Review by minimicropup - Best House On the Block

Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in the Fabulous Forties neighbourhood of Sacramento, California.

Starts off strong with that prologue but dnf at ~20%:

Handles the cast of characters by listing first and last names, at best some hair colour, but mostly just names we gotta remember. There’s nothing to anchor them in our minds or give us first impressions. [This might only be a mind’s eye reader problem]
This is made worse by peripheral/seemingly one-off characters being referred to the same way. ___ is ____’s golfing buddy and they met via ____, who’s related to ___. I’m slightly exaggerating, but my character notes were a mess.
This is made much worse by how the characters all sound the same and feel robotic or stilted in how they speak
Too much info dumping the plot with little room for intrigue, immersion, or inferring for ourselves. If you like that style or want a basic easy read it could work except that character problem makes it not that.
I was looking forward to the world building but other than what reads like a list of facts I already Googled, this story could take place anywhere with big houses.
Instead of the reader being thrown in the story the story is thrown at the reader. ___ does this, then that, then thinks this, that says that.

📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley

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