REVIEW: My Husband Next Door by K.L. Slater

My Husband Next Door by K.L. Slater

Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller

Read: 18th October 2025

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Published: 28th October 2025

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

The perfect way for us to live. The perfect way for him to hide…

My husband Matt and I are an ordinary married couple in every way but one. At the end of each day, we return to our own homes and our own spaces. Some people think this arrangement is odd, but for us it’s perfect.

But beyond the fairy lights I string at my window, darkness is pressing in. Two local women have gone missing, and I don’t want to be alone. With Matt away for work, I find comfort in chatting to my new neighbour Brenda, who drops in regularly with casseroles and groceries.

Sipping our coffees, looking out of my kitchen window, I soon notice how observant Brenda is. So when she tells me that perhaps my husband isn’t simply working late, something cold takes root. I think of Matt’s recent vague tone, the way he brushes off my questions. Brenda thinks I should pop by when Matt’s not at home. Just to check everything’s as it should be.

I should be able to trust the man I married. But when I do go through my husband’s things, I discover that our perfect living arrangement is hiding a shocking secret…

A completely compelling and twisty page-turner from number 1 bestselling author K.L. Slater. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Freida McFadden will be hooked by My Husband Next Door.

MY THOUGHTS:

Kim's back with another deliciously devious thriller to whet our appetites of twisted mayhem. With so much happening, there's enough red herrings to sidetrack readers from what's really going on. But once again, it wasn't enough to fool me and though I'm not on top form of late (with RL issues) I still managed to see through her cleverly crafted plot.

Sylvie and Matt are happily married yet living apart. A weird concept that I just can't get my head around but it works for them. She lives in the house she purchased after the death of her first husband with her daughter Jess whilst Matt lives two doors down in the house he inherited from his grandfather.

Sylvie regularly hosts a book club meet in which various neighbours and her heavily pregnant daughter Jess take part. It's at the last meet that friend and neighbour Penny drops the bombshell that she and hubby Brian are retiring and moving to Portgual, renting out their house which sits opposite. And in moves Brenda.

Then it all happens at once. Jess goes into labour, has the baby afterwhich both Jess and Sylvie fall ill with separate conditions and are hospitalised. Brenda, a retired nurse, swoops in to help. Soon she has the place running like a well-oiled machine. She cares for the still weak Jess, helps with feeding baby Scarlet and has reorganised Sylvie's kitchen for smoother sailing. Sylvie is thankful for Brenda's quick thinking and for being there when she was unable but now she thinks it's time she took back the reigns. But Brenda doesn't seem to want to relinquish her place in Sylvie's house or her life. In fact, she simply doesn't want to leave!

Despite not living at the house, Matt feels increasingly uncomfortable with Brenda constantly hovering, letting herself in at the crack of dawn and turning up unannounced with bags of groceries whilst continuing her labelling spree. He tries encouraging Sylvie to speak up to let Brenda know that she is no longer needed but Sylvie feels indebted to her and fears offending the kindly woman. Besides, Matt is spending a lot of time away for work and Sylvie finds herself seeking out the comfort of her new neighbour.

But Brenda also has an agenda. She is sure Matt is up to no good and will stop at nothing to protect her new friend from his misdeeds. Even if it means exposing him herself. She knows he has secrets that he is keeping from Sylvie. After all, why else is he happy to continue living in two separate houses? Married couples ought to live together, not separately. And Brenda means to expose him.

Added to the domestic drama, there is the lingering mystery of a missing young woman from the area which adds to the tension. And then another young woman goes missing and someone believes they know the truth!

We welcome back DI Helena Price and DS Brewster, giving the books a sense of connection without being a series as such. Plus it's refreshing not to be bogged down in the procedural whilst still keeping a finger in the investigation.

Unfolding through the various narratives of Sylvie, Brenda and the police, this is an addictive fast paced tale that will draw you in despite the frustrating characters. There are twists, red herrings and plenty of tension as the reader is cleverly guided to a satisfactory conclusion.

I would like to thank #KLSlater, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #MyHusbandNextDoor in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

After years of trying to get published and never getting further than the slush pile, Kim went back to university at the age of 40 where she gained  a first-class honours degree in English & Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing with distinction.

Kim's first adult psychological thriller for Bookouture, ‘Safe with Me’,  actually started life as a dissertation on her English & Creative Writing degree in 2010. She says "the creepy voice of Anna came to me strong and insistent . . . she wanted to be written, she wouldn’t go away. I’m so glad I listened!"

