We are now 2 months away from the end of 2023 and I’m here to talk about a contender for this year’s “book of the year”

Leave the Lights On

Liv Andersson, has done it again and I am at a complete loss of words.

Last year I was given the opportunity to read Little Red House and I was completely blown away. I appreciated Andersson’s writing style and I was eager to see what would come.

What a naive little soul I was.

I never could have anticipated a book like this,

Dark, twisted and down right mind blowing.

You need this book.

Check out this teaser :

Cape Morgan, Maine, is the utopian ideal for a charmed life, and Beatrice Wicker knows it. The multi-million-dollar house on the sea coast. The joint bank accounts. The safety and security that go along with being married to an esteemed architect and community leader. The scenic coastline, perfect for her ambitious plan to turn an abandoned asylum into an artists’ retreat. So what if her husband sneaks off to see his second family now and again? Beatrice is willing to look the other way. It’s simply the price she must pay to keep their life together.

Josh doesn’t realize that Beatrice knows about his other life. That’s just one of Beatrice’s secrets. And now, that truth—along with a deadly host of other secrets from the past—is about to upend their false paradise.

When there’s an explosion at the local elementary school playground, and a two-year-old boy is abducted, it doesn’t take Beatrice long to make the connection between the missing boy and her husband. It was the son from Josh’s other life who was kidnapped, and Josh can’t do anything about it without revealing the truth.

Helping Josh find his son would destroy the façade of her perfect marriage and could put more children’s lives in danger. But that’s not all. It would reveal her deeper secret: Beatrice Wicker is not who she claims to be.

This was a great read! Told through multiple timelines and POV’s, I was flipping pages! My favorite timeline was in the past, learning about everything that leads up to the present. The present was a little slower, but still captured my attention. It definitely has psychological thriller vibes and was a quick read. There was a game of cat and mouse between our main character, Beatrice, and her husband Josh, where they both had secrets they were trying to hide. This is a book you should pick up if you are looking for a quick, popcorn thriller to read!

OUT NOW!

4 1/2 stars

A twisty tale of deceptions and lies. No one is truly who they pretend to be in this book. Not the main character, Beatrice or her husband, Josh. And many of the side characters are hiding secrets as well. Is a giant question mark of who's telling the truth? If any one. So, when a young boy is kidnapped after a pipe bomb explodes, it starts the unraveling of several secrets - - the first one is whose son he is and the second is why he was targeted. The real question is who knows the answers to both of these questions and why are they just now acting on it. Beatrice feels like someone or something is closing in on her but she isn't sure who.

This was a fun whodunnit type of book. Even though you have some of the answers as you go along, you don't have all of them so there are some tricky surprises to keep you on your toes. I definitely enjoyed this fun and surprising read.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Liv Andersson returns following Little Red House with her latest, LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON —a woman with dark dangerous secrets, and when the past and present collide, her idyllic life unravels in this twisty atmospheric psychological suspense thriller.

Set in Cape Morgan, Maine, on Ross Island we meet Beatrice Wicker and her husband, Josh (architect), with a housekeeper, Maya. They live in a multi-million home on the coast on a remote island overlooking the sea surrounded by cottages. The Wicker Foundation had purchased the property. The main building and the cottages will remain, and the old inn to be demolished.

Cape Morgan is a small community, and Josh was a local public figure/hero. His company's non-profit had contributed to the town in many ways.

Miles Ross had lived there for 73 years and passed at the home in the upstairs corner of the main house. Eccentric and reclusive, the family fortune dwindled, and the buildings fell into disrepair. Some say the island is haunted.

Beatrice's goal is to renovate the abandoned asylum into an artist's retreat, and she is willing to overlook that her husband is having an affair and has another family, which he sneaks out to spend time with. He has no clue she knows.

Josh and his money will make her life and projects possible. She looks the other way and keeps quiet.

Now, the truth about Josh and his other family, along with the other past secrets, begin to unravel, and the idyllic, safe facade begins to crumble.

