Neighborly: A Novel

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After reading this story in my new house, in my new neighborhood, at night, I’ll admit I double-checked my door locks before going to sleep. We know that caring for your home can be stressful, so we want you to feel reassured knowing that we take great pride in the work we do, and we make sure it’s done to the highest standard. In Neighborly , Ellie Monago adds a dark twist to the idea that you never know who your neighbors really are, no matter how friendly, and that if things look too good to be true, they probably are. Neighborly Affection is a romance, and a pretty steamy romance at that, but it’s also about personal growth and finding ourselves and reshaping our identity when the person we thought we were doesn’t fit anymore.

The need to live through a facade, even within your own home, will take its toll, and I was right there with it! They fascinated me with the delicate dance of the dinner party and the calculation in that pivotal moment of decision. It would have been impossible, especially in the second half of that book, to tell the story and do it justice without showing everything Henry and Jay are going through, too.Kat is a struggler, she struggles with just about everything like her self esteem, her marriage and sex life, money, her successes and/or failures as a mother, her new home, her new neighbors/friends and her in laws whom she does not like. The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place; it’s easy to become bitter or armor ourselves up with protective shells to keep out the hurt. Neighborly follows Kat and Doug and their new baby, Sadie, as they move into a seemingly idyllic neighborhood full of interesting characters.

As increasingly sinister and frighteningly personal notes arrive, each one stabs deeper into the heart of Kat’s insecurities, paranoia, and most troubling, her past. Minutes from the city, affluent without pretension, low crime with a friendly vibe-it's everything Kat never had, and that she's determined to provide for her infant daughter. Q. Barber was gracious enough to sit down and answer some questions for me about the series, her inspiration, her recommendations, and yes, where she sees things going down the road.

Other than the inexplicable plot line where 2 of the neighbors surprisingly ended up being related to each other, there is no logical reason why this wouldn't have been pointed out to Kat during the block party. Naturally, the story moved out of her perspective as it expanded, but how did it feel to branch out into writing Jay and Henry’s POVs? Though there's a lot of talk about sex, there's only one barely steamy scene, and it's within the bonds of holy matrimony, so yawn . So they kept insisting, more and more loudly, that they wanted to share pieces of the broader story that we couldn’t see any other way. The rush of relief hit him like a truck, and he leaned a hand on the sink, its ceramic chilly against his skin.