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Book Review

Review: The New Neighbors

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The New NeighborsThe New Neighbors
By Simon Lelic
Berkley, 9780451490452, April 2018, 352pp.

The Short of It:

You might have a pre-conceived notion about what this book is about but you’d be wrong.

The Rest of It:

Jack and Syd find their dream home. It’s way outside of their means, but after the open house where couple after couple put in their offers, they toss theirs in as well thinking they don’t have a chance in hell of it being accepted but why not?

Well, it’s accepted.

The house is large and majestic in the way large, neglected homes are. It’s has good bones and potential but Jack and Syd can’t shake the feeling that something is off. When Jack goes into the attic to find the source of a strange smell, he discovers something and from there, one bad thing after another happens.

This was a good story but it’s not all “creepy house” and woo-woo if you get my drift. I think it’s marketed to be that way and in all honesty, the title doesn’t quite fit the story. It took a long time for something to happen and it wasn’t until 100 pages in that I began to really look forward to reading it. This is one of those reads where if you give it time, it does pay off in the end. There are some twists and interesting choices made with character and plot but ones that had me turning those pages. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Source: Copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Life

Whatnot – Week 18

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suburbia-my-neighborhood

Last week my What Not post included a piece on suburbia and how it fascinates me. I told you all about the cul-de-sac at the end of my street and how they opened it up to gain access to the main road. The photo above was taken at the end of my street where the cul-de-sac was. There is now a long road heading down to that main road there. Look at all of the homes they built! Sadly, there are many developments like this one all over our city.

In other news, my reading continues on but the changes with WordPress have caused me to stumble a little when scheduling my posts. I am going to take some time today to figure it all out. I spent a long, long time editing my Sunday post last weekend because the new WP editor turned all my images into giant sized ones regardless of their original size. Fun! Totally not.

As you saw from my previous post, my daughter made her college decision. Still waiting on my son’s decision. Acceptances have been coming in but the offers aren’t quite what’s needed. Still so many decisions to be made all around. 

My daughter went back to school on Monday. She will be there two days a week for classes, one day for rehearsal and then the rest online. Next week is spring break for her so the timing is interesting. I suppose they wanted to test things out. If anyone travels out of California for break they have been asked to quarantine but it won’t happen. Everything appears to be open here at full capacity which is not how it’s supposed to be. I won’t lie, it feels good to see these businesses open and making up for lost time but I sure don’t want to slide backward again. 

What are your plans for Easter? I will cook a meal for Sunday but we will probably hit Saturday’s Easter service. It’s not the same as going on Easter but the crowds will be huge for Easter. No one is coming over, obviously but tomorrow my husband gets his first shot so that’s a step in the right direction. 

I will end with this question. The weather is showing signs of summer here. Does your reading tastes change with the weather? If so, what are you moving towards now? Mine don’t really but I didn’t read at all this past weekend and I think it’s because it was just so nice out and I spent a lot of time outside. However, I am reading a really good book right now, We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker. I hope to finish it today so I can get the review posted next week.