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.

Lisa Jewell's new book, Watching You, keeps the reader in suspense as they realize that no one is who you think they are and everyone is hiding something. The book is skillfully written and Jewell continues to unfold the story and keep the reader guessing until the very last page!
It took me a while to keep all of the characters and their stories straight, but I was hooked very quickly trying to figure out what was going on. Highly recommended!

*I received an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 Stars

Watching You is not particularly suspenseful or thrilling, but more of an observational novel of a community told from the perspective of those that live there and who like to take community watch a little too far at times. It is slow building but the payoff is worth it.

It's told from three POVs, Joey, a mid-20s girl living with her husband at her brother's and sister-in-law's house, Jenna, a teenage girl who's mom suffers from paranoid delusions, and Freddie, an introverted teen who likes to take pictures of the people in his neighborhood from his window. Besides living on the same street, they are all tied together by Tom Fitzwilliam. He's head teacher at Jenna's school, Freddie's dad, and Joey's crush. Tom exudes a magnetism that draws people to him (like Joey) but can also make people suspicious of him (like Jenna).

As Joey, Jenna, and Freddy navigate changes in their lives things slowly start to unravel as past secrets revolving around Tom come to light. This is where Jewell's writing really shines. She throws in small details and some red herrings that you don't think much of until the climax when someone in their community is murdered. A few more twists happen before we discover the truth behind the murder and the past. It is a satisfying end that made the earlier lack of suspense worth it.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for my ARC of this book!

I am a huge thriller/suspense fan, but this is the first Lisa Jewell book I have ever read. The chapters are all narrated by different characters, none of whom I found particularly likeable. This, coupled with the fact that I thought I could see where the story was going, made it difficult for me to become invested in the book. I kept picking the book up and putting it down.

Jewell did a good job of tying everything together in the end, and although the book didn’t head in the direction I thought it was going to initially, I am sad to say I still didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it either, this story just wasn’t for me. Jewell’s writing was good though and I would be open to reading more of her books in the future.

With more twists and turns than San Francisco’s famed Lombard Street, WATCHING YOU by Lisa Jewell takes the reader hostage with a rollercoaster ride of a novel where everyone is watching everyone and no one is quite what they seem. This is a tale where stalking, sociopathy, devotion, secrets and betrayal play roles in the tangled plot and just when you think you have it all figured out you are blindsided by another development.

Jewell is at her page-turning best —not only providing an engrossing story but also examining the long lasting effects of the evils of bullying while taking a close look at Asperger’s and untreated mental illness and human nature in general. All of her characters are well developed and all of them are confronted by complications and obstacles, presenting an intriguing premise that completely involves the reader.

I like the author's writing style and the way she develops not only the story but the personalities and problems of each of her characters. Ms. Jewell gives you a clue here in there about what’s really going on but she doesn't disclose which parts you should be paying particular attention to.

WATCHING YOU is most definitely the ticket for lovers of well written and engrossing psychological thrillers that portray what happens when worlds collide.

Lisa Jewell usually delivers on her books and this one is no exception. I thought it started off slow and it had many POVS which can be annoying but eventually worked for the story. I was guessing up until about 75% when it clicked who did the murder but the remaining story was still good. She tied it up nicely.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Watching You by Lisa Jewell is a creepy thriller that will make you feel genuine chills. At least, it did for me.

The story is about a group of very different people living in the Melville Heights neighborhood in Bristol, England. It’s an upscale neighborhood so while it’s perhaps not the place where criminal activity is expected, everyone sure has a secret. While there are several characters throughout the novel, there are four main ones: Tom Fitzwilliam, the local school headmaster that everyone seems infuriated with, including his neighbor Joey Mullen who develops an obsessive crush. Then there’s Tom’s teenaged son Freddie who adopts an odd hobby of spying on the entire neighborhood. Lastly, we have Jenna Tripp, who also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems.

Sometimes when you read suspense novels, you can see right where the story will go. There’s been several novels where I’ve predicted how it will end fairly early on. Safe to say, that did not happen with story. Jewell definitely uses plenty of misdirection and when the reveals come, I was surprised. And that’s exciting! We want stories to take us on our ride and this one definitely does. The reveals come even at the very last page.

