There are twenty-seven painted houses in the lovely neighborhood of Melville Heights. Joey Mullen resides in one with her husband, Alfie; they live with Joey's brother Jack and his pregnant wife, Rebecca. Joey is struggling to get her life together after coasting for a while. This attempt isn't helped by the fact that she seems to have developed a crush on her neighbor, Tom Fitzwilliam, who lives two houses down. Tom is a well-known and beloved headmaster, credited for helping several schools improve their outcomes. He lives with his wife and son, Freddie, who closely monitors the neighborhood with his camera and Internet connection. And then there's teenage Jenna Tripp, who attends Tom's school. She's wary of Mr. Fitzwilliam, who seems awfully attached to her friend Bess. It doesn't help that Jenna's mom, who has mental health issues, is convinced Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her. This group of individuals is tied together by Tom Fitzwilliam--and soon by a gruesome murder that will change everyone's lives.

I really enjoy Lisa Jewell's novels and this was another very readable book from her. The chapters are short and quick, with the information flying at us, making you wonder what on earth is going on in Melville and who we can trust. There are a lot of stories going on simultaneously--Jenna, Joey, Freddie, and more--and we can see that they are all loosely related to Tom. So, can we trust him? Is there more to this adored headmaster than meets to the eye? Jewell is highly adept at making you wonder, unable to trust anyone and at keeping you guessing as things slowly unfurl.

The characters in this one were interesting; there are enough of them that you don't get too attached, though I did feel sympathy for poor Jenna, who has a lot to deal with regarding her mother. Mostly, we hurtle along with our group toward their own doom. I worked things out fairly early, but it didn't prevent my enjoyment of this one, as it's very readable and well-done.

Overall, this is an enjoyable, easy read with a puzzling plot and a story that will draw you in from the beginning. 4 stars.

Deliciously thrilling and unpredictable. Imperfectly sympathetic characters. I read it in one sitting.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell is a very highly recommended psychological thriller. Wait for the shocking ending!

As in most neighborhoods, everyone is watching everyone else and they all have secrets. Melville Heights is one of the good neighborhoods in Bristol, England, but that doesn't mean murder can't happen here. We know from the prologue that someone was murdered right from the start - a dead body lies on the kitchen floor at the Fitzwilliam family home - and we know very quickly who the main suspect is as far as the police are concerned. Now let the real fun begin as we are introduced to all the players in this drama and their interconnection to each other as well as the secrets they are trying to hide.

Tom Fitzwilliam is the new head-turning headmaster at the local school. He's charming and loved by everyone - or is he? Joey (Josephine) Mullin and her new husband, Alfie, have just moved back to Bristol. They are living with Jack and Rebecca, her brother and his pregnant wife. Joey quickly becomes infatuated with Tom. Tom's wife, Nicola, ignores her son, worships Tom, and is focused on herself. Tom's son, Freddie, is watching the whole neighborhood and some of the local teenage girls. He likes to keep logs and take photos of what is going on around him. Jenna Tripp and her friend Bess Ridley are two of the girls Freddie is watching. Bess has a crush on Tom, while Jenna is suspicious of him. Jenna's mother, Frances, is stalking Tom and is sure he did something wrong years ago.

This may seem to be a complex tangle of characters, but it was very easy to keep them sorted out as you read. After the prologue, the story then begins, starting three months before and leading up to the murder. Each person has multiple secrets and concerns. The narrative unfolds at an even pace through multiple perspectives and keeps the tension high as each new twist to the multiple story lines unfold. Even when you think you have it figured out, you won't. You will be guessing right up to the unexpected ending and the shocking revelation on the last page.

Watching You is an engrossing and unforgettable psychological thriller. The writing is excellent, as is the development of each character. You may like or dislike them, be understanding or suspicious of them, but you will know each character by the end. And even more importantly, you will be surprised more than once about their secrets.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/12/watching-you.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2625355990
https://www.librarything.com/work/21838949/reviews/163280362
https://twitter.com/SheTreadsSoftly/status/1073273837083656193

I received a copy of "Watching You" from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley! I had heard a lot of good things about Lisa Jewell so I was very excited to read this. I was NOT disappointed! I read this one very fast because I kept wanting to find out what would happen next. I loved the twists and turns with this book and I love that things weren't always what they seemed. I had a lot of ideas as to what all was going to happen and I was surprised in the end and I love that in a suspense/thriller! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves this genre. I will definitely be reading more books by this author!

