This one was interesting. It took me a while to really get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. Slow to start, this book has so much misdirection that by the end you don't really know what to think about anyone - but in a good way.

A great book about secrets and lies and abuse and what happens when we try to keep everything locked inside and papered over, this novel is a good read for all fans of dark and twisty psychological thrillers.

I had been reading so many 4 and 5 star ratings for "Watching You" by Lisa Jewell that I was getting worried. I find that if my expectations are so high, that I am often disappointed. I need not to have worried. Lisa Jewell penned a very good psychological thriller that I had a hard time putting down. She develops her characters slowly, dropping tidbits about their lives so you get to know them as if you have met them. In this story, the area called Melville Heights is home to the various people who populate this story. From students and their families, neighbours who are a bit off and the headmaster, Tom, and his family there is quite a group of them and several of them are watching one another. Why are they watching? They have their reasons. At the centre of the story is Tom Fitzwilliam, the hot shot teacher who's come to town to clean up a troubled school. As he works on making the school good again, he is making the ladies swoon. For some reason his charm, wit and fairly run-of-the-mill dad looks appeal to everyone, making the females weak in the knees and the males wishing they were him. Everyone that is, except Jenna Tripp and her mother who know Tom Fitzwilliam is up to no good. Jenna’s best friend Bess however, is another story and obsession is putting her feelings towards Mr. Fitzwilliam lightly.

I enjoyed this character driven psychological thriller. It was a quick, fun and fast-paced story. The story starts with a bang, a murder scene and then we weave through the lives of the characters until we find out who the murderer is. I enjoyed this plot, and loved how all of these characters in the neighborhood are linked together with invisible, twisty, threads. It's a slow build with just the exact amount of mystery to keep you turning the pages. I thought I had it all figured out based on the clever hints and clues dropped throughout the book and I was partially correct, but oh that final twist, I did not see that coming. Unfortunately, I have one niggle and that is the epilogue. It ties up all the loose ends in a "nice" way that I just didn't think was necessary. It felt very rushed to me. If it wasn't for that, this would have been a 5 star read for me instead of 4.5 stars.. Every Lisa Jewell book I read, cements her higher on my list of favourite authors. The publisher, Atria Books, generously provided me with a copy of this book to read upon my request. The rating, opinions and ideas are my own.

Lisa Jewell's newest novel, Watching You, features a wide cast of characters and plays with perception in such a well done, subtle way that the reader truly never knows what's coming next. And if you're like me and you try to figure it all out as you read, there will still almost certainly be a few surprises. 

Watching You is about a neighborhood. There's the happily married couple who are pregnant with their first child, the broke newlyweds who are staying with family, the headmaster and his family, the single mom and her teenaged daughter. But things aren't quite as they seem. There's abuse, mental illness, stalking, infidelity, and ultimately...murder. 

The reader is slowly given bits of information over the course of the book. Pieces that even the characters don't all have at the same time. It's a look at perspective and assumption. It does a great job of showing how you never really know the entirety of someone. Not your friends; not your neighbors; not your spouse. 

Watching You was well written, superbly plotted, character-driven and unputdownable. Told in multiple viewpoints (my favorite) with police transcripts added throughout, this book is a smart and suspenseful slow burn that will have you furiously turning pages trying to figure everything out. 

Available now wherever books are sold!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jewel is a reliable writer of suspense thrillers and her newest book Watching You does not disappoint as a quick psychological thriller. Like the title says, it does feel like every character in the book is watching each other and the plot is carried along well. There are twists, turns, and surprises. I did figure out part of the biggest twist around 80% through but was wrong about an important aspect of it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author Lisa Jewell for an electronic review copy.

Lisa Jewell is an expert at writing about complex families and the emotions and situations that bind them. This thriller will keep readers turning pages long into the night.

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Tom Fitzwilliam is a teacher who has been attracting quite a bit of attention - both in the present and the past. Currently, Tom is the subject of a crush by new neighbor Joey Mullin. Joey is newly married, and her husband truly believes her to be happy, but she has salacious thoughts of Tom. Thoughts that she would do just about anything to turn into action.

The neighborhood they live in, Melville Heights, is idyllic and is the envy of those not residing there. But things are not as nice as they seem. There is a voyeur in the neighborhood. The voyeur is none other than Tom's fourteen-year-old son Freddie. Freddie is a prodigy who uses technology to watch the goings on of his neighbors. Freddie is convinced that his father is not the perfect teacher and headmaster everyone believes him to be. He can prove it.