There is an explosion at the local elementary school playground, and a two-year-old boy, Oliver, is abducted. A fire. A missing boy. The little boy is Josh's son. People move here because it is safe. So what is going on?

Beatrice remembers an event from her past that she wants to keep secret. How is this connected to the kidnapping? She must stay quiet to keep from her past and who she is from coming out.

From two timelines, we meet Emma, a young social worker kidnapped and brainwashed by a family who convinces her the government is after them. She tries to help the boy, Luke, doing her job and gets pulled in by the charismatic and manipulative Gabriel.

She manages to escape and reclaim her life, but she is always on the run because they always seem to find her. Nearly 20 years later, she is settled down, married, and living her life under a different name, but once again, this family finds her. She thought she had lost them. Why now?

What is the connection between Emma, Beatrice, and Grace?

LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON is atmospheric, haunting, chilling, and terrifying. Full of mystery, conspiracy, and kidnapping, this domestic suspense will have you glued to the pages to discover how the past and present will connect—topics of kidnapping, mind control, conspiracy, deception, manipulation, and trauma.

Compelling! I read the e-book and listened to the audio narrated by Mia Barron for a chilling listening experience.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media for an ALC and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Oct 17, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
Oct 2023 Must-Read Books

Leave the Lights On is a captivating mystery that had a very unexpected plot. The story is narrated by a 40-something Beatrice Wicker, a wife with a secret. She is married to a successful, wealthy architect living in a small seaside town in Maine. Early on, a young child is kidnapped, and the clues lead us to believe it's somehow related to Beatrice.

The story has dual timelines, which teased out and connected what was going on then and now. Beatrice isn't the most compelling character with her questionable behavior, but the action was fast-paced and intriguing. I listened to the audiobook, which was well-narrated by Mia Barron.

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publishers for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

After running from her past for over a decade, Beatrice Wicker finally found a life to hold onto in Cape Morgan, Maine. Perhaps that is why she has kept quiet about husband's affair, even though she also knows he has a young son from the relationship. But then the boy is kidnapped and clues are left that only Beatrice understands, because they link to her hidden past. This is a dual timeline plot, jumping between the present and the events 20 or so years ago that drove Beatrice into hiding. There is some gothic moodiness when Beatrice spends nights alone on an island off the coast, an abandoned asylum she is helping turn into an artists’ retreat, and the final identity of the person connected to her past who is taunting and threatening Beatrice was unexpected. This one required a bit of "willing suspension of disbelief" to buy into all aspects of the plot, but if you are willing to do that and go along for the ride you should enjoy the book -I did!

This was my first book by Liv Andersson and probably won't be my last one! Beatrice is a wife of a successful architect and a philanthropist. She is working on a large renovation project on an island off the coast of Maine as part of their family's Foundation project. It's a quiet safe town, but when a small child is kidnapped and the kidnapper leaves a clue, only Beatrice knows it was meant for her, and that it's her troubled past coming after her.

The pace of this novel is really interesting. Slower background story alternating with high adrenalin suspense scenes create a real rollercoaster ride of a book. You truly want to keep your lights on.while reading some particularly intense sections. The secret Beatrice has been carrying with her for the post twenty years, is bizarre, yet it so strongly affected her future, that she hasn't really lived a wholesome fulfilling life having to constantly look over her shoulder.

I really felt sad that Beatrice had to abandon her project. Having made the amends with the past, did she really have to run again? I was hoping that now that she found Luke, he could back her up and serve as a witness to her story. Beatrice deserves so much more!

I would have liked to see the wild goose chase of several suspects in the story to last a little longer instead of them being dismissed pretty quickly. I think it would have added more to the suspense.

Overall, this was an original mystery/suspense novel and a quick page-turner. I really enjoyed the plot with its demons from the past and its hide-and-seek, catch me if you can kind of vibe. Great characters that make you feel all kinds of emotions

Thank you @netgalley and #crookedlanebooks for my early DRC.

This author’s last book Little Red House was a winner for me last year so I eagerly requested to read her next book. Unfortunately this didn’t have the same impact on me.

