Nowhere Like Home by Sara Shepard #bookreview #thriller

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Title: Nowhere Like Home

Author:  Sara Shepard

Publisher: Dutton

Publication Date: Feb 20, 2024

Page Count:  382

My rating: 3 stars

About the book:

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars Sara Shepard’s next adult novel follows a group of mothers living in a mysterious “mommune,” each of whom is running from something

When Lenna gets a call from her old friend Rhiannon, she is startled; Rhiannon disappeared years ago without a trace. But Lenna is even more startled to learn that Rhiannon has a son and that she lives off the grid with a group of women in a community called Halcyon. Rhiannon invites Lenna, a new mother herself, to join them. Why suffer the sleepless nights by yourself? It takes a village, after all.

Lenna decides to go and hopefully repair her relationship with Rhiannon, but as she drives into the desert and her cell service gets weaker, she becomes suspicious. Who are these women and why did Rhiannon invite her here? And that is before she learns about the community’s rules (no outside phone calls, no questions about people’s pasts) and the padlock on the gate that leads out to the main road. But Lenna has other concerns, secrets from her past she is terrified will come out. When a newcomer arrives in the community, Lenna’s worst fears are confirmed—she was brought here for a reason.

Nowhere Like Home tackles themes of complicated friendships and trauma but all with Sara Shepard’s expert twists that you don’t see coming.

Nowhere Like Home is an adult thriller novel from author Sara Shepard who is best known for the popular young adult Pretty Little Liars series. The story in Nowhere Like Home is one that changes timelines and is told from multiple points of view.

Lenna is new to motherhood and of course like most a bit overwhelmed by it all. Out of the blue Lenna receives a phone call from her old friend Rhiannon who she hasn’t spoken to in two years. Rhiannon is also mother now and is staying in a remote women’s only community called Halcyon.

Lenna is hesitant when Rhiannon invites her to come stay with them at Halcyon but what better time to repair their friendship but no sooner than she arrives Lenna becomes suspicious of the many rules of the community and being cut off from the outside world when Lenna herself has her own secrets she’d also like to protect.

Nowhere Like Home is actually my first read from author Sara Shepard so I didn’t quite know what to expect going into this one but was certainly curious since she written books that became such a highly popular series. For me the whole cult like type of setting isn’t exactly my favorite and of course everything there was what you’d expect with being cut off so that didn’t exactly stand out until further on. The ending was also one that you may need to suspend disbelief but certainly picked up the pace and action a bit more. Overall I’d say this one landed in at a solid three stars, not my favorite but an alright read in the end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Hello! For lots of updates, follow me on twitter at @sarabooks, on Instagram at @saracshepard, and on Snapchat at sarabooks. I try very hard to get back to everyone, so send me a message!

I’m from outside Philadelphia, lived in New York for a long time, Arizona for less time, and now I’m in Pittsburgh, PA.

At five, I made up stories about my sister’s blanket, BeeBee. From there I wrote about squareheaded creatures, an environmental saga about little yellow men who live in vegetable gardens, teenage dramas well before I was a teenager, a book series about a Japanese girl who finds out her ancestors are samaurai (and she must be one, too), a bunch of arty short stories, and some books that maybe you’ve heard of. The PRETTY LITTLE LIARS series is based on my experiences there…kind of.

I’ve also written THE LYING GAME, which is about a dead twin and an alive twin, THE HEIRESSES, which is about a rich family’s curse, and THE PERFECTIONISTS, which is about five somewhat strangers who get everything they wanted…but that comes at a price. I wrote THE VISIBLES, which is about jackalopes and mental illness, and EVERYTHING WE EVER WANTED, which features a guy who discovers his ex lives on a commune. And then there’s THE AMATEURS, a three-part series about amateur detectives (with a lot of soapy love stuff thrown in– and a lot of scary, dark moments too). And finally, THE ELIZAS, which is about a young, unreliable narrator trying to figure out if someone’s trying to kill her.