Thriller of a book. Thank you for the opportunity for this! I was able to figure out bits of the book still enjoyed it though!

I'm a little torn over the rating for this book, because it seemed to be on the right course...it included some interesting insights into a psychiatrist's thoughts on his patients, and the moral gray area when he becomes fixated or bored with his patients.

We know that Sophie is seeing Dr. Thacker for her paranoia that someone is following her after her husband disappears from a work trip. But we know that something deeper and darker happened the month he went missing, and we have a pretty good idea what that is. There is a twist, but I felt that the author rushed the ending and the reader is left with a lot of questions. The writing kept giving me strong vibes of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House, so I think there is more going on than I could see. This was a short novel and a fast read.

Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the author, for an advance reader's copy.

This book has been compared to the Silent Patient and I definitely got those vibes while reading! This plot is different, though, and I really enjoyed how it played out. This is a short psychological thriller that you'll devour in one sitting. At one point I had a "what" moment, and once I picked my jaw up off the floor I had to go back and re-read certain excerpts to make sure I was understanding correctly what was happening. Yes, I was fooled, and I absolutely love when that happens! Secrets, a missing husband, a psychiatrist with hidden motives? What more could one ask for.

I had been seeing this book all over the place, so I was a little skeptical about all of the raving reviews. But I was very surprised when it knocked it out of the park! This book is everything you could ask for in a psychological thriller. The twists, how everything tied together…perfect!

Are you ever worried someone is watching you? Do you ever get the feeling someone is looking at you and you turn to see no one there?? Does it feel like someone is following your every move and you can’t explain it???

This is Sophie Portman’s life, she is convinced - or thinks she’s convinced - no she’s convinced… someone is ‘Watching Her’. She has reported it to the police but there is no evidence, but she can see him… can’t she… is she losing her mind? Sophie has lost her husband and now feels like she’s slowly losing her mind - no way, someone is following her…. Aren’t they??

Sophie seeks the professional assistance of Dr Andrew Thacker a psychiatrist whose job it is to help Sophie come to terms with these feelings she’s having - that started directly after she lost her husband. Dr Thacker is here to help Sophie with her delusions - or is someone watching her? Other People’s Lives are just so interesting is someone watching everyone somewhere?

As Sophie begins to open up the truth is coming out thread by thread and nothing is as it seems - are you watching carefully????

Wowser, this is a quick read I was 80% done in a couple of hours, the sentences and chapters are refreshingly short and the story is interesting. The story is told via letters from Sophie to her lost husband and through the POV of Sophie’s visits to the therapist and her life. I do not want to give anything away because if the twist is spoilt the book is spoilt…

You will go HUH hang on… What did I just read around the 80% mark… you might track back and try to figure out… my suggestion read on… roll into the story… read to the end then stop….. process and go back and read bits and pieces where you think but wasn’t that… or didn’t so and so say…. AND THEREIN LIES THE GENIUS OF THIS BOOK.

You think you have it all figured out… I know I did. What amazing writing and I was suckered in from the get go… I had to know what was going on… Sophie’s crazy right… sure…. OR is someone watching her…. Read the book it wont take long… Once you have read it you could go back and read it again and feel the WTF feeling I felt when I re-read some parts.

I do think the ending was a little sharp and neat but I didn’t mind - it was worth it, a definite recommended read - do it!!!

Thank you to BooksGoSocial, NetGalley and the author for this advanced copy for my honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought I'll read one chapter before I go to bed but I immediately got hooked. Couldn't put it down and instead stayed up to finish the book. There were so many twists and turns. Didn't see the ending coming.

I was very excited to read this book based on the reviews, but it fell very short for me. It was told by three different characters. At some points I had no idea who was even talking. The plot was confusing and overall didn’t feel like everything came together.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free E-ARC of this book!!