Whereas the story was rather intriguing as I honestly didn’t have a clue as what was going on, the main character was a cold fish and failed to provoke any kind of pity to what she had and was going through.

Beatrice our main characters is struggling with converting an abandoned asylum into a artists retreat. At the same time her successful husband is having an affair. When 2 year old Oliver is abducted it only takes her a minute to figure out the connection between the boy and her husband. But why are little boys abducted and then given back after a while without being harmed.

This short introduction is just scraping the surface of what goes on in this book. The main story was very far fetched and the reason for the perpetrator’s actions unlikely.

As I said not up my lane but still kept my interest till the end.

Your past is never gone. You may be able to outrun it for a while, but running doesn’t always mean you’re safe. Beatrice Wicker should know this more than anyone since she has been running from her past for years. Yet she thought she had finally escaped her tormentors, until a kid goes missing in her normally quiet town. More importantly some of the tell tell signs that her past is back start showing up in her life.
Overall, this is a decent book. It is pretty fast paced and the reflections between the past and the present tie together very nicely. They lead you to a conclusion that is not quite expected. However the final end to the book feels a bit flat. I respect the author's choice to end the book in that manner, yet as a reader I guess I was hoping for more.
Thank you to Crooked Lane books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Dreamscape Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this novel by Liv Andersson and perfectly narrated by Mia Barron - 3.5 stars rounded up!

From the outside, Beatrice Wicker leads a charmed life in Maine with her husband Josh. She has dreams and plans on turning an old asylum into an artist retreat, giving others a chance and a helping hand. But behind closed doors, Beatrice knows about her husband's other woman and son, keeping quiet to maintain her lifestyle. But when there is an explosion at the boy's school and he is kidnapped. the secrets have to come out. And there are lots of secrets.

This was a bit confusing to me, with the back and forth timelines. The narrator was perfect and the story kept me listening, plus I liked the past timeline. It's hard to say too much without revealing anything, but it was a good read. Unfortunately, I thought the ending was too abrupt and left me scratching my head a bit. This is my first book from this author but I'm up for her next!

Beatrice Wicker is busy w/ her charmed life in Maine, working for her husband's foundation and renovating an old asylum into a therapeutic art space. Unfortunately, Beatrice's husband, Josh, has checked out of the marriage years ago and had another child with his mistress. And then the child gets kidnapped. And the school gets pipe-bombed. And creepy dolls start showing up all over the place. It seems Beatrice also has secrets from her past that are definitely catching up to her.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this e-arc.*

I found this to be amazing! Thrillers start to sound the same when you read so many but LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON definitely stands out. This was a very well executed plot with great characters. The story is old in dual timeliness that I found easy to follow. I loved the drama with a love child and a troubled marriage. I liked that I didn't see where this was going so the ending was unexpected.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I expected to like this more than I did. I just could not feel anything but disdain for the characters, main character especially. The entire thing felt like the author had a bunch of characters and plots in mind and them threw them into one book.

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the gifted eARC. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

Beatrice loves her luxurious life in Cape Morgan, Maine, so much that she turns a blind eye to her husband's infidelity. But when her husband's "love child" gets abducted, Beatrice starts to focus on her previous life. What if it's connected in some way?

"Leave the Lights On" by Liv Andersson is a highly enjoyable thriller/mystery. This story is replete with unreliable characters that will make you question whom to trust, and, to me, that makes for a superior mystery. I was captivated by Beatrice's backstory, the secrets of her past, and the inclusion of Stockholm syndrome. Every page turn left me surprised, intrigued, or in awe of the unfolding events.

The story would have been better for me if there were more to the ending and resolution. I felt like it shut down quite abruptly and left me high and dry.

I would certainly recommend this fast-paced read, especially if you enjoy morally grey and unreliable characters, as well as atmospheric and immersive storytelling.

