The Neighbors by Hannah Mary McKinnon Book Review

The Neighbors by Hannah Mary McKinnon Book Review

The lowdown from Goodreads

Publication Date March 13, 2018

In 1992, a car accident kills a young man and forever changes the lives of three people… Now, twenty years later, they’ll all come to regret the choices they made that day, as the secrets and lies they’ve told to protect each other become the very things that tear their lives apart.

After a night of fun, Abby was responsible for the car crash that killed her beloved brother. It is a sin she can never forgive herself for, so she pushes away the man she loves most, knowing that he would eventually hate her for what she’s done, the same way she hates herself.

Twenty years later, Abby’s husband, Nate, is also living with a deep sense of guilt. He was the driver who first came upon the scene of Abby’s accident, the man who pulled her to safety before the car erupted in flames, the man who could not save her brother in time. It’s this guilt, this regret that binds them together. They understand each other. Or so Nate believes.

In a strange twist of fate, Liam (her old lover—possibly her true soulmate) moves in with his own family next door, releasing a flood of memories that Abby has been trying to keep buried all these years. Abby and Liam, in a complicit agreement, pretend never to have met, yet cannot resist the pull of the past—nor the repercussions of the dark secrets they’ve both been carrying…

The Neighbors by Hannah Mary McKinnon Book Review

I kept seeing The Neighbors pop up on my Instagram feed & the cover alone drew me in. Once I read the description & saw it featured secrets, unrequited love & neighborhood drama, I had to get in on the fun.

What Would You Do?

Imagine this. Your old lover shows up on your street. You say hello & make a quiet & complicit agreement to not say anything to each other’s spouses. This isn’t just any old lover either; this is the guy you were planning to move in with the night you killed your older brother in a car accident. Your now husband saved your life & rescued you from the wreckage of that fateful night. He has no idea about your old beau & you intend to keep it that way.

Except, your old lover looks hot as hell, just how you remember him. All of a sudden, you’re in a tailspin. Can you imagine the tension? I can & I love it. This smoldering secret is right under the surface in The Neighbors.

Reliable Narrators Jumping Between the Past & the Present

Hannah finds a way to keep this tension bubbling throughout the book. She expertly jumps between the past and the present to give readers the truth about what happened on the night that changed everything. I also love how Hannah uses multiple narrators (all of whom are reliable, thank goodness) to create more depth. I really enjoy Hannah Mary McKinnon’s writing style.

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into This book!  Long after I read it, I continue to think about it. The ending had me gasp (a little) & certainly made say, “Damn!” The Neighbors would make a fantastic Showtime or HBO series. It’s sexy, tense, dark & memorable.

If you’re Really Into mysteries involving secrets & relationships check out Somebody’s Daughter by David Bell and Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: HANNAH MARY MCKINNON

I was born in 1971 in Manchester, UK to British & Swiss parents. A year later they moved my older sister and I to Switzerland. Rather unsurprisingly I love mountains, chocolate and cheese… or mountains of chocolate and cheese, and my sister, of course.

After finishing commercial studies in Geneva, I worked as a PA for DuPont. A year later I moved to Neuchâtel and became the Purchasing Manager for an ultra-cool company that made motors for industrial and space applications.  Finding myself lacking in theoretical knowledge, I returned to university, studying part-time for a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. And then a friend of a friend introduced me to another friend who’d started up an IT recruitment business. Over the next fifteen years I rose through the ranks to become CEO.

Things outside of work were hardly boring. A chance encounter back in the dark ages of the Internet in 1999 led me down the aisle with Rob, my Canadian rock, five months later. Actually it was exactly ten weeks after we met face-to-face at the Saint John airport in New Brunswick, Canada – and we’re still married. True story. Our first son was born in 2003, followed by identical twin boys just sixteen months later, so I’m heavily outnumbered. In 2010 we all moved to Oakville in Ontario, Canada.

Maybe it was the failed attempt at a start-up company, or the fact I suddenly found myself in my forties, but one morning I decided to follow my oldest passion, started writing, and never wanted to look back. I write fiction for adults and dabble a little in kid-lit. Sometimes I think I’ll never have enough time to get all of the ideas out of my head and on paper. I also have a soft spot for short stories and mud runs. I love mud runs… hey, wait… that’s another story I could write…!