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Readers Guide for Too Close to Home

04.14.2026 by Jen Ryland // 4 Comments

My Readers Guide for Too Close to Home has Jen’s Quick Take, a character list, plot summary and spoilers! Let’s talk about this twisty neighborhood suspense story for April 2026!

Cover of Too Close to Home, which shows a row of blue houses in front of a lake, on a blue background

Readers Guide for Too Close to Home

Table of Contents

Jen’s Quick Take on Too Close to Home

Character List for Too Close to Home

Plot Summary for Too Close to Home

Spoilers for Too Close to Home


Jen’s Quick Take on Too Close to Home

Photo of the cover of Too Close to Home on a shelf next to beach glass and other blue books
  • Too Close to Home by Seraphina Nova Glass is a neighborhood suspense story set in Cloverhill Lakes, an exclusive community in New England (possibly Connecticut)
  • This is a very twisty suspense story with multiple POVs and plotlines
  • I enjoyed it. It was farfetched at times, so if that will bother you, be warned.
  • Perfect for fans of books like It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara
  • Publication Date: April 14, 2026 by Park Row Books. Thanks to them for my advance copy!

Character List for Too Close to Home

  • Regan Hoffman: widow and single mom
  • Hallie Hoffman: Regan’s daughter
  • Jack Hoffman: Regan’s late husband
  • Sasha: a newcomer in town
  • Rafael “Raffy” Carro: Sasha’s first husband
  • Drew: Sasha’s son.
  • Tom Blanc: Sasha’s new guy. His family owns a BBQ chain
  • Chloe: Sasha’s daughter with Tom
  • Al: Tom’s father
  • Andi:
  • Carson: Andi’s new husband
  • Roxie and Dez: Andi’s kids
  • Ray: Andi’s ex husband
  • Tia: Ray’s new wife
  • Ally: neighborhood busybody
  • Connie: Ally’s friend

Plot Summary for Too Close to Home

Too Close to Home on a shelf with beach glass and other blue books

During a neighborhood party, Regan’s car explodes with her neighbor Ally inside.


Andi is upset because her ex-husband’s new wife, Tia, is harassing her. The two end up in a physical fight. Then there’s a bomb scare at her son’s school. Her husband suggests with all the drama that Andi practice shooting some cans on their large property. When she goes to collect the cans she was firing at, she finds Tia’s body.

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Sasha is at the school meeting about the shooting, where Ray announces that Tia is missing. Sasha wonders if Drew made the bomb.

Photo of three students sitting on a stone bench looking at textbooks.

Regan is still mourning the loss of her husband and wonders if the car bomb was meant for her. She texts some photos of the school play to Andi, who is not there. When Andi says a guy in the photo looks like her late husband Jack, Andi chases him, losing him at the train station.

Sasha goes to pick up food at her husband’s restaurant. From there, she follows Drew, who makes a sketchy transaction at a gas station.

Andi is freaking out about Tia

When the police announce a search party, Andi hides Tia in her garage freezer.

Sasha and Regan go to Andi’s house, where the police are moving her freezer. Andi passes out. We learn that Sasha and her first husband, Raffy, agreed to help a woman in a wheelchair at the airport. The woman was a drug smuggler and Raffy spent three years in a Mexican prison.

Andi is crashing out and realizes she needs to move Tia’s body

Cafe. Photo taken outside the cafe showing a neon sign

Regan posted the photo of the guy at the school play on the town message board and an employee at the Bluebird Cafe messages her that he’s a regular. She goes down to her basement and someone hits her over the head.

Sasha’s father tells her that Drew was suspended from school. She puts a GPS tracker on her car.

Andi realizes she forgot to check Tia for a phone. She finds it and dumps it in the river.

A doctor with a clipboard in front of them on a table

Sasha drives Regan to the ER and then to her home to stay over. Regan hears Drew sneak out of the house and finds the photo of Jack in his room. Sasha tracks Drew to a smoke shop in Hartford and gets a plastic bag put over her head.

Andi puts Tia’s body in her car and then meets Regan at the Wild Roast Cafe. She’s in the middle of a panic attack when she sees Regan going to her car. She flips out and drives off.

Regan is puzzled but goes back to her house to search around. She finds a lockbox in the basement with ID with Jack’s photo and the name Patrick Finch.

The sketchy smoke shop guys let Sasha off with a warning. She goes to Raffy’s house and Drew’s backpack is there.

