3,5 stars for me. The Look-Alike is a suspense/thriller with some romance. The story takes place in Wisconsin and the narrator is 29 year old Sienna Scott. The story goes back and forth between a crime that happened 10 years ago and the present. Sienna returns home after spending 10 years in London. She left after a terrible crime occurred and it should be known that her mom suffers from paranoid delusions.

At a third of the way in there were some very interesting plot developments and I could not stop reading. This was a thriller with lots of twists. But there was also a focus on romance. So this book could also be considered romantic suspense.

I received a copy of this product from Callisto Publisher's and Rockridge Press for an honest review.

I had a bit if trouble connecting tobthis book and I finally hit my stride at at about the halfway mark, after that I finished in one setting and I couldn't put it down!

Our MC Sienna stumbles upon a murdered girl in the snow one night 10 years ago. After leaving for about 1o years she comes home and it's as if she never left. She immediately starts back with her normal routines.

Soon thereafter as she struggles with her mothers delusions the case is re-opened. Home for seems to be the center if everything the delusions, the questions her own ans the fear if she was the actual target that night.

The present and thevpastcare woven into a tail fraught with twists and turns.

Upon her return and possiblyto save her sanity , she begins to look into the unsolved murder, thinking that maybe the victim was mistaken for herself. Up to that point, this was a great mystery. It does begin to bog down a bit and get convoluted. But it does wrap upt.
I recieved this book from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an honest review.

The Look-Alike is the Brenda Novak February Book Club book for February. I was very excited to read my first book by Erica Spindler, as I had heard great things about her writing.

Through Sienna, a compelling character, the author allows a fitful plot to unravel. I read this story in a single sitting and loved every page. The supporting cast, aka the suspect list, is comprised of amazing people.

This psychological-suspenseful thriller twists everything...!

Spindler has created a twisty tale with complex characters that will keep you guessing until the very end. A must read for fans of complex thrillers.

4.5 stars

Did I love this book...no...did I hate this book...no. The writing was good but the story telling was stretched out. It was predictable on who the killer was but to the authors credit some red herrings are thrown in to maybe have the reader second guess .
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.

I found it a tad hard to get into this book at first, but once I hit close to the halfway point, I couldn't put it down!

Sienna stumbled upon a murdered girl in the snow one night 10 years ago. Now, after being sent away to London to live with her grandmother, she has returned home.

Home to the scene of the crime that she stumbled upon that night, of a murdered girl, who was wearing the same coat as her and taking the same shortcut that she always took.
Home to where the case of the murdered Madison has now suddenly been reopened.
Home to her mother's house where she is still constantly tortured by her mother's paranoid delusions.
Home to where she questions her own sanity and to whether the girl in the snow was supposed to have been her.

Thanks to her mother's paranoia and the questioning of her own sanity, Sienna and her mother believe that the murdered Madison was supposed to have really been Sienna.. but who would want that? And why?

There are many suspects in this thriller, but only one murderer! Will Sienna's own thoughts and possible delusions (real or false) allow her to figure out the killer before she really is next?

There are tons and tons of twists in this book, making it a super fun thriller to read! It just envelops you and has you questioning everything you're reading. Super fun!

Thank you to NetGalley, Erica Spindler and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! The Look Alike was an incredible read. The story was well written with some shocking twists .
The characters were unreliable, well written and complex. This was my first time reading this author but it will not be the last time.

The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler takes place in the present and also twenty years in the past. Sienna Scott was first at the scene of the brutal murder of a female college student twenty years ago. She moved back in with her father and her mentally ill mother who suffered from paranoid delusions. Fearing that the murder might affect Sienna’s mental health, her father sends her to live with her grandmother in London, where she stays for twenty years. Upon her return, she begins to look into the unsolved murder, thinking that maybe the victim was mistaken for herself. Up to that point, this was a great mystery. But by then, there were too many characters, the plot lines were all over the place and, after a while, I stopped caring what happened. However, I did stay with it till the end. This is strictly my own opinion and it may be that this book just was not a good fit. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Upon reading the synopsis, “I thought---interesting book concept”! To read the words of someone who is paranoid and delusional was something that intrigued me. The way the author wrote this book was completely (misguided) BRILLIANCE!! I was like a rat in a maze---go this way...NO---this way?!? Needless to say, I was CLUELESS until the end!!! Yes, it was fast-paced and I was trying (my damnedest) to guess who did it!?!

