drifting in and out of consciousness due to the pain killers, she doesn’t want her last thoughts to be of worry either. She will have to deal with it herself.
This was an emotional read and is very real for some people. Told in a few different points of view past and present we see how it affected not only Rachel’s life as a small child watching and hearing her father abusing her mother and her life now but more importantly the damage done to the brother they left behind, his mental state and how it was for him after they left him.
Nicole Trope wrote a fantastic book and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
This was pretty good. It did get a little slow for me in the middle, but it kept moving just enough to keep my interest. I figured out the plot twist a little too early on which made it move slower for that reason. I did want more at the ending. However; I liked how it all wrapped up.
Overall, a decent read.
Me ha encantado. Me ha atrapado durante toda la lectura. Quería saber más y más de lo que realmente estaba pasado.
Uno de los libros que más me ha enganchado últimamente.
Tiene un giro inesperado prácticamente al final.
Quizás esperaba un final más espectacular tras un argumento con tanto enganche…
Aún así, lo recomiendo.
Primer libro que leo de esta escritora y ya estoy mirando algún otro suyo!!!
Six years later: Daniel is found. But Daniel is not the same loving child she knew before his father took him from her.
The ending is somewhat predictable. Lots of rose-colored endings here….
Terry, Andrea and three-year-old Jack move into a run down house in an expensive neighborhood. Andrea is very pregnant and not pleased with this turn of events. They lost their home due to Terry's gambling problems, so moving into this house, a fixer-upper, is thanks to Andrea's father who knew the person buying it was willing to rent it for awhile to them. Andrea is less than thrilled, but she feels she is stuck in her current situation and that Terry is going to try.
At the beginning Andrea is a bit distrustful when the neighbor across the street, Gabby, reaches out to her in friendship, but soon she is becoming a part of Andrea's life. Gabby is busy with her teenage son, Flynn, but is always available for tea and snacks with Andrea and Jack. She even pulled out some old dinosaurs Flynn used to play with for Jack. Gabby has offered to babysit anytime Andrea needs help. What young, exhausted, pregnant mother doesn't need this kind of support, especially when Andrea is suspicious that Terry is gambling again.
The writing is very good and the plot is fast moving, entertaining, twisty, and surprising. Some of the twists are easily guessed and others are truly surprising. There are several strange, odd occurrences going on and so suspicions and tension will rise while reading. You will be on alert for something to happen, and things do happen, which only results in raising the tension some more. The opening of the narrative will definitely grab your attention and keep you glued to the pages for answers.
The narrative alternates between the point-of-view of Andrea and Gabby. Both women are complex, interesting characters, and both of them are hiding secrets from each other. Andrea is keeping her husband's addiction and how it has ravaged their family's security, financially and physically a secret. Gabby's addiction to social media where she posts about her son was an interesting character trait, but the more engaging trait is that it becomes clear quite that she is a very unreliable and unbalanced narrator.
You may have to suspend disbelief a time or two, but The Stay-at-Home Mother is a great psychological thriller that most readers will enjoy start to finish.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/12/the-stay-at-home-mother.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5186148803
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley for review purposes.
Elizabeth and Howard are foster parents for five-year-old Joe when he disappears from their front yard. The police are called in and the search begins. It becomes clear almost immediately to readers that Howard is not who he is trying to portray and Elizabeth as well as Joe are totally scared of him and under his control. Joe is a sweet little boy who just wants to watch the birds across the street from their summer rental at Gordon's house. Howard, however, governs them with and iron fist. He controls both Elizabeth and Joe. He doesn't accept anyone questioning his authority.
Gordon is a good hearted elderly man living across the street. He knows there is something wrong and Joe could be in trouble, but his memory isn't as good as it used to be. In an alternate story line we follow a man who found a brutally beaten young woman sitting on a bench when a man finds her and wants to call for help. She begs him not to, but agrees to allow him to take her home to recover.
The characters are all well-developed. They have and have depth and are portrayed as realistic individuals. This is what will pull you in and completely engulf you in the plot and the characters.
