Well, well. What do we have here? “ The Look Alike” by Erica Spindler was a tale of mother-daughter dysfunction. I’m not going to go into any details of this book. It’s best that you go into it blindly. What I will say is that the author has definitely mastered the art of throwing out red herrings left and right. The story itself was good and the pacing was wonderful. I was interested the entire time. Overall, a good read.

*I received a digital copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

The Look-Alike was an easy, fast-paced, suspenseful read .This book belongs in several genre categories such as mystery, thriller and psychological thriller.It has a little bit of everything!This book started with a prologue, told in the third person point of view following Sienna, 18. She got freaked out when she saw a dead body on her way back to her dorm. Then the story begins 10 years later with Sienna, 28. She looks like her mom who has mental health issues and growing up she afraid that she will be like her mom. The story switches back and forth.I liked the way the story was told!

RATING 3 STARS
2020; St. Martin's Press

I am a fan of Erica Spindler, but I am finding that her most recent novels have lacked that gritty tone and high octane suspense. I thought I would love this one as it is more of a psychological thriller, but it didn't work for me. I found that Sienna's brother's character (I cannot remember his name) was not developed and he fell into a bit of a stereotypical role, just like the neighbour next door. When I figured out what was going on I was just continuing with the story out of respect of an author I have enjoyed in the past.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

This one was a decent thriller. I felt I knew who the killer was in the beginning, but kept second guessing myself throughout the book. I enjoyed the twists and turns but felt a lot of the book was predictable. I still give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time I read it. One girl ends up dead, while Sienna believes she was the intended target because they had the exact coat,

Here I go again, wondering again if I have become a picky thriller reader because another thriller didn't work out for the way I thought it would.

The Look-Alike was an easy, fast-paced, suspenseful read for me, and I do feel it is worth the time I put into it. It's easy to skim parts of it because it gets a bit repetitive, and you don't miss much by skimming.

The story revolves around Sienna Scott confronting her past with an unsolved murder and her mother's mental illness. The whole thing around the "look-alike" is an interesting concept for a story, however here I found that all to be drama worthy with no real substance to it. And of course, the mental illness storyline missed the mark for me as it often does. I did find it fuels the drama, and that might be something that works for someone else.

I found the story to be suspenseful even though I figured out who the killer was right off the bat by those not so layered clues, and I kept reading to find out if I was right. Which I rarely am. I did doubt myself a few times as I was reading.

The ending wraps quickly, and even though my eyes were rolling, I do think I am one tough cookie lately, and this one will appeal to many thriller lovers who like things light, brisk, entertaining with drama to drive the story forward.

The premise of The Look Alike sounded amazing to me but in execution I found it clunky and hard to be drawn into the plot or even care about the characters. Ultimately, this was a miss for a me.

The Lookalike by Erica Spindler had a very interesting premise. Thanks to Netgalley, I got to read this book early.
When a college girl stumbles across a girl stabbed to death, one wearing the same coat as her, many questions abound. Was she the real target? Was it a crime of opportunity? Why can't they find the killer?
Spindler keeps the reader wondering through almost the whole book, tossing in potential suspects left and right. Then you throw in a mother with paranoid delusions and it makes you doubt your own conclusions. This was an enjoyable book by Erica Spindler.

I love a book that keeps you guessing until the very end! It wasn't until the very last chapter that I knew who the murderer was! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good thriller!

First line: Sienna Scott nearly tripped over the body.

Summary: Sienna Scott finds the body of a young woman while walking home in a snowstorm from a study session. As she looks at the victim she realizes that the girl has a resemblance to her. Was she the intended victim? Or is she seeing things that are not there, like her mother? Her father decides to send her away to London to get her away from her mother’s delusions and the aftermath of the murder.

When she returns home she finds that life in Tranquility Bluffs has changed since she last lived here. But she is more shocked by the state her mother is in. With Sienna’s return her mother spirals as she worries that with her being home “they” will come for her. It does not help that the police have reopened the case of the murder that Sienna stumbled upon. Then strange calls and white unidentified vans driving by lead Sienna to believe that the killer is back and try to finish what they started years earlier.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed Spindler’s newest thriller. It has several twists that throw the reader off but also hint at the ending. I had several different theories as I read but nothing that I was absolutely sure about. I liked Sienna’s mother. Having a character with paranoia is a good tool to change the reader’s perceptions as the story progresses. It definitely did affect mine.

This is not an overly complicated book or something mind blowing but it was just a lot of fun! I have recommended Spindler to readers who enjoy thrillers and mysteries. They do not disappoint and make for a fast read.

FYI: Check out The Other Girl by Erica Spindler as well.

