First off, let me just take a minute to say how much I LOVE this cover. I find it chilling, and it drew me in immediately. Well done!

Now, I have tried at least half a dozen times to write this review. No matter how hard I try, nothing is coming out the way I want it to so I'm just going to get on with it. I didn't care for this book as much as I thought I would. I was expecting a page turning thriller but I got more of a slow, "where are we now?" type of book with a little bit of "oh yeah, this girl is still missing". I found there wasn't a whole lot of focus and I was confused as to what was going on and why. I thought the multiple POV's would irritate me, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, the flipping between 3rd and 1st person POV made no sense to me at all, especially since I really didn't feel that there was a main character in the book although I suspect it was supposed to be Ella.
I also found the dialogue very dry. I think that made it even slower for me. There was no emotion where there should have been (Sarah and her sister's conversation, for example) so I had a real hard time relating to a single character.
I'm not going to pick away at every single criticism I have, there are quite a few, because even with all the things that annoyed me or didn't make sense in this book....it wasn't bad. It definitely was NOT a thriller but it was a fairly decent mystery. I mean, I had no clue how this was going to end and I never would have expected it.
I would rate this book at a 2.5-3. It was ok. I do see some promise here though, so I will be on the lookout from more from this author.
I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

This book is trying to be a thriller. There was a lot of fluff and not enough substance to rate this book higher than 3 stars. I was bored half way through the book and the only reason I hung with it, was to find out who it was.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but it had a slow start and I almost gave up on it, but am glad that I didn't. Ella is listening in to 2 girls talking to 2 men. The conversation gets more intimate and Ella overheard that the men have prison connections. The next day Ella sees a picture of a missing girl and immediately recognised that the girl, Anna, is the same girl she saw talking with the men. She reports what she has seen and heard and then Ella is in the spotlight. She tries to get back to her normal every day activities, working in her flower shop and being a mother and wife, but then she starts receiving mail that someone is watching her. A year later the frightening mail is still arriving and Anna has yet to be found. This thriller is well written and keeps you intrigued until the end. I thank Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC.

Excellent!! I was hooked from page one. The characters were wonderfully written - realistic, believable and sympathetic. I was not expecting the ending twist and enjoyed it immensely. Good job!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a mother's nightmare though when a child disappears. Should Ella have intervened? Could she have protected Anna if she had? This story keeps you guessing until the very end! Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

This novel is told from quite a few character’s points of view but the author was able to split them seamlessly. When two girls, best friends Anna and Sarah board the train for a highly anticipated trip to London, they are soon joined by two men fresh out of prison. Having never been to the big city before, the girls are flattered at the attention they are receiving. Flirting ensues and plans begin to form. Overhearing this a seat away, our witness Ella is sure these young teenage girls don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. Anxiously going back and forth about whether she should call the girls parents as she’s sure they’d disapprove, Ella eventually decides it’s not her affair after discovering some raunchy behaviour by one of the girls and the young convict. She puts it out of her head until soon after it is reported that Anna has gone missing. Fast forward and no concrete evidence pinpoints Anna’s disappearance we see that Anna’s Father, Sarah her best friend are not coping well at all with the loss. What has happened to Anna? When inconsistencies begin, and Ella our witness starts to receive sinister things in the mail we realize someone knows where Anna is. I didn’t have my aha! moment until quite near the end. Teresa Driscoll does an excellent job of taking this wild ride with her. Bravo! Thanks in advance to the publisher and Netgalley for my free copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Merce­r for a copy of "I am watching you" by Teresa Driscoll, in exchange for an honest review.
If you like a good mystery then this is definitely the book for you. This story is like a knot, every time you think you are getting somewhere, another knot appears. This kept on going throughout the book, and on approaching the end, I got to a point where I couldn't forsee any possible conclusion at all. I started to wonder whether the ending was going to be a bit of an anti climax, - but no, not in the least. Just as you think you've unravelled all the yarn, there's just one more thread to untie.

I really enjoyed this book. It had lots of unexpected twists which kept me guessing throughout and until the very end.

This book started out a bit slow for me, but it quickly picked up and drew me into the story of these two missing girls. The writing was good and the storyline was great as well. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly the twist in he story was, and that for me, makes a good book!

Ella is on the way home when she overhears two men flirting with two teenagers in the train. Her amusement turns to concern when she learns the two men have just been released from prison . She thinks about warning the girls but at the last moment decides to mind her own business. The next day to her horror she realizes one of the girls , Anna Ballard , is missing and nobody knows what happened to her . A year later there is still no trace of Anna and Ella is racked with guilt about not warning the girls off. The police still don’t have clue but when an anniversary special about Anna airs on TV, Ella starts getting threatening letters and hires a private detective Matthew to get to the bottom of it. When Matthew starts investigating different things come to light and everybody including Anna’s father and her best friend have secrets to hide.