Kim first became published writing Young Adult fiction for Macmillan Children’s Books under the name Kim Slater. Her award-winning YA debut, SMART, started life as a short story for her MA in Creative Writing in 2012.

Kim is now a full-time writer. She has a daughter and two stepsons and live with her husband Mac in Nottingham and Yorkshire.

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REVIEW: What Have You Done? by Nicole Trope

What Have You Done? by Nicole Trope

Genre: Psychological thriller

Read: 5th October 2025

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Amazon

Published: 17th October 2025

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

“What have you done, Juliet?”

The neighbours look on in shock as two stretchers are wheeled past gated homes on a quiet suburban street. Handcuffs are clipped on a young woman with fear in her face.

The Cordells were the perfect family. But now, in a beautiful home where happy photos line the walls and flowers adorn the dinner table, it looks like a daughter has killed her loving parents.

Everyone tuts and shakes their heads, saying there was always something strange about Juliet.

And one person watching from the sidelines has triumph in their eyes. Someone who knew this would happen all along.

As what really went on in the Cordell’s once-peaceful home starts to unravel, one thing becomes clear:

This perfect family had a big secret. And not everything is as it seems…

An absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller that will have you shocked at the twists and turns! Anyone who loves Lisa Jewell, Claire Douglas or Freida McFadden will be addicted.

MY THOUGHTS:

A perfect family...a terrible secret...

"What have you done?"

The words echo throughout the quiet suburban street as 21 year old Juliet is lead from the home she shares with her parents in handcuffs. Neighbours shake their heads in disbelief while others allude to knowing that she wasn't "quiet right" after her time away in "that place" - as if just mentioning it will somehow taint them by association. But all of them, whilst divided in their opinions, have their phones out capturing every moment of Juliet's parade from the house to the police car, each posturing that "they just won't believe this"!

Juliet is returned to the psychiatric facility, St Augustines, she was discharged from just three months before after attempting to take her own life. It was believed that she would recover in the loving arms of her family but the woman who returns is a shell of the one who left just months before. Her accusations of abuse fall on deaf ears as do her claims that "Adam promised to come back for me. He promised".

Juliet had studied ballet after falling in love with it during her first class as a child. She went on to become the female lead accompanied by her then boyfriend Benji as the male lead. But a tragic accident during rehearsal left her with an injury which would mean she would never dance again. Her life was over. Dancing was all she wanted to do and now that was cruelly taken from her. Juliet could see no way out and tried to end it all one night. Thus resulting in her stay at St Augustines.

It was during her therapy with psychiatrist Dr Choudry at the facility that Juliet recalled flashbacks of memories of her as a child. Memories of abuse; some vivid, some distant. But the memories are very real and Juliet's world is rock even more by the flashbacks and sudden realisation. She is discharged to the care of her parents albeit reluctantly as she no longer trusts them. She stays in her room and barely eats. She stops her medication, hating the feeling it gives her. She has no idea how to get through the rest of her life.

And then one morning, she meets Adam. Handsome, funny, charming Adam. And he listens to her. Really listens to her. They meet every morning at the coffee shop and walk in the nearby park, Adam sympathising with Juliet's situation. He is her lifeline; the one true constant in her life, though she keeps him secret from her family. She can no longer imagine a life without him. And then, he offers to help her.

But then everything unravels and Juliet finds herself back at St Augustines, her world fallen apart. No one listens to her claims. No one believes her about Adam. But he was real...wasn't he? Suddenly, Juliet isn't so sure anymore. He seemed so real; it all seemed so real. Her memories, the past and what happened. But now they are telling her that she did it all?

"What have you done?"

They keep asking her, probing her - trying to get the truth out of her. But she's told them the truth and they didn't listen. They didn't believe her. Why didn't they? It's not true...is it?

This is the kind of tale that will have you questioning everything. It is dizzying and emotional and incredibly frustrating. So many times I wanted to slap Juliet in the first half of the book that unfolds through her narrative. We get to live Juliet's life alongside her and see the world through her eyes and we believe it along with her. But then I began to doubt her and the reality of the situation. And I wanted to bang her head as I felt mine was being banged against a brick wall.

You will question everything you read. Is anything Juliet tells us real? Or is a figment of her imagination? Is she manipulating us or is she being manipulated? Do her parents really love her or is that just a lie? Or is everything she remembers just one big lie? She needs love, care and support so thank goodness for Adam, her one constant. But is he as he appears? No one knows who he is except Juliet so is he even real? Just as well she has Lacy, her nurse, back in St Augustines who lovingly cares for Juliet.

