After reading and being thoroughly entertained by The Couple Next Door, I was so excited to read Lapena’s latest novel – A Stranger in the House. I love the colour theme Lapena has used for both her novels, despite both being standalones, you can recognise the books as hers by their covers.
Book Description:
Why would you run scared from a happy home?
You’re waiting for your beloved husband to get home work. You’re making dinner, looking forward to hearing about his day.
That’s the last thing you remember.
You wake up in hospital, with no idea how you got there. They tell you that you were in an accident; you lost control of your car whilst driving in a dangerous part of town.
The police suspect you were up to no good. But your husband refuses to believe it. Your best friend isn’t so sure. And even you don’t know what to believe . . .
My Thoughts:
Lapena has done it again, thoroughly entertained me with her novel! A Stranger in the House is a fun read. Like The Couple Next Door, I don’t think the plot should be taken too seriously but it sure is enjoyable. Lapena has mastered the art of unreliable narration, this time through the use of memory loss, she kept me in suspense – Karen wakes up in hospital and cannot recall the events that preceeded her accident, her husband’s unsure, as is her best friend, so by default I was unsure too.
I did predict ahead of time the situation that would arise as the police started digging into what happened but that didn’t spoil it because even if you can predict what’s to come, you’re still not sure who’s version of events to believe – that’s unreliable narration for you! Characters losing their memory is by no means a new idea in fiction, it allows the author a platform to heightened suspense and tension for the reader, hence why I’m a fan of books with unreliable narration.
While I predicted the tangled web these characters would find themselves in, I appreciated Lapena clarifying things towards the end of the novel. So, if you dislike open endings and don’t want to be left pondering what the author was thinking, then A Stranger in the House is a good pick.
It’s also good when a novel has a variety of characters, those you grow to like and those you grow to dislike – you’ll find that in this novel too. Karen is one of those characters you grow to like, you’re unsure of her at first, with no memory, you’re not sure if you should like her or not because you don’t know if you can trust her, but by the end of the novel, there was no disputing it – I was a fan.
The plot in this novel is realistic, much more so than that of her previous novel, but it’s not the realism I look for when I read Lapena’s books, it’s the enjoyment factor. Her novels are so much fun to read, there’s no hard-to-read parts, no blood and gore, just a fun, ‘light-hearted’ psychological thriller that you can lose yourself in.
This book is available to buy from: Amazon UK
Keeper of Pages 
If you dislike open endings… I was already on the fence that I wasn’t going to like it 😉 but then you so say that there’s no open ending so yay! I have just added her first novel to my readlist, I guess I’ll have to add this one as well! You make it sound so good!
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I thought of you when I wrote that bit because I remember you saying you don’t really like open endings. Knowing what fellow readers like and dislike in a book helps me write reviews so thank you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on both books 😊
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Hihi thank you for thinking of me ;-). It’s great to be such an inspiration 😉
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I’m glad you liked this one! I wasn’t hugely impressed by it tbh, but I still want to read her debut 🙂
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I did prefer her debut, it was more entertaining but this was a good second novel, I thought it still carried the entertainment factor and I love unreliable narrators!
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I have a soft spot for unreliable narrations 😀 I have her first book, and will see if the writing style suits me before getting this one! Great review!
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Thanks, her first book was so much fun to read, not the most realistic of storylines but so much fun!
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Snap! I prefer my stories terrifyingly realistic!
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“Terrifyingly realistic”, oh, hopefully the unreliable narration will carry you through 🙈
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I loved The Couple Next Door, but haven’t read this one yet. Enjoyed your thoughts!
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Thanks, if you enjoyed the unreliable narration in The Couple Next Door, you’ll most probably enjoy this one too 😊
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Great review! The Couple Next Door was a fast read, and I was wondering about this one. It’s on my TBR list.
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Thank you. This is a good follow up novel, very worth a read 😊
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Nice Review Janel, I think we have spoken before on Instagram about Unreliable Narrators and I have to say I struggle, I also wasn’t a huge fan of Lapena’s first book…so I won’t rush out to read this but expect it will tempt me at the library at some point. I totally agree the colour scheme for both books is perfect and highly appealing!
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Yeah, I think A Couple Next Door was better than this one so if you wasn’t a fan of that one, you’ll likely struggle with this one too. I’ll be interested to see if her next book follows the same colour scheme…
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