Member Reviews

Although the main character had me thinking “how stupid can you be?!” Often, I did enjoy the storyline of this book and it was very intriguing and fast paced.

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Beatrice loves her husband, Josh, but their marriage has become a little rocky. While Beatrice is hopeful they will find their way back to each other, Josh has a girlfriend and a baby that Beatrice pretends she knows nothing about. So, it’s going to be tough if not impossible. Besides, everyone has secrets and Beatrice is no exception.

Leave the Lights On has a lot going for it, with several different angles and paths to follow. But, for me, that’s went it went off the rails. There was just too much going on and it became difficult to keep track of it all – conspiracies, kidnappings, infidelity, secrets, and even domestic terrorism. Not to mention the different timelines and an abrupt ending that wasn’t very satisfying.

This book explored a lot of good ideas, but maybe too much all at once. I enjoyed the author’s writing style and imagination but, in the end, I just didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

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Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for eArc in exchange for an honest review. I was really interested in this book after reading the synopsis and the book title! Unfortunately, the storyline just wasn't very intriguing for me. I disliked all of the characters, including the main character. Although this book didn't interest me much, I enjoyed the authors writing style. She kept it fast-paced.

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A really quick fast paced book with a brilliant setting, the author created both a beautiful yet eerie atmosphere.
A good plot full of suspense I just felt it fell a little short towards the end and a lot was left unanswered with the ending feeling rushed.

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Beatrice has been happy with her life with her husband Josh. Sure, he has a secret family that he doesn’t know she knows about, but who doesn’t have a skeleton or two in their closet. When a boy gets abducted from their small community, Beatrice fears her own darker and deadlier secrets might begin to show.

LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON by Liv Andersson tried to do a whole lot without accomplishing anything really.

This book had so many interesting plot points (the red flag being there were way too many) and none of them actually came to fruition.

The weaving together of the timelines and various storylines also had many gaping holes and Beatrice’s actions in the end made next to no sense.

A stunning cover, but, unfortunately, a storyline littered with fragments of ideas led to this one not being a favorite for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Publication Date: October 17

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This was a very enjoyable, chilling, thrilling and suspense filled book full of twists and I truly never could have guessed the ending. I loved the multiple POVs and alternating timeline and enjoyed the characters and getting to read about the MC’s past. It was a super quick, page-turner popcorn thriller. I loved the ending and just really enjoyed this book overall! It was my first book by this author and certainly won’t be my last!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my early digital copy for my honest thoughts and review!

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Beatrice knows her husband, Josh, has secrets. She knows those secrets though, which is one of her own secrets. However, when Josh's son that she isn't supposed to know about is kidnapped, she must wrestle with keeping her secrets and helping her husband.

I found the plot to be confusing here. I think the author was trying to do too much in one book. I think if she had pared down a bit, it would have been more successful.

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WOW! I read Little Red House from Andersson earlier this year and really enjoyed it, and when I heard that her next novel was coming out this fall, I kept my eyes peeled for it 👀 and it did not disappoint! In Leave the Lights On, Beatrice lives what looks like a charmed and privileged life until tragedy strikes their sleepy coastal Maine town and a child is kidnapped. The entire community rallies to find the missing child, but clues start emerging that no one recognizes but Beatrice; clues that point to her life before she came to Cape Morgan, a life that has been catching up to her for decades.

I went into this book completely blind, having requested it sight unseen and forgetting to read the blurb. Now going back to review it, I feel that it doesn’t do this absolute roller coaster of a book justice! This book goes in so many different directions before racing towards a wildly dramatic ending. This is the kind of book where you really don’t know who you can trust and what their motivations are!

Leave the Lights On is a perfect genre bender- is it a mystery? Yes. Is it a horror? Kinda! Is it a thriller? Definitely! I will say that some parts of the book do require some disbelief suspension, as many thrillers do. But nonetheless, I absolutely enjoyed it! I read to this book in its entirety in one day- I just had to keep reading. I finished it late last night, and the final few chapters, had me completely wired and unable to sleep until I knew how it ended!

I would recommend this book to mystery and thriller lovers. Be ready for a wild ride with this one! This book does contain sensitive content, so be on the lookout for content warnings if that speaks to you. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of Leave the Lights On, which publishes on October 17.

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Very quick read that started well but just never made it!! The beginning was great - but it felt like the author got tired of was rushed or gave up!! About half way through it went off the rails and then ended like it ran into a wall. Horrible ending - almost like a setup for a series. Definitely not one I'd be likely to read!

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I really enjoyed reading this book! The book started out a bit slow but when it got to the good part it was really good. I couldn’t put the book down. That’s how good it was for me!

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I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

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2.5🌟
This was not what I expected.

