Thank you for sharing this book! I’ve given it 4 stars on GoodReads. I thought the story was unusual and the thriller aspects I never saw coming.
I recommend this book.

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole is labeled a thriller. This is my first Alyssa Cole book and it does not disappoint. It is so much more. There is a lot of social commentary and could not come out at a more perfect time. We are viewers at what gentrification can do to a neighborhood. I liked Sydney and Theo the two characters who told the story. The story made me mad at times, hurt at times, and also made me chuckle. I do feel at times that the book was rather slow. I found myself saying let’s get on with it. I did not see a couple of the plot twists coming. At some point, I want to read it again. Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When No One Is Watching is this author's first foray into this genre. It's highly believable and rage inducing. It's also good. I raged over the injustices in this world, the lack of empathy - turning a blind eye to the plight of others because of them versus us mentally rather than coming from a place of humanity. I loved how close knit the community was, how they looked out for and protected one another. Although I was angry through most of it I definitely recommend it. It's a book I think everyone needs to read.

Make sure you watch your back. You never know who is watching. Or why.
Told from alternating perspectives, Sydney and Theo become involved in something sinister in the eagerly anticipated thriller by Alyssa Cole -- When No One Is Watching.
After living away for a while, Sydney moves back to her Brooklyn neighborhood to assist her mother, who is gravely ill and in danger of losing her home. With a new pharmaceutical company set to take up residence nearby, Sydney witnesses daily rich white people barging into the neighborhood, buying up the historically Black-owned Brownstones at an alarming pace. But where are those displaced by the shakeup? One by one, Sydney’s neighbors disappear. And that’s where Theo comes in. New to the neighborhood, Sydney reluctantly allows Theo to assist her as she begins digging into the history of the neighborhood in order to preserve it.
Cole’s thriller addresses timely themes such as gentrification and racial inequality.
Available September 1, 2020!
Thanks to Net Galley and William Morrow Books for an e-galley. (My review is my own unbiased opinion.)

Thank you, NetGalley, Alyssa Cole, and William Morrow Paperbacks for the opportunity to read this book!

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole is a thriller that channels “Get Out.” The book focuses on gentrification in a neighborhood in Brooklyn. The book follows the points of view of Sydney and Theo. Sydney has lived in her neighborhood most of her life with the same neighbors who have become family. However, a big company is coming in with the promise of jobs–with this comes gentrification. Theo is one of the new white neighbors to move in, along with his girlfriend Kim. Kim and Theo are struggling in their relationship when he meets Sydney from across the street. She is making a tour of the neighborhood for the big block party and Theo has offered to help with the research. Their research leads them to discover historical patterns of racism. Meanwhile, people are disappearing and new people are moving in. The problem is these neighbors wouldn’t up and leave, especially without saying goodbye. Now it seems like someone is targeting Sydney. Are Theo and Sydney just paranoid? Or is there something more sinister at work?

HOLY SHIT! This book had me on edge the entire time! It has all the twists and turns. Right when you think you know what will happen—BAM–another twist! There are so many intense themes throughout the book. Gentrification is the main theme. A company is systematically pushing black people and people of color out of the neighborhood so it can make the new white people comfortable. Then there are examples of racism and “white tears.” The pacing moves along fairly well, but it REALLY picks up at the final half of the book. There are psychological aspects like paranoia and anxiety. THEN there is the dystopian plot line–that completely blindsided me. However, it never felt unrealistic. These are real fears that black people deal with throughout their entire lives. It is absolutely gut-punching.

The characters are fantastic. I knew from the very first line that I was going to love Sydney. Theo is great too but not as badass as Sydney. Then on top of it all, there is an intense amount of research about the Bronx and New York. I learned so much and now plan to find some more books on the topic because it is definitely eye-opening. For me, this book is fantastic from beginning to end and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This book gets 5 out of 5 stars!

This book is set to release on September 1st, so be sure to add it to your wishlist!

Sydney has lived in her Brooklyn neighborhood since she was born, and has a great deal of pride in the neighborhood, its inhabitants, and its history. As the neighborhood begins to undergo gentrification, she not only becomes frustrated with the changes she sees, she also becomes alarmed. Why are her neighbors leaving so suddenly, some seemingly overnight? Where are they going? Why does it feel like something isn't right?

I loved this book, though there were parts that were definitely difficult to read. While this book technically was a thriller, it is also an analysis of race, race relations, and the idea of gentrification in America. This book made me angry - and it should. I wish that many of the things depicted in this book didn't happen on the regular in today's society, but it does. I appreciate that this book left me thinking long after I put it down and picked up something else.

