Review: Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch by Stylo Fantome
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Neighborhood Watch is the fourth book in Stylo Fantome’s Twin Estates series, but it works perfectly fine as a standalone novel. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it would at first – initially there were a lot of references to other characters and events, clearly those from the prior books, and I feared I would not be able to wrap my head around the details – but once the story started to move, it took a step away from the other books and became a lot more enjoyable.

For the first half of the book, I wasn’t crazy about this one. I was enjoying it enough to continue, sure, but my rating was sitting around the three-star mark. I just didn’t care much for the characters, I wasn’t sucked into their romance. I’m not sure what it was, but it didn’t have me hooked. It was the second half of this book, where everything seemed to come together, that won me over. There’s more action and more emotion to be felt in the second half of the book, and it certainly sucked me in.

In fact, the second half of the book really surprised me. I’d been unsure as to where the story was going to take us, unsure as to whether things would go in the direction I was hoping for. When so much unfolded, I was drawn even deeper into the story. I went from feeling okay about the characters and events, to being truly invested in the characters and events. It’s certainly a book that won me over in the end.

Out of curiosity, I now plan to go and read Neighbors, The Neighborhood, and Block Party, to get some background to the other characters in the Twin Estates series.

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