After another close call in which the police pull Andi over for a broken tail light, Andi dumps Tia’s body in the river.

Person holding a cell phone in one hand an a disposable coffee cup in the other hand.

Regan goes back to the Bluebird Cafe to look for Jack. He’s not there, but he’s hiding in her car.

Sasha follows Drew to the smoke shop. The sketchy guys there are PIs. Raffy tells her that the drug smugglers want the money they lost when he got arrested. He’s been slowly paying them off.

Tia’s body is found

But she wasn’t shot!! She was hit over the head.

Andi finds out that Roxie and Drew have been investigating the happenings in town. She grabs all the papers and heads to Sasha’s, where a man tries to strangle her.

Regan learns that Jack (aka Patrick Finch) testified against some drug smugglers. He changed his name, but they found him. So after he was attacked, he paid someone to fake a death certificate. When he heard about the car bomb, he came back.

Roxie tells Drew that all their evidence is gone. She was the one who made the box threat at school, as a diversion.

Andie is tied up in a tool shed.

Regan is packing so they can all flee when she gets a text from Carson saying that Andi is missing. Regan tells Jack that the person after him looks familiar. They are on the road when someone starts shooting at them. Jack is shot.

Raffy tells Sasha that the man blackmailing him is back.

Spoilers for Too Close to Home

Tom, Sasha’s husband, is the blackmailer.

Tom’s family’s BBQ restaurants are just a front for smuggling and money laundering. Tom’s family put Raffy in prison.

When Raffy stopped the blackmail payments, Tom‘s family ordered him to kill Sasha but instead fell in love with her. He paid off Raffy’s debt and left the family business.

person puts handcuffs on another person

Tom says his brother is in prison because of Jack’s testimony.

When Tom couldn’t find Jack, he planted the car bomb intended for Regan.

Tom killed Tia because she was snooping too much, and dumped her on Andi’s property to frame him.

Andi starts yelling from the toolshed (which apparently is at Raffy’s house??) She breaks the lock and starts running. Tom comes after her, and in a struggle over the gun, Andi gets shot.

A patient with an IV in their hand lies in a hospital bed.

Regan is at the hospital with Jack, but leaves to go get her gun out of the safe and head to a location that Andi texted to her. She finds Andi, wounded. Then she follows Tom into the house, where she shoots him in the shoulder and then stabs him with a steak knife.

Sasha runs. Tom grabs her and forces her into the truck. It crashes. Tom is thrown out.

At Tia’s funeral, the police arrest Tom’s father Al. Tom is in the hospital.

Epilogue:

Raffy is in rehab in Tucson, where Sasha has moved with Chloe and Drew.

Tom escapes from the hospital and shows up in Tucson, trying to get Sasha to go on the run with him. Sasha stabs him in the neck with scissors.

Questions? Leave them in comments and spoilers are fine!

Categories // Reviews Tags // adult fiction, new books, spoiler discussion, spoilers, suspense

About Jen Ryland

Over 12 years of book blogging and reviewing, I have read over 1500 books. A fair and honest reviewer who loves book discussions, I'm here to help you find a book you'll love to read AND give you a place to talk about it and ask questions.
Find me on Instagram and Pinterest as @jenryland!

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4 Comments
PinkAmy
2 months ago

I love the premises of this writers books but haven’t enjoyed the three I’ve tried. The blurb sounds great. I don’t like when neighborhood mystery/thrillers veer off in areas that are mafia, brutality or, to be sexist, male action movie territory.
Do you think I will like this?

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Jen Ryland
2 months ago
Reply to  PinkAmy

Sooo.. I totally get what you mean.

If it helps, this book felt closest to On a Quiet Street, but with a little more dark humor. It did not have the very dark feel of books like The Vanishing Hour or The Vacancy in Room Ten. BUT there was a plot element about a character’s ex husband who ends up in prison with drug cartel/money laundering stuff, so I think that might ruin this book for you.

I have a post on Neighborhood Suspense books, most of which stick to domestic drama and do not have any Jack Reacher style stuff. So you might be happier with one of those!

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PinkAmy
2 months ago
Reply to  Jen Ryland

Excellent. You understand what I enjoy. Thanks. I read all your newsletters and check out the books. We’re GR friends. This was the first time I actually commented.

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Author
Jen Ryland
2 months ago
Reply to  PinkAmy

Thanks so much – I appreciate all your support and please feel to reach out anytime – in comments, email, or on GR!

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