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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A captivating and original thriller that looks a lot at wheat weak and strong minded people are capable of.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved @liv_andersson_author debut novel Little Red House. Her sophomore novel, Leave The Lights On, is a fantastic domestic thriller that grabs your attention from the beginning and has you turning pages to find out what happens next. The story is told with dual timelines, long held secrets, twists, and the illusions of a perfect life. This novel has sealed Liv in as a must read author for me. She does a great job of writing thrillers with complex family dynamics. I recommend adding both of her novels to your TBR list.

Thank you @crookedlanebooks and @netgalley for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

(Review also left on Barnes & Nobel website)

Beatrice Wicker is living a nearly perfect life in a small coastal town in Maine. The main problem is her husband escheating on her and splitting his time with his mistress and his newborn son. When a bomb goes off at a school and the husbands child is kidnapped alarm bells ring in Beatrice's head. Is this all a coincidence or is this event tied to a bad action Beatice committed in a past life.

The plot for this book sounded exciting; however, it felt like a lot of the plot was rushed and left unexplained to the reader. It makes it hard to understand Beatrice's actions and motivations in the book.

I actually didnt connect to the dialogue on this one. I also found it to be a bit unrealistic. I liked it but I couldnt say I loved it.

Leave the Lights on by Liv Andersson
Crooked Lane Books
Publication: 17 October 2023
3 stars

Synopsis:
"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."



A secret past, a secret family, kidnapping, and a former asylum. These were some great interest points for the plot throughout the story, but it didn’t help to do much for the story. They kind of fell flat. As if someone was in the middle of explaining something to you or telling you a story and they just stopped in the middle of it, and then jumped into a new topic.

The secret past. One thing I enjoyed about this book are the dual timelines. It is always interesting to see how a character is in their past compared to their present. The book is told from Beatrice's POV both in the present and past. It was interesting to learn about her past, but it had an abrupt ending and then there was nothing after that. The rest of the story remained in the present. While we do learn a bit more of what happened during present time, the information kind of seems like a throw away since she learned it second-hand.
The secret family. Beatrice's husband, Josh, has another family. She has known for years that he was seeing someone else and then had a baby. This plot element fell flat to me. While reading about the moments between Beatrice and Josh, she kept saying in her head that she knows. Knows about the other woman and the baby, but never says anything because it's better for her to be in this façade of a marriage then let her past be known. Yet, when Josh finds out that she knows, that moment is anticlimactic. I feel like that should have been the moment the story takes a turn, but it just didn’t rise to that.
Kidnapping. With the kidnapping included in the synopsis, I thought this would have had a bigger role in the story, but it seemed to be more of a passing thought rather than part of the plot.
Former asylum. Beatrice is working on taking this former asylum/Ross house, and is turning it into an artists' retreat. This wasn’t relevant to the story in any way other than giving the story the creepy vibe it needed or wanted.

If these plot points were more rounded out, it would have been a better story. It also may have given way to a better ending too. The ending itself was abrupt, it seemed unfinished. Overall, this was a great story.

Thank you, Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Leave The Lights On is the latest mystery by Liv Anderson and focuses on Beatrice Wicker, who seems to have it all - rich architect and community leader husband Josh and a beautiful waterfront home in upscale Cape Morgan Maine. She fills her day with her passion project of creating an artist retreat on the grounds of a former asylum complete with cabins and a former stately home, which is funded by her husband’s non profit foundation. However, her picture perfect life quickly shatters when a bomb is set off at a local elementary school playground and its chaotic aftermath of the disappearance of a young child. This leads to the revelation that the Wicker’s marriage isn’t as idyllic as it seems: Josh has been having an affair and has a love child. Another child goes missing and Beatrice knows it is because of her dangerous past, one that she has tried to escape and erase from her memory.

What I liked about the book:
-Anderson created a descriptive setting of the former asylum/Ross house that gave me creepy vibes as well as the upscale Cape Morgan seaside town
-could feel the tension and suspense in the writing especially when the creepy dolls and dress form appeared
-seeing how the wealthy live and that they too have problems
-dual timelines
-twists and turns with some red herrings

What I disliked about the book:
-some of the dialog was stilted
-Beatrice frustrated me and I didn’t find her very likeable
-started off really strong then wavered at the end, in fact I was disappointed with the abrupt open ending

My rating: 3 out of 5

My final takeaway: although this started off strong and had me intrigued it fell flat at the end. It was still a decent read but you need to suspend belief while reading it, it felt like a lifetime movie at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this eARC that will be released October 17 2023.

