I expected to enjoy this book, but I'm afraid it didn't really work for me. Somehow the characters and plot just never fully engaged me. But I appreciate the chance to read the ARC in advance of publication in exchange for my honest opinion.

Someone is Always Watching | 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What would you do if you found out you have spent your whole life being watched and controlled by an upper source? It feels pretty scary when mysteries start to unfold in your friend group and you no longer know what the truth is.

Someone Is Always Watching is a great Young-Adult Murder Mystery read that I completely enjoyed! From the very first page, I was captivated and urged to know more about the story and it’s characters. Finding out the truth little by little, alongside the characters was amazing!

Getting to know this characters and understand them made the process a whole lot easier. Kelly Armstrong has a great deal in character building!

I recommend this book 100% if you’re looking for a mysterious read with an enjoyable ending!
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Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Will be uploading a spoiler free reading vlog on my YouTube Channel the day this book is published.

I ended up rating this book a "DNF" because about 40% into the story, I still wasn't drawn in. The premise is intriguing and the inciting incident hooked me right away, but I couldn't connect to the characters enough after that to care about what happened next. The action of the plot slowed immensely as well. Maybe I'll go back to it one day, but for now, it's not for me.

Things come to a head when Gabrielle starts muttering that someone is always watching and her parents are not her parents in a manic manner which is massively out of character for her. When she is found covered in blood in the principal's office with the principal dead on the ground, she cannot recall anything about what has happened.

Blythe, Tucker and Tanya know something is seriously wrong. Blythe’s sister has been having vivid nightmares and then someone calling themselves Veritas, keeps sending Blythe emails about a boy who slit another kid's throat and hinting that it is someone she knows and trusts. When Devon admits that he is remembering things that supposedly didn’t happen, it has the whole group wondering what is happening and whether they can even trust their own memories or each other.


I really enjoyed this one. It really pulled me in and I was hooked right away. It was very clever the way the storyline merged the way it did and I am so grateful that the ending was written the way it was. I felt it was tied up well enough to be a standalone but also left an avenue for a sequel.

I really enjoyed the notion of memories and the idea that they can be manipulated or changed. It was very well done without getting too technical. I could have done with a little bit more character development but I can see why it was necessary to not give too much information away.

Definitely an addictive read! 4.5 stars!!

Someone Is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong is a fantastic story! i never guessed where the plot was going.

ARC releasing 4/11/23. Strange things happen at school causing a group of friends to question their memories and secrets. This took me forever to read for no reason. There were too many characters and the plot was simply unbelievable and not fleshed out at all. The was no sense of urgency or reason to care. Big yawn

This was such a fun YA read. This novel is fast-paced with likable characters and a clever mystery to be solved. The characters live in a small town where suddenly one girl believes she is being watched and another girl thinks she witnessed a brutal murder. It's hard to know what is real and what isn't. I'll admit that I thought this story was going in a completely different direction than it did. The plot twist threw me for a loop. Part of me wanted a more realistic explanation of everything, but bonus points for creativity here. Overall, I enjoyed this even though I had to suspend disbelief quite a bit.

A YA title in Kelley Armstrong's outstanding catalog of titles that proves again that she couldn't write a bad book if she tried. I'm a Kelley Armstrong fan, having read every one of her titles. Her catalog covers a wide assortment of genres and some very unusual characters. They all have in common her outstanding writing style and some serious world building skills.

Teens attending a private school that is aligned with the scientific center their parents work for begin to exhibit strange behavior. As the core group loses members, they will pull together to find answers to the troubling questions that seem to multiply with every fact they find. As they discover more about their friends and even themselves, will they be able to help or will their answers be buried by the adults who keep telling them to stop.

This is a stand alone story. Armstrong has many diverse series in genres that cover just about anyone's favorite. Pick anyone and you'll be hooked. Happy Reading!!!!

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be wild.

The characters in this book were interesting, with a pretty good variation of personalities, motives and reactions to the situations that arise.

I'll admit, I had seen some other reviews of this book which called it predictable but I definitely did not figure out what truly was going on, and whodunnit so to speak until the book basically spelled it out for me, so at the same time as most of the characters within it.

It really is both a psychological thriller, as well as a mystery.

There was also no way I was going to put this book down until I knew further what was going to happen to the kids, and what crimes (depending on how you see it) the adults committed against them.

It also brings to question the thought of nature versus nurture within society, and if you can really change someone who has committed heinous acts, or someone who hasn't into committing them.

I'd recommend this to anyone who loved the YA thrillers of the late eighties and early nineties. This book is reminiscent of those, and will keep you gripped in its clutches. It had me rushing to go back to it after just the first chapter.

I really enjoyed this intense psychological thriller. I love Blythe as the intriguingly unreliable narrator and appreciated the suspenseful reveal of clues scattered throughout the story. I got very wrapped up in the mystery and was kept guessing until the end.

If someone altered your past, altered your memories - would you still be the same person after?
Watching one of your closest friends behave completely opposite of her personality you basically chalk it up to a psychotic break. You suffered a concussion during the same time so you can’t clearly remember the situation. Then you start having weird déjà vu and visions that make you start questioning what really happened. Told from multiple points of you view - This exciting and thought-provoking thriller was a wild ride. Follow a group of teens as they discover the truth about their current lives and what their true past has caused them to become.
With being a fan of Kelly Armstrong‘s previous work, I knew that the story was going to shock me and make me think long after I was finished with this book. A fast and compelling read.