One thing is clear as you turn the final page of this claustrophobic thriller; that Nicole Trope is the master manipulator here, leading us down various pathways into the dark recesses as we desperately try to work out what's real and what isn't. She may have hoodwinked me for a good part of the story but I was a wake up to her methods and unravelled the tangled web she had woven for us so expertly.

My only complaint is there was one aspect that wasn't clarified in the end regarding the apparent "text and calls" between Adam and Juliet. I cannot say more without spoilers. But I drop a star for the slow and frustrating start that made me want to put it down so many times with Juliet's constant whining and claims that no one believed her. While we didn't know what to believe ourselves, the repetitive whining nature had me pulling my hair and made Juliet hard to like and sympathise with her. But I'm glad I stuck it out because Trope came back at us with full force in the second half that would have knocked this for a 5 star read alternatively.

Truly a thriller that messes with your head in a way that I thought only Alice Feeney and John Marrs could do.

I would like to thank #NicoleTrope, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #WhatHaveYouDone in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.

The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story.

She is now published by Bookouture and is an Amazon top 100 bestseller in the USA, UK, AUS and CAN.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.

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REVIEW: Under a Greek Sky by Francesca Catlow

Under a Greek Sky by Francesca Catlow

Genre: Contemporary fiction, Women's fiction

Read: 2nd October 2025

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Amazon

★ 1 star

(did not finish)

DESCRIPTION:

Escape to sun-drenched Corfu, where family secrets and second chances bloom under endless Mediterranean skies. Under a Greek Sky is perfect for fans of Karen Swan, Kate Frost and Paige Toon.

When her happily-ever-after is shattered by a fiancé who disappears along with her life savings, Lorena desperately needs a new start. Then her seemingly perfect parents separate, and her mother decides to return to Corfu, the island of her birth, to renovate a family beach house. Lorena goes too, keen for a chance to shut the world out for a while.

The sun-soaked island with its stunning beaches and glittering sea is just the distraction Lorena needs. Not least handsome, mysterious Christos. But as long-held family secrets start to emerge, clouds gather over their Greek island paradise.

Why has Lorena’s mother always refused to return to Corfu until now? What secrets of his own is Christos keeping? When her father reappears on the scene, all hope of peace seems lost. Is Lorena about to watch another happily-ever-after implode, or can she learn from the past and open herself up to a new future?

Let Francesca Catlow sweep you away to enchanting Corfu—the perfect place to rediscover romance and embrace new beginnings.

MY THOUGHTS:

Things started off interestingly enough but then it just became something of a drone and drugery. I wanted to like this book. I really did. I thought it was going to be a fun romance and light reading under a blanket of sunshine by the azure waters of the Mediterranean, but....BUT...it was just full of family drama. Even the allure of whatever secret their mother was harbouring to keep them away from their Greek family wasn't enough to keep me turning the pages. 

The characters weren't in the least bit likeable. I wasn't sure what the author was doing with Serena who, half the time was a petulant madam and the other half a weeping child, and Lorena did nothing but ooze self pity, her internal monologue one long constant moan. And mother Thalia? I guess I didn't stick around long enough to get a read on her.

I came here for the stunning Corfu scenery of blues and whites against the azure waters and brilliant sunshine. Add a little romance for some light reading but no. There was so much repetition of self pity. Yes, I get Jonah did the dirty and stole her life savings and her father upped and left with a woman half his age but no one wants to read about that constantly. Everything was just too monotonous.

I pictured the stunning Greek islands and wanted to immerse myself into this book so much and wanted to like it but I just couldn't. I couldn't even finish it. I hate leaving negative reviews because I know it's the author's hard work and I cannot even begin to appreciate how much work goes into writing a book so I do commend anyone who does. I just couldn't connect with the characters, I couldn't like them and I just didn't want to remain in their company.

I would like to thank #FrancescaCatlow, #Netgalley and #LakeUnionPublishing for an ARC of #UnderAGreekSky in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Francesca Catlow writes bestselling fiction filled with passionate love stories that feature flawed, and sometimes broken, characters as they face a crossroads in their life. She often explores heartbreaking themes while also whisking readers off to beautiful locations.

Francesca loves to travel. Born and raised in the heart of Suffolk, England, she has travelled extensively in Europe with her French husband and, more recently, their two children. In 2024 she relocated to France where she spends her days dreaming up stories and her evenings sitting in her garden relaxing with her family.

In 2023 Francesca was a finalist for the prestigious Kindle Storyteller Award, and was nominated for an Innovation Award for her work with libraries in Suffolk.

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