Andrea Bartz

The whole bestie snogfest is making me gag. Are all millennials this needy? This unable to do anything by themselves? It's nuts. So smothering. Stand up for yourselves already, on your own two feet. Perhaps you need Adulting for Dummies.

And duh! K is BLATANTLY manipulative. E can't see this at all? Really? I thought the kids of this generation were masters of manipulation. I guess it's only when it's not happening to them.

Stuck with it to the end. No one got any smarter, really, but there were a couple of unexpected developments and I think it ended fairly well. I'm so done with this writer though. Ugh. I weep for the future.… (mehr)

Neighbour Danger
Review of the Amazon Original Stories eBook (March 19, 2024), released simultaneously with the Audible Original audiobook.

Lauren and Kelsey have found their dream home in the country and are expecting a child through in vitro fertilization. Their joy on moving-in-day is tempered with the discovery of their 'across the road' neighbour hanging around their front door. It is supposedly a 'welcome to the neighbourhood' visit, but the man is acting very suspiciously.

A later home visit to the man and his wife adds to the creep factor with the discovery of a telescope pointed right at their front windows. The friendly neighbourhood medium suggests that she is getting warnings from 'the other side.' Then they learn that the previous homeowner died an accidental death from carbon monoxide poisoning.

There is a nice "Chekhov's Gun" moment when a shovel is introduced into the plot. Watch for that (the shovel is also featured in the cover image). It all ends with a gut-punch finale and a noirish twist ending about which no more can be said 🤐.

The Other Side of the Road is the third of six Amazon Original Stories eBooks/Audible Audio audiobooks released on March 19, 2024 as part of the Never Tell Collection of short stories which are promoted with the collective description:

"How well do you know people? How well do they know you? Six award-winning, bestselling authors of suspense explore the lingering threat of secrets and the inescapable fear that they can’t stay buried forever. No matter how dark the hiding place, the consequences of revealing the truth can bring out the worst in lovers, friends, family, and strangers."

Soundtrack
You guessed it! Although not in keeping with the theme of this story, I immediately thought of the Mr. Rogers' theme song Won't You Be My Neighbour?.

Trivia and Links
Andrea Bartz is the author of several novels, the most popular of which is We Were Never Here (2021). Her most recent novel is The Spare Room (2023).

You can watch for current and past Amazon Original Stories which are usually paired with their Audible Original narrations at an Amazon page here (link goes to Amazon US, adjust for your own country or region).… (mehr)

I have quite mixed feelings about this book. Let’s start with - there is nothing at all wrong with it. The writing is strong, too strong at times, if you will, and that may be some of my reticence about moving beyond liking to loving the book. Ms. Bartz is obviously very well-written and understands and uses unusual and unique words fluently, however, the plot did not require that type of verbiage. To me, the use of these unique and unusual words almost felt like the overuse of a thesaurus, forced, trying to “sound smart.”

The storyline was good, the concept was also good, the gaslighting from one BFF of the other for the ten-year length of their friendship, which includes, who actually killed both backpackers in two different countries on two different girls’ trips. Again, a good story, but, surprisingly, too predicable, and too forced.

The ending is a lot of story dumping to wrap up the lose ends; a telling of events. And then the last line or two was an attempted red herring.

We Were Never Here is a decent book, but do have a dictionary standing by for the zinger words.… (mehr)

This book seemed like it took forever to get through! Katie, a writer, wants to write an expose on her sister's, Hana's, friend, Eleanor who owns the women co-working space called The HERD. But, Eleanor goes missing after attempts at blackmail, and disgusting graffiti is found. When she is later discovered dead, the women all become suspects. As they attempt to unravel what could have happened and why, many secrets come out.
I think this book could have been so much better, but it dragged on for me.… (mehr)