An interesting story line narrated with different POV’s in third and first person . A good enough mystery with a lot of suspects but for some reason I could not relate to the characters. There was a lot of backstory and details about the flower shop that was unrelated to the plot which made me skip through some pages. Overall 3 ½ stars as the suspect was a complete surprise

Many thanks to a Thomas & Mercer, Kindle First & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

This book was just ok. It didn't wow me, it didn't seem like there was much of a plot; more like a bunch of people's daily lives which didn't contribute to the storyline of the missing girl, Anna. There were too many POV's, and too much tense-switching to be able to follow the storyline very clearly.

When two teenage girls head to London on the train for the weekend nobody expects that everything would change. They were supposed to be enjoying one of their first tastes of freedom. They were supposed to be having innocent conversations with young boys they met on the train. They were supposed to go to the theater. But nothing happened as it was supposed to. When a woman who watched the young girls on the train comes forward with information her life is also changed. While she wrestles with her conscience for not trusting her gut, she never imagines her struggle is just beginning. This one event turned so many innocent lives around, but all they want is answers. Lies are discovered and pieces begin to get put together, but the truth was something nobody expected.


I am watching you is a refreshing mystery that is anything but predictable. It managed to creep me out and left me looking over my shoulder more than ever before. Lock your doors before you dive into this one!


Post Live November 1st

I Am Watching You - Teresa O'Driscoll
Published by: Thomas & Mercer (1st October 2017)

ISBN: 978-1542046596

Source: Author provided review copy

Rating: 5*

Synopsis:
When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-eyed Anna Ballard—has disappeared.

A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella is wracked with guilt over what she failed to do, and she’s not the only one who can’t forget. Someone is sending her threatening letters—letters that make her fear for her life.

Then an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna’s friends and family might have something to hide. Anna’s best friend, Sarah, hasn’t been telling the whole truth about what really happened that night—and her parents have been keeping secrets of their own.
Someone knows where Anna is—and they’re not telling. But they are watching Ella.

Review:
Oh WOW! It's almost 4.30 in the morning and I've just finished reading I Am Watching You. I've got no idea where the last few hours have gone - I've been utterly engrossed. Gripped. I'm in shock. What an ending! Teresa Driscoll you are a sorceress!

Each character in this book is so integral in their own way, and they are all so brilliantly written. I could waffle on for ages about each of them, but that would make such a long (and boring) review...I'll just mention that I adore Ella, she's so beautifully written.

I really like how the story unfolds throughout the book, and how we learn more about each of the character's involvement. There are some real surprises along the way, the story is intelligently written and you just have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Hands down, I Am Watching You is the best book I've read so far this year. It's utterly compelling. I urge all my fellow crime fans to read it! Special thanks to Teresa Driscoll for providing the review copy.

With a main character consumed by guilt with the fact that she saw something that made her feel not quite right and didn't say anything, we are launched into a story of intrigue and suspense over what might happen next.

I liked how the book was told from different perspectives because it allowed the story to have a stronger sense of realism than if was just told from one side. The inter-connectedness of the community members and their distrust and skepticism of one another was something that I enjoyed reading because it begged the reader to ask the question: Who can you really trust here?

Highly recommend and thank you for allowing me to review!

3 Stars - Anna and Sara lied to their parents and instead of going to watch a movie, they were seen in a train. That night Anna was missing and Sara couldn’t remember what happened. But there is a witness who saw them in the train with two men who got out of prison. Ella, the witness, heard their conversations and wanted to call but she was distracted at that moment and sometime later she saw Anna’s picture as a missing girl. One year later, Anna’s still missing, Sara still can’t remember and Ella feels guilty and blames herself for not calling. And let’s not forget about nasty notes she receives, like:

WATCH YOURSELF.
I DO…

It was an okay read for me. It was real slow. But my main complaint is the author wrote more about the characters’ personal life and less about Anna’s missing or the mystery. It’s told in multiple POV (both in 3rd and 1st person) and one of them was a private investigator that Ella was hired but I really didn't understand his role in the story because until the first 70% he was with his wife and his newly born daughter, like all the time! Anna’s father most of the time thought about his past with his father and his past with his girls! Ella was stressed out about her son! The Watcher’s POV was too short and actually it didn’t have anything to say, it wasn’t even thrilling! Sara was involved with her personal life! So there was less about Anna and her missing! The characters’ personal life was a bit too much in this story for me! But it was unpredictable!

Thanks to Teresa Driscoll, Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced digital copy in exchange an honest review.