This is the first novel I read by this author. I always see her books up front at my local library. This book did not disappoint.

Really enjoyed, the kind of book you can read in one sitting. Perfect amount of twists and turns, amazing plot and keeps you guessing.

This book is my first one by Erica Spindler, and what a book to begin my relationship with this author's writing!

The story line is about a 10 year old murder case of a young college girl named Madison Robie and the MC, Sienna Scott, who comes back to Tranquility Bluffs after having been gone those 10 years. Sienna had really good reasons to get out of the town and away from everything that was going on at the time, but now she's ready to face her fears, her family, and find out what truly happened that night. When she returns not everyone welcomes her, she has a mentally ill (delusional) mother to contend with, and even I as the reader didn't know when things her mother said happened were real or part of her mental illness.

In Tranquility Bluffs there are family members that Sienna hasn't seen in 10 years, so a lot has changed. Things aren't always what they appear to be. As I read the story and considered the possible suspects who might've murdered Madi, I kept vacillating; however, I did correctly predict who the killer was fairly early in the book. I wasn't 100% certain, but I had a good hunch that proved to be right.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely read more of Erica Spindler.

*NOTE: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Oh my goodness this one was absolutely phenomenal!! Y’all I just loved it so much and did not want to put it down. Could not recommend it enough!

What an intriguing read by Erica Spindler! So many different dynamics that came to play in this book. The compassion for the characters that I felt was intense. So emotionally invested in this book because it mirrored aspects of my life. The story from the very first page had me engaged and I was half through the book in one setting. The ending was not something I was expecting, thinking I had it figured out, but I was mistaken. An intense and suspenseful read, definitely a must read if you are an Erica Spindler fan.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.
#netgalley

4 1/2 STARS!

Surprises around every corner! Erica Spindler drew me in from the very first page of THE LOOK-ALIKE when the depiction of a brutal crime scene started to unveil. With lots of surprises and twists, she kept me guessing and held my attention right up until the end.

Sienna's plight of returning home a decade after stumbling upon a crime scene changed her life is well documented as we travel through the various characters she reconnects with and new ones who have an unknown connection to the past.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller that has a hint of romance and lots of characters who we're not sure if they are involve in what's going on or not. I enjoyed it!

Well... this hits all the marks of most lighter thrillers. Old case unresolved. Girl comes back to her hometown. Falls in love with stranger with a remarkable quickness. Cast of suspects. Delusional mom. Rushed ending.

The book started off pretty strong. Flashbacks to Sienna the night she discovered the murder. Her disruptive home life due to her mother's mental illness. She arrives back to her hometown after a decade away for no reason other than wanting to be back with her family. Look, this isn't a bad read - it's an easy read and on course with what I would consider a lighter thriller. For someone like me who reads a ton of thrillers, I like mine a bit more dark, a little more complex and even though I don't mind predictability sometimes, this trope has been long done over and over. While the first half kept me interested, that quickly faded in the last half and I found myself finishing just to finish.

Also, the epilogue wrapped things up into a nice pretty bow and sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't. If you like the lighter thriller or need something easy in between more darker, dare I say .. sophisticated.. reads, then this is a good one to go through. I've read this author before and liked The Other Girl a lot so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for another read by her.

I really enjoyed this book- the story line was good, there were twists and turns that kept me guessing. I had several guesses as to the outcome and one of them was correct- although not for the reasons I was thinking. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

In Erica Spindler's The Look-Alike, this standalone thriller will leave you at the edge of your seat and leave you breathless. Ten years ago, Sienna Scott discovered a dead body in the snow when blood covered her hands. Now as she returns home to Tranquility Bluffs, Wisconsin, nothing's some peaceful about it. She received a lukewarm homecoming with her half-brother Brad and learned that the decade-old cold case had been reopened. That brought forth memories of the past and her concerns that she might share the same paranoid disorder her mother had and inherited. While she plans to open her own restaurant, she learns new details on the murder and new issues concerning her family, especially with her brother's finances. As she dug deep into the case, she remembers little details and tiny facts to help her out. As she deals with her mother's psychotic episodes, she does find love with her mother's new next-door neighbor Jonathan Hart. But it becomes difficult to separate the truth from the lies, what's fact from fiction, when she solves the puzzle with one clinching detail in a shocking ending.

Sienna Scott's life in tranquility bluffs is anything but tranquil. After stumbling upon a gruesome murder as a freshman in college, she becomes convinced she was the intended victim. Fearful that she suffers from the same psychosis as her mother, her father sends her to London to live with her grandmother. 10 years later she returns to find the unsolved case has been reopened. Struggling with her mother's illness, her ongoing fear she was supposed to die that night and suspicions of everyone except the true murderer.