Blog Tour – The New Couple by Alison James

Thank you to Jess @bookouture for my place on the tour and ebook via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

Blurb

The perfect marriage. The perfect house. The perfect secret…

As I step through the cherry-red door of my new home, I know I should feel like the luckiest woman alive. I have a handsome husband, a beautiful daughter and now the house of my dreams. And to everyone else my life looks perfect…

When the neighbours stop by to welcome us, I tell them my name is Stephanie Hamlin and, under the watchful gaze of my husband Richard, I introduce him and our curly haired little girl Poppy. I smile as wide as I can and desperately hope I can fit in to this exclusive place with its pretty communal gardens. Because I’ve risked everything to be here.

Behind closed doors I try to relax, to unwind in the huge clawfoot bath and forget about my complicated past. It’s hard being the new couple on the street when you’ve got secrets.

Because the truth is, my charming husband isn’t really my husband.

And I’m not Stephanie Hamlin…

My Review

Narrated by neighbour Jane Headley, we meet the affluent residents of Sycamore Gardens. When one of the homes is bought by a company to raffle the question of true snobbery comes in to play. A house worth three million sold in the normal manner would only attract someone they deem of good social standing. A raffle however could mean anyone moving in.

The prologue gives you the foreboding insight of knowing how things might play out but kept enough information back that you don’t know who, why or how.

These poor rich residents with their hedge funds, nannies and housekeepers have no idea what is about to happen and that to me was the absolute grip of this book. While I wanted to feel sorry for them, I also hated their holier than thou attitudes and the class system that was their mantra. Poor does not necessarily mean awful neighbour or a lowering of tone.

Jane however came across as quite likeable even if she was incredibly nosey. She is the textbook definition of curtain twitcher but with her children now grown I think she needed something in her life to stop the rot of her marriage becoming evident.

This is the third book I have read of this author and while this was a slower burn than the others she certainly does write great characters. Whether you like them or not!

About the author

Alison James was born in the Cotswolds but spent most of her formative years abroad. She studied languages at Oxford, then became a journalist and author, returning to university after her two children to take a law degree. After a three-year stint as a criminal paralegal, she worked as a commercial copywriter and then a TV storyliner, before coming full circle to write fiction again.

Author social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alison.james.90226628

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alisonjbooks?

Newsletter sign up: https://www.bookouture.com/alison-james

Link to buy

https://geni.us/B0B7CNX2CYsocial