Leave the Lights On is a solid, entertaining mystery/suspense. I enjoyed the character of Emma, and Liv Andersson crafts a few unlikable characters too. It's always fun trying to figure out if the unlikeables really are that morally reprehensible or just misunderstood. and I'm still trying to decide with a few of the Leave the Lights On personas. The plot pacing is perfect, giving just the right amount of details to keep me guessing as a reader without giving too much away at once. The dual timelines really work in Leave the Lights On, and, although I was pretty sure I had it figured out, thanks to a few "red herrings", I was wrong.

This author can write like no other! 4.5 stars.

I immediately requested this book as soon as I saw it was coming out because I loved the author's last book, Little Red House.

Emma is a young social worker who was kidnapped and brainwashed by a family who convinces her the government is after them. She manages to escape and reclaim her life, but it always on the run because they always seem to find her. Nearly 20 years later, she is settled down, married, and living her life under a different name, but once again the family finds her.

This book is extremely well written. The only complaint I can think of is that I wanted more. Since there are two timelines, we see a bit about Emma's past life and her current one. It felt too fast to me that Emma became complacent with her kidnappers. I was fascinated by that storyline and wanted an entire book on just that piece of the story, ending with Emma's escape.

I did not see the plot twist coming, but looking back, the book gave just enough tidbits of detail that it made sense. On the topic of wanting more, I would have liked to see the ending parsed out a little more with more detail on what happened.

Overall, this is a fantastic read!

An incredible implausible but page turning read about secrets caroming back to impact a family. Beatrice knows Josh's secret- that he has another family- but he doesn't know hers. What will she do when she realizes that she knows who kidnapped Josh's son and why? This moves around in time to tell her story and, to be honest, the time line felt a little confusing and the scenario, well, out there, That said, Andersson does a good job with her characters and building the tension. The twist might not surprise you. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Maine seems like the perfect setting for the creation of chaos – a beautiful storm about to take flight. On the surface Beatrice seems like she has had a charmed life: wealth, a husband, charge of a Trust to build an arts centre. Yet just under the surface, there is a whirlwind of activity threatening to topple her over in one quick breath. There is her past that seems to be trying to catch up with her. There are abductions of local children, one of whom is her husband’s child to another woman, that she hasn’t admitted she knows about.

In this story we learn, piece by piece about Beatrice’s past and her history slowly finding its way back to her. We watch Josh, her husband, unravel as their relationship is tested for the penultimate time. The restoration of the former island sanatorium for women into a modern-day artist colony is a project that seems doomed and haunted from the start, with the memories and scars of the patients haunting every activity on the island. It was like the normalcy of livening in the sanatorium all those years ago was being reflected in the way Beatrice was, or wasn’t reacting to many of the events occurring. I think Beatrice’s inability to understand or comprehend what was happening was part of her PTSD from her own life events years before, and she was not even aware of it herself. She worked on fight-or-flight her whole life, and each time there was a sinister event, that’s where she retreated to. That’s why she seemed so restrained, hypervigilant, and ready to step in at any tenuous moment, and unaware her void of emotions kept many at arm’s length from her, including Josh.

I think that’s why I liked this book; there was just so much going o that it all seemed a little nuts and hard to believe. yet the confusion and culmination of all these crazy pieces kept the book moving at lightning speed without time to sink into some of the more detailed plot lines. It was mysterious, and even had a few horror elements thrown in, and I’m not sure it was entirely a thriller either. And that’s okay. It was a nice change to the ones I have read of late.

Beatrice knows that her husband Josh has another life. When a young boy is abducted from their local school, Josh tries to hide his connection, not realizing that Beatrice already knows that he is Josh's son. This book sounded so good. It started off really well too but around halfway, it started going off script and into so many different directions that I struggled to keep up. Will keep a lookout for more by this author though as I did enjoy her writing style.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook.

This book has me a little confused on how to feel. I had a hard time getting into. The whole storyline from the past didn’t make sense. There was not enough evidence for me to believe Gabe was charming, charismatic, manipulative enough to flip Emma and get her to believe that whole story. I was approved for the audio and ebook copy of this and after having a hard time getting into the ebook, I tried listening and it was a lot more enjoyable. While a lot of the plot was wildly absurd it was still a fun story to listen to that I wanted to keep listening for the mystery to be solved