I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book a lot and it took a lot for me to figure this one out. I have been reading a ton of mystery/thriller books lately and this one has to be my favorite of the ones I've read as of late.
I loved how deep the mystery is in the story. It took me so long to figure out all the twists and turns!
Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and netgalley for allowing me to review this title.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler that I read and reviewed.
This book was an excellent read from start to finish that had one of those finishes that made you go Oh my God where did that come from? It was one of those off the charts books that keeps the reader guessing until the end.
I loved the characters. Especially Sienna and how she was so torn about her identity and if she was plagued by illness that her mother suffered because so many people in her life treated her like broken goods. Jonathan was also a character that as a reader you really did not know what to think about but you had no choice but to fall in love with him as a love interest for Sienna. This book had a number of other characters that were so deep and complex that made this book the gem that it is.
As for the mystery and who killed Madi meant to die or if it was really suppose to be Sienna it was written very well and Spindler told a great story in both past and current times to give the reader the the entire tale.
This book gets nothing less then five stars from me.

Not everyone can write an authentic mother/daughter angsty relationship filled with emotion and steered by mental illness - but Erica Spindler can and does to perfection! The action, the mystery, the drama-- everything came together for a great thriller!

Sienna returns home to help deal with her mother's mental illness and comes face to face with a renewed interest in a 10 year old murder. Old fears resurface, fueled by her mom's paranoia, and Sienna starts to wonder again if she was the intended victim. Or if someone in her own family was the murderer! While it felt reasonably obvious who the murderer was, Ms. Spindler gave additional suspects with enough motive, means, and opportunity to keep things interesting. Ms. Spindler also did a great job of letting the readers really get to know the characters, mainly Sienna. This book was almost more about Sienna dealing with her problems than the actual murder. Delving into her familial issues and self-doubt, along with a bit of romance, added an extra layer to the suspenseful story line. A great book to spend a weekend with!

Sienna Scott returns home to Tranquility Bluff and the life she left behind as a young woman when she stumbled upon a dead classmate wearing a coat similar to her own. The case has never been solved. She is also returning to a mother who suffers from delusion disorder and thinks everyone is out to get her and the family. Upon retuning home, Sienna discovers the case has been reopened, reigniting all of her mother's delusions about the crime.

This is real page-turner as the author weaves the story in two timelines, shortly after the murder, and present day. In both of these timelines, Sienna makes discoveries that make her question her own sanity. Is she like her mother after all? Many red-herrings are thrown into the story and this lead to multiple theories about the ending and a major twist!

Rating: 5/5 stars

I loved this thriller! Sienna is such a compelling character. I liked how the story went back and forth between the present the night of the murder. I really enjoyed discovering the killer's identity along with Sienna! I would definitely read more books by this author!

This book definitely has some of the elements of a good thriller. There are some secrets and good twists. But overall, I fear it may disappoint fans of the thriller genre.
I think it may appeal more to fans of romance and women’s fiction, who are perhaps a bit ‘thriller-curious.’

I’d also really only recommend this to those who are happiest reading commercial fiction. Otherwise, you may be frustrated by the writing and dialogue, which tends towards the simplistic. But if you’re looking for a mindless beach read that keeps you guessing,, this could be the perfect book!

Description:
Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she's returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered the course of her life.

In her mother’s shuttered house, an old fear that has haunted Sienna for years rears its ugly head—that it was she who had been the killer’s target that night. And now, with it, a new fear—that the killer not only intended to remedy his past mistake—he’s already begun. But are these fears any different from the ones that torment her mother?

As the walls close in, the line between truth and lie, reality and delusion disintegrate. Has Sienna’s worst nightmare come true? Or will she unmask a killer and finally prove she may be her mother’s look-alike, but she’s not her clone?

A huge thank you to St. Martin’s for the ARC!

The Look-Alike, by Erica Spindler

Short Take: Is Erica Spindler OK?

