Lisa Jewell is one of my favorite authors. I was so excited to be approved by Netgalley and Atria Books to be able to get my hands on this eARC! Once again Jewell did not disappoint!

This book was different from the others. It was a slow start for me and it seemed to take me awhile to actually get into it, despite the fact that from the get-go we knew a murder occurred.

This book alternates character viewpoints along with quite a few characters, so I quickly learned that reading it 15-20 minutes at a time when I had a chance was not an option. Normally I have no issues picking up where I left off in a book, but with this I was confused and had to re-read a few pages back from where I left off.

Once I found bigger chunks of time to devote to this thriller it was fun and exciting reading! The cast of characters is diverse, interesting and I think every reader can relate to one or more in the story. Over the course of the book we begin to see how all the characters relate to the murder and the wheels start turning as to who could have done it. The plot was complicated enough to keep me intrigued but not so much that it overwhelmed and confused me.

I was surprised to learn who the murder actually was! I had no clue up until the end! Once the murderer was revealed it was fun to think back on all the hints and clues that were dropped throughout the story.

This was a solid 4 stars for me. Not my favorite Jewell book, but a very good read!

Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for allowing me a copy to read and give my honest review.


Watching You is set to be released December 26, 2018 here in the United States! It makes for the perfect after Christmas reading so pre-order it now!

Happy Reading!

Tom Fitzwilliam is the charismatic handsome headmaster of a school in Bristol. He has a reputation as a teacher who is able to fix things, get schools on the right track, and attain the respect and adoration of parents (especially the women) and students (especially the young girls). Tom and his family have moved many times as Tom's achievements rack up in school after school. Tom his wife, Nicola, and son, Freddie, an odd young man who has a penchant for picture taking, binocular viewing, and keeping both eyes glued on his neighbors (especially the women) and others populate this book.

The neighborhood is ritzy and the neighbors like Frances Tripp, who is obsessed with the notion she is being gang stalked, to Frances's daughter, Jena, who seems to be drawn into Tom's Fitzwilliam's aura. Jena suspects Tom is luring her best friend, Bess, into an inappropriate relationship so she distrusts Tom. Another neighbor is Joey Mullen, newly married to Alfie, but casting her eyes upon Tom as she feels an overwhelming attraction. Adding to all of this creepiness, there had been a death twenty years ago that hinges on a young girls obsession with.... you guessed it.......Tom.

Another death occurs, a horrible stabbing, and all eyes are turned to Tom who has seemed to be a catalyst to the goings on over the years. Is Tom the murderer and what have those prying eyes seen? Do they have the key that holds this mystery or is the killer one you would never suspect?

This tight thriller was an energetic read allowing the reader to become comfortable and relaxed into thinking they knew who the murderer was but wow that ending! It had all the twists and turns that make for a well contrived thriller making it such a conundrum. So much for thinking you had it all figured out!

Many thanks to Lisa Jewell who keep me up late at night reading, Atria, and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this upcoming book.

This is the perfect book to read if you like twisty plots and characters that surprise you. Tom Fitzwilliam may be masterful as a headmaster but will his past catch up to him? So fun to see the different secrets be peeled away page by page. Don't miss out on the suspense!

Lisa Jewell writes another fabulous thriller! I loved this book so much! The perspective changes, and just when I thought I had it figured out, the twist was really surprising.

Compelling and compulsively readable, fans of I Found You will devour this newest novel by Lisa Jewell. I couldn't put it down.

Not so sure about the integrity of the whole lot of Jewell's characters but she does bring them to life - flaws and all. The story is full of twists and it bounces from one character to the next so you have to pay attention as you read. Jewell's short chapters help with that. Tenison builds as you read. I enjoyed the twist at the end and the lesson of the long-reaching effects of bullying. All in all, it is a good psychological mystery.