This story is presented in both past and present. This includes journal entries of two decades ago that a teenage girl wrote in her diary. Of course her obsession was with none other than the ever popular Mr. Fitzwilliam. Not only do we have the dysfunctional Fitzwilliam family, we have Joey, her husband Arty, her brother and sister-in-law, and students at Tom's school. Indeed, quite an interesting lot.

In one way or another, as things play out in Watching You, everyone is connected. Not only is everyone watching everyone else, several are keeping secrets. At the heart of the matter is a brutal murder. By the time the reader learns of this, everyone makes a believable suspect. So this book could easily be called The Suspect, because no one is above guilt. Not only are many secrets at play, providing motives, but the means are there, leaving even the most attentive reader like myself scratching my head more than once.

This was a great, one-sitting read! I sometimes felt as if I was being just as nosy as all of the neighbors. I loved some of the characters, felt sorry for some of them and greatly disliked some of them. To me that represents excellent writing. I was definitely pulled in and engaged. What shocked me, though, was the conclusion. With many people to choose from to be the murderer, well, let's just say I was dead wrong. Upon further thought, I can sort of see where I might've guessed, but maybe not. So, grab this for yourself and see if you can figure out who really was watching who.

Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

Devoured this title! For me this was totally unputdownable! I found it both suspenseful and fast paced. Perception really does influence reality or as my mom would say, what will the neighbors think?😬 Thanks to NetGalley for the read! #NetGalley #watchingyou

Kept me on the edge of my seat. So enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

Make This Your Next Read!


What a terrific book! I certainly did not expect such a suspenseful and dramatic story. This is a book that all psychological suspense lovers need to pick up today for a great reading ride.

The storyline revolves around several main characters whose lives are all entwined in different ways which made the story rich with a subdued suspense peaking towards the end so I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation and I was rewarded with so many more tasty morsels than I could have imagined.
The story begins with a murder and then heads back a few months to familiarize the reader with the characters and the lives they are leading. This was such a well-written book that I didn't want to put it down and couldn't wait to find out more about each and every well-developed character.
There is family drama, a pregnancy, a few teenagers, mental instability, anger, obsession, jealousy, angst and many other fun attributes which made for great storytelling. This is a wonderful
"Who Done It" book that grabs on to you and won't let go.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and only have good things to say about the wonderful and creative writing by Lisa Jewell. This story had me hooked from the prologue until the well-done ending. This book was a WoW! The author did something different with this book right from the beginning where I thought I had figured everything out and then I was hit with a shocker of an ending. A terrific unexpected twist. Well Done Lisa Jewell!

I have given a rating of 5 Impressive 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

I highly recommend this suspenseful story to all readers who enjoy mystery, suspense or thrillers!

I want to thank Lisa Jewell, Netgally and Atria Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest opinion!

This book was sent to me for honest review from Simon and Schuster Audio.

Let me start with the audiobook and narrator. I really enjoyed the narrator. I felt like she was easy to listen to and had good pacing. I liked her voices for different characters, and nothing sounded forced or awkward. I would listen to her again. However, the amount of characters in this book and the inability to make ALL of them sound different was very confusing in the beginning. Even in the end, I would find myself not realizing the point of view had changed and had to go back and re-listen.

Now for the book itself. It was definitely not my kind of book. I don't mind a slow burn as long as things are happening to move the story forward. I felt like this book was too slow and there were plenty of points where nothing was happening to move the story forward. However, it did pick up in part 3, so I appreciated the pacing toward the end of the story.

Unfortunately, nothing about the characters worked for me. I didn't find anyone likeable, or at the very least an enjoyable unlikable character. I felt like all of them feel flat and there was no development throughout. I also did not understand why Joey was the protagonist (to an extent). The majority of the story was from her point of view, but <spoiler> she didn't really have anything to do with the overall plot in the end other than liking or being related to the characters that did. </spoiler>

There were a lot of characters that seemed like distractors to me and didn't have any real purpose other than to make you think something was true when it may or may not have been. They were there purely to add things to keep you guessing, and I feel like the storytelling itself should have been able to do that.

The ending was kind of disappointing for me. With mystery/thrillers like this, I expect some kind of big reveal in the end. She tried, but the big twist just didn't make sense with the rest of the story and came too late. The answer to the mystery was not shocking or surprising to me and was more of a "Yeah..so?" kind of ending. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

Overall, I just don't think Lisa Jewell or this book is for me. If you like a domestic slow burn thriller with a lot of characters, then this book might be for you.