(*Note: I received an advance copy of this book for review.*)

Hello my beloved nerdlings, and welcome to the space in the calendar where New Year’s Resolutions go to die. It’s bitterly cold, the Christmas lights are all gone, and the only spot of color in the stores is the Valentine’s Day candy. In short, it’s the kind of blah that only chocolate (or a really good book) can fix.

And unfortunately, I’m all out of chocolate, and this week’s book is… well… not great.

Sienna Scott, college freshman, is walking home one snowy night when she literally trips and falls over a murder victim. Traumatized by the scene, and further distressed by her mother’s paranoid delusions, Sienna goes to London to live (hide?) with her grandmother for the next decade.

Upon her return, everything seems to be the same. Her mom is still deeply mentally ill, Madison Robie’s murder is still unsolved, her brother Bradley is still a successful real estate developer, and the kindly cop she befriended the night of the murder is still investigating it.

But beneath that veneer of same-old, everything is different. Her father has died, her brother’s marriage has failed, and there’s a hot house flipper living across the street who may have a few secrets of his own. And as more truth about that night trickles out, it looks like Sienna, not Madi may have been the intended victim.

Before I dive into why The Look-Alike didn’t work for me, I need to digress for just a moment, so please stay with me, ok duckies?

Did anyone else obsessively read VC Andrews books back in the day? The Flowers in the Attic series blew EVERYONE away, and then there was Heaven and Dawn and Ruby and…. Wait. For some reason, which I only found out much later when the internet became A Thing, all of these series were kind of the same. That reason being, of course, that Virginia Andrews had died many years before, and her name was being used by a ghostwriter who used that first amazing series as a template to essentially write the same series over and over again.

And that’s what leads me back to the question I asked at the beginning of this review - is Erica Spindler OK? Because it’s been a minute since I’ve read one of her books, but from what I remember, they are fun and twisty and unpredictable, and The Look-Alike is a slog through every thriller cliche out there.

I won’t spoil things, but anyone who’s read more than a few murder mysteries will have it solved by the halfway mark. The title is misleading, there’s no actual look-alike, just two girls wearing the same color coat. Every character except Sienna (more on her below) is a hollow collection of cliches, more worn-out than the seat of my nerd-nest.

And oh, my sweet nerdlings, Sienna is LITERALLY THE WORST. She’s whiny and self-pitying, and so so so gullible. She believes whatever anyone tells her, and spends entirely too much time worrying that she might have the same mental illness as her mother. For real, every single chapter has at least one (and often) several paragraphs devoted to the subject, and if that doesn’t sound too bad, I’d like to point out that there are seventy-one chapters’ worth of repeating “omg what if I’m sick like my mom I think I might be imagining things but I wonder if I’m in danger but if I think I’m in danger then I’m probably sick like my mom maybe I just need to cry some more I haven’t done that in like ten minutes but my mom cries maybe I’m just like her….”

Every single plot point was so predictable, and somehow dated, like an 80’s era soap opera. Even the language felt stilted, like a drunk angry man saying his girlfriend was “stepping out on” him. I’ve spent a bit of time around drunk angry men who’ve been cheated on, and believe me when I say, they word things quite differently. And of course everyone (except the bad guy) lives happily ever after. (spoiler alert?)

Which brings me back to, “Is Erica Spindler OK?” Because it feels like someone else is using her name to sell a paint-by-numbers thriller (one romance, two red herrings, etc.) that isn’t especially thrilling.

The Nerd’s Rating: TWO HAPPY NEURONS (and a big old bowl of chili, because the food was the real hero in this book.)

It's not often you read a murder mystery in which mental illness is treated in a positive light. Sienna's mother's paranoia has been a large influence on the lives of her entire family, but she gets help, she gets better, but it isn't magically fixed. Mental illness is the underpinning of the story, and is well-told.

It’s been a while since I’ve read an Erica Spindler book and I was excited for this one.