Wow - this book was way more than I expected, in a good way. The thriller elements really creep up on you. This book is incredibly well-written. It’s a must-read!

There were many parts of this book that I liked, so I truly wanted to love it. I really enjoyed the history Cole brings to the book and it will probably send me down a rabbit hole of internet research eventually. But the pacing of the book was just too off. It was a slow start, but I was enthralled through the middle -- only to be very disappointed in the end. The conclusion didn't give itself enough time to unfold. I was also confused by what seemed to be a very unnecessary romance subplot. I didn't believe these characters liked each other.

Wow, definitely not what I was expecting as it was so much better. Received free copy from Scene of the Crime Facebook Group and NetGalley. Had this book for a while but put off reading it, but it was definitely worth it. What is portrayed in this book is definitely what has happened across America in with regentrification of black neighborhoods. In this story, there was a secret group of folks plotting and scheming against those who are marginalized and disenfranchised, but the level of deceit and business involved was astounding especially with the pharmaceutical company. Sydney Green, who is recently divorced and returns home to Brooklyn to care for her mom and get her life together, appears to be spiralling out of control. Sydney attends a neighborhood tour which is greatly schewed to white settlers decides to have her own tour of the generations of black folks and their history in the neighborhood. Everyone is going about their daily lives oblivious to the big picture of what is taking place, but events get set in motion through greed and Sydney can't help but figure out why folks are disappearing and supposedly selling their homes, moving away from what they know without a word. Very good and like secondary characters, Theo, Ms. Candace, Paulette and Fitzroy. All I can say is Do-Fa-Do.

Definitely not your typical neighborhood mystery!

This starts out as a story about two people in a "transitioning" neighborhood in Brooklyn. Sydney is Black. Her mom owns a townhouse and has deep roots in the community. Theo is white. He and his girl friend just moved into the neighborhood. At first the story is mostly about the neighborhood and its residents, with an emphasis on how gentrification is often characterized as making a neighborhood "nice" or "safer," completely overlooking the fact that it means that people whose families have been living there for decades are being driven out of their homes by a variety of factors, from redlining to outright fraud and deception. In that vein, the story also has a subplot about an Amazon-like company that wants to put a headquarters in the neighborhood.

I thought that this was going to be a cozy mystery with social justice themes - and that would have been an interesting story - but then maybe 2/3 through the book, the vibe gets WAY darker and creepier and turns more to horror. I was not expecting that, but I enjoyed the book!

This is a very different kind of thriller. Maybe because it starts out reading more like character driven contemporary fiction, I got very nervous waiting for the "thriller" elements. Then I got terrified.

There is something strange going on in Sydney's Brooklyn neighborhood. The gentrification is clear and the company that wants to take over the land is known, but the other events, like the disappearances of locals and the new neighbors acting suspiciously keep Sydney tense. Can Sydney trust Theo, one of the new people? Alyssa Cole has twists and turns in the story that keep a reader turning pages and cheering Sydney on. The older women characters add some humor.

So, hot diggity dang.

I have a lot of thoughts about this one, on two distinct trains.

The first is that this book made me really uncomfortable. It normally takes a lot for me to feel my whiteness, but this book... it's an uncomfortable and harsh reality, an elephant I didn't even know was in the room. And part of me wants to deny it and fight against it and pretend the author's just exaggerating for the plot-- but it's not (until the very end, I'm pretty sure). It's just something that isn't discussed.

It's important to have read this, though. It's important to read books that make you uncomfortable and I'm glad I did, even if I don't know what to do now that I know.

So that's the first train, here's the second:

HOLY HELLS Y'ALL THIS BOOK BLEW ME AWAY!! I know I've been saying that a lot in reviews recently but I am once again here to tell you: this book should be on your fall preorder lists.

Alyssa Cole over here deadass making romantic gestures out of hiding dead bodies, teaching you more history about Brooklyn than you probably want to know, and creating such a warm and vibrant community that even though I was rushing to finish the book (see train one), I also wanted to savor every line with everyone from the neighborhood. The suspense is so good. The writing, flawless. The random drops of humor like rain on the desert. I highly enjoyed this read.

