Author: Joanne Serling
Publisher: Twelve
Date of publication: February 2018
A searing portrait of suburbia, friendship, and family
strained by a devotion to false appearances.
In an idyllic suburb, four young families quickly form a
neighborhood clique, their friendships based on little more than the ages of
their children and a shared sense of camaraderie. When one of the couples,
Paige and Gene Edwards, adopt a four-year-old girl from Russia, the group’s
loyalty and morality is soon called into question. Are the Edwards unkind to
their new daughter? Or is she a difficult child with hidden destructive
tendencies?
As the seams of the group friendship slowly unravel,
neighbor Nicole Westerhof finds herself drawn further into the life of the
adopted girl, forcing Nicole to re-examine the deceptive nature of her own family
ties, and her complicity in the events unfolding around her.
I was looking forward to reading Good Neighbors because the synopsis made it seem like a good mystery. Unfortunately, I didn't love this book. The thing that resonated with me the most were the characters and how unlikable they all were. I can honestly say, I am glad I live in a neighborhood were the neighbors only really wave to each other. If I had neighbors like the ones in this book, I would move. They are all pretty petty and judgmental and really not nice people.
The story is told through the eyes of only one neighbor, Nicole. I'm not sure this worked well for me. I would probably have liked the book more had I gotten perspectives of more than one person who lived there. Nicole felt a bit unreliable to me. I still don't know if Winnie was really damaged or not. The ending left me very unsatisfied. In the end, I think this book just wasn't for me.
Purchase Links
Joanne Serling’s fiction has been nominated for
a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in New Ohio Review and North
American Review. She is a graduate of Cornell University and studied and
taught fiction at The Writers Studio in New York City. She lives outside of New
York with her husband and children and is at work on her second book.
Connect with Joanne
Joanne Serling’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Instagram Tour:
Monday, April 9th: @girlsinbooks
Tuesday, April 10th: @ladyofthelibrary
Wednesday, April 11th: @bookpairings
Thursday, April 12th: @bookishconnoisseur
Friday, April 13th: @prose_and_palate
Saturday, April 14th: @hotcocoareads
Sunday, April 15th: @theliteraryllama
.
Review Tour:
Monday, April 16th:@novelmombooks
Tuesday, April 17th: A
Bookish Way of Life
Wednesday, April 18th: @readingandranunculus
Thursday, April 19th: 5 Minutes for
Books
Friday, April 20th: From the TBR Pile
Monday, April 23rd: Clues and Reviews
Tuesday, April 24th: Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, April 25th: Books a la Mode – author
guest post
Thursday, April 26th: The Sketchy Reader
Monday, April 30th: Bookchickdi
Tuesday, May 1st: Eliot’s
Eats
Wednesday, May 2nd: Novel
Gossip
Thursday, May 3rd: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Monday, May 7th: Books & Spoons
Tuesday, May 8th: Jessicamap Reviews and @jessicamap
Wednesday, May 9th: 100 Pages a Day… Stephanie’s
Book Reviews
Thursday, May 10th: Girl Who Reads
TBD: Novel Mom Blog
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this book for the tour.
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