Wow, talk about some creepy people! Watching You, Lisa Jewell’s latest novel is set in the beautiful neighborhood of Melville Heights in Bristol. Among the gorgeous and colorful homes lives a doctor and his wife (Jack and Rebecca) and Jack’s sister and husband living in the upstairs apartment of their home (Joey & Alfie). Also on the street are a fifteen-year-old girl (Jenna Tripp)trying to deal with and keep secret that her mother is clinically paranoid, as well as a successful school headmaster, his wife, and his son (Tom, Nicola, and Freddie).

Joey and Alfie met in another country while working at a resort, married quickly, and are now trying to start their adult lives back in Bristol. After settling for a job at a children’s party place/play center, Joey is trying to be positive and upbeat about her and Alfie’s future, but soon finds herself having a crush on her attractive, much older, and also married neighbor – Tom Fitzwilliam. Tom and Nicola’s teenage son Freddie has no friends and spends his time away from school spying on and photographing his neighbors from his window, or trying to decipher what problems are occurring within his parents’ marriage. Jenna Tripp is trying to live the life of a normal teenage girl but is constantly reeling in her mother who thinks that Tom and his son are spying on her. Then there is Jenna’s best friend, Bess, who has a major crush on their new headmaster, Tom Fitzsimmons, and begins behaving in a secretive way that makes Jenna fear something is going on between the two of them.

I must admit that Watching You was slow to start for me, but it didn’t take very long for me to get very wrapped up into these characters – all of which had major issues. There is a great deal of eluding to the fact that Tom may or may not have some inappropriate relationships with students over the years. Joey is uncomfortable living with her brother and sister-in-law because she just doesn’t get warm and cozy vibes from Rebecca. Joey is also struggling with a huge crush on time, all the while trying to ward-off Alfie’s desire to discuss and possibly start trying to have a baby. Jenna’s mom is completely nuts, her friend Bess is being weird, and then there’s Freddie… Oh, Freddie, what a strange little stalker you are! This child creeped me out from beginning to end, despite some later insight into his behavior. If he wasn’t watching people out of the window or opening the window to listen, he was following a girl all around town and secretly buying her clothes. The child needed help.

However, all of the craziness and chaos results in a wonderfully suspenseful novel! Unfortunately, I was about 95% sure “whodunnit” much earlier than was revealed, but this one still had me completely addicted until the very last line. Told from multiple points of view, Lisa Jewell beautifully set the stage for suspense as she alluded to so many shady things going on from so many different characters. Out of the entire novel, there was only one character that I truly felt was a normal, well-adjusted, and good person that also remained so for the entire book. Everyone else appeared guilty or weird or untrustworthy at one point or the other from beginning to end.

The characterization in Watching You is incredible, however, it also makes several moments very cringe-worthy with Jewell’s honest and detailed writing. I will warn that there is some difficult narrative regarding bullying, but other than that, prepare yourself to be curious, excited, and eager as you rip through this very engaging, yet disturbing novel that stresses that we just because we think we know who someone is or what they’re thinking, doesn’t mean that we are even close to reality.

*Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Watching You is the sixteenth novel by author Lisa Jewell. Watching You is a suspenseful story that surrounds a neighborhood in Bristol where it seems like everyone involved seems to suffer from some kind of psychosis or social disorder.

The story begins with Joey Mullen,a young woman who lives in the shadow of her older brother. Joey returns to Bristol after a whirlwind vacation in which she got married in Ibiza to a unemployed handyman named Alfie Butters. In an attempt to get her life in the right path, Joey moves into Melville Heights. She Shares a house with her heart surgeon brother, Jack, and Jack’s wife Rebecca, who is heavily pregnant. Joey feels like she is starting to get a handle on her life when she has a chance encounter with Tom Fitzwilliam. Tom Fitzwilliam is head teacher at the local academy. He is well known and well respected in the area. Tom Fitzwilliam is middle aged and married, but seems to have a natural charisma. Joey develops an unnatural, borderline obsession with Tom Fitzwilliam. Frances Mullen and her daughter Jenna live at the base of the hill from Melville Heights. Frances Mullen was another unusual character. Frances Mullen has developed an extreme paranoia in which she focuses on Tom Fitzwilliam and accuses him of stalking her. She is hyper focused on everything Tom Fitzwilliam does, and she frequently hides in the bushes in the neighborhood, and takes pictures of Tom Fitzwilliam, his house, his wife and everything that goes on with Tom Fitzwilliam. All hell breaks loose when Tom Fitzwilliam‘s wife is murdered in her home. With a cast of unusual characters the number of possible suspects is long.

