It wasn't terrible, but I feel it just wasn't my cup of tea. I was a little bit bored and found myself distracted while reading it. I really liked the characters though!

Great debut. Plot was fast paced and twisted. Loved it one of the best thrillers this year

Inspired by the investigative nature of the podcast Serial, Are You Sleeping is about a decade old murder that's being highlighted again by a podcast called Reconsidered. Good guy, family man Chuck Buhrman is shot in the head one night, and their 17-year-old neighbor is locked up for the shooting. This is the result of Lanie's (one of Chuck's daughters) claims to have witnessed the neighbor at the scene of the crime. The book is told from the point-of-view of Josie, twin sister to Lanie. As the podcast continues to point out new data and pose new questions, Josie is left wondering if there's more to that night than she was told.

This was a super engaging book, and I enjoyed the format with Twitter and Reddit posts in between chapters. I wasn't as crazy about the ending, particularly because I figured out the mystery a while back, but it still kept me on my toes chapter after chapter.

What happens when the world you've built, based on a sandcastle of lies, starts to crumble around you? When your past, and the truth, surface and you can't stop it? What happens when you begin to question what you know, what you thought you knew?

Josie has built a life on lies, a life where she left behind, for the most part, her family. But thanks to an ambitious podcaster, that past has reared up and come back to haunt her. The podcast reporter is investigating the murder of Josie's father, looking into the guilt or innocence of the person who was convicted. This of course upsets Josie and her remaining family members. Josie returns home to be with them and ends up digging into what really happened ten years ago, while also dealing with the fallout of her lies, and the death of her mother.

The use of social media in the story was well done and spot on for times we live in. Social media, even when well-intentioned, can be intrusive. And for those whose intentions are not necessarily good, but who want their fifteen minutes of fame and don't care who they hurt in the process? There's barely an end to the amount of damage they can do. In this case, the podcast served to both hurt and help the people involved. Initially it caused a lot of emotional harm to Josie and her family but it was also the catalyst for the details of what really happened to be discovered and for justice to finally be done.

Often, when I thought knew what was going to happen, I was wrong. The story was a mix of twists and predictability, mystery and family drama, and the pacing of the novel was slow, then fast. The book was slow to reel me in; I had a hard time warming up to Josie. There were times when I was completely exasperated with her, wanted to smack her, times I just didn't understand her behavior, and times I felt for her. I can't imagine going through what she did. She wasn't a bad person, though she lied big time to her partner Caleb. She could be cold, hard, and unforgiving at times but also was smart, determined, and, eventually, able to recognize her mistakes and apologize for them.

"Are You Sleeping" wasn't wonderful, with uneven pacing, erratic tension, and a character who was challenging to warm up to but it was an entertaining story.

A snoopy investigative reporter begins a series of podcasts on the thirteen year old murder of a respected professor, father of twin girls. She raises the question of whether one of the twins who witnessed the murder might have lied about who killed her father.
His murder and the subsequent desertion of the girls by their troubled mother leaves both girls with a lot of pain and confusion. Each deals with it in their own way. One chooses to escape through drugs and alcohol, and the other literally disappears after she finds out her boyfriend has slept with her sister.
The podcasts bring the past intruding back into their lives, and they are forced to deal with it and each other after their long missing mother commits suicide in a California cult. Their reunion dregs up past family issues and opens doors long closed that could lead to more pain, but maybe along with that, the chance to mend old wounds.
While this is a thrilling mystery, it is just as much a relational story about a family that has to face the truth in order to move on and have any chance at a future together.
I found this a hard book to put down. It was a story that moved along quickly and held my interest. The plot piqued my curiosity and touched my heart. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and likes books about family dynamics and healing.
My thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This book immediately grabs your attention and leaves you racing to find out what really happened. It's an interesting take on the Serial podcast phenomenon, but the story is well-told and gripping enough even without the "fictional Serial" angle. The main character is likable but mysterious enough that it was not easy to predict where the story would go next. A very fast, engaging read.

Whoa...talk about suspense!  Twins who grew up together shared a very sad secret for years, but it looks like it has finally caught up to them.  Josie and Lanie's father was murdered, and a man has been in prison for over ten years, due to Lanie's eyewitness account.  But when a woman who runs a podcast begins to question if the right person is serving time, it shakes the remaining family members to the core.  Did Lanie tell the truth?  If she didn't, who killed their father?  

