Member Reviews
Well worth a read. The tension builds throughout the book and there are several red herrings. The fact that the characters are all stranded together with no way of escape and no form of communication to the outside world makes it all very eerie and atmospheric.
I really wants to love this book but it just wasn’t for me. It seems Cally has gone in a slightly new direction and while I liked the concept of isolation, I just kept waiting for the suspense to kick in and for me to actually be on the edge of my seat but it was very slow going and I gave up at about half way through in the end, unfortunately.
How many secrets can there be..... What started out as a get away has become their worst nightmare. Closed in by the weather on a remote Scottish island and a murderer amongst them... Twists and turns galore..
Wow. I was gripped the whole way through. I went through so many emotions reading Anna's story. I was holding my breath in parts. C.L Taylor has written another amazing story. The build up of suspense had me on on the edge of my seat reading continually. These are characters that you can feel empathy with and get emotionally involved in their story. I would definitely recommend this book.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.
Another wonderfully conceived book from Cally Taylor. Anna is driving her colleagues back from a team building event in Wales when she is involved in an accident. The devastating aftermath makes her question her whole life. Her feelings of guilt are increased by the feeling that someone is after revenge. An escape is needed but instead of starting a new, stress free life it only compounds her feelings of desperation. The main characters were all interesting and complex and the story reels in the reader to believe each one at times has an agenda against Anna. The catalogue of frightening events leave Anna feeling very alone and each day becomes harder to face as fear and exhaustion set in. As the truth eventually dawns, the final pages have some clever explanations that make sense of this intense story. Another gem from Cally Taylor whose attention to detail is exceptional and her wonderful ability to provide a book that you can’t wait to finish to discover what happens, but in turn don’t want to end!
Probably four and a half stars but rounding up as it's New Years Day! Loved the book, excellent pace and story line and written in a manner that keeps you gripped. Whenever the main character is a woman in her early thirties - many books I read have been - I fear we will get things happening to her that send her and the story into paranoia and panic, I'm pleased to say no so with this book as she manages to keep it together in spite of a number of both mental and physical challenges.
There are seven possible candidates for planning to get rid of Anna and the author cleverly keeps most of them as possibles/probables throughout the book. There is a very clever twist half way through. The outcome is well thought out and makes sense. The final pages leave you with a sort of happy every after end BUT with one of those 'maybe it isn't' outcomes. Definitely worth reading.
My final read of 2018 and what can I say but wow! I've been in a bit of a slump recently and struggled to get really absorbed into a book but Sleep completely drew me in. C.L. Taylor really knows how to hook you in!
Anna's live changes drastically when she is involved in a crash that leaves several of her work colleagues dead. She cannot sleep and even more so cannot shake the feeling that someone is watching her. Determined to rid herself of this negativity she flees to the remote Scottish island of Rum to work as a receptionist in an isolated hotel. However, her sanctuary quickly becomes hell on earth when a misfit of guests, Anna and David the hotelier get trapped on the island during a storm. Anna quickly realises that she hasn't really escaped the nightmare that she thought was only exclusive to her life in London. Will she survive the storm of a lifetime?
Honestly this book was just breathtaking. I thought I had it figured out and then halfway through a curveball was thrown and I was totally clueless again! I just had to read on and the more I read the more I actually felt the panic and terror that Anna and the hotel guests felt. I was literally holding my breath through the final half of the book.
An absolutely fantastic read and I am extremely greatful to Netgalley and Avon books for the ARC of this book. I can't wait for the next C.L. Taylor book!
Another great read from this very talented author. I just love the writing style and clear my diary when I get my hands on a Cally Taylor book. The story is tightly plotted with interesting characters and hidden depths. Well done Ms Taylor - another blickbuster
I really enjoyed this book. I have enjoyed all the books I have read by this author. "Sleep" is probably my favourite. It was thought provoking and suspenseful. It tackled the deeply held emotions of guilt and selfblame and illustrated very well how crippling these feelings can be to bear in life. I liked the way this exploration, although centred around the main character, permeated the story through the back stories of others in the novel. I enjoyed the lonely setting on the Isle of Rum which added well to the fear being built up in Anna as her suspicions developed. The characterisation of all the inhabitants of the hotel was very good and I enjoyed trying to look out for clues as to what was really going on. Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.