Alyssa Cole’s new book, When No One Is Watching, is a thriller on steroids. It has all the elements of a classic thriller, such as the down-and-out protagonists, multiple points of view, propulsive plot, escalating suspense, things that go bump in the night, danger, characters who question their sanity. It introduces some new things into this scheme that make it absolutely terrifying and incredibly timely. Terrifying, because it proposes ideas that could be all too true regarding the gentrification of urban, predominately Black neighborhoods and the ruthless methods used, and timely, because in 2020, we have witnessed by video the unjust and merciless tactics used against people of color. There are many sub-genres of thrillers; welcome to the new social thriller, with a title here that would be excellent for discussion.

An absolutely phenomenal thriller from one of the modern masters of romance, Alyssa Cole knocks this one straight out of the park. WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING is by turns funny and chilling, with characters so real (in good and terrifying ways) you'd be completely unsurprised to bump into them in your own swiftly gentrifying neighborhood. This is an "I stayed up until 4am reading this in one sitting and have exactly zero regrets' read.

Sydney Green, recently divorced, returns home to Gifford Place Brooklyn a multicultural, predeminantly African American and Caribbean community, to take care of her ailing mother. On a walking tour, Sydney finds that her community is changing and has become heavily gentrified especially after VarenTech Pharmaceuticals purchased a longtime closed psychiatric hospital that looms hauntingly over the community. Sydney decides to fight the erasure of people of color, in her own way by giving her own walking tours highlighting the history of people of color from the Indigenous people to Black immigrants. Unemployed Theo is a new white resident who moves into the community with his spoiled quasi girlfriend looking for a place to put down roots. Sydney and Theo formally meet at a community event where Sydney is cajoled into accepting Theo's help with the research for her walking tour. What they discover through their research has the potential to put their life in danger and destroy this community. The book had all of the elements of a good thriller but at times the villains felt less nefarious people and more like a caricatures. The plot was good and I really enjoyed the history presented but when it came to applying the racist history and housing policies such as redlining or sub-prime lending into the storyline, it felt surface. I wish Cole would have spent more time intricately weaving together how the system used these racist policies to inflict maximum damage on the community into the plot. Still this was a really fun romantic thriller with a twist on the ending that I really loved. I would definitely read more of Ms. Cole's thrillers in the future, which should only get better.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This was not your typical thriller but it contained levels of terrifying but realistic twists and turns. Especially in our present day where children are in cages and police can illegally enter a home and kill the resident with no repercussions this book is important. It is important to recognize that there are systematic and malicious people and policies that keep specific people down. Beyond the social justice benefits this was just a solid and good book. The writing was amazing and the main characters were flawed but love able and I found myself frantic to finish to see how they fared. This book was entertaining and left me thinking, what more can you ask for from a book?

The pacing of the story in general is slow. Nothing truly happens until like 70-80% of the book. Honestly, the author took too long to get to the goodness. Not going to lie, I was a bit bored at the half-way point. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good eggs during this read...but good gravy, I needed a bit more action early on. Here is the thing, the balance between the romance and thriller of this book didn’t coincide well. We either got too much or too little of both..or at times, nothing at all. It wasn’t a good balance.

At the end of it all. I like When No One is Watching. It hit my thriller sweet spot just a lil bit and honestly my romance sweet spot wasn’t all happy as I thought it would but it's a good read.

3 1/2 stars.

I thought this was absolutely amazing!

I knew going in that this book primarily focused on gentrification-that was literally all I knew about it-and I think that's the best way to go into this novel. I've seen some people say the pacing is off, and that it doesn't match the "fast paced thriller" blurb they were given, and I can definitely see that. This novel is a slow burn thriller that brilliantly builds the suspense and ominous feeling for a good portion of the book. I loved how Alyssa Cole took the time to build not only Sydney and Theo's characters, but a lot of the side characters as well. They were all so well fleshed out and real. Neither Sydney nor Theo was a good or bad person-they both were such interesting and flawed characters in the best way.

The way Alyssa Cole builds her story around gentrification and how it stems from racism and white supremacy was just so, so good. She clearly did so much research, and I loved how she built a lot of her research into the actual story. The snippets of history we got felt organic, and it led me to do even more research after I was finished reading. It may just be the teacher/librarian in me, but I thought it was brilliant how Cole wrote a great thriller and still managed to pack in so much history and education.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a great mystery/thriller!

*Thanks so much to the publisher for providing my copy via Netgalley!*

The first half of this book is a fascinating story about relationships and life in a Brooklyn neighborhood, gentrification and racial tensions. The second half of the story takes a sudden dark turn that ramps it up into a gripping thriller, and at this point I could not put the book down! I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book and learning more about gentrification of Black neighborhoods was very illuminating.