The sad truth too, is that Josie, unable to trust her twin, moved away after the murder and has no relationship with her sister.  When their mother, who had run off to join a cult commits suicide, they are brought together to unravel the lies, determine the truth and shut down the suspicion of the podcast following.  Their interactions are believable (I have a sister) and I was able to relate to Josie very easily.   

I loved the book, enjoyed the characters and appreciated the outcome.  Very well written first book!  I would gladly read another book by Kathleen Barber.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery, Threshold and Pocket Books for the advanced reader copy and the opportunity to read and review this book honestly.  It is a privilege and an honor.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Summary: Josie Buhrman has runaway from her life and tried to bury her former self, even from her long-term partner, Caleb. But, why? Well, because her father was murdered when she was younger and then her mother ran away to join a cult. And everything was going well until an investigative reporter, Poppy Parnell, decides to muddle up the murder of Josie's father because not everything is as it appears. Thanks to Poppy and her new podcast, Josie has to come face-to-face with her past and reveal her former self when all she wanted to do was run away.

Review: I went into this book thinking I was going to be reading a podcast similar to Serial, you know, murder mystery, whodunnit, clues, etc. But, alas, no. That is not at all what I got.

This book focuses more on character development and the effects that drudging up the past can have on all the people related to the case (this makes me wonder what "Serial" did to all those involved). It also looks at the relationship between family and how crime and murder affect personal relationships because not every family can truly bounce back from something like that.

The ending was shocking, I did at least like that part. There were a couple of times where I suspected the true murderer but didn't think it could actually be this person.

I did also appreciate the different formats throughout--such as the newspaper articles, tweets, and straight-up narrative pieces.

So, overall, this just wasn't for me either because I went into it looking for a true crime story, much like what I experienced as I listened to "Serial" but it isn't what I got.

An unscrupulous reporter, Poppy Parnell starts a podcast to reopen the murder case of Charles Buhrman and it quickly goes viral. His two daughters, Josie and twin sister Lanie haven’t spoken to each other since the day of the murder. A horrid event that sadly tore the family apart along the way.
Now, years later, the recent death of their mother is bringing them back together. Can Josie let go of the past and reunite with her sister?

Told from Josie’s perspective, as well as Poppies’ pod-casts and the avalanche of tweets that followed. Then the ensuing crazed masses getting caught up in an internet witch-hunt.

This book highlights how social media can influence people, creating a frenzy in whatever direction the curser is pointed. While this pseudo-power can be applied for good, or in many cases, for pure sensationalism at the expense of those the spotlight is on.

This is a very quick and easy read that kept me guessing through most of the book. I did figure out the curve-ball before the end but still enjoyed getting there. I enjoyed the ride and would certainly recommend it. To me, this book would make a great light vacation/ beach....mountain getaway kind of read!

A traveling sister read with Norma, Brenda and Lindsay!

To find this review along with our other Traveling Sister Read reviews please visit Brenda and Norma's fabulous blog: http://www.twogirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kathleen Barber for an advanced copy to read in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars! I enjoyed this suspenseful, gripping, page-turning debut psychological thriller!

This story follows the main character, Josie, through the reassessment of her father’s murder case from thirteen years prior. Investigative reporter, Poppy Parnell, creates and releases six mega-hit podcasts titled “Reconsidered” that reexamine this murder trial. Through the podcasts, Parnell asks questions to uncover facts and theories which end up reopening the case that was ‘solved’ years ago. Was the convicted killer who has been sitting in prison since the trial actually innocent?

I loved the format of this book and the way this story was presented. I liked reading from Josie’s perspective. The six podcasts along with several blog posts and interviews are included throughout the chapters. This provided a unique and refreshing reading perspective which I greatly enjoyed.

I found myself glued to the pages for the majority of this engrossing story, however, the ending didn’t quite live up to the excitement of the rest of the book for me. It was still a good, satisfying ending, but not as excellent as the rest of the novel. Things seemed to wrap up a little too quick and neat for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this fast-paced and creative story and would be very interested in reading more from this author! This was an impressive debut novel.

A big thank you to NetGalley, Threshold Pocket Books and Kathleen Barber for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

This was an ok book. The story was interesting but it didn't jump out and grab my attention

Loved this gripping, engaging, and fast paced novel. So timely with America's obsession with the podcast culture.

