Amazing book. Can you imagine coming home from a vacation and someone is living in your house claiming that you allowed them to? Not only that they appear to have been involved in your life for years although you don't remember ever seeing them? This book kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more the whole time. Great plot and twists along the way

What a tangled web of deceit, lies and cover-ups Laura Benedict weaves throughout this book! There's a new twist & turn with every page and doesn't let the reader go until the end!

The Stranger Inside has a pretty enticing premise: Kimber Hannon returns home from a week away only to find herself locked out of her house. When she notices someone inside she calls the police, who get him to open the door; he produces the paperwork complete with Kimber's forged signature and insists that he's renting the house for six months. Overcome with frustration, Kimber rushes inside her house, only to have the man grab her and whisper in her ear 'I saw what you did.'

So that was a great opening, but it's all downhill from there, I'm afraid. Which was more of a mess, the plot or the characters? Let's start with the latter: Kimber has to win some kind of award for being the most insufferable protagonist in literary history. I truly do not believe that a protagonist needs to be 'likable,' but they sure as hell need to be interesting or sympathetic or something to hook the reader, especially in a thriller. I could not have cared less about Kimber: she's selfish, remorseless, and emotionally immature, and why should I care that it all stems from a troubled adolescence when none of it is satisfactorily examined. At one point she befriends the wife of a man she had an affair with just because she thinks it would be funny to get back at him, without a second thought about the wife's feelings, and we're supposed to sympathize with her when she starts to realize this woman is actually a person? I really did not get the impression that Kimber was deliberately constructed to be a compelling antiheroine; I think she was supposed to be a flawed person who still deserved our sympathy, after everything. It didn't work.

The plot itself was all kinds of ridiculous, with varying degrees of success; at times it was ridiculous and fun but at other times it was just ridiculous and boring. There were just too many convenient plot devices and moments that demanded suspension of disbelief. The pace at which information was revealed was haphazard at best, and it was a shame, because even the moments that should have been shocking were neutered by weak storytelling.

Now I'm going to end this review by going into spoiler territory, which I don't often do, so that just goes to show how much the ending pissed me off. [spoiler] Regarding the twist that Kimber didn't actually kill Michelle: Why does Kimber deserve this narrative absolution?! She hasn't displayed an OUNCE of guilt throughout the entire book; at one point when she's accused of being a murderer, this is Kimber's reaction: "[S]he has never imagined her sister's death to be a murder, herself an actual murderer. In her head it's always I killed Michelle or I accidentally killed Michelle or I took my sister's life." ... how does that make it ok?! You literally pushed your sister off a cliff?!?! I'm pretty sure if I killed my (nonexistent) sister I'd be eaten up with guilt, regardless of how 'accidental' it was? Maybe the potential emotional impact of this ending could have been earned if there were even a hint of a possibility that Kimber cared anything for Michelle, but it felt like (literally) handing a get out of jail free card to a person you desperately want to see go to jail. Not even remotely satisfying.

Also, love that the mentally ill character turns out to be evil. Real original, that!! [end spoiler]

Thank you to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. Will definitely be recommending to customers at my work!

This is my first time reading author Laura Benedict. This is a great edge of your seat thriller for 2019. I didn’t want to put it down until I found out how it ended. This book will keep you guessing, throwing twists in until the very end.
Kimber Hannon returns from a short vacation to find a stranger living in her home and the locks have been changed. How is this possible. The police don’t seem to be doing anything to help her. Kimber thinks things can’t get any worse, but she soon finds out that things do get worse. Is the person invading her home really a stranger. The murder of her sister resurfaces. Threats arrive. Lies and betrayals uncovered. The past intertwined with the present nearly tears Kimber’s life apart.

The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict was a great read. This was the first book by this author for me and I will be looking out for her other books. This story had so many twists and tried to steer the reader in so many ways. The main character was not the nicest of people but in this case I think it helped the story. It is a book that you need to keep reading, you just have to know how it ends.

Kimber returns home from a long weekend away to discover that her keys do not work in her front door. She tries everything and then she sees somebody inside. She calls the police and is shocked to find that the man in her home has a signed lease and has every right to be there. Who is this man and how did he get into her house? Hen he whispers in her ear " I was there, I know what you did", she realises that somehow this has something to do with her dark past that she's has tried so hard to bury. But now she needs to work out who he is and what he wants before he destroys her life. Told in 2 timelines between the past and present, we learn all the secrets and lies.

Thanks to Mullholland Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

I can't quite put my finger on what was missing for me. I was hooked in the beginning and by the middle I lost interest and just wanted it all to wrap up. The characters didn't really grow very much during this time. I read another book today where it felt like there were too many side stories going on for me to appreciate the book as a whole and I think that is part of the problem with this book.