Sleep is the fifth novel that I have read and enjoyed by C.L.Taylor and there is something that always grips me and makes them hard to put down.
Once again this book is a real page turner, the plot is engrossing, with tension and pace and twists and turns. With believable characters, plausible and claustrophobic situations and an ever increasing sense of tension lead to an unputdownable read.
A dark intruiging and clever piece of story telling that kept me guessing to the end. Highly recommended.
After a rather unpromising start with a sketchily drawn accident which begins the chain of events, the book suddenly takes off with a change of scenery to a remote Scottish island, which helps create a more atmospheric and gripping forum for the slowly building suspense of this thriller. We see Anna, the main character develop a resilience and the strength to tackle the mysterious stalker that threatens to harm herself and those she is supposed to be looking after. An absorbing and exciting tale in the remote Scottish setting, the perfect read for a wintry weekend.
I should never have started this book in the evening as I couldn't put it down. Such a page turner, robbing me of my sleep to 3am! It kind of reminded me of a modern Noel Coward play and would love to see it adapted for television. Really enjoyed this psychological thriller and C.L. Taylor is becoming one of my favourite authors.
Another brilliant novel from CL Taylor that despite the title, will have you struggling to sleep until you turn the last page!
In her latest, 'Sleep'. a team building exercise goes horribly wrong when, on the way home, Anna crashes the car she is driving, into a lorry. An accident, pure and simple, but one in which 2 of her workmates die.
She is taken to court after she recovers from her injuries, but is hounded by the media and the families of the victims-but even more worryingly, when she tries to attend the funeral of one of her workmates, she returns to her boyfriend's car to find 'Sleep' written in the dirt above one wheel.
When she is acquitted of blame, a card is slipped into her pocket quoting the famous speech from Macbeth about 'murdered sleep' implying that guilt is the reason she cannot sleep or rest.
Becoming increasingly frantic, unable to work or sustain a relationship with her boyfriend, she moves to Scotland to become a housekeeper for a remote hotel.
However hard she runs and tries to make herself invisible, someone , out there is waiting for the moment to take their revenge-which of the 7 people staying at the hotel is planning a murder and who is going to die?
This is absolutely my favourite CL Taylor novel, it has buckets full of suspense and drama, and plays with your emotions for a tattered, fragile main character. It kept me guessing to the very end.
Many thanks to Avon Books and Netgalley for letting me read this in return for an honest review!
Wow! This has to be the best book I have read this year by a mile. With Agatha Christie style talent the tension was apparent in every page of this thriller.
Scary, tension filled and totally gripping, this is a must read.
An enjoyable read reminds me a bit of a Agatha Christie type mystery. A litte too far from reality for me but it did keep me going till the end
This was definitely a page turner, with a very atmospheric, claustrophobic feel to the story. It has a flavour of Agatha Christie to it, with the hotel guests, any of whom are suspects in what's going on, and with the storm causing them all to be trapped & cut-off from the rest of the island and the country. I did feel rather remote from the characters - there was only one I particularly liked, and he wasn't part of the story for very long. But the fact that I didn't like them seemed to add to the feeling of the book, making me feel less personally involved, and more like a distant detective, trying to figure out what on earth was going on.
It's definitely a book you'll need to allow time for, as you won't want to put it down at bedtime unless you've finished!
A deeply riveting page turner. Cally Taylor at her best. Anna is in an accident killing two of her colleagues. She runs away to a remote Scottish island to find her stalker has followed her there. The reader is kept on tenterhooks throughout the book. Brilliant!
I have been doing to read this book. And yes it didn't disappoint!!! Loved every word of it CL Taylor is becoming a firm favourite.
Will be recommending this for the local bookclub. don't miss this one!
Another fantastic dark twisted section of CL.Taylors mind down on paper. I got totally immersed in this book from the start. Every opportunity to read I took it even two minutes. It really was so difficult to put down, but it didn’t go far just in my handbag!
This will be a gift I will give to everyone, some because they’ll love it and some just to play with their minds.
She is an author who just keep on providing us with awesome literature , bravo!
Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. How I related to Anna in this book, I absolutely thought the storyline and the characters were brilliant. A worthy 5 stars