Review: "The Perfect Neighbors" by Sarah Pekkanen

Synopsis:  Newport Cove is one of the safest neighborhoods in the US, where spontaneous block parties occur on balmy nights and all of the streets are named for flowers. Here everyone lives out the American Dream – cute kids, strong marriages, burgeoning careers – but what really goes on behind closed doors?

Kellie Scott has just returned to work after a decade of being a stay-at-home mom. She’s adjusting to high heels, scrambling to cook dinner for her family after a day at the office—and soaking in the dangerous attention of a very handsome, very married male colleague. Kellie’s neighbor Susan Barrett begins every day with fresh resolutions: she won’t eat any carbs, she’ll go to bed at a reasonable hour, and she’ll stop stalking her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. Gigi Kennedy seems to have it all together—except her teenage daughter has turned into a hostile stranger and her husband is running for Congress, which means her old skeletons are in danger of being brought into the light.

Then a new family moves to this quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac. Tessa Campbell seems friendly enough to the other mothers, if a bit reserved. But the neighbors notice that no one is ever invited to Tessa’s house, and there’s something a bit off about her husband. Soon, it becomes clear that Tessa is hiding the biggest secret of all.

My Thoughts:  Sarah Pekkanen's books are so good.  Whenever I pick one up, I always know that I'm going to get sucked into a really great story! What attracted me to the book was the mystery surrounding Tessa's character but Kellie, Susan and Gigi's stories completely pulled me in.

I loved the setting for the story.  The author did a great job of creating this quaint all-American neighborhood and a tight knit community.  The neighbors were a unique group of people with a hilarious list serve/email newsletter (I loved the quotes from the list serve at the beginning of each chapter!).  Even though the idyllic setting masked a group of real people with real problems, I feel like the neighborhood was kind of a character in, and of, itself.

All of the main characters in the story were great but I think that I liked Susan the best.  I liked that she seemed so relatable; she was very three-dimensional with real world problems.  She wasn't your typical caricature of the woman scorned; she acknowledged her role in her marital issues and I liked that.  Tessa was also super interesting in that I really had no clue what direction the author was going to take her in until the end.  I was kind of worried there would be some weird 'Gone Girl' type twist at the end and I was happy that the author didn't go there.  I really felt for her and the mix of emotions she must of been feeling but I do kind of wish that there was more about her in the story.  I would have liked to have known more about what she was going through; the big reveal seemed just a little bit rushed and I was left wanting a little bit more.

Overall, this was a great book!  I've been in a major reading rut lately but this book quickly pulled me out.  I would definitely recommend checking it out! 4 stars.

The Perfect Neighbors is available for pre-order at Amazon.

About the Author:

SARAH PEKKANEN is the internationally bestselling author of Catching Air, The Opposite of Me, Skipping a Beat, These Girls, The Best of Us, and Things You Won’t Say. Her work has been reviewed and published in People, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, and USA Today, among other publications. She lives with her family in Chevy Chase, Maryland.  

This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.