Sienna has “more issues than Vogue”!!! As a teenager she found a dead classmate in the snow and for some ludicrous reason, she thinks the killer meant to target her because the dead girl was wearing an identical coat to hers. So, umm---yeah...let’s move back home with my paranoid delusional Mom and EVERYTHING will be fine!? NOT!!! It was a wild & vast roller coaster ride in CRAZY TOWN---I loved every minute of it! Of course, I won’t spoil the book. Know that you will be up ALL NIGHT and the ending will have you SHOOK (at least I was)!

I rated the book 5 out of 5 stars, since I was dumbstruck on how it was going to play out until the very end! Kudos To Erica for writing such a captivating and enthralling book! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, in return for my honest review.

This is the first book I have read from Erica Spindler and I cannot wait to read more! I couldn’t put this book down and enjoyed that it wasn’t at all predictable to me. I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t wait to see how it ended. I definitely recommend it!

Thank you so much to @netgalley for this arc!
I read this book in one day, it was fast paced and a pretty entertaining read; however it was a bit predictable.
Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadows of her mother’s paranoid delusions.
Now she’s returning home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that changed her life!!!
Will Sienna continue in her moms shadows or make her own?
I definitely recommend this one
4 of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

On her way home from a study group one snowy night, college freshman Sienna Scott stumbles upon a murdered fellow student. The murder investigation of this crime becomes a never-ending plague that haunts Sienna. Of course, there are other events/ideas that fall into line with Sienna’s thoughts about the murder. In the story, Sienna has returned home after years away, to find that things have not changed much. Her mother remains a delusional mess. Her brother Bradley is still the successful real estate person he was. The town remains very much like it was years before Sienna left. Just about the time she returns, the local police department re-opens the unsolved murder from Sienna’s past. Sienna becomes paranoid that, as she once thought before her father sent her off to England to live with her grandmother, that she was really the intended victim of the murder. As the story progresses, Sienna becomes more obsessed with the thought that she has inherited her mother’s delusional illness and that she was the intended victim because the victim was wearing a coat just like hers and because she regularly walked that route after study groups. But, was she really?

This is a good, interesting mystery, as the look alike story pans out. I did think that Sienna was a bit weak and whiney throughout, as well as easily convinced of things such as inheriting her mother’s illness and being the murder’s real intended victim. Of course, Sienna herself also had a lot to do with this. The story flowed along smoothly and easily. However, as I said, I did get somewhat tired of Sienna whining and constant questioning whether she was afflicted with her mother’s illness. The characters within the story all brought out her thoughts and actions. This is a good book to curl up with on a lazy afternoon. It will keep your attention, though it did seem like a lot of it went on and on, as though the story had been padded. Still, it is worth the effort. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

This is my very first book by Erica Spindler and I am now a HUGE fan! I love her writing and it is so eerily addictive! What a thriller read that literally had me from the first to the very last page. I enjoy a great psychological thriller that has plots with twists upon twists that kept me on edge and my attention focused. I enjoyed the characters and did cover issues of paranoia and mental illness and worked well within the story line. My only advice is do not start this too late or I promise you, you will not sleep a wink. Totally amazing read that I highly recommend.

Sienna was a college student when she took a shortcut back to her dorm late at night during a snowstorm. She couldn't see through the blowing snow and ended up falling and landing in a pool of blood in front of a dead girl. This catastrophic event forever changed her life. Sienna was always plagued by her mother who had a delusional disorder and was constantly in fear for her daughter’s safety. After the murder, Sienna was sent to London to live with her grandmother. 10 years later, she has returned to her hometown to take care of her mother, and with the murder still unsolved, the case was reopened. Sienna always believed that maybe she was the one who was supposed to die that night. Now she must face whether she has become just like her mother or if she really was the intended victim.
This book kept me up late into the night! Once I got to the 2nd half of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a very well written, fast-paced, suspenseful murder mystery. I think the author did a great job with the characters and the story kept my interest throughout. Well worth the read. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

THE LOOK-ALIKE – Erica Spindler
ISBN: 978-1250-08367—8 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978—1-250-08368- (eBook)
January 28, 2020
Suspense

Tranquility Bluffs, Wisconsin – Present Day

Ten Years Ago

While taking a shortcut to her dorm after a study session in the library, Sienna stumbles upon the body of a young woman lying in the snow in a pool of blood. Shocked at the blood soaking into the snow she screams. Campus policeman Randy Clark quickly arrives. After checking the pulse of the body, Randy radios the station and then helps Sienna to his car to get her out of the cold.