Joey Mullen has just returned home with her new husband Alfie after four years abroad. To save money they are living with Joey’s older brother and pregnant wife. Joey still considers herself something of a screw-up but trying to be more mature. So, finding herself infatuated with her 50-something headmaster neighbor Tom Fitzwilliam is not what she should be doing. But, as she is watching him, someone is watching her, too.

This is a fascinating character-driven story that delves into the dark side of human nature. Just when you think you have things figured out Jewell adds that final twist!

Do you ever finish a book and you're not entirely sure what just happened or if you liked it? While I LOVED Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, I can't say that Watching You lived up to my expectations. I struggled to get into this book, but was cheered on by a few friends on bookstagram who had deemed it un-put-down-able.

Nestled in a nice suburb, where all eyes are on all of the town's citizens, a gruesome murder happens. The book switches between perspectives as well as time periods and police depositions, which helped to keep the plot moving. Most of the characters seem like they could be guilty, and the reader is strung along until the very end to learn who the real killer is. This book left me wondering why the author waited for the last 50 pages to piece everything together, and some of the characters seemed a little flat, and at times not necessarily relevant.

I feel like this is more 2.5/5 stars than a 3. Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read Watching You in advance.

This is a solid 3.5 star thriller, yet nothing special. As always, Lisa Jewell gives us a page-turner that involves some secrets amongst the characters, a British setting, and some twists in the end that are intriguing. In her latest book, an interesting collection of people live in a fancy neighborhood in Bristol, up in the Heights where a young boy takes pictures of everyone, a mother with mental illness haunts the streets, a sister tries to get her life together as she lives with her brother and his wife, a girl tries to protect her friend, and a school head is either a compassionate kindly teacher who wants to help students in trouble, or he's a creepy pedophile who should know better. Good for a beach read if you're looking for a quick page-turner, but not nearly complex enough to keep my brain thinking or deep enough into development to care for these characters.

I will be honest the first 80% of the book is about a village and four of its citizens. It tells a story of adultery, a coming of age teenager who has Aspergers, a teenager who is living with a mom that has a mental illness. I was fine with the story exploring each aspect of these characters. However at the 80% we find that there is a murder and it may be related to an event that happened years ago.

I will be honest, if we follow the characters involved in the murder along with what happened to the original event that would make it an interesting story. But alas that was not the case.

This book was disjointed. It felt like I spent most of the time reading a red herring only to discover that there was a different story altogether that we should have been paying attention.

This was a middle of the road book for me when it comes to rating. I enjoyed reading despite the problematic plot points.

A gripping page-turner with intriguing characters and no shortage of twists and turns. Another great read from Lisa Jewell!

This was such a good book! I love reading a book that makes you think one thing, then has a plot twist. This book successfully does that.

This book was a little slow going for me in the beginning but it turned out to be a good read with many flawed characters and lots of twists. It was very suspenseful with a very complex story line that was both gripping and disturbing. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lisa Jewell is back at it again with an amazing thriller! She gives me CHILLS I TELL YOU! CHILLS! And to be completely honest, she is the only author to do so. I first read Jewell when I picked "Then She Was Gone" as my Book of the Month pick, and read it in one sitting. I think I stayed up until 2am that night, which is no easy feat when you are in graduate school and working full-time. Nevertheless, I persisted. 
"Then She Was Gone" was a book I told everyone about it. The dead hamster thing really did a number on me, and I told work colleagues, other graduate students, family members, etc., about this terrifying novel. So when I saw that she had a new book coming out, I was super excited and requested a copy on Net Galley. I was lucky enough to be granted readership, and well, here we are!

I read this one within two days, and brought my eReader with me everywhere I went to ensure that I could maximize reading time. 

This book follows several narratives, in particular that of Joey, a young woman who finds herself infatuated with the "boy-next-door", a handsome teacher who is several years older and who's reputation proceeds him. Her crush on this teacher, Tom Fitzwilliam, escalates throughout the novel. Tom's son, Freddie, is also a point of view we encounter. Freddie is interesting; he is warm and means well, but makes some questionable, even creepy decisions at times that emulate what we think his father must be like as well. Then, lastly, we have Jenna, a student of Tom Fitzwilliam who is skeptical of his relationship with her best friend, Bess. 

