The Secret Next Door by Rebecca Taylor

Release: November 9th 2021
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Source: Suzy approved Book Tours
Find it at: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N,

It’s the perfect neighborhood, filled with not-so-perfect people.

Alyson Tinsdale is giving her son the childhood she never had: a stable family, loving home, and a great school in a safe neighborhood. When they move into the home of her dreams in one of Denver’s most sought-after developments, Alyson works hard to fit in and impress the other mothers.

Bonnie Sloan is the neighborhood matriarch. With her oldest son headed to Yale, and her youngest starting kindergarten, Bonnie is now pursuing her own long-held political aspirations. But it’s her middle child, Elijah, and their private family struggles, that cast a shadow over her plans.

When the open space behind some of the most expensive homes gets slated for development into an amusement facility, the neighborhood becomes deeply divided. The personal pressures and community conflicts ratchet with every passing day, but it’s when a thirteen-year-old boy is found dead beside the lake, that simmering tensions boil over into panic.

Gossip flows, lies are exposed, and accusations are made as cracks run through the community’s once solid foundations. The neighborhood’s faith in exterior appearances is eclipsed by the secrets every house keeps.

Rebecca Taylor, author of Her Perfect Life, returns with this fast-paced, engrossing novel that reminds us that nothing is ever as perfect as it seems.

About the Author:

Rebecca Taylor was born to a single British teen during a February blizzard in Green Bay, Wisconsin. When she was three, her mother met and married a US Marine. Like many children of military families, Rebecca spent the next fifteen years of her life moving. From Canada to Okinawa, and then all over the United States, she attended eight different schools before graduating high school.

Given that, she didn’t really understand how people managed to stay in one place for more than twelve months. So, she spent her twenties working as an international flight attendant while pursuing degrees in psychology and sociology. It wasn’t until she was pregnant with her first child and working on her graduate degree in psychology that she began writing fiction.

Rebecca has since written eight novels: ASCENDANT won the Colorado Book Award in 2014, and AFFECTIVE NEEDS was a finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2017. HER PERFECT LIFE was her first work of psychological fiction and was published by Sourcebooks in 2020.

Thankfully, Rebecca did eventually learn how to sit and stay. She currently lives in sunny Colorado with her husband, two teens, two dogs, two cats, two fish…there seems to be something about the number two for her.

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The Secret Next Door Review:

The first aspect that stood out in the story is the large cast of characters. While Alyson is the prime character, we also know about the other neighborhood residents and family members like Bonnie, Gabby, Jessica, and Renee. Moreover, the author equally focuses on these characters and nicely connects them to Alyson’s storyline. On the one hand, we have Bonnie with her feud with Carl. On the other hand, we have Alyson trying to befriend Jessica, Gabby, and Courtney. I particularly liked Bonnie’s storyline with Elijah and how she tries to protect the family and maintain the perfect image.

However, the story peaked when news of dead body surfaces, leading to potential murder. What’s more nerve-wracking is that Alyson’s son Andrew also goes missing after that. It was interesting to see how many of the residents were potential suspects because of the secrets they carried. One of the highlights of the story was Alyson’s relationship with Justin. Initially, their relationship is already on shaky grounds, so it was interesting to see how far it would withhold with whatever transpired in the tale. I also liked the moments when Renee comes over, and Alyson has to deal with her attitude. The author has a beautiful way of writing family dynamics and blends them nicely with suspense.

Alyson is outstanding in the lead as she deals with her husband and son’s lives. I was intrigued as to why the basement was always locked and got annoyed at Mrs. Sinclair for the way she treated Andrew, thinking he had ADHD.

Overall, “The Secret Next Door” is a slow-burn suspense thriller with some surprising twists and worth checking out.