The writing is excellent and, admittedly, Trope will control your emotions like a virtuoso throughout. This is one of those novels that completely dominates you. You'll switch between being upset, emotional, angry, and crying quite quickly between chapters. I was also thoroughly aware that Trope was playing with my emotions and controlling them. Yeah, I accepted it and went with the flow. Chapters switch between different points-of-view. Most of the story is from Elizabeth's and Gordon's point-of-view.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/09/the-foster-family.html
Another great psychological thriller by Nicole Trope
In THE FOSTER FAMILY, a man named Gordon who is suffering from dementia waits for his son Malcolm to come for a visit. He observes a family coming to stay for holiday in the house across the street, Howard, Elizabeth and their foster son Joe. But he soon realizes that Howard is abusive and Elizabeth is too beaten down to stand up for herself or Joe. There were lots of interesting characters in this one. There are two unnamed characters we meet early on who only become clear later in the novel—a young girl who has run away from a bad situation and a man who helps her. Most of the novel revolves around Howard’s horrific abuse of Elizabeth and Joe. When Joe goes missing, who will be believed, Elizabeth or Howard and where is Joe? The writing was outstanding. Howard is twisted and a truly detestable character. I enjoyed the twists in this one.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley for review purposes.
The events of the day are told from the perspective of all the characters and keeps the reader guessing how it will end.
Definitely a must read
I loved HIS OTHER WIFE, Nicole Trope’s latest psychological thriller. Sarah and Gideon have gotten a divorce and Gideon now has full custody of their young daughter Emily. Because of her hallucinations and mental breakdown that she suffered after the miscarriage of their second child, Sarah has been committed to a stay in a mental institution. For the past year, Gideon has been seeing Charlotte, and their relationship is very serious, yet Gideon has set ground rules. He doesn’t want any more children. And Sarah will always be a part of their lives because she is Emily’s mother.
The way this story slowly unfolds was very well done. You don’t quite know who to trust, and the use of unreliable narrators was great. I am a big fan of Nicole Trope’s books for the way she always writes really twisted situations and characters that are very interesting and this book did not disappoint!
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley for review purposes.
Leslie has Shelby, her 12-year-old stepdaughter, babysitting Millie, her three-year-old daughter, while Leslie runs errands. As she's leaving the grocery store, Shelby calls her and tells her that Millie is gone, missing; she ran away while Shelby was upstairs using the bathroom. Leslie rushes home and calls her husband Randall. They are all frantically searching for Millie. The police are called. Bianca, Shelby's mother and Randall's ex shows up, and then her new husband Trevor. It's every parents nightmare - a young child is missing and can't be found.
The Stepchild is told through the point-of view of Leslie, Shelby, and Ruth. Ruth suffers from agoraphobia, OCD, and a traumatic experience in the past. Her connection to the search for Millie is not discovered immediately but when it is slowly disclosed it will send your mind scrambling to find the clues and follow them. However, you will also know that Shelby is not telling the whole truth of what happened, which also will have you looking for clues in what she says. Leslie is frantic but she also didn't disclose every errand she was doing that day. Everyone has some secret, but Trope is very careful to disclose information slowly while providing plenty of misdirection.
Characters are depicted realistically and almost all of them will elicit sympathy. Some will evoke suspicion or doubt as new secrets are revealed and new clues exposed. You will not like all the characters, and your opinions will change several times as events unfold. Trope also handles the twists perfectly.
While I knew I would enjoy The Stepchild, I didn't realize how much I would enjoy it. The writing is clever and adroit. It is skillfully, tightly plotted and well-paced, which all serves to keep you reading just one more chapter as fast as possible. Almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger or open question or foreshadowing which really works in this narrative to keep you guessing and frantically reading. The secret Shelby is holding and the cause of Ruth's pain is heartbreaking, but handled expertly and with great compassion. There was one element that was a bit unbelievable, but this is still an excellent novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/03/the-stepchild.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4585897782
At first, I was sure I had this mystery figured out. I was completely off the mark. This went in quite a few directions I did not expect and caught me by surprise several times in the final chapters with plot twists I didn’t see coming.
Three-year-old Millie disappears one morning while her mother is out shopping and her sister Shelby has been left home to babysit. Shelby, who is twelve, insists she only went upstairs for a second to use the bathroom. Her mother, Leslie, insists she was only supposed to be out for an hour. Both stories have inconsistencies.
I really loved the way this book examined the relationships in blended families, for good and bad. Leslie is married to Randall, Shelby’s dad. When Shelby’s parents were still married, they struggled financially. Now Randall’s software company is worth millions. Could this have been a factor to whomever took Millie? Shelby’s mother Bianca is remarried to Trevor, and there’s tension in that relationship, too. There’s also the matter of Ruth, a local woman who has a story to tell of her own.
I thought the book did a really good job of balancing really interesting character perspectives and keeping the pacing flowing. I liked how I felt like there were just the right number of characters and it didn’t get bogged down with too much to try to keep track of, but kept things nice and tight and told a clean story. This had some twists I wasn’t expecting!