I liked Sienna well enough. She’s got a lot going on and I found it easy for her to be hung up on what happened in her past. There are a handful of characters here, but it’s definitely Sienna’s story and I won’t spoil any thoughts I have about them.

Plot wise, it was sort of meh. I figured out who the killer was fairly quickly and that took a lot of the tension out of the story. The few reveals there were did not surprise me and the slow build up through the entire story was wrapped up in one chapter.

Overall, it was a good idea, but the execution didn’t work for me.

**Huge thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing the arc free of charge**

When I read the synopsis for this book, I thought that it would be something different and exciting. But as I continued to read, I learned that it was flimsy story telling at best and the writing seemed to be a bit juvenile and redundant. This book just seemed to drag on and then all of a sudden it was over—all at once—in one closing scene.

Not exactly the creepy thriller that I was looking for.


Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced egalley.

i’m grateful to @netgalley for letting me read and review this early!

unfortunately, i didn’t love this book. it was a tremendously sloooooow burn. the plot was focused around a murder mystery which i enjoy, but because there were very few characters it was very easy for me to predict the ending ahead of time. with that said, if you don’t read a ton of thrillers like me, you might love it more 🖤

rating: 🌟🌟🌟

recap:

when sienna was 18, she witnessed a terrible murder. unable to move on from it, she was forced to move to london with her grandma. ten years later, sienna decided it was time to return home to the small town in wisconsin to take care of her mother who suffers from terrible paranoia and delusions.

all these years later, and the crime was never solved. who killed that poor girl on campus that night? is it someone still living in the community? the chief of police decides to open the case back up right before sienna returns home, and it causes unease and triggering episodes for everyone in the small town—but especially for sienna and her mother.

determined to get answers for the girl’s family, herself, and the rest of the town, sienna takes matters into her own hands. as she starts uncovering clues to the case and relating them to the police, however, people around her start to doubt her mental state—and even worse, accuse her of acting like her “crazy” mother.

has sienna’s worst nightmare of turning into her mother come true? or was her gut feeling about the murder right all along?

While in college coming home from study group during a blizzard, Sienna Clark stumbled over the bloody body of Madison Robie, noticing that Robie was wearing a nearly identical white parka. She began to believe she was the real target of the killer. Slipping into paranoia was easy—her mother, Vivian, developed persecutory delusional disorder after Sienna was born and was convinced that “they” were out to harm Sienna. Sienna’s father sent her to London to live with his mother.

Ten years later, though, Sienna returned home to confront her demons and help her stepbrother care for her widowed mother. Rather than find peace with the past, her conviction that she was the true target strengthened as she saw a white van repeatedly pass the house, received mysterious phone calls, and found items rearranged in her bedroom. But could she trust herself, or did she share more in common with her mother than looking alike? Was she also developing paranoid delusions?

I do love the paranoid trope in thrillers, and in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬-𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦, Erica Spindler took pains to authentically portray the mental illness and its effect on family members. To me, some of the best scenes depicted Sienna’s responses to Viv’s meltdowns and how challenging it must be to watch and how frustrating to be limited by it. The relationship between Sienna and her stepbrother was interesting as well. The mystery itself was less exciting than it might have been because I identified the killer early on and because the epilogue tied things up a little too perfectly for my taste. At the same time, the book was an entertaining read that kept me engaged and curious enough that I read it in a day’s time.

This was a mysterious, suspenseful, thriller. When I started this, I trusted no one and the feeling just got worse with every chapter. Who should I believe? What was going on in this house? Who killed that girl?
It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire BOOK. I couldn’t figure any of it out. There was nothing predictable about it and it was really entertaining. I enjoyed it and will definitely recommend it.

This was a NETGALLEY gift and all opinions are my own.

There’s a lot to unpack in the book. Paranoia as a mental illness is a running theme and I think it’s handled well. The mystery at the heart of the book is a solid one, although I could have used a little more mystery. I did really enjoy reading this. The romance is not central to the plot and thank heavens because it’s very superficial. It was a nice light thriller.