The story is a multi layered mystery where pretty much everyone has secrets. The story is engaging and kept me rolling through the pages. Even at the end as the mystery of the murder of Nicola Fitzwilliam is solved, the secrets continue to spill out in the last few pages. The story is both haunting and addictive. Highly recommended whodunit.

A tightly wound thriller that keeps readers guessing up until the last pages. The characters were well developed and believable.

First off, I LOVED the way this book was written. I typically enjoy reading chapters by different narrators. But what I LOVED must about the way this book was written was that the different narrators were characters of varying ages including teenagers. I found this very interesting to see their every day thoughts and what they were going through.

I found some parts of the book to be a bit predictable : ie, who Rebecca and who her sister was.

I really did love the twist that Nicola was the bully and that she targeted Tom at such a young age, however, I don't really understand how she was such a bully to being such a small "abused" looking wife - I wish there was a bit more context here.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and gave it 3.5 stars.

This has been my first novel by Lisa Jewell and I am looking forward to reading more.

I received an e-arc from Artia Books for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

This was an enjoyable book but nothing spectacular. I was able to piece together who the killer was once certain information became present. I liked how Lisa Jewel threaded together the lives of each of the many perspectives and she managed to wrap together all the stories eloquently.
I found her writing style to be

I will say that i found the son (Freddie) to be quite disturbing in the beginning. His obsession with other girls and his “photo taking” were unsettling. However once his diagnosis was revealed i found myself warming up to him and feeling sorry.
Joey was a very honest character, and while she was morally grey, i enjoyed reading about a true person. All of her decisions made sense and although her infatuation with Tom started out quite random - it was a storyline that peeked my interest. I felt bad for Alfie but you could tell from the start that they didn’t mesh as a couple.

Overall, it was a solid novel and i would read more of Lisa Jewels works. However. I would not classify this book as a mystery.

Watching You is another great thriller by Lisa Jewell. In the lovely Melville Heights neighborhood of Bristol, England, everyone seems to have a secret -- and all of the neighbors are watching each other. The unravelling of these overlapping stories will definitely keep you reading late into the night.

Engrossing and surprising and sexy and angsty and all the things I adore about Lisa Jewell's books!! A must-read.

‘Watching You’ begins with a crime scene, but who was the victim? Although I figured out the guilty party before the end, the motivation and backstory completely surprised me.

I adore the way Lisa Jewell explores the details of daily family life. No character here is who they seem to be, and the author very cleverly throws the reader off track many times. Several marriages seem perfect, others not so perfect, but every detail holds a clue for the reader.

The story is told in flashback after the discovery of a body. Told from several different points of view, at first ‘Watching You’ seems to be just a tale of neighboring families, until the narrative is abruptly interrupted by police interviews and then you remember that this is a thriller. Who was the victim? And who was the murderer?

”But nothing was often everything in forensics. Nothing could often be the answer to the whole bloody thing.”

The hapless Joey has a crush on the local school principal who also happens to be her neighbor. They are both married. But maybe the handsome and charismatic Mr. Fitzwilliam isn’t really as perfect as he seems.

”His reputation was unblemished. Everywhere he went he brought nothing but light and harmony. Happy children and sunshine.”

As the story unfolds in flashback and from police interviews, disturbing details arise about almost every character and a deepening sense of foreboding arises about Joey and Mr. Fitzwilliam’s growing flirtation.

”But what do you do with an unattainable crush once it’s yours to keep? What does it become? Should there perhaps be a word to describe it?Because that’s the thing with getting what you want: all that yearning and dreaming and fantasizing leaves a great big hole that can only be filled with more yearning and dreaming and fantasizing.”

The author is a master of descriptive prose and nuanced characters. I highlighted tons of passages but I can’t quote them without giving anything away! This was one of those books that I simply could not put down. I was completely engrossed in the wild twists and turns and was surprised by the delicious details, even up to the fantastic Epilogue. Another twisty, engrossing and intelligent thriller from Lisa Jewell. Highly recommend!

Favorite quote:

”She felt a terrible hollowness open up inside her, a sense that she was all alone, that she had in fact always been all alone, that the corners of her life were folding in and folding in, and that there was nothing she could do about it.”