All we know in the beginning is that someone has been murdered. We don't know who, or why. And so, the story unfolds, following these various perspectives and blossoming into a spine-tingling thriller.
Some authors get notoriety for a novel, and then try to attempt a second that follows the same genre, and fail miserably. That is NOT the case with Jewell. She has maintained her momentum, and met the expectations of her readers. I was so glad she was an exception to the rule. 

Anything Jewell writes, I will read... and I will likely need to talk it through with anyone and everyone I see, LOL!

4 Super Creepy Stars.

Lisa Jewell’s latest novel gives a different meaning to the phrase “neighborhood watch association.” In the case of “Watching You” the motive however, is obsession.


It’s unhealthy, it’s unwelcome and yes, it’s salacious and I couldn’t get enough.

Joey and her husband Alfie are newlyweds who recently moved in with her brother Jack and his wife Rebecca. Joey has developed an unnatural interest in their neighbor, Tom Fitzsimmons, the Headmaster at School. Tom & his wife Nicola’s teenage son, Freddie, takes photos of all the neighbors and the girls in school which he keeps for “informational purposes.” Jenna’s best friend Bess, has a mad crush on Tom. Jenna’s mum is fixated on Tom too.. but she has her reasons - and is convinced that he’s up to something. Could it be? Tom’s past sure seems a bit shady, but then he might just be a regular bloak, trying to eek out an existence, in a town full of people just like him.

Everyone in the village sure appears to be infatuated with Tom! What is it about this guy? Sounds like a guy I need to meet! Baah! (JK!)

Of course, I think we all know that obsession never turns out well! Not in psychological thrillers and certainly not real life. Lisa Jewell’s latest suspense “Watching You” made my stomach churn and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It was a super fast read that had me totally engrossed from the first to the very last page even though I guessed the ending. A must-read for mystery / suspense fans!

This was a fabulous buddy read with Kaceey! We’ve now read several Lisa Jewell novels together and I can’t wait for our next one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Lisa Jewell for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley, Goodreads and Twitter on 11.10.18.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Publish Date: January 9, 2019

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Atria Books for the ebook ARC of Watching You by Lisa Jewell in exchange for an honest review.

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, England. It is home to doctors, lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster, Tom Fitzwilliam ics credited with turning around the local school, and who is beloved by all - including Joey Mullen, his new neighbour. Joey quickly develops an intense infatuation with this charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Freddie, Tom’s teenaged son - a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for M15 - excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

Jenna Tripp, one of Tom’s students, also live on the same street and she is not convinced that her teacher is squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing he has taken a liking to her best friend and fellow classmate , Bess and also Jenna’s mother - whose mental health is deteriorating and she is also convinced that Mr.Fitzwilliam is stalking her.
Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, her obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam.

I give this book a rating of 5 stars and I highly recommend it. This book was so hard to put down. The whole time you know something has happened and that someone is murdered, but you don’t know exactly who it is. The book is slowly revealing secrets and leading you up to this shocking ending. I really enjoyed this thriller by Lisa Jewell. I have also read Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. She definitely does not disappoint with her novels that I have read. I am looking forward to reading more by her!

