The Boyfriend
Freida McFadden, 2025
Mystery, thriller & crime RomanceContemporary fiction
A single woman in New York, a man who seems almost too perfect, and a narrator whose thoughts keep sliding somewhere much darker. A sleek, fast-reading thriller with a witty voice, a love story surface, and a steady hum of dread underneath.
Feels like dread, curiosity and humor. About love, madness and identity.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy domestic suspense built around a new relationship and a narrator you cannot quite trust. Be aware that her intrusive violent thoughts are blunt and recurring, so it is not a gentle romance.
Why read it
It gives you a tense, quick story about attraction and suspicion, with a voice that keeps you unsure what is real and what is imagined.
A page from the book
The terrifying calm of a thought you never chose to have.
If I grabbed her head and gave it a solid twist to the left, I could break her neck. It wouldn’t even be hard to do. Freida McFadden.Freida McFadden is a pen name; she works as a physician specialising in brain injury and wrote novels in the hours around her hospital shifts.
Books that feel like this
More by Freida McFadden
The Housemaid
Freida McFadden, 2024
A maid with a secret takes a job in a perfect house where the wife's kindness feels like a warning.
The Housemaid's Secret
Freida McFadden, 2023
Millie has cleaned up other people's secrets before. This penthouse has a locked door, a charming husband, and a wife who never comes out.
The Divorce
Freida McFadden, 2025
A divorce becomes a psychological standoff over custody, lawyers, and a wedding ring—while a voice in the narrator’s head insists something is wrong.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Boyfriend for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy domestic suspense built around a new relationship and a narrator you cannot quite trust. Be aware that her intrusive violent thoughts are blunt and recurring, so it is not a gentle romance.
- What is The Boyfriend like?
- A sleek, fast-reading thriller with a witty voice, a love story surface, and a steady hum of dread underneath. Feels like dread, curiosity and humor. About love, madness and identity.
- What should I read after The Boyfriend?
- If you liked The Boyfriend, try The Wife Upstairs (Rachel Hawkins), Behind Closed Doors (B.A. Paris) and One of Us Is Lying (Karen M. McManus).
A taste of the feed
The difference between wanting a new life and fleeing an old one.
I was looking for something new. I was. Because I was running from something old.
The Wife Upstairs · Rachel Hawkins
Perfect manners can be the most frightening thing about a person.
We go downstairs and in the hall, he takes my coat from the cupboard and holds it open while I slip my arms into it. In the drive outside, he holds the car door for me and waits until I’m in. As he closes it behind me, I can’t help thinking it’s a shame he’s such a sadistic bastard, because he has wonderful manners.
Behind Closed Doors · B.A. Paris
What a parent’s ambition feels like from inside the child.
My hand hurts within minutes. It’s pathetic, I guess, but I can’t remember the last time I wrote anything longhand. Plus I’m using my right hand, which never feels natural no matter how many years I’ve done it. My father insisted I learn to write right-handed in second grade after he first saw me pitch. Your left arm’s gold, he told me. Don’t waste it on crap that don’t matter. Which is anything but pitching as far as he’s concerned.
One of Us Is Lying · Karen M. McManus
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