Lisa Jewell’s Watching You starts out with an immediate hook – there’s a dead body laying on the floor and Detective Rose Pelham as she examines the crime scene to try to solve the mystery. Following this shocking first chapter, we fall right into the story, told mostly through one of three major POVs – Josephine “Joey” Mullen. Joey is speaking to her late mother at her grave, updating her on her life and the choices she’s made. As the younger sister of an esteemed elder brother, she has always felt wayward, lesser and essentially – like a hot mess comparatively.

At it’s heart, this book is much like the title – a story about interwoven lives and how in a neighborhood like Melville Heights, someone is always watching. Meet Tom Fitzwilliam: he’s a new hot shot teacher in town, cleaning up a troubled school and making the ladies swoon as he walks down the street. For some reason his charm, wit and fairly run-of-the-mill dad looks are making everyone – male and female alike weak at the knees. Everyone that is, except Jenna Tripps mother who knows Tom Fitzwilliam is up to no good. Jenna’s best friend Bess however, is another story and obsession is putting her feelings towards Mr. Fitzwilliam lightly.

“He’s not old,” Bess replied. “He’s mature. Like wine. Like Cheese. I love him. I actually love him.”

As the story progressed, for me I was struck with a little bit of Big Little Lies vibes along with this feeling a bit like the mystery / thriller version of one of those cheesy movies with too many celebrities. The original of course being Love Actually, eventually followed by lesser movies such as Valentines Day and the like. While this didn’t feel like there were too many characters, this was certainly a character driven psychological thriller. There are quite a few story lines going on here and it was a bit difficult for me to grasp at first. While the overall development of each character was done really well, I found their individuality to fall just short for me at a few points throughout this read.

"And then the word came to her, the elusive word she’d been chasing through her thoughts. The look that Mr. Fitzwilliam had given. It has been predatory."

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again – I’m a pretty garbage detective for the most part but I did see the ending to this one coming from about the halfway mark. While I don’t think it necessarily detracted from my overall enjoyment of this read (because I gobbled this baby up in almost one sitting) I do wish there had been a few more surprises for the reader. However, that being said – this is definitely on the psychological side of thrillers and the shock value tends to be in the progression of the story instead of the “a-ha” moment at the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed this quick, fun and fast-paced story. Jewell has an incredible story-telling skill and the ability to create really well rounded, character driven novels. This is only my second novel by her but I have a few more I’ve picked up in the past year that I’m excited to read. Her popularity is definitely earned!

https://bibwithblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/watching-this-become-hit-review-of-lisa.html?m=1
Watching This Become a Hit: a Review of Lisa Jewell’s Watching You
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC I was provided in exchange for a fair and honest review.



I’m not going to lie, I love Lisa Jewell. I mean, I’ve only read two of her books before Watching You—Then She was Gone and The Girls in the Garden—so you couldn’t exactly call me a fan girl, but I’ve liked each of her books that I’ve read better than the last one, and this was no exception.
Watching You is definitely what you’d call a slow boil. It was hard for me to get into and I wasn’t hooked until about 50% into the novel. The thing is, though, when I was hooked, I was HOOKED. It’s like all of a sudden, my brain had hooks in it and I couldn’t get away from it. I stayed up late reading and couldn’t bring myself to put it down.
One of the things I like best about her books is the way she uses the multi-perspective trope that’s so common in thrillers. If, by some chance, you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I’m getting sick of this in thrillers because at this point, the multi perspectives thing is just overdone. That and the unreliable, messed up protagonist are my pet peeves because they’ve been run into the ground. Jewell’s different characters were much more complicated than that: yeah, they all had their own quirks and neuroses, but if you were in their head, they were complicated. She can really create a character that feels real, which is part of what makes her such an engaging writer. It’s hard not to get invested in the story you’re reading because you really believe the voice you’re hearing. It feels very real.


The other thing I really liked about this book was the way everything came together so seamlessly in the end. It was a surprising ending—in fact, what I had spent the whole book trying to solve didn’t even happen—but it wasn’t so shocking that it felt cheap or like a cop out. It felt like I should’ve known all along, but for once, I didn’t. I really enjoyed this book. 4.5/5, definitely a must read for any thriller fan.

She has done it again, You can count on author Lisa Jewell to write a book you will absolutely enjoy. Jewell is so talented, she crafts a story that will grab you on page one and not let go until the end.


Thank you NetGalley and publisher Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and give a honest review.