This book opens with a police woman processing a crime scene an unidentified person lies dead on the kitchen floor. We then rewind to two months earlier. Joey Mullen is newly married to Alfie she met him at a resort in Ibiza. Broke and jobless she moves into her brothers home. Soon she’s working at a bar and Alfie is starting to paint people’s homes. Joeys brothers wife is pregnant and about to have a baby and Joey just feels like something is missing in her life, she starts to become obsessively infatuated with her charismatic but very married neighbor Tom Fitzwilliam. He is the new headmaster at a local private school. Tom seems to have the perfect life he’s a father to a very intelligent son, he’s hopelessly in love with his wife. Toms son Freddie is a bit of a loner he sits up in his room and watches people through his binoculars and takes pictures of the neighbors. One of the neighbors he always sees is constantly following his dad and his mom and she’s always yelling at them and hiding and watching. Freddie starts to realize maybe his dad isn’t as perfect as he comes off as. What is his father doing with the neighbor Joey and why does the other neighbor constantly stalk his mom and dad? When he hears that his dad may have a sordid past and maybe linked to an apparent suicide of a former female student he starts to ask questions which lead to more questions. He realize everyone is watching everyone and everyone is hiding something in there small village. This is a slow boil book there are a lot of characters to keep track of. It’s seems like everyone in this book has something to hide and don’t get me started on the ending it left me with more questions! This book is definitely is a book I had to discuss with fellow readers to figure it all out!

This book kept me engrossed the whole time. When Joey and her new husband move into her brother and his wife's house, Joey does not expect to become infatuated with neighbor Tom Fitzwilliam. In fact, it seems that there are several women who are infatuated with Tom. Tom is the local headmaster of a nearby school and very well liked by the community. But as the characters reveal their true selves, the reader starts to realize that some of them may be quite unreliable. Alternating chapters between the different characters as well as a police investigation into the death of one of the characters keeps the reader guessing and keeps the plot moving along quite nicely. This book was a hard one to put down. A fantastic read for fans of suspense and mystery. My favorite Lisa Jewell book as of yet!

Thank you to Netgalley, Lisa Jewell, and Atria Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Watching You is a multi-genre character-driven mystery that plays on perspective.

The story opens with a murder in the exclusive enclave in Melville, Bristol. The reader only knows that someone has been killed and a red boot tassle has been found at the scene of the crime.

Tom Fitzwilliam is considered to be a superstar in the world of education. Brought in to fix a school on the brink of failure, Tom has charmed both the locals and the students. Women throw themselves at him and men want to be him. In spite of those who admire Tom, there are those who see right through his polished veneer. They wonder if he is too close to his students? They wonder if he cheats on his wife? His own son questions whether or not his father is a good man.

Alternating POVs make up the narrative:Joey, a married woman infatuated with Tom, Jenna, a student at Tom’s school, and Freddie, Tom’s son. Police interviews with various witnesses and suspects are also woven in, as well as brief POV’s from the head detective. I didn’t love the characters--Joey was a bit whiny and Freddie was an oddball. I did like Jenna's character. While I don’t always enjoy multiple POV’s, in this case, they serve a purpose as they both cast doubt and exonerate Tom.

Watching You is really about perspective. What one character might see, another does not. The narratives people build from watching one another lead to discovering truths but also to great inaccuracies.

What I liked about Watching You was that with every narrative shift, my perspective on Tom changed. I made up my mind about him early on, which made this even more interesting to read once the truth was revealed. I did find the pacing a bit slow in the beginning and the narrative to be a bit disconnected, but everything came together eventually. As always, Lisa Jewell changes her style from book to book so I am never really sure what to expect, which is one of the things I enjoy about reading her novels. I figured out one of the twists, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Overall, I enjoyed watching these characters watch each other!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.

Watching You was a well-titled and certainly creepy story for many reasons. I felt a bit like a voyeur watching the inner workings of others lives with all their secret thoughts and issues on display before me. It held the dread of inappropriate relationships and misguided lives fraught with missteps and others that were left devastated. There were many complex characters with struggles of their own and this story weaves their tales together in one way or another. And as each perspective is disclosed, you get another piece of the puzzle, soon realizing that one person’s observations may not always be accurate or even the truth. There were parts that did drag a bit, though I realize each part was a necessary part of the story building.

This story is unique in that the author starts with the final events of the story and then leads the reader back revealing bit by bit how events unfolded and ended up as they did, saving the last shock for the very end. Also included, scattered throughout the narrative, are police reports giving the plot a more authentic feel.

This story definitely had its twists and turns and was full of shocking surprises, and ultimately was a very creepy and disturbing story.