The Couple Upstairs - Shalini Boland

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

Our new home was supposed to be a chance to leave our past behind. But was moving here the worst mistake of our lives?
All our friends and family were gathered, glasses raised to toast our fresh start. It should have been a night for happiness and celebration. Zac and I had worked so hard for this: our first home together, just minutes from the sea. But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare…
We’d invited our neighbours too. I wanted to make a good impression – to show them we’re exactly the sort of people they want living on their street.
I hadn’t thought about who they might be, the strangers I was letting in.
It was going so well. There was laughter in the air and the wine was flowing. But then I noticed the narrowed eyes, the whispers.
And then the lights went out.
As my heart thumped in my chest, all the little things that had been going wrong since we moved here flashed through my mind: the food poisoning, the arguments, the flood of nasty reviews shaking my business.
Am I going crazy? Or is someone trying to destroy us?

My Thoughts:

I think this is the fastest I’ve read a book in ages. I’m reading some really great books at the moment, and it’s helping me to get my reading groove back. This one certainly contributed to the great book list!
I’m not sure what it was that gave it such a fast pace because not a lot is happening to begin with. Just a few little oddities that all start to mount up to being something much more sinister. I think it was the not being able to figure out what was going on that kept me gripped.
To begin with, it feels like Nina is making something out of nothing; it’s more of a feeling that her life is spiralling. However, when the big things start happening, and everything is being revealed, it made for compelling reading.
The majority of the book is told from Nina’s point of view, but there are the odd ‘Then’ chapters interspersed following a young girl. We have no idea what relevance these tiny chapters have to the book as a whole or who the young girl is. It does all become relevant and is tied together very nicely at the end.
I found Nina to be a very likeable character. She seemed to genuinely care about other people, and I loved her business idea. It didn’t help my state of mind, though that I run a small business that is having some teething problems at the moment, so my mood started to reflect Nina’s, and I found myself blowing things out of proportion like she was. I had to give myself a talking to!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it made up for the last Shalini Boland book that I read and didn’t enjoy. The only slight gripe I had were the last couple of pages; I felt like it got a bit too philosophical and dragged on a bit. Other than that a solid five-star read.

Buy Now on Amazon