A month after the murder on campus, when the crime goes unsolved, Sienna begins to feel terrified that maybe her mother, Viv, was right, and she is the one who was meant to die. Sienna shares her fears with Randy, he appears to think she may be right since they have been unable to find the killer. Her father, fearing Sienna is succumbing to the same delusional paranoia that her mother has, and angry that Randy seems to be fueling Sienna’s fears, sends Sienna to live with her grandmother in London.

Now
After ten years away, Sienna returns to Tranquility Bluffs and plans to stay and help care for Viv, as well as open her own restaurant. She feels some guilt that she has left the burden of caring for Viv to her half-brother Bradley since their father’s death five years ago.

When Sienna surprises Bradley in his office, he doesn’t seem happy she’s home and seems certain Sienna doesn’t realize how bad their mother’s illness has become. Sienna knows dealing with her mother will be hard but is determined to rebuild her life in her hometown. Bradley, while skeptical, agrees to help her, and warns her that the investigation of the murder ten years ago has been reopened.

After arriving at her family home, Sienna realizes how deep her mother’s delusions have become. She is locked inside the home with drapes drawn and talks of being watched all the time. Sienna is heartbroken at her mothers’ condition, but soon begins to doubt her own mental health when she starts to almost believe her mother’s delusions.
Shortly after arriving at home, Sienna notices a man watching her from across the street. It turns out Jonathon is new to the neighborhood and has bought the house across the street from Sienna’s family home. Jonathan and Sienna are soon attracted to each other.
A series of events convinces Sienna that there is more to the murder ten years ago than she thought. The police have re-opened the investigation, though there is apparently no new evidence. As Viv’s paranoia spirals out of control, Sienna begins to doubt her own sanity and is not sure who she can trust. Will she figure it out before she becomes the murderer’s next victim?
THE LOOK-ALIKE is an engaging novel about a young woman raised to fear what may be inside her, and yet strives to overcome those fears. All the things she thought were true about her family and the relationships within that family are put to the test, as well as her feelings for her new neighbor, Jonathan, and even her trust in the police themselves.
Told primarily from Sienna’s viewpoint the reader is left guessing who the villain is. The author does an excellent job of creating enough red herrings that I found myself second guessing my own instincts on who the murderer was, and who was really the intended victim. The one point I found a little implausible is the relationship that quickly developed between Jonathan and Sienna. I felt a woman in her situation would not easily trust, if only because she often doubted her own sanity. Beyond that, the characters were well developed and memorable and the ending while not a surprise to me, made me appreciate those plausible red herrings.

An entertaining who-dun-it, with a twist, I recommend THE LOOK-ALIKE TO fans of mysteries and suspense.
Terrie Figueroa

“The Look-Alike” is definitely a book to push up to the top of your TBR list.
Erica Spindler never disappoints. This is an amazing psychological thriller that will keep you turning the pages well into the night.
This book covers fear, love, mental illness and more twists than a pretzel.
To avoid spoiling the plot, I will leave you with one question...”Do you believe Sienna Scott escaped a murder that occurred years ago?” Read it to find out!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. I highly recommend it!

Fast-paced with intriguing characters, with an overall plot that kept you wondering what actually happened right up until the end. However, there were times where I thought the author included too many inane details about things that didn’t matter to the story. Besides that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It’s one that you can say fits into a bunch of different categories & one that I would recommend to someone looking for a good psychological thriller OR a whodunit.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the e-ARC!

Erica Spindler is a must read author. Her books are always suspenseful and intriguing. I really enjoyed this book, and contrary to other opinions, I didn’t know who the killer was from the beginning. There are many twists and turns , and you have to follow the author’s storyline down many rabbit holes to find out who the killer is. The characters are well developed and definitely fit into the story line. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I would like to thank the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange or m honest review.

This is the second book that I have read from Erica Spindler. I really like this book also and it definitely keeps the reader hooked. At times, the story line moved a bit too slow or me, but soon after my interest peaked again.
I highly recommend this book