What do a Headmaster, a student, an awkward teenager, a paranoid/delusional neighbor and a young waitress have in common? Tom Fitzgerald.
Tom Fitzwilliam and his 'perfect' wife and his odd teenage son have had to uproot their lives a number of times. All due in part to Tom's job, currently as a Headmaster of a local private school. Unfortunately for Tom, his past will not remain behind him.
He has curious and admiring neighbors, Joey (who has an intense crush on him) and her husband. He has nosy and paranoid neighbors that watch his home and take pictures, convinced that he is a part of a devious group of people assigned to make the lives of others miserable. He has a wife who he physically abuses (and she him) regularly, and a son who is desperately trying to break free from grasp of them both.
When Tom ends up dead in his kitchen, everyone is questioned, and a surprising connection to the past is made that is closer to home than one would imagine.
Well written and intriguing, you will do you best to figure out the twist in this one.....and it is a doozy!

This was my first read by Lisa Jewell and I have to say that I was very surprised by this book and the twists and turns that it took. I would think I had it figured out and then we would take another turn and I was totally wrong. Brilliantly done by Lisa Jewell that is for sure. I was drawn in from the very beginning and kept turning these pages as fast as I could to find out what was going to happen with these characters. The only downfall of this book is that it had to end.

There are several characters in this story, but at no point in the book was I ever confused or found it hard to keep up with what was going on with the characters or story line. Tom Fitzwilliam is an educator and teaches at one of the local schools. Tom's wife is Nicola and she is an avid runner. We get the feel that Tom spends a lot of time away from her because Nicola is always craving attention. Tom and Nicola have a son Freddie that is a little on the strange side because he likes to watch their neighbors and take pictures of them. Tom has moved his family around because he is good at fixing schools that tend to need some help. When reading this story though, we get the idea that there could be another reason why Tom and his family keep moving all the time, but I don't want to give it away for you.

We also meet Joey and Alfie that have recently married. They move in with Joey's brother and wife, Jack and Rebecca. Jack and Rebecca live right down the street from Tom and Nicola. Jack and Joey are close because their parents have passed away and they are all the family each other has left. Joey has a crush on Tom, one of her teachers, and finds out that her best friend Bess that also attends school with her, begins to have some close encounters with Tom. This story is a good example of taking things out of context and thinking what you want to think on your own instead of what is really happening.

We also meet Jenna whose mom gives Tom reason to believe that she needs to be relocated to live with her father because of how crazy her mom appears to be. Jenna's mom adds the comic relief for me. She was always into something and afraid that everyone was out to get her.

This story is really good and leaves you wondering what is going to happen and how everything will end up for these characters. I can say that you will not regret picking this one up to read, that's for sure. I can't wait to go back and read other books by Lisa Jewell now.

I read and reviewed this book on my own and all the opinion in this review are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the advanced copy of this book!

Deliciously voyeuristic! How well do we really know our neighbors? A quiet, idyllic street in a quaint English town holds more than just beautifully painted houses. Behind each door is someone who mercilessly watches everyone else. Everyone is nosey, and everyone is being watched. The question is: who in this town has dark motives?

Lisa Jewell has created yet another layered and nuanced cast of incredibly flawed characters that will delight fans of her other books. These characters are more commonplace than those in her previous books, but that just adds to the “average town” feel and makes the suspense extra palpable.

This was a fun one with twists and turns that will have you frantically racing towards the exceptional epilogue.

In the last few years Lisa Jewell has won me over and become one of my favorite and most anticipated authors. She reminds me a bit of Ruth Rendell at times in terms of how the mundane can rapidly transform into a roller coaster of frightening in her capable hands. “Watching You” is Jewell at her claustrophobic, character-driven best. No one in this beautiful mess of a book is worthy of your trust or even of your compassion. Or are they? As with her previous work, there are twists and turns and hints are dropped here and there, but the mystery remains a solid one to the bitter end. Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Atria Books for this ARC! Although not as suspenseful as I expected, I really enjoyed this book and uncovering the details around the murder that we learn of at the start. We observe the town of Melville, and it’s a classic case of things not being as they seem. It keeps you wondering until the end, and I loved that

This one is kind of difficult for me to rate. I think i’m gonna settle on 3.75 stars.

