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stephsabia's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! I have been reading Sarah Pekkanen's books since her very first and I can honestly say they just get better and better! The Perfect Neighbors was a wonderful read! It was the kind of book that I just didn't want to put down; I read it while my son was napping (when I should have been doing laundry), I read it in the 9 minutes it took to boil pasta for dinner, and I read it during the commercial breaks while my husband and I watched our nightly TV shows. I just couldn't put it down! It was addictive and reminded me very much of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies. I LOVED it!
peggykelly95's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The author is a good writer and the individual stories of each suburban mom (Gigi - politician's wife, Susan - bitter ex spouse, Kellie - flirting with another man, and Tessa - secret we find out over the course of the book) are pretty tired tropes. However, I still enjoyed the journey with each person. The "happy" ending for each person was fine, but mostly fit into the trope so nothing terribly unexpected.
mcipher's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the characters and the sullen teenager drama made me feel so much less alone! But it all felt a little too pat and manufactured, not like real organic problems - more like she picked some issues she wanted to talk about and built things around that. Still a good read.
luvbooks4vr7's review against another edition
mysterious
4.5
I adore this author! This book was a bit different, had twists and turns but I gulped and savored it in a day!Perfect Neighbors takes us into the homes of an idyllic suburban neighborhood where we discover the burning secrets hiding just below the surface.
Bucolic Newport Cove, where spontaneous block parties occur on balmy nights and all of the streets are named for flowers, is proud of its distinction of being named one the top twenty safest neighborhoods in the US.
It’s also one of the most secret-filled.
Kellie Scott has just returned to work after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom. She’s adjusting to high heels, scrambling to cook dinner for her family after a day at the office—and soaking in the dangerous attention of a very handsome, very married male colleague. Kellie’s neighbor Susan Barrett begins every day with fresh resolutions: she won’t eat any carbs. She’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour. And she’ll stop stalking her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. Gigi Kennedy seems to have it all together—except her teenage daughter has turned into a hostile stranger and her husband is running for Congress, which means her old skeletons are in danger of being brought into the light.
Then a new family moves to this quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac. Tessa Campbell seems friendly enough to the other mothers, if a bit reserved. Then the neighbors notice that no one is ever invited to Tessa’s house. And soon, it becomes clear Tessa is hiding the biggest secret of all. (less)
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nicsbooksandnooks's review against another edition
2.0
Not a fan of the slow moving plot and mediocre payoff of the mystery aspect of the book.
sp3cia1j's review against another edition
2.0
The only reason I finished reading this book was to figure out the "secret"...suffice it to say I was underwhelmed. This novel is like a poor version of Liane Moriarty - the characters are well to do and seem great on the outside, but the characters are nowhere near as nuanced or interesting. The author overexplains and over-describes, but the chosen words are not sophisticated. Overall, I would not recommend.
waysquared's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable enough read. Very true-to-life (I could see all of these scenarios happening within my own community). I thought the listserv emails were pretty funny, and I think the resolution of each woman was satisfying.
lizakessler's review against another edition
3.0
Picked this up off the communal bookshelf at work. I'm curious who left it there. It was much better than I expected with very well done characters.
bookbosomed_jess's review against another edition
2.0
Let me start by saying I hate the term “women’s fiction”, as if women’s brains are so different from men’s that we need our own shelves at the bookstores so we know what we’ll actually like. If this is typical “chick lit” then I may need to have a sex change because this was not for me. This is definitely the closest I’ve gotten to a DNF in a very long time.
In the town of Newport Cove, voted one of the top 20 safest towns in America, four women bear their for the most part incredibly mundane secrets. Gigi’s husband is running for Congress but something in her past may muck it up. Kellie is just going back to work and is apparently desperate for attention and develops a crush on a married coworker. Susan is the most functional of them but a divorced single mother who runs a successful business who may or may not be stalking her ex. And Tessa is new to the neighborhood, moving her family to escape a mysterious incident in their past.
I was never given a reason to care about any of the characters, except maybe Susan. They were shallow and way too much time was spent describing what was happening as opposed to letting us into their heads, in extremely passive writing no less. The only intrigue was what happened with Tessa’s family but after we got a name and little else, it took so dang long to reveal who the guy was let alone what happened to him, that I just didn’t care by the end.
This was Desperate Housewives on sedatives. It was like lying in a puddle of water with not enough energy to get up. The saving grace was a little bit of comic relief provided by the listserv, specifically Frank Fitzgibbons. I finished it so it gets 2 stars but I would not read again, would not recommend, and would not trust the opinion of anyone who rated this highly. I get that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and taste but holy snooze fest was this incredibly boring.
In the town of Newport Cove, voted one of the top 20 safest towns in America, four women bear their for the most part incredibly mundane secrets. Gigi’s husband is running for Congress but something in her past may muck it up. Kellie is just going back to work and is apparently desperate for attention and develops a crush on a married coworker. Susan is the most functional of them but a divorced single mother who runs a successful business who may or may not be stalking her ex. And Tessa is new to the neighborhood, moving her family to escape a mysterious incident in their past.
I was never given a reason to care about any of the characters, except maybe Susan. They were shallow and way too much time was spent describing what was happening as opposed to letting us into their heads, in extremely passive writing no less. The only intrigue was what happened with Tessa’s family but after we got a name and little else, it took so dang long to reveal who the guy was let alone what happened to him, that I just didn’t care by the end.
This was Desperate Housewives on sedatives. It was like lying in a puddle of water with not enough energy to get up. The saving grace was a little bit of comic relief provided by the listserv, specifically Frank Fitzgibbons. I finished it so it gets 2 stars but I would not read again, would not recommend, and would not trust the opinion of anyone who rated this highly. I get that everyone is entitled to their own opinions and taste but holy snooze fest was this incredibly boring.