There’s lots of twists and turns that happen throughout this read and plenty to discuss. This is a great book club read.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love staying up late, finishing a Lisa Jewell novel. I was unsure who was responsible to the very end, I was engrossed with every turn and tangle. I really enjoyed the writing style and would high recommend this thriller of Lisa Jewell fans!!
Thank you for an advanced copy of this novel1

I love Lisa Jewell's writing - she is one of my favorite authors. I liked this book but didn't love it as much as I liked her previous book Then She Was Gone. This book was an interesting murder mystery but I figured out who done it way early on but I didn't figure out why or who was killed until it was revealed in the story. This book started out a bit slow for me as all of the characters were being introduced but it gradually took steam and I enjoyed seeing how the characters connect into the story. Excellent writing by Lisa Jewell. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book to review.

WOW, the ending of this book is not one I could have seen coming. Even as it started to unfold towards the end, I wasn't sure how it would all come together. The chapters jump back and forth between different characters narrating and there are some "official documents" in between some chapters so you get an inkling as to where it's going to end up but you can't quite get all the pieces to fit! This was a quick, page turning read!

Watching You by Lisa Jewell begins in Melville Heights in England, at a crime scene with a dead body and a red shoe tassle. We don't know who it is, why it happened, or what led up to this. But you will certainly find out.

The weeks leading up to the murder introduces many characters, that I seriously don't think I would want to call my own friends. Tom Fitzwilliam is the headmaster at the local school, his much younger wife, Nicola absolutely loves her husband, and their sometimes odd son Freddie. Freddie seems to be wise beyond his years and like to 'see' the goings on in the neighborhood. Next door, you have a heart surgeon, his wife Rebecca, who works from home, and their newly married sister, Joey with her husband also living there. Joey can be described as a hot-mess. Bring on Jenna, a student in Tom's school and her mom, who clearly has some mental health issues.

Even though the book starts with a mystery, we soon learn of the many secrets of each character. Some are secret crushes, some worry they are being stalked, there are secrets about situations adults and children should never be part of. Each person seems to be watching the other, waiting for the pieces and truths to be told, and when they do...it will surprise the pants off of you. It was a little slow in the beginning, but the pace picked up throughout the story.

I enjoyed this book. I would like to thank Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this book.

20-something Joey is desperately trying to grow up - moving home with her new husband that she married on a bit of a whim, the newlyweds move in with Joey's successful husband and his aloof new wife. Joey soon meets the neighbors, including the respected school headmaster that lives a couple doors down. She is inexplicably drawn to him, which does not go unnoticed by his teenage son, Freddie. Thus begins a tangled web of neighbors watching neighbors, all with their own stories and angles...

I delved into this book and finished it within the weekend! It was definitely a new take on the classic, common psychological thriller that is ever-so-popular. Lisa Jewell found a way to tell numerous different stories from a point of view that oversees all. I was honestly wondering how all the characters would interact and come together when suddenly - they did. It was a slow burn kind of read, one that draw you to the flame and keeps you up and interested. I truly enjoyed the surprising end, and I only discovered the "who did what" a few pages before it was actually revealed in the novel.

Excellent read for anyone that loves a psychological thriller with a bit of romance from a full cast of characters.

It was gripping story. Even though there were a lot of characters to remember the story comes together. I am a true fan of this author and can't wait until her next book comes out.

4 stars.*

This is the second Lisa Jewell book I've had the pleasure of reading, and I have to say...I really enjoy her writing style. I enjoy psychological thrillers in general, but I'm stingy with my ratings unless a book truly surprises me. Watching You definitely kept me guessing right up until the afterword. This one earns a full four stars.

Watching you is a story that takes place in Melville Heights, an upscale neighborhood of Bristol, England. It is the story of neighbors living in the idyllic painted Victorian homes at the peak of the village.

It contains a cast of interesting characters:

Tom Fitzwilliam-the headmaster of the local school, brought in to turn things around. He's either utterly charming and truly wants the best for the students or he's abjectly grooming young girls for his own despicable desires. He's bright, good-looking, and radiates sexual heat to women of all ages.

Joey & Alfie are unsettled, MIllennial newlyweds living 2-doors down in the home of Joey's successful older brother Jack and his pregnant wife, Rebecca. Joey develops an infatuation with Tom after running into him at the neighborhood pub and after a few drinks, she attempts to seduce him. He deflects her attention, but somehow maintains an air of flirtatiousness and encourages her crush.

Tom has a beautiful, enigmatic wife, Nicola, and an odd teenaged son, Freddie, who sits and looks out of his upper-story window, taking photos and writing the "Melville Papers" about his neighborhood observations. Is his behavior innocent or menacing? Is his interest in the teenaged girls (students at Tom's school) the normal wishful watching of a socially awkward kid, or is he dangerous?

Add a few well-crafted side characters, and you have a really terrific, gripping thriller. I will certainly recommend this one to my fellow psychological thrillers.

*With thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.