3 &1/2 stars! I love reading Kelley Armstrong. And I was very excited to get an ARC digital copy from NetGalley!

This book was a fun easy read. I like the general idea of the book but I am going to be honest after about 3 quarters of the book I was ready for it to end. There are just some issues in the book that are so unbelievable to me that made me question what the heck I was reading from time to time. Having said that I did like reading this book and the end wrapped up nicely.

I do give this book a trigger warning for talk of sexual abuse.

It's been a bit since I've read anything from Kelley Armstrong, but when I read the summary, I was instantly intrigued.

A young adult psychological thriller with a sci-fi twist? Yes, please!

When Blythe and her friends witness an unexpected outburst at their school, they'll soon discover their memories of the event, and what's to follow doesn't make sense. As they learn the truth, they're left with the question of how far they are willing to go to save their classmates?

My only true complaint would be not knowing this would be a new series, but in truth, I should have realized the possibility as that aligns with Kelley's writing style.

This books begs the question if science really tried to help the children when they were younger? Is it really helping a young child without even thinking of precautions in case things failed? What would happen when they started to remember? As your reading you aren’t sure whether to trust Blythe’s thoughts or even Gabrielle’s thoughts. As Blythe and her friends dig deeper for the truth it may not only surprise but make them question their lives.

Thank you NetGalley and Tundra Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first book by Kelley Armstrong and it will definitely not be my last! This was such a refreshing read and such a different book than anything I’ve read before! I loved how Armstrong draws the reader in during the first chapter and just doesn’t let you go. I’m pretty sure that I read this all in one sitting because it was so good and I didn’t want to put it down!

We follow a group of friends (Blythe, Gabrielle, Tucker, and Tanya) who have always been close, but recently different events have caused them to drift apart. Blythe found her friend Gabrielle covered in their principles blood standing in front of the deceased principal, but almost just as fast as the event happened, the memories disappeared. The group of friends are scrambling trying to figure out what happened and why the memories seem to keep popping up different than what they originally remembered. I don’t want to go too much further because I don’t want to spoil any of the book! I originally went in blind, and I feel like that just helped me enjoy the storyline so much more! Overall, I absolutely loved this book! The characters were so well written and I loved discovering more and more about them as the book went on! Definitely would recommend checking out this book!!

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

Psychological thrillers are a particular weakness of mine. This one checks all my boxes. I honestly don't think I've read anything by Armstrong before, but I'll be seeking her out if I ever see the end of my TBR stack.

Blythe and her friends are relatable and familiar. I mean, I work in a high school and I can "see" these characters in my hallways. Thinking back, not one was described in enough detail to form a picture for me, but I think that added to their development because they could be anyone I encounter any day of the week. Their reactions to the things that happen in the story are real.

Armstrong doesn't pass us information in bits in pieces. She starts right away with Gabrielle and a dead school principal. And then that's covered up. It rolls on from there. The story unfolds around the characters. It's both a thriller and very cloak and dagger. Who do you trust, when you aren't sure you can trust yourself?

I finished the one in a sitting. It grabbed me and wouldn't let me go until I had the answers, and it wasn't what I expected at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tundra Books for the advanced readers' copy.

4.5, WOW. Someone Is Always Watching was really really entertaining. The beginning was a little slow and confusing at first since so many characters were introduced at once, but the story really picked up quickly, After a certain point, it was hard for me to put the book down.

I love thriller novels, and this book delivered everything that should come with a thriller. There were so many twists and turns with an overall jaw-dropping storyline. It was also really hard for me to make predictions (which I like because I love being surprised when everything is revealed). If you enjoyed A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, you will definitely enjoy this as well! I am really hoping for a prequel because I am dying to know the backstory behind CMT.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. A wonderful twist at the end made this book totally worth it, and I was hooked from the start. At times, the different POV changes were confusing, but for the most part, I could keep up with the story. I wanted more Chloe, but the character development was well done throughout!

I'm looking forward to recommending this book to my students.

This book surprised me. Armstrong has been one of my most revisited comfort authors since before I was a teenager. She's always been adept at creating a ragtag group of teens with supernatural powers, often with larger-than-life obstacles to face, in addition to the regular drama and minutiae that makes them ultimately relatable. It's a formula that works well for her.

However, with Someone Is Always Watching, she eased back on the minutiae and dialed up the grittiness of the story. She took the intricacies of friendship, memory, and sanity, and she wove them into an action-packed exploration of identity and redemption. She allowed the reader to predict enough twists to feel satisfied, but kept the ultimate twist under wraps long enough that the conclusion was far from disappointing. It was a whirlwind, and I hope that there is more of this story left to tell.

To start off with this review, I thought the story concept was very good. I personally felt like the execution was lacking in some ways however. I feel like we were introduced to so many characters right away, so it was very hard to remember who was who. I also felt like the writing made it seem like we were missing a lot of info at the beginning, which made it feel like I missed a book that I should have read before this one, so it was hard to understand most of the time. Again, I thought the idea was very cool, kids having their minds wiped after they had some huge trauma in their life, and slowly regaining it. After I could finally differentiate all of the characters, I thought they all had decent personalities. I do, however, feel like Blythe rubbed me the wrong way and was too much more often then not.
Overall, I thought this book was interesting, but could have been executed better.