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley for review purposes.
Beverly is a single mother of eight-year-old Riley who works hard to keep to keep their lives running smoothly. What most people don't know is that Beverly has a secret, a secret that she is sure if anyone knows it will threaten their relationship. This is why she broke up with her boyfriend, Ethan, because he was asking questions she didn't want to answer. Now Riley is starting to get gifts dropped off at their mailbox. Beverly is sure they are from Ethan, but the card isn't signed. She tries to contact Ethan to thank him, but telling him to stop sending gifts, however, he is not responding to her messages and the gifts are coming. At the same time someone is watching Beverly and Riley, someone who has unknown plans for them. And then Riley disappears from the backyard one evening, and she contacts the police, which could change their lives forever.
The narrative is told through the point-of-view of Beverly, Riley, and an unnamed individual. Riley is the only truly trustworthy narrator, but he is limited by his age and knowledge. Beverly and the unnamed narrator both are less reliable because they admittedly have secrets. It is clear that Beverly loves Riley, and wants the best for him, but she is also terrified of having her secret exposed and the unnamed narrator is seemingly determined to do just that.
The plot and fast pace of the story will be what holds your attention and keeps you reading. There is a great deal of suspension of disbelief required, especially in the second half of the novel where we learn who the unnamed narrator is and all of Beverly's secret. The big reveal of the secret and everything revolving around it was a bit over-the-top unbelievable as far as everyone's actions and I will admit to some eye-rolling over it. But, as mentioned, the novel did hold my attention throughout and I wanted to find out what really happened. 3.5 rounded up
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/10/the-mothers-fault.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4281489619
Nicole Trope has wonderfully plotted the action in her thriller so that the reader is immediately gripped. By alternating the chapters’ focus, we are presented with different points of view that fuel speculation about who is this unnamed observer, what is this person up to and, first and foremost, what is Beverly hiding? I totally adored hypothesising about these questions, running in the wrong directions while the conflict slowly unfolds and heads towards a climax.
Beverly is a character you are fond of instantly. She is a lot younger than the other mothers and feels inferior not only due to her age but also senses that she needs to do better than the fellow moms to avoid being looked down on. Being a single parent is hard enough, for her, the pressure put on her from the outside makes it even harder. She only wants the best for Riley and is willing to put her personal luck second which is quite a compassionate attitude. That she becomes the focus of a villain seems unfair even though you are aware from the beginning that she, too, has some secrets which might be rather nasty.
A brilliantly crafted psychological thriller with some unexpected turns that kept me riveted from the beginning to the end.
Margo is taking care of her baby when she hears what sounds like gun shots. As she looks outside she sees the police and her older neighbor Gladys outside. When Margo steps out to ask what is going on, Gladys tells her that shots have been fired and to go back inside. At this point the novel jumps back in time seven hours earlier in the morning when it appears that things started to go wrong at the Wests' home. Logan, a delivery driver has a package for Katherine West that must be signed for, but she says she can't open the door to sign for it. This strikes Logan as odd, especially when he said he'd wait if she needed to get dressed or anything. Gladys noticed right away that the twins, George and Sophie, were quiet in the morning, rather than the loud and rambunctious five-year-olds they normally are, and she didn't see them leave for school. When she tries to stop by and talk to Katherine, she is told it isn't a good time through the closed door. She later tries to call Katherine several times but the calls are not answered. Later when she sees a sign in the upstairs window saying "Halp Us" she is certain something is terribly wrong.
The narrative is told through the perspective of Gladys and Logan, outside the Wests' home, and from the point-of-view of the adults inside the Wests' home where Katherine and her children are being held hostage. As this is a character based drama, Trope allows her characters to push plot development forward and help create a sense of unease, tension, and fear. While the drama inside the home is disturbing and dangerous, Gladys is dealing with her own problems with her increasingly incapacitated husband. While out on his deliveries, Logan learns some bad personal news and must process that information until he is in a place to deal with it.
This compelling novel sets a quick pace as it switches between the various points-of-view in short chapters. This swift shuffling between the perspectives of the four characters helps keep the tension building while you try to guess exactly what is going to happen next in the life of each character. Trope is careful to develop her characters without revealing any of the secrets she wants to keep for later and will deliberately lead you toward the action packed final reveal and confrontation. (The title was originally Home Sweet Home and then changed to The Family Across the Street, so reviews of this novel can be found under both titles.)
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/08/the-family-across-street.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4177529233
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