3.75 stars

I really loved the Memory Watcher which is the sequel to this story. So I was happy to lay my hands on this one!
To get into this story you do not have to know the Memory Watcher, though it is a highly addictive story.
We meet Grace, who broke up with Sutton Whitlock a long time ago, but never stopped following him online. Now she returns home to somehow gets entangled into Sutton’s life via his wife.
I really liked both of the women though I am a bit sorry, that the tension didn’t last very long for me. The end was not such a burner like I would have expected but nether the less a very gripping read!
Thank you #NetGalley # Thomas & Mercer for this ARC

I’m a Minka Kelly stan so I jumped at the chance to read her latested. I love the way she does thrillers. It puts me in the mind of Joy Fielding or Mary Higgins Clark. This is fast paced but doesn’t skimp on details to build the story.
We meet Grace who is returning to her hometown to make peace with an old flame. Grace viewed the task as well as the return to her home town as difficult as it holds bad childhood memories.

In her attempt to make peace pulls her I into what looks to be an abusive relationship with her ex at the center. The person needing saving is not who Grace imagined.
This is a wonderful story that follows many twists and unexpected turns. The part that I loved the most is the main character’s evolution and her willingness to forgive the past

Grace returns to her home town to check on Stutton, her ex-boyfriend, whose heart she broke years ago.
He is now married to a woman who looks just like Grace, and his daughter's name is none other than Grace.
Grace wants to make sure he is OK.
But when she crosses paths with his wife and notices the bruises on her body, she starts to wonder what happens behind the closed doors.
Surely, Stutton, who used to be loving and caring, couldn't change that much.


I love Minka Kent's books (except for the previous one), and this one didn't disappoint me either.
The story was entertaining and fast-paced, and although it was a bit predictable, it still kept me in suspense.
I had a weird familiar feeling when I was reading it, and it turns out that this is a sort of follow up to The Memory Watcher, which I read a long time ago, so I didn't instantly connect the facts. Don't let it put you off though; it reads fine as a stand-alone.
The author's writing style makes for a gripping and easy flowing read, so if that's what you're looking for, be sure to check it out.

Fantastic book! I've read all of Minka Kent books (I believe) and she never disappoints. Perfect domestic suspense novel IMO. Good girl bad girl, bad guy good guy??? You never know what might happen in the end.

Minka Kent is an enormously talented author, but “The Watcher Girl” isn’t my favorite of her novels. Grace’s inner dialogue quickly reveals her to be quite the narcissist, and the entire plot hinges on her being convinced that her ex from 10 years ago can’t possibly be over her. Grace’s ego is huge and she’s unlikeable as a protagonist. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, but the ending is good and I liked how Ms. Kent wrapped everything up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Talk about a psychological, shocking, suspenseful, painfully revealing story surrounding Grace, Sutton and Campbell. The overall storyline was complex. Grace, she thinks of herself as half a person. When she was with Sutton she realized her childhood trauma would never leave her and she felt it would affect their relationship if they stayed together. So after four years of living together she leaves him thinking it was for the best for him. Eight years later she wants to apologize after piecing together his current life showed he was still hung up on her. He is married has a child and his wife seems approachable at first. Grace finally forces a meet with Sutton and he tells her to stay away from him and his wife. Sutton's wife Campbell fabricated such lies to convince Grace to trust her. Grace prided herself of not being taken in by anyone. But she was wrong. In the end Grace realizes the truth of her family problems but also that she was loved. She never realized how broken she was and now was determined to start anew no matter how difficult. Sutton’s life again was turned upside down. But when Grace went to see him, he was dealing with the problems better than she thought. That was the moment she realized he was never broken. She was. This is a page turner. I could not put the book down. It held my attention every moment of every page. The ending was totally unpredictable. The emotional ups and downs were not as significant as I expected for a psychological thriller. However, the suspense, the truth of what Grace believed was fact was actually a lie and the person she held responsible was not the guilty party. The guilty party shocked Grace and she was angry. I liked her sister Rose. A very loving sensible sister. She was a good influence on Grace. In the end Sutton made some tough choices that would cause the upheaval of his life. Grace realized he was still the good man she remembered and he was still a good man to this day. A MUST READ!!