I never listened to the Serial podcast. I love reading mysteries and thrillers, but real crime shows or podcasts are not my thing, but I went into reading this book with an open mind. It was a well written tale. I think the story line was conceivable and understandable with no plot holes. But despite the pace of reading, I wasn't really into the story. I didn't connect with any of the characters. The narrator, Jo, wasn't interesting or likeable. I didn't feel sad for her plight as the often ignored and brooding twin.
The mystery didn't feel as mysterious as I'd expected, having long figured out the crime. What I did like about the book was the mother's connection to a cult because I'm on a Scientology documentary kick and anything about Cults is appealing.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read for review this novel. I wish the author well.

I loved this book!

Josie has made huge strides to let go of her family and her past. However, it all comes back to bite her in the butt when a blogger decides to do a podcast about the murder of her father a decade ago. This brings everything back to the surface and Josie has to put herself back into the family again. Unfortunately, Caleb, her live-in boyfriend thinks her parents died in a car crash and she is an only child.

The secrets that come out when Josie has to attend her mother's funeral are dark and jaw dropping. I sped through this book and enjoyed it very much.

Huge thanks to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Jo has had a pretty tough life. Her father was murdered at a young age, afterwards her mother ran off to join a cult, and her sister was turning into a washed up drug addict. Despite all of that she's managed to create a pretty good life for herself in NYC, until a brand new podcast starts to reexamine her fathers murder and Jo begins to question everything she believes to be true.

The premise of this book sounded really good and it was definitely a little more thrilling than other thrillers that I've read recently, but it just wasn't my favorite book that I've read reverently. I felt like it jumped around a bit between the past and the present which was sometimes hard to follow. What I did like though was reading the excerpts from the podcast which was pretty interesting. I'd consider it more like a 3.5/5 stars.

Josie Buhrman spent a lifetime running from her complicated past, the murder of her father, the betrayal of her sister, and her mother joining a cult. The death of Josie’s mom sends her back to her hometown to face her dark past; just a reporter reopens her father’s murder investigation. Kathleen Barber’s psychological thriller is comparable to First One Missing and Remember Mia. Barber’ s writing engaging, suspenseful, and well-paced. I would recommend to fans of Ruth Ware.

Are You Sleeping? is based on an interesting premise - does our society's obsession with true crime help keep our justice system accountable or unnecessarily upset and intrude upon a family's private grief? Unfortunately the inclusion of a true crime podcast and social media responses (via tweets, Reddit feeds, and transcripts of the podcast itself) were the most interesting part of this novel for me. The characters, while not entirely unbelievable, fell flat for me. I was massively annoyed with the one-sided relationship the protagonist, Josie, had with her significant other, Caleb. It quickly became tiresome listening to her complain that "he's *too* good" and "she never understood what he saw in her." It all got a bit schmaltzy for me and after a while I started to hope they'd split up just so I wouldn't have to listen to her talk about how little she deserved him. This book wasn't particularly dark and was more mystery than suspense with no graphic violence. Overall it's a solid debut with an interesting story line that had some unique aspects. I look forward to seeing what Barber writes next.

I enjoyed the social media/serial podcast aspect of this one. Having read a ton of mysteries, this added a new element to the story. There was also a great cast of characters, not all likeable but it worked really well. My only real complaint is that the mystery really wasn't too hard to figure out.

⭐⭐⭐☄(3.5 stars)

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or the review itself.

Josie Burhman works very hard to make a new life separate from her family and her past with her sweet, loyal, humanitarian boyfriend Caleb. However, her past comes up to haunt her when she gets news of her mother's death.

Trudging up the past becomes more complicated by a podcast called Reconsidered, completely dedicated to investigating your father's murder and whether the imprisoned murderer actually committed the crime. Your sister Lanie was the sole eyewitness who named the murderer.

This book kept me hooked throughout and I found the juxtaposition between the podcast episodes and Josie's narration effective. I give it a 3.5 because though it was fairly predictable, it was a fun ride.

I would recommend this to true crime enthusiasts and people who loved the Serial podcast. It makes you see a different perspective on how invasive investigative journalism can be.

I received this book for an honest review from Netgalley. Unfortunately, it just isn't my cup of tea. I didn't liked it, couldn't get into the story or characters, even after 60% of the book. I was drawn to the cover and the concept of the book and expected a gripping read but I just didn't care for the characters and found it tedious despite many positive reviews from readers who loved it. It wasn't for me.