Losing a spouse is one of the most heartbreaking, traumatic experiences I can think of to go through. Sophie Portman is lost in her sorrows of losing her spouse, Jack. We left for a geological expedition on Russia and hadn't returned. As if that isn't difficult enough, she also feels that she is being watched everywhere she goes. She starts going to Dr. Thacker, a psychiatrist, to try and get through this rough time in her life but questions inevitably start to bubble up to the surface. Who could be watching her, and why? And loss can mean many different things. How did she lose her husband, exactly?

I loved seeing the "can't guess this ending" reviews for this book because I do find myself sorting out the ending of novels before getting there, and I definitely did not see this one coming! As a whole, I book I cannot guess the ending for will always be a positive for me. I did notice some vague language that could have been more descriptive, and what seemed to me like some dialogue mishaps that I am hoping are weeded out by the time this publishes. It also could have been my misunderstanding based on the format on my Kindle, so I will have to leaf through a finished copy once I see it on the shelves! There were also a few plot holes and an ending that could have been elaborated on more to wrap up a bit cleaner. Aside from that feedback, I ripped through this book in about 24 hours and, wow, it got to a certain point and just went crazy! Once it all started falling into place, it didn't let up for one second.

📚 Book Review 📚 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Other People’s Lives by JE Rowney

Sophie’s husband has been missing for months and she feels like someone is watching her 😳 She goes to see a psychiatrist who knows that she is lying about her husband. Will the truth come out?

The book bounces from Sophie writing letters to her missing husband and her therapist who is clearly infatuated with her and then it takes a turn and everything changes. You’ll read this story fast because it has you wanting to know more! I felt the ending was rushed and I was a little disappointed that someone didn’t play more of a role than they could have in the end but overall it was a good read. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!! #NetGalley #otherpeopleslives

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with the ARC ebook copy of this book 🖤

Wow, this was a roller coaster of emotions! I went in this book not expecting much, and I was gripped and hooked right from the page one. The plot is easy to follow, yet twisty in places you are never expecting them to be. The atmosphere is incredibly chilling so you just can't put it down. I'm glad I gave this book a go!

The book was confusing as the narrator at the beginning was basically dropped later on, and did not feature significantly in the novel. Too much time was spent on his thoughts and reactions as they did not count for much later on, it seems to me. The plot itself was a good one but it took too long to take off.

Sophie needs help. Her husband, Jack, has disappeared and she thinks someone is watching her. Unable to convince the police she decides to see a psychiatrist, one who unfortunately has issues of his own.

I think I must have been sent a different book to all the other readers who've given it 4 and 5 stars. I didn't enjoy this book at all. You often have to suspend disbelief when reading a psychological thriller and I'm happy to do this when characters are engaging and the plot is clever. This wasn't the case here. There wasn't enough depth to the plot for me. It needed a subplot or two to liven it up. Instead we had two characters, Sophie and the psychiatrist, narrating from their point of view. Each chapter finished with either Sophie saying something along the lines of "I need to start telling the truth' or the psychiatrist either obsessing about Sophie (a plot line that just vanishes and is never resolved) or saying a version of 'Sophie needs to start telling the truth'. A book about a stalker should be creepy and this just wasn't. We weren't given any reason to believe Sophie other than her claiming she felt his eyes on her or some such thing. More suspense could have been brought in by e.g. the stalker sending texts which then disappear, late night phone calls, that sort of thing. And then there's the issue of the psychiatrist. I've never read about a less convincing one. He's presumably in private practice as there's reference to payment. How did Sophie afford this? She's been off work as a teacher for seven months so wouldn't even be on full pay and she has to take on Jack's side of the bills as he's disappeared. As for his practice... unconvincing. There's reference to him training for around 6 years. Psychiatrists have to do a medical degree first (5 years in the UK) following by 2 years of general training and then 3 years of psychiatry at least. So, a minimum of 10 years. No wonder he has doubts about his own practice. I'd be asking for my money back! Finally there's the absurdity of the final reveal. So many questions about this but I can't ask them without spoilers. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was given the opportunity to read this as an ARC thanks to NetGalley!
This novel was a slow burn, but I couldn't put it down or stop thinking about it! Every time I thought I had it figured out, as to what happened to Sophie's husband, a phrase or chapter ending paragraph threw a wrench into my thought process and steered it in another direction. I don't read too many psychological thrillers that still keep me guessing up until the very end, this one I had figured out within the last couple chapters, but it was still amazing. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Silent Patient!