Reasons I enjoyed this book:
Original
Page-turner
Realistic
Tragic
Twisted
Unpredictable

The Watcher Girl has 3 main characters i.e. Grace, Sutton & Cambell. 8 years after Grace dumped Sutton, she returns back to her home town when she learns that her ex Sutton has settled in it after marrying a girl who looks exactly like she does and naming his daughter after her. Convinced that Sutton is still obsessed about her, Grace intends to apologize to him for breaking his heart and giving him the closure that he needs to move on. But things take a turn when Grace ends up befriending Sutton's wife, Cambell, before she ever has a chance to come in contact with Sutton, and learns that Sutton is no longer the same person she knew. He is controlling & abusive with Cambell and Grace will do anything to save Cambell.

When I read the book, I got a feeling that one or more of these 3 characters is not trustworthy & probably unstable. I kept thinking that something was not adding up. But I just couldn't place my finger on the problem. The author managed to keep mystery of who the untrustworthy & unstable character is, alive until the very end. It was only after I reached around 80% that I started to lean more in favor of one or more characters. This was the best part about reading this book. The twists are plenty and the plot keeps thickening until almost the very end, making it an absolute page turner. I gobbled it down as fast as I could, sometimes even keeping my work aside! Needless to say, I absolutely loved this book!

There are also quite a few interesting supporting characters as well, such as Grace's sister Rose, her parents and Bliss, who make quite an impact on the story. I loved Rose, who despite Grace's closed demeanor, doesn't give up on breaking the walls surrounding her. But most of all, I loved Bliss, a character that symbolizes that sometimes, even bonds not formed by blood, can be just as meaningful & content.

This was the first Minka Kent book I've read and if all her works are this good, I am definitely gonna keep coming back for more!

#TheWatcherGirl #NetGalley

I did not realize there was a prequel before I started reading this one (<i>The Memory Watcher </i>). While this novel can stand on its own, I think reading the first would help some of the discombobulation I felt while reading <i>The Watcher Girl </i>. The summary sounded enticing to me: a woman who works in the dark cyber world discovers that her old boyfriend has moved to her hometown, married a look-alike, and even named their child after her. She returns to see what's up.

So far, so good. But as I started getting into the narrative, I found a few hiccups that impacted my reading. [Spoilers ahead.]

First, the premise of the Grace (the protagonist's) return was weak. She claims that--almost 10 years after the break up--she needs to return to her ex and apologize to him since she's certain it was her termination of the relationship that caused him to go so berserk. Her inner dialogue makes her sound narcissistic (at best) as she constantly laments his inability to get past her, how she feels responsible, how she now thinks she can fix his life by explaining (something?) to him that she seems to have already explained to him a decade ago. She then switches gears when she meets his wife and suspects her ex has totally changed his sweet personality and is now abusing this woman--and Grace NOW feels like she's responsible for this abuse since it was so hard for him to get over her.

Second, I struggled with any identification to Grace. I get that she has a difficult personality based on the baggage she carries from her youth (more of that in a moment) and I also thought it might be disclosed that she had some sort of emotional dissonance that impacted her relationships (that didn't happen). Then I thought perhaps SHE was going to be the culprit; her actions are increasingly inexplicable and stalker-ish. However, while her actions appear consistently unbalanced, the author never puts them in that light. I think, instead, we're supposed to identify with Grace, but she's difficult to like and her motivations are suspect.

Third, that baggage. This is where I think reading the first book would be very helpful. Apparently a LOT happens there, which is quickly summarized in this book--and it seems almost comical. There was an affair, a murder, a bestselling tell-all book that revealed too many nasty secrets to Grace, an adoptive mother in prison, a missing but presumed (maybe?) murdered biological mother, a mystery biological father, and a nanny who impersonated Grace's biological mother and invaded her childhood home under false pretenses. I was scrambling to put all of this into context while also trying to make sense of the new story being told.