So this book begins on a train ride where, Ella, overhears a conversation being had between two sixteen year old girls and two very handsome men that, as of that day, were just released from prison. The conversations are flirtatious. So much so that one of the girls, Sarah, and one of the ex-cons decide to have a quick romp in the train bathroom and Ella is completely beside herself. Now Ella’s motherly instinct kicks in and she wants to intervene. Make the young ladies call their parents but she doesn’t and instead she moves to another part of the train to create distance. The next day she hears on the news that one of the girls is now missing and she is completely devastated that she didn’t listen to her intuition and now feels she is to blame.

Okay, so, when I first started reading this I thought of myself as a 16 yr old and how I would react to a complete stranger demanding me to call my parents. Uh, I wouldn’t have taken it so well and probably would have told her to go screw. Now, as an adult and mother, I can understand Ella’s concern but that still doesn’t make me too thrilled with the slut-shaming that happens. She is so incredibly horrified and disgusted that one of these girls would have sex with a complete stranger in a train bathroom but she insists she is not a prude and, maybe she’s not, but she is very naïve. Being that she is a mother of a 17 year old son she definitely has no clue as to how teenagers behave. I’ll admit that this beginning didn’t hook me because I was annoyed with Ella and her train of thought but I persevered and I’m glad I did because this book has a ton of SECRETS and man do I love those!

This book follows three perspectives. There is the aftermath of Anna’s family dealing with their missing daughter, Ella whose name was leaked to the media and she has now been publicly shamed by nearly everyone for not intervening, and we also have Sarah who is Anna’s best friend and travel companion during the night of the disappearance. What really happened to Anna? You’ll have to read it to find out!

Quick chapters that all leave cliff hangers and more puzzle pieces until you’re able to see the big picture. This is why I kept flipping the pages! Very entertaining.

Oh, and what is the likelihood of two ex-prisoners being released from prison on the same day and BOTH are model gorgeous?!?!? That’s some good fiction right there!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Craftily written using several different voices, Driscoll does a great job of drawing you in and keeping you fully engrossed as the pages are turned. Driscoll also does a great job with her use of the red herring as many of the characters have there own secrets. The bulk of the story takes place a year after the disappearance of Anna from a London Night Club. As new evidence comes to light, and witnesses change their story, little by little we find out what really happened to Anna that night...AND it’s a total surprise ending. Would love to see more of PI Matthew Hill and DS Melanie Sanders in future books!

An ARC review of ‘I Am Watching You’ by Teresa Driscoll.

Almost 4 Stars

‘I Am Watching You’ is a mystery/thriller about a missing teenage girl, told from multiple points of view.

I confess that I was initially put off by voice of the first POV character - The Witness - but as the novel progressed we were inside other characters enough that I got the respite from her that I needed in order to fully enjoy this novel and all its unexpected twists and turns.

The frequent use of the cliff hanger chapter endings kept this reader turning the pages to see what happened next. Indeed, I was so engaged by the end that I had that reader’s moment of panic that the novel ending couldn’t possibly answer all my questions. It was a needless worry because Driscoll tied all the threads up neatly in the way readers hope for – a surprising but inevitable ending.

This novel has multiple points of view, however you don’t get to know all the POV characters well (enough?). But perhaps this was the intent of the writer, casting the reader as ‘watchers’ too.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys escaping into a whodunnit mystery.

This book has an interesting premise and offers a lot of hope for the reader right away that it will become truly captivating. Unfortunately, I didn't find that it lived up to that promise. Perhaps it was the constant switching between different characters and POV, or maybe it was that I never felt close to any of the characters, but either way it just didn't work for me.

By the second half of the book, I was really just reading to be finished and not even invested enough in the story to really care what happened to the missing girl. I enjoyed some portions of this book more than others. The life of the witness was interesting and her character was better developed than the others, but overall this book just didn't excite me.

As always, I encourage you to read it and come to your own conclusions, but this one wasn't for me.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this thriller and put off all of my errands and chores to finish it in one sitting. I was literally hooked after the first page! When Ella overhears two young men on a train try to ingratiate themselves with two young women, she becomes worried when she hears them discussing their recent release from prison. Reluctant to get involved, she considers trying to reach the girls' parents but then chooses to say nothing. When one of the girls turns up missing the next day, guilt consumes her and she phones the police immediately. And so begins a whirlwind journey to find out what happened to Anna. Told from alternate perspectives involving Ella, both sets of parents, sisters of the two girls, and the private detective hired to find the person "watching" Ella, we are bounced back and forth until the shocking conclusion. I love a good thriller with multiple layers and this one did not disappoint! Lots of good dialogue and tense scenes; each chapter ends with a cliffhanger that sucks you in and keeps you reading until the end!