Beatrice and Josh's marriage is on the rocks. Everything comes to a head when his “love child” goes missing. Which means, there’s no way Josh can hide what he’s been doing behind Beatrice’s back. Exactly how do you move forward from that?💁🏻‍♀️

But wait a second…Josh isn’t the only one who’s been hiding a secret. Now Beatrice is about to watch her own life unravel in the fallout!

Don’t you love that premise!? Wow! I sure did.

Unfortunately it went off in directions that left my head spinning. Kidnappings, conspiracy theories and domestic terrorism. All with timelines and locations that had no direction.
I love domestic dramas and from the blurb that’s what I was expecting.

This book just didn’t come together for me. Once I realized that the domestic drama was just a fraction of the storyline, I was already checking-out.

I had both digital and audio copy that I toggled between. The narration provided by Mia Barron was entertaining, but the read itself wasn’t a good fit for me.

If this book is on your list I hope it works out and gives you a five-star experience!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Dreamscape Media

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What a thrilling twist! This book exceeded my initial thoughts, immersing me in a story I couldn't put down. Each page held me captive, leaving me wanting more even as the tale concluded.

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*ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. *

Okay so this will most probably be a short review as I am currently vey annoyed with my very slow laptop. I had some trouble rating this book I mean I keep jumping between ratings but finally I decided on a 3 heart rating. This book was written well but I don't know I needed a bit more.

Now this story is about Beatrice who had plans to turn the abandoned asylum into a nice artist retreat in a small charming town of Cape Morgan, Maine. Her husband, Josh, cheating on her and him not knowing she knows. Sadly both has secrets and slowly there lives start to unravel when the child of his affair with a younger woman is kidnapped.

Now like I said before the writing was well done but there where times that I could figure things out before the main character did. I like mystery books that would keep me guessing until the very end and unfortunately for me this was not the one. Though this was a nice quick read for me to pass the time. Though I hate it when a book ends with a abrupt ending and I am not sure if this is felt by other readers but for me the story ending so abruptly and sadly also an anticlimactic ending.

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This was a fast, easy read. The author does a good job of creating a creepy, atmospheric setting. The story is told through past and present dual timelines. The past storyline sets the stage for the events in the present. Are all questions answered? Do we ever know the total truth? No. But isn’t that also reality? Plausibility of events isn’t always necessarily essential for a book to capture your interest and be entertaining. I found this book to offer those things. I enjoyed the read!

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Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an early copy of Leave The Lights On. Hmmmmm, I am glad I stayed with this book, definitely NOT what I was expecting. Many twists and turns, confusing at times But a good read. I did like the ending, it was perfect. Take a chance on this book, you won’t expect anything in it.

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Beatrice has it all. A beautiful millions of dollars house, an ocean view, all the money her husband has to spend, and an art therapy centre to build and run. A charmed life that is if you overlook her husband's other family. But then her husband's son gets kidnapped and then another boy. Beatrice's secrets are going to come to light.

This was a popcorn thriller for me. A quick 24-hour page-turning read. A fast pace that kept me on the edge of my seat and twists that kept me guessing who the suspect was. I loved the ending.

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I wanted to love this book. It had initial promise - a woman with a muddy past and a lot of skeletons in her closet, and a husband with a missing baby and a whole separate family. Beatrice hopes Cape Morgan will be her lasting salvation but has the past caught up to her? This book kept me reading but where it fell short was the plot. At times it would jump all over with the time jumps not always being immediately obvious. We’d often visit ideas- new branches to the storyline only to have them abandoned fairly quickly. None of the characters had redeeming qualities to the point where you wanted to rally behind them. The ending wrapped up and felt predictable.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Liv Andersson and Netgalley for this ARC.

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I loved the setting for this story and the author did a great job creating the eerie atmosphere. The coast of Maine is a beautiful place and I could really feel myself there while reading.

I found this to be a compulsive read. I really wanted to find out how the author was going to pull the two story lines together. Sadly, I didn’t feel like the story ended well. None of the story really meshed well together and so many details were left unexplained. The ending was abrupt and anticlimactic. It’s hard to explain without spoiling the story. It all just fell really flat for me. It also felt very unrealistic.

I’m giving the book three stars because I did enjoy the atmosphere and found the book to be very bingable. But overall it was lacking in depth and believability.

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Leave the Lights On
by Liv Andersson
Pub Date: 17 Oct 2023

This was a very good book with interesting characters. The writing is well done, I read it very quickly, in part to find out what happened and in part because halfway through it started to pick up speed and I was really hooked.

Author Liv Andersson writes about the secrets we keep and how they affect our lives and the lives of others. A very good read!

Thank you #LeavetheLightsOn, #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for providing me with an ARC of this thrilling domestic suspense novel.

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