Finally, in addition to weak motivations of characters, there were also some odd plot devices (like, why did Grace have to be led at gunpoint for MILES through the woods by her ex without him simply telling her what was going on?)

One thing I had hoped to see that didn't materialize was a greater emphasis on her work, which could have made an interesting subplot to the novel. She is paid to journey through the dark web, finding and eliminating information her clients want to see erased. But other than a few brief examples and her more frequent allusions to the ugly things she's seen, this plot element wasn't used to its full advantage.

In summary, this book has a decent hook and is a quick read. I fault some of my response with it to not having read the prequel. I also think that while the above issues bothered me, they might not be a deal breaker for others. Not my cup of tea, but I'm willing to try this author again.

#TheWatcherGirl#NetGalley

Another great read by Minka Kent! She has become one of my favorite authors, and this book didn’t disappoint!
Thanks to NetGalley and to Minka Kent for the opportunity to read this exciting ARC!

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and Minka Kent for allowing me to read this arc of The Watcher Girl. I loved the premise. If I had know this was in a series. parts of the book might have made more sense to me and I wouldn't have been left puzzling over a couple of other things that seemed unfinished. But the first part of the book was very good, even though I didn't really like any of the characters. I thought Grace's job was interesting and perfect for how she stalked the family. Then for some reason, I stopped being as interested. I still wanted to know what was going to happen, but it was not a page turner. Maybe the extraneous little stories like visiting the mom or the former nanny distracted me from the main story. I still thought the writing was good so would try another book by this author

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.
4 Stars!
Highly recommend. I love Minka Kent's books.
It was hard to put this book down. I was hooked from the first chapter.
This thriller was fun to read. It was short and enjoyable.
Well written, well plotted, engaging characters.

This is my first Minka Kent book and will certainly not be my last! I enjoyed reading this. It kept me intrigued the whole time. Solid 4 stars from me!

I read WHEN I WAS YOU by Minka Kent and really enjoyed it. I did not enjoy THE WATCHER GIRL. The story was completely unbelievable and the characters felt very one dimensional. Kent had a good surprise twist at the end, but it didn't make up for the other flaws.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enjoyable (if maybe a bit predicable)

<b>PROS</b>
-- This author has a very readable way to her writing.
-- Fast paced
-- Quick read
-- Engaging plot
-- Likable characters
-- Satisfying ending

<b>CONS</b>
-- Grace wasn't the most likable of characters.
-- As I mentioned above, this was a pretty predictable read. I figured out how this was going to go from early on.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

2.5 stars rounded down.

Probably my least favourite Minka Kent. A few chapters in I was pretty lost. There seemed to be three different story lines going on at the same time. Thirty something Grace returns home after a long absence. Her adoptive mother is in jail for an apparent murder, though it's only briefly mentioned. Grace holds animosity towards her parents for her troubled childhood which involved a suspicious woman posing as a nanny, who then lied about being Grace's biological mother. These two story lines turn out to be irreverent to the main story line involving Grace's ex husband. The outcome would have been exactly the same without them. If not for reading in another reader's review that this was a sort of sequel to <i>The Memory Watcher 2016</i> I would never have known. This can easily be read as a stand alone, however I would have given myself a refresher before reading this as the two seemingly irrelevant story lines where highlighted in the previous book. Phew! Now to the main story.

Grace is really in town to spy on her ex husband Sutton. There is a brief mention of her needing closure of sorts, but it is never really made clear why she decided to stalk him. Sutton has a new wife who looks exactly like Grace, and has even named his daughter after his ex. When it seems Sutton is abusing his wife, Grace decides to help her. I thought this was a highly unusual story line, specifically for Grace. The character is a borderline sociopath, with little care for others, even her family. So why would she care to help a stranger?