“The Look-Alike” by Erica Spindler is a great curl up on the couch snow day read!! Sienna grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she’s returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered her life. An old fear that haunted Sienna for years returns - that she had been the killer’s target that now and the killer has intended to remedy his past mistakes. But are these fears are delusions or real?

This thriller is the slow-burn thriller that I’ve needed. It tells the story of Sienna in present time as well as the fateful night when she found a girl dead with the same coat on as her. This begins the fear that she was the target and they got someone by mistake. The author does a really good job of setting the scene for you and telling about Sienna’s family and why she has these paranoid thoughts that she is turning into her mother. I love the short chapters too - I think authors who do this secretly want you to read it in one sitting! ha.

At first I thought I figured out who the killer was and then the author side stepped my thinking to another character. Every character had their shady side and stories I couldn’t trust. It was mind bending and needed to keep going until the very end.

My only criticism is it was told from 3rd person POV. I wish it would have been Sienna as 1st person narrative, but beggars can’t be choosers!

Pub: Jan. 28th

This was predictable story to me. I enjoyed the storyline but had the ending figured out early. Good story for anyone liking suspense paired with a love story

Sienna Scott stumbles across a murdered girl on campus during a snow storm. They are identically dressed and Sienna is worried that it was a case of mistaken identity and she was the actual target. Sienna is sent to London to live with her Grandmother, to heal from the trauma of the situation and to put a buffer between her and mother's paranoid delusions. When Sienna turns 29 she returns back home to help care for her mom, and discovers they have just re-opened the case. Now it seems someone is coming after Sienna and her worst nightmare may have been reality after all.
I loved this book. It kept me guessing throughout. I am a big fan of this author and this was one of my favorites I think....great for any mystery or suspense lovers out there.

Ten years ago, Sienna Scott stumbled across a body on her way back to her dorm in college. She had always lived in the shadow of her mother's paranoid delusions and feared that she would turn out the same way when she was unable to shake the feeling that she was the one meant to be killed. After ten years in London with her grandmother and getting trained as a chef, she's back in her hometown of Tranquility Bluffs, Wisconsin. She is back in the house where she grew up, and the investigation is open again. Someone is prank calling her house, people are talking about the murder, and Sienna is worried that perhaps she isn't as different from her mother after all.

The intrigue of the plot drew me in to read this, and it is definitely fascinating. You have to pay attention to chapter headings, as we have the present-day thread as well as what had happened ten years ago with the murder investigation. It's very much a small town, with everyone knowing everyone else's business, and her mother's illness. Everyone sees her as "crazy," even Sienna, and the small horrors of untreated mental illness are treated very seriously throughout the course of the novel. Because of Sienna's fears, that means we're just as offset by it. Are Sienna's thoughts about the murder accurate? Are the people she suspects of being the killer actually the one that had done it?

We're drawn through the story along with Sienna, and my heart breaks for her when her trust in people is dashed and people aren't what they seem to be. It's the little clues along the way that add up, and that's what finally leads to the conclusion of the novel. I thought I knew who it was, changed my mind along the way as Sienna did, and found out that I was right from the outset. The mystery aspect was just as well done as the relationships and the history of the town. The conclusion ties up a lot of the loose ends in a realistic way. Some things can't be changed and there are a lot of traumas that can't simply be handwaved away. But the survivors are willing to work hard for it, and that is the best kind of ending.

"You can't live in fear. And I can't seem to love without it."⁣
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Sienna has returned to her hometown to be back with her ailing mother, a mother who she resembles so much that she feared that she would become just like her. Her mother suffers from paranoid delusions. These delusions tell her mother that someone is out to kill Sienna. After stumbling upon a dead girl in her tracks years ago Sienna can't help but to think that maybe her mother is right. ⁣
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This book had some creppy vibes for sure. I thought that I had it figured out early on and was then sent on a journey of secret reveals that made me have to give more thought into my theory.⁣