This was a really intriguing story and all of the characters were equally intriguing, I liked how all of these neighbors lives were weaves together and telling the story from the different perspectives really worked.

What kind of bummed me out is that I figured out who the killer was kind of early on in the book. I’m normally shocked by the “big reveal” of most thriller novels, so I was kind of surprised that I had it mostly figured out. Overall the book moved a little too slowly for me as well. It wasn’t until about 70% in that it really started to move and exciting things started happening.

I would be intrigued to read another of Jewell’s works in the future, but this one just didn’t blow me away.

Multiple people in the same neighborhood have connections in their lives. They watch one another, think about one another, and keep secrets from one another.

This book has a lot of characters and multiple stories happening. At first, I found this confusing, but once I got the hang of who everyone was and how they were connected, it was an enjoyable read. The characters include Joey and her husband Alfie, Jack and his wife Rebecca, The Fitzwilliams, and Jenna and her mom Frances. Joey and Alfie are young newlyweds who got married after a whirlwind romance. They are living with Joey’s brother Jack and his wife Rebecca. The Fitzwilliams are neighbors, and Joey is attracted to Tom Fitzwilliam. Tom is married to Nicola and they have a son, Freddie. Tom is charming and handsome, and attracts the ladies. Freddie spends his free time spying on the neighborhood. Also in the neighborhood are Jenna and her mother Frances. Jenna is a student at the school where Tom works, and Frances is paranoid and mentally unstable.

These residents of the same neighborhood have current lives that intersect, but some of them also have connections in their past. Making things more interesting, some of the neighbors spend time watching one another, and almost everyone has secrets. When a murder takes place in the neighborhood, secrets start to be revealed.

A character driven psychological thriller. Maybe it’s because I read a lot of thrillers, but the twists didn’t really come as a surprise. It was still an intriguing read, and one I recommend. Dark, complex, and twisted.

I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book sucked me in from page one and kept me intently reading until the end. Lisa Jewell’s writing is very captivating, as shown in her enthralling new psychological thriller. I love books that keep me wondering how everything is possibly going to fit together, and this book did just that! The slow build of suspense was exceptional—it allowed time for me to analyze the story and form some ideas of what was going on. The storyline was a little slower than some may prefer, but it worked for the reading mood I happened to be in. The ending was fine, but it didn’t necessarily wow me. That was probably my least favorite part of the book. I think I was hoping for something really crazy and out there. Instead, I felt like I was left with a few unanswered questions that I would have liked to see addressed. Overall though, I would recommend this book to fans of psychological thrillers and Lisa Jewell.

I have to admit that Watching You is only my second Lisa Jewell novel but with enjoying both of the ones I have read I do see why reviewers are usually raving about her stories. This is another great psychological thriller that is easy to become captivated by once you pick it up. The story is told from multiple points of view but still became easy to follow once getting started.

The book begins with a short diary entry from a young girl in love with her teacher in 1996 before jumping ahead twenty years with a prologue of a murder investigation. You may at this point think what in the world? Who’s murdered? What is going on? But then we get into the meat of the story which jumps back about two and a half months before the murder.

What Lisa Jewell has then done is take us back to this neighborhood before the murder ever happened and slowly introduce all the cast of characters that each have their own secrets and lies to follow. At the center of the story is Tom Fitzwilliam who is a teacher who seems to have a sort of charismatic way of drawing in those around him. Then between the story building up to the murder date we have flashes of the investigation after the murder.

I will admit it took a a few chapters to settle in and get used to the set up with this one but it was hard to put down once I found that groove. This is a bit of a slow build story but that pace complimented the amount of characters and situations happening to give the reader time to familiarize with it all and I didn’t find it to drag the book down the way a lot of slower paced reads are. By the time the ending of the book came around I had guessed this or that and the other but still ended up surprised at how it turned out so I definitely recommend checking this one out.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Lisa Jewell for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller - another great book from one of my favorite authors! 4.5 stars for a engrossing read that was hard to put down!

