A book with a spooky premise - someone has moved into a woman's house, changed the locks, and forged a lease agreement that convinces the cops he has a right to be there. She knows otherwise, given the stranger whispers to her "I know what you did." The reader also gradually begins to understand what she did - and why she has tried to put it behind her. If you are looking for a psychological thriller with an interestingly imperfect heroine, this should do the trick.

This book was good. The beginning really hooked you, then in middle it got real slow. Last half of book was intense but ending fell real short. I wish the intensity would have been consistent throughout whole book.

A solid entry into the genre, but nothing spectacular. While the premise was good, the story just never quite grabbed me.

What would you do if you returned home to find someone living in your house? Lance has a signed lease and insists that Kimber rented her house to her. This is just the beginning of an untangling of lies and secrets that Kimber has built her life on. When Kimber accidentally knocks her renter to the ground he whispers in her ear "I was there, I saw what you did". Who is is man and what secrets does he know and how does he know them. When the next door neighbor dies, Kimber is convinced that her "renter" did the deed. Answering the question of "who is this man"leads Kimber to find out things about her father that she didn't want to know.

YOU PUT YOUR KEY IN THE LOCK. The door won't open. THE HOUSE SHOULD BE EMPTY. But someone else is here.
There's a stranger living in Kimber Hannon's house. He tells the police that he has every right to be there, and he has the paperwork to prove it.Kimber definitely didn't invite this man to move in. He tells her that he knows something about her, and he wants everyone else to know it too.

"I was there. I saw what you did."
These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. This trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her charming Craftsman bungalow. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life—and destroy it.

I really liked the concept of this story and I'm glad I read it, however I didn't like the characters. The dialogue does have a realistic vibe to it and the writing is done very well. My favorite character would have to be the dog, Mr. Tuttle. I'm a sucker for dogs/animals.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict
Pub Date: 05 Feb 2019

Sadly I did not connect with this book at all. The premise is intriguing: Kimber comes home from a trip to find that someone has moved into her house, but she has no recollection of when or why that happened.

I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care who took over whose house or why, and I just didn't care for this book at all.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kimber has a great job, her own home, which is her sanctuary, and complete control over her life. Or does she? When comes home after a long weekend away, eager to get into her home, she finds that her key does not work. Totally confused, she discovers a man living there, saying that he has a lease agreement to be there. Little by little, Kimber finds that her perfectly-controlled life, is not in her hands, anymore!

This is a very suspenseful story with many surprises along the way. The twists and turns make it impossible to figure out until the very end. The realistic characters make this story come to life. What a ride!

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.

This book was unreadable. Had a great idea but the writing style was awful. I didn't connect with any of the characters and honestly didn't care who took over her house.

This was a fast paced enjoyable read with some unexpected twists and turns. I have to admit at the start of this book I felt sorry for Kimber but as the book played out I wasn't so sure. Although some parts of the book were easily predictable and not surprising other parts I didn't predict so it was a fun read overall and I would def recommend it to all lovers of suspense. This is a new author for me but I'd def read more of her stuff.

A very twisted book and very readable .
This is a page turner
With a gripping thriller
I had an ARC from Mulhodden books

A Stranger Inside is a deeply unsettling psychological thriller that hits close to home. Imagine this being someones real life! It gives me the absolute chills. I found this book to be not only unsettling, but very original as well. I look forward to reading more of the authors novels in the near future.