However, I did enjoy it and found it to be interesting at time. I did go and look on Goodreads to see if others felt the same why and there are a few that share my same opinions, (glad I am not alone on that).

Overall I would recommend it but it is not a winner of a thriller to me.

When Kimber Hannon returns home from a weekend in the Ozarks, she is shocked to find the locks on her house changed. Her surprise and confusion grow when a man answers her front door claiming he is renting the house, and that Kimber is the one who agreed to let him stay. Unable to return to her normal life and work because of her displacement, Kimber becomes obsessed with evicting the man living in her house. As the story unfolds and increasingly frightening events start happening around Kimber and her friends, it becomes clear the mysterious man may have something to do with the tragic events that led to Kimber’s sisters’ death years earlier.

The Stranger Inside is a solid domestic thriller from award-winning novelist Laura Benedict. Filled with nosy neighbours, complex characters, and a series of entertaining plot twists, it’s sure to please fans of the mystery genre. The book’s chapters alternate between a present-day storyline and another that explains the events leading up to Kimber’s sisters’ death in high school. While her current situation is easy to sympathize with, Kimber is revealed in the past storyline to be anything but innocent, and as more of her backstory unfolds it becomes clear she may not be as trustworthy as she seems.

The major mysteries in The Stranger Inside will keep readers guessing until the end, although there are some smaller plot lines that will be easy to guess early on. While it’s not the most riveting, absorbing or original novel in the mystery/thriller genre, The Stranger Inside is a pretty solid book. It does start to drag a bit towards the end, but for the most part the characters and storyline are enjoyable and interesting. Kimber is a compelling lead with her wit, snarky commentary, and complicated history.

If you love domestic thrillers you should give The Stranger Inside a try, but if this isn’t your normal genre or passion I probably wouldn’t recommend spending your time on it.

The more I read of this book the more I felt that the main character, Kimber, deserved what was happening to her. I didn't like Kimber as a child, she was an annoying and selfish brat. As an adult I also found her to be a selfish brat. I do have to say that Kimber finally grew on me when everything started to be revealed towards the end. I can't say that I didn't see some of the twists coming but I was still overall surprised with what happened towards the end and what Kimber ended up finding out. I am going to leave this as a bare bones review because I don't want to spoil anything but I would recommend reading this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Stranger Inside.

Wow, this was an insufferable read, mostly because I couldn't stand Kimber.

Here comes another story (I think this is the third book I've read with this premise) in which the protagonist comes
home to find a stranger living in her home.

Does she know him? As she investigates this stranger, she realizes he is connected to her deceased father, who left after the death of her elder sister, Michelle, a death Kimber harbors a devastating secret about.

It's all Lifetime downhill from here; the convoluted plot just snowballs like the explosions in a <i>Michael Bay</i> movie.

There's adultering, felons, a mentally ill ex-bf, a plot stemming from Kimber's idiot father and his wandering peen.

Told in two timelines; the past is in Michelle's voice, Kimber's older sister, as she investigates their father and the secrets he's been hiding, and the present, as Kimber deals with the stranger living in her home.

Most of the characters are unlikable or easy to ignore but Kimber is heinously detestable; she is selfish, cruel and an adulterer herself. In many ways, as she notes, she is very similar to her father.

I take personal exception to the scene when Kimber is told about her father Ike's secret family, the person relaying this information excuses her father's behavior by calling it 'restless.'

This pissed me off! Seriously?

Dude, Ike was a bigamist and adultering, lying scum. We already have people making excuses for their predatory and reprehensible behavior in real life; now fake characters are doing it, too! Come on!

Even though Kimber eventually owns up to her self destructive behavior, I never sympathized or empathized with
her. She is a terrible person, both as a woman, a daughter and a sister.

I didn't care about her, her job, her family, her relationships, the ridiculously overwrought story about revenge, a jealous sib and money and the truth behind Michelle's death. Sheesh.

Why not just pick a theme or two and run with it?

There was so much drama here, I felt like I was watching an episode of Jerry Springer.

I did like Mr. Tuttle, the dog. No surprise since animals are better than people most of the time.

Kimber comes home from a weekend away to find a stranger in her house. Not only that, the stranger has changed her locks and refuses to leave. He also seems to know about Kimber’s past and threatens to reveal her secrets. I can’t imagine coming home to a creeper in my house and I am fairly confident my family/neighbors would be more upset on my behalf than Kimber’s were. You soon find out that there are some reasons Kimber can’t be trusted and although this was a unique way to kick-off a thriller, this one fell a little flat for me. I think my biggest issue was how unlikable Kimber became. You learn she’s extremely selfish and has little care for the impact her actions have on others. She befriends her lovers wife (he was having an affair with her at one point) and then proceeds to say she “loves her like a sister”... ummm what?! For me in order for a thriller to work the main character has to either be likeable or so off the deep end you are intrigued by their bat$hit craziness. Kimber doesn’t fall into either of these catergories so her story was hard to get invested in. Overall I could only give this one two stars. Thank you to Netgalley for the early review copy in exchange for an honest review!