The book opens with a murder - but we don't know who the victim is - and interspersed in the book are police interview transcripts. In a well-to-do neighborhood in England, neighbors tend to look out for each other but in this case, maybe a bit too much. Everyone seems to be watching and it's hard to keep all those secrets private.

The characters are many - there is the handsome headmaster, Tom Fitzwilliam, who seems to draw women to him; his wife, Nicola, and son, Freddie. Freddie dreams of being a spy and keeps track of the neighborhood with his camera. There's Joey Mullen, newly married and moved back from the islands to live with her brother, Jack, and his wife, Rebecca. Joey soon develops on infatuation with Tom. Jenna is a student at the school Tom heads and is increasingly uncomfortable with some of his actions. Jenna's mom has a mental illness and is convinced that people are spying on her. What secrets do all these people have?

A fast-paced thriller - highly recommended!

This is my first book by Lisa Jewel and I was very eager tos tart reading this after reading the blurb and seeing all the fantastic reviews her previous books had received.
The book multiple characters living in the same neighbourhood and the main focus of the book is on the new headmaster Tom Fitzwilliam brought in to shape the failing local school into a top notch one. All the women as well as school girls seem to be falling head over heels for this charismatic man with perfect manners and a spotless record but is all that shines actually gold? Well, you have to read on to find out.
The book manages to keep the reader on edge right from the start. There are twists and turns aplenty and not a second of boredom. I couldn’t stop turning the pages and finished the book in a single sitting. I loved the pace, the development of each character and I was completely surprised by the ending. I didnt see that coming at all. As a person who reads a lot of thrillers, its very difficult to take me by surprise lately. I almost always manage to predict the ending but here, I was completely surprised in the best way possible.
I am happy to say that my first Lisa Jewel book managed to leave me mighty impressed and I cannot wait to read more of her books. I highly recommend for fans of a good thriller

I finished Watching You by Lisa Jewell today. I really liked how Jewell had this story unfold. Different perspectives, letters, police interviews...I was worried about there being too many characters but it didn’t bother me at all! This is my second book by the author, and now I’m off to find a copy of The House We Grew Up In before a friend scolds me again. 😉
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this egalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. This book comes out December 26th!

Sadly, my file did not work past page 250. However, I probably would not have finished this book. The characters were not multi-dimensional, and I felt the story starting to fall flat around page 150-200. I tried my best to make it to the end, but again my file did not allow me to read the last 60 or so pages.

As a young girl, I always aspired to live in a large city so that I could be anonymous, no small town where everyone would know my business. I achieved that for most of my life, living in some of the largest metropolises in the world. Lisa Jewell's new novel, Watching You, demonstrates my nightmare. A wealthy enclave in Bristol, England, is a place where the moneyed people live, but the houses are close enough so that you can see what your neighbor is doing just by glancing out the window. If you have binoculars, as Freddie Fitzwilliam, a fifteen-year-old student does, you can become the town spy.

Jewel's gift is to take all the tiny pieces of peoples lives, every bit of detail and put it into a jigsaw puzzle that, in the end, came together and made me think, Ah yes, so that is how it happened. The protagonists Tom Fitzwilliam, a 'super head' of the local school and a young woman named Joey Mullen, set off the sparks that made this a fascinating read, done at breakneck speed. I had to get to the end!

I love Lisa Jewell's writing and recommend this book and all of her other many twisty stories.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

*4.5 stars

This book was unputdownable! At the beginning we know that a murder happened but you don't know who it is and what happened. From there we go back a few months to how it all started. Told through several POV's from a neighborhood where everybody is watching, this will take you in all different directions. Nobody sees the same thing and everyone has their own interpretation. This really made the story interesting. It was fast-paced and compelling. I highly recommend to mystery lovers!!

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anyone who wants to read a real page-turner won't be disappointed with this book. The characters are interesting, the writing is very good, and the story has plenty of red herrings to keep every mystery lover riveted. The only slight negative for me is - - why do authors have two main characters with names starting with the same letter?! It drove me crazy for the first half of the book. Joey? Jenna? Let's see - - which one is this now - - making me pause for a minute or two before getting on with it.

The explosive ending of the book was quite different than it seemed the story was going. Love it when that happens! This was a very entertaining read!