The Stranger Inside# NetGally#
Laura Benedict

This is the first book I have read by this author, but it will not be my last. I loved everything about this book! Her style of writing is so easy to follow and just makes you want to read the entire book in one sitting. Which is what t I did! I loved the characters in this book, especially Kimber and Jenny. It is a good psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. It truly was a thriller! It has a little bit of all the factors that make a book work. It has mystery, family, love, sex (though not too gritty), and, did I mention mystery?! I wanted the book to go on and was sorry when it ended. So to Ms Benedict, I say bravo for an outstanding new novel. I will definitely be recommending this book to my family and friends.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGally for making it possible for an advanced read copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Stranger Inside was a fun page turner. What would you do if someone took over your house & changed all the locks?!? While I could not relate to, or even like, any of the characters I wanted to know what would happen next. The flash back chapters kept the story moving & answered question quickly. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The main idea of The Stranger Inside was a new and different one for me. To come home after a long weekend to find a stranger in your house, your locks changed, and for the stranger to have documents showing that you rented the home to him? Terrifying! That is what pulled me into this book, made me want to read it. so many thrillers lately focus on the same topics, this seemed new and different. An idea I think most people would find terrifying. When the police essentially take the squatters side? Even worse!
The problem I had with the book, though, and the reason for the 3 star rating is that the main character, Kimber is just SO unlikable. I had to keep reminding myself that she was the victim and that I was supposed to be cheering her on. As the story developed, her character just kept getting worse and worse. I found myself hoping that she would be thrown in jail or arrested just to get her out of the story. It was just very difficult to keep myself reading this book. I think if Kimber's character had been more reliable or just a nicer person, it would have worked better all around.
Overall, I think it has a good idea, I think there are interesting elements to the story. But I just hated Kimber too much.
Very grateful to Net Gallery for the opportunity to preview this book.

So, I'm having a hard time rating this one and here's why - the story is good! I like the past/present narrative (one told from each sister's perspective), and I appreciate how, while there are a lot of moving pieces, everything eventually comes together.

That said, I'm still feeling a little meh on it because it gets to be a little overzealous (extra, as the kids say!) as each piece of the story is revealed. I genuinely feel like the whole family story was enough on it's own and worked really well, the book didn't need the Gabriel/Brianna storyline to make it work. It would've been more than enough for her to have the ex-boyfriend thing happening, and her job could've easily had problems just by virtue of her bringing bad publicity to the station. Obviously, I'm not the editor, but I kind of wish that piece would've been left out. The story still all tied together well and all the pieces were made to fit, I think the book would've felt more cohesive that way.

Again - it's a good story! I enjoyed it and it hooked me right from the start, so it's one that I'll recommend to someone looking for a page turner.

This book had me gripped from start to finish and I read it in under 24 hours. The writing is strong and the plot is intricate and expertly woven from past to present, cleverly keeping the reader hanging from 'then' to 'now.'
I enjoyed the way that most of the characters (including the protagonist) are most certainly not what they seem to begin with and keep the reader guessing as to who to trust. It's a story that explores the complexities of family relationships, guilt and self-destruction. It does make a change to read a book via a narrator who is so complex and has more than a few skeletons that keep tipping through the pages. Some very sad parts also. Authentic dialogue and the sheer amount of twists and turns made the read well worth it for me. 
Now though, I need to read something a little lighter to get me back in the Christmas mood!

The stranger inside is addictive ! I could not put this down ! I was dying to know why this man is inside her house and what really happened that day to her sister ? I loved every twist and turn and sadly the deaths that came with each twist. The only thing I noticed in my e-copy was that flashbacks said 199_ so you never knew what year it was suppose to be. Not sure if that’s intentional but I do enjoy seeing the dates helps me relate it better. Overall though very happy for this ARC and will be recommending it to as many people as I can !

Ok. But found the characters quite hard to relate to. I wanted to know what happened but the lack of empathy with the main character spoiled it.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Imagine coming home from vacation to find that a stranger has moved into your home. Locks have been changed, and there is a rental agreement with your signature on it. This is the predicament the man character is faced with in this new Laura Benedict novel. The premise was promising and the writing was good, but I found it difficult to connect with the main character in any way. While there were many twists and turns, it seemed to me to be a bit far-fetched that one person could know that many mentally unbalanced people. Still, it was interesting and kept me reading to the end.

This book should have been more gripping than it was. It certainly had the intrigue and suspense as you didn’t know who Kimber could trust. However, I think because Kimber was so unlikeable it was hard to get into because you found yourself not really caring about her. She is the victim to what has happened to her, but the more you read, the more you wonder if she is getting her comeuppance?
What I kept finding it hard to get my head around were the flashbacks, these were written in Kimber’s sister Michelle’s voice. However, the tone they were written in was the same tone as the rest of the book, but we know from these flashbacks that Kimber isn’t a nice person. However, she is written as the victim in the current chapters as is Michelle in the past chapters, so that was disorientating. I had to keep remembering that the Kimber we were getting to know was the same person as the sister to Michelle. They felt like different people.
Overall, it was a good read, and I enjoyed it, but there was just something that just didn’t grip me and stopped this book being an unputdownable book which it should have been.