"The only way to deal with what happened is to leave again. Find somewhere truly remote, and just blend in. Stop trying to form relationships or have a meaningful job. You can't have what normal people have. Normal is not for you. Stop looking for it."

Beatrice and Josh live the perfect life in an upscale town in Maine. Perfect, except for the fact the Josh is having an affair, has a baby with another woman, and Beatrice has a past that is mind blowingly complicated. Why are children getting kidnapped in this small town, why are the kids both connected to Beatrice and Josh, and who is targeting them?

" "We've seen the changes- to the people and the landscape. Sometimes, though, the more things change, the more you realize nothing changes.""Are we still talking about the island and psychiatry, Professor?"Hanes winked at me. "We're talking about life, my dear. Just life." "

After reading this and Little Red House, this author will be an auto-buy from me. I enjoyed the psychological suspense of this book and couldn't wait to find out what happens. This book was all single POV but did have "then" and "now" chapters. I really enjoyed the storyline of the "then" chapters and that is what really kept me invested in the story. I was all about the culty/Stockholm Syndrome vibes we get in the "then" chapters. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. I would have liked more "then" chapters and I would also like some more answers at the end. Like more closure about Seth and who he really is. Also, when we find out who the real antagonist is, it isn't made clear whether or not that was the person following Beatrice for all those years. I have to add that I absolutely LOVE the cover of this book.

Some other thoughts:
"You've known for months, years maybe. You don't get to act like the victim now." Eww. Why is Josh mad at Beatrice for not telling him that she knew he was having an affair? "...I want to punch Josh in the face.
" "Her car's gone. She hasn't returned my calls." "Then she went on a trip, Beatrice She's an adult. She's allowed to move about freely. You're letting your imagination get the best of you." "...Anger provoking response to a perceived hysterical woman reporting a missing person. Sadly, I read and hear on podcasts all the time that this is a frequent law enforcement response to a missing person inquiry.

Thank you to Crooked Lane and NetGalley for this ARC. Publication date is October 17th, 2023!
#LeaveTheLightsOn #NetGalley

This book was...fine. Just fine. The main character was not awesome and made some seriously silly choices. I found the temporarily missing kids to be a weird move on the part of the antagonist. It was a pretty quick read but lacked something for me.

Want a book that starts off fast and keeps you turning pages?

This is it.

Sure there are some things I wish the author had fleshed out a bit more for us, but isn’t there always. Otherwise this was a great thriller and for sure worth the time to read.

Beatrice Wicker seems to have it all - an idyllic home in Maine, and married to a multi millionaire architect and community leader Josh. She is just about to get started on a new project renovating a an abandoned house and asylum on a small island into an artist retreat.

Then there is a bomb at a childcare facility and the abduction of a young child - and Beatrice knows that it is her husband’s child from his other life - but she can’t let on that she knows, and Josh can’t tell without admitting his infidelity.

Beatrice thinks she knows what’s happening, but she can’t let on - she is not who everyone thinks she is…she has a few secrets!

A good read - thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy.

Beatrice Wicker is a rich white woman doing rich white woman things. Her rich white husband is aloof and distant.....because he has a 2nd family in their small Maine town. He doesn't know that Beatrice knows. When his 'secret' child is kidnapped AFTER A BOMB goes off at the school, Beatrice realizes something else is going on beyond her husband's secrets. She's got secrets of her own.
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This had some potential.....but then went off the rails, talking about government interference, bombs, Haint Blue (that could have been something good....but was dead in the water), and an art retreat. There were hints of larger issues (prep mentality, the healthcare and it's treatment of women....) but....nah, there were just little....highlights.
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I wanted this to be good and it ended up being about a rich white woman who had a secret. That's it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I wanted so bad to love this book. To even like it. But that is not what happened. This one fell way short for me. To many time warps going on and I didn't like the characters. I have to say it's a DNF but I did read over half. I gave up when it just seemed a chore not a pleasure to read.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.
3 stars

This is my second Liv Andersson and it might be time to break it off… the time jumps, the story line, the dialog… it was all a little off for me. I wanted to love this but unfortunately it just isn’t a match for my reading style.

The math wasn't mathing on this particular thriller. I couldn't figure out what in the heck Beatrice was doing!

This book is a page turner. I could not put it down. Twists and turns and I couldn’t figure out who did it until the very end. Excellent descriptions and plot twists. The reverting back in time to build the back story was masterful. I’ll definitely be looking for more books by Liv Anderson!