This was a great book!
Such an easy, quick read, I raced through it desperate to find out what was going on.
Told from the perspectives of Sophie through letters to her missing husband Jack and her psychiatrist Doctor Thacker, you don’t really find out what’s going on until the very end.
I had no idea how it would end and although I thought the twist was very good, it was a little bit too rushed, making it slightly unbelievable to me.
Still, I really enjoyed it! This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it definitely won’t be the last!

This is the first book I've read by this author. I love a good psychological thriller and having seen some rave reviews and the comparison to Gone Girl meets The Silent I was eager to read this.

Told through Sophie's letters to her missing husband (Jack) and chapters from the perspective of her psychiatrist Doctor Thacker, it easily sucked me in.

Since Jack's disappearance Sophie is convinced she is being stalked, is she hallucinating of is someone really out to get her?

The novel does have a really good flow, even if I wasn't feeling much threat or tension. There are multiple twists, though I did feel a little cheated by the device used to set up one of the big ones.

Overall, I wasn't wowed, but I enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little Fox Books

Ominous, and with a constant undercurrent of unpredictable danger from nearly every character, this book kept me waiting for the other shoe to drop right up until the moment it did.

The twist was actually very surprising - I had thought it would be a very different twist altogether. But the ending happened so quickly and so wildly that I was left not quite knowing what had happened. Without giving spoilers - the “truth” that the police are told at the end will be very easily disproven even if everyone sticks to their version of the story, so I don’t feel like it’s a believable way to end it. I feel like some follow up to it could have been used to make the ending stick better. But I read the whole thing in one sitting, so clearly I was engaged!

In this twisty thriller we meet Sophie who has started seeing a therapist because she feels like she is being followed. This all suddenly happens after her husband seems to have disappeared seven months ago when he didn't show up for a work commitment in Russia. I hate to give away any more information because the rest of the book is so fast and twisted that if I mention anything at all it will give away this incredible plot. This is an easily digested thriller which kept me guessing until the last page. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, this book is for you!

I will definitely look more into other books by this author. I loved that I could read this in pretty much one sitting, but it kept me satisfied and guessing the whole time. Overall, it was a super fun and quick read because I could not put it down!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting book told between Sophie and another male who is rather fixated on Sophie. Sophie is struggling and seeing her psychiatrist for help with her husband's disappearance. A feeling of unease builds up throughout the book until the shocking truth is finally revealed. The book certainly took me by surprise but I just felt it wasn't as gripping as it should have been and I didn't fully understand certain character's actions at the end. It just felt a tad too untidy for it to be a satisfactory ending. I did enjoy the twists of the book and it is a clever book in how it is played out.

This one was an absolute blast!

The story of Sophie whos husband has recently left her, she thinks someone is watching her and decides to visit psychiatrist Andrew Thacker as she feels she is losing her mind.

Told from both points of view this is and absolute blast of a read as you try to figure out what is the truth and what is lies. Just as you think you are getting a handle on things - BANG! the author pulls the rug from under your feet yet again. I have a sore butt from the amount of times I landed on it reading this book.

Unreliable narrators x 2 makes this a real page turner as it slowly gets darker and darker.
At his heart its a book about rejection and loss but it is wrapped up in the most deliciously twisted and fascinating story. I would imagine the author had great fun writing this book.

An easy 5 stars for me. The best fun Ive had reading aa book in a long while.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

Gripping, thrilling and completely intriguing, I loved every page of Other People’s Lives. I read this book in a day as once you start this novel, it’s impossible to put down. A fabulous 5 star read that I highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley, Books Go Social and the author for the chance to review.