The ending was very strange. There was a lot of detail, driving, then walking. However, when it came to the main conclusion, it was very rushed. I hate an ambiguous ending. If you like your books far fetched, this ones for you.

**Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for my review copy.
(Disclosure) My fully Goodreads review contains a hidden spoiler.

Despite the idea of confirmation bias in general, I refuse to believe someone could file away this many signs of something being amiss just because she prefers her own, seemingly random, narrative.

Grace McMullen is an internet sanitizer, which is a useful skill if you want to digitally spy on your ex-boyfriend or if you want to cover your internet tracks from inquisitive family members. At the beginning of the novel, she is returning to her hometown of Monarch Falls in New Jersey after an absence of around a decade. This is a psychological thriller with a lot of awkward family drama.
She is staying reluctantly with her father, who has a new girlfriend, a neo-hippie calling herself Bliss Diamond, the latest in a long line of girlfriends, which began before her mother was jailed for killing one such mistress. The exploitative tell all book resulting from the murder put Grace off familial relationships and left her feeling vulnerable and mildly paranoid. Grace feels uneasy returning to her hometown after such a long absence, her relations with her family are frosty. Grace is not an easy person to love, she confesses to us that : “I was born with a darkness inside,” and with an innate desire to destroy perfection.
She is drawn back by discovering her ex-boyfriend, Sutton, who she dumped eight years previously, has a wife, Campbell, who bears a striking resemblance to Grace and they have had a child together and named her “Grace”. Campbell even has the same smell as Grace using Grace’s “signature perfume.” Her suspicions about her ex-boyfriend become a dangerous obsession. Watching his house, she accidentally meets Campbell and a friendship develops. Campbell sports suspicious bruises and it appears that Sutton’s character has changed for the worse and Grace fears for this new woman in his life.
The pacing is good, starting off slow and picking up speed towards a dramatic finale. I enjoyed this novel, it had me turning the pages and there were some surprising but plausible twists on the journey. For frequent readers of thrillers, the tropes might seem too familiar and the direction too obvious. The character of Grace was well drawn but some of the accompanying cast were a little sketchy.
This novel is a follow up to an earlier novel “The Memory Watcher” but it works fine as a standalone.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Watcher Girl by Minka Kent.

Eight years ago Grace broke up with Sutton and moved away, cutting all ties with him and breaking his heart. But after SHE stalks HIM on social media, it looks like he's not doing well. His new spouse looks just like her, and they even names their daughter after her. Obviously he hasn't moved on, so she does what's totally normal and healthy, she moves back to her home town in order to watch him.

But after having an ugly fall in front of Sutton's new spouse, things start to get complicated. Is his new wife safe? Has Sutton become a new person? And how can she get even more involved?

Uuuuuuuuugh. Welcome to How to Create Drama out of Thin Air. Maaaaaaybe (a very shaky maybe) if he had left her, I can understand a bit of the longing and obsession, but dude! Why would you just show up because you feel so bad about breaking up with someone. And, get over yourself, let the man move on. It's none of your business, get a life!

Obviously I wasn't a fan. And if the lunacy of the premise wasn't enough, it just wasn't strong story telling. Her backstory was luke warm at best, none of the characters were likable, or relatable. Nah, not one I'd recommend.

I never clicked with this book. The narrator keeps talking about her dark side and how she ruins everything around her, but aside from moving around a lot and breaking up with a boyfriend, you never see evidence of that since she is polite, picks up on people’s emotions, and seems pretty stable. The twist in the book seemed pretty obvious to me. The resolution was cringey. Instead of letting characters’ actions and decisions speak for themselves, the characters spell out everything explicitly.

I did not know that this was a sequel when I read it; it can fully be read as a stand-alone and the story will make sense. I truly enjoyed this book and all the twists. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I didn’t! Like another reviewer, I wish the ending was better for Grace, but maybe there’s another story in the world? Thanks for the opportunity to read this. It was a great book.