This story was even better than I expected. The concept drew me in, how someone could get into your house and essentially take it over, and get away with it for any period of time. As the story unfolds it begins to make sense and if you have any misgivings about how believable it would be, it does get resolved as the plot progresses. It's just so hard to say much about the actual plot without giving anything away!

The characters are well-written and there are enough twists throughout to keep you turning page after page. I did feel at times that the main character's guilt regarding actions in her past was too heavy-handed. You want to just shake her by shoulders and say 'Get over it and move on with your life!' I realize that this guilt is essential to the story but it's a little exhausting.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I can't wait to read more. There's nothing better than finding a new author that I love, especially when she has more stories just waiting to be read!

4 Stars: The story starts right away with Michelle dying at the bottom of the ravine. From there, we flash to Kimber who has arrived home to find someone else living in her house. This intruder makes it known that he has it out for Kimber, but we are not sure why.

What I loved: The plot line in general. I could not even imagine coming home to find someone else in my house claiming to live there. I loved how the book started and there were many connections to close out the story. Some I was able to guess and some not so much-- I really believed my one angle was IT. Unreliable narrator that was not on drugs or drunk all the time. I personally did not like Kimber at all, but to be honest I am not sure we were supposed too, but while she know she is not telling the whole truth it was not due to being intoxicated. 

What I did not love: There was a small stretch of time where it felt like the story was dragging a little bit. 

I would recommend to those who love a good suspense novel that constantly twists!

This book was just ok. I didn’t love it and I felt it moved S-L-O-W but was ok. I struggled at times to keep going but maybe it was just me. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this book in return for my honest review.

3.5 Stars.

Be Afraid, Be Very, Very Afraid.. of the “Stranger Inside!”

When Kimber gets home from her weekend at Lake of the Ozarks she discovers something terrifying - her locks have been changed - not just that but someone else has moved into her house! Insane right?! Her neighbor states that she saw Kimber sign over her home to Lance Wilson and yet Kimber has never met the man! Worse yet the police side with him. Can you say NIGHTMARE?

Thereafter, Kimber does the only thing she can. She calls her attorney .. who happens to be her ex! Kimber, of course, is irate about what has happened, and worse, yet, she is without a home.

Just who is the stranger living in Kimber’s home and what is he after?

What a tangled web, Laura Benedict weaved! This is a creepy, suspenseful novel you must dive right into! It is multi-layered and includes past and present timelines which meld together quite well. If you are looking for a tension filled mystery, that will keep you wound up for hours, this is definitely it.

Admittedly, my favorite part of this story is that it takes place in St. Louis, Missouri (where I lived for 6 years from 1998-2004), and based on the authors note, it appears as though Ms. Benedict set this story around that time frame thus certain landmarks and towns were described exactly as I remembered them, which was fantastic. Thank you to the author for taking me back in time!

This was a buddy read with Kaceey! Our first read together of 2019!

Thank you to NetGalley, Mulholland Books and Laura Benedict for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and NetGalley on 1.5.19.

A psychogical thriller that is filled with twists and turns
A good read. I will also be looking for more books from this author

I enjoyed this book, though didn’t really warm to the main character. It’s a good read though and would recommend.

Creepy, surprising, and tense--impossible to read without putting yourself in the shoes of the protagonist. Definitely recommended for anyone who loves Shari Lapena's thrillers!

Excellent novel!

When I saw this as Read Now on NetGalley, not knowing this author before (a mistake I am now trying to correct by reading all of her books) I was a bit skeptical. It seemed like too good a deal to be true; I loved the synopsis and could just start reading, not even having to wait and see if I were approved? But it was just my lucky day, I guess.

Now BE AWARE: SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

This is a compelling read that goes layer by layer presenting you the main character. You start completely on her side; I mean...what is happening to her is horrible, a true nightmare, right? No one deserves this. And she seems like a normal, OK person. However...as the story moves forward we are better introduced to Kimber. To all her life, all her mistakes, her flaws. She is not an easy character, let me tell you. There were times during the read that made me almost say out loud, "Come on, Kimber!!" But...she is human. She is flawed. Still, her ordeal is still a hard one to follow.

I loved the writing style, the way the reader is believed to be intelligent enough to be shown pieces of info and not to have them shoved in our faces like so many writers do. I also liked the pace, the dialogue, the way the story unfolded.

Absolutely recommend and will now keep this author in my list.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t enjoy this book and struggled to get into it which was disappointing as it sounded good in the description.