I'm not usually a fan of this sort of story ie someone home alone and attackers break in etc but Nightwatching was a well written story and the pace was just right and just creepy enough to keep me entertained, it will make you think how would you react to footsteps sounding in the night, when you know you are alone with your children.

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. Then she hears a noise - old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this noise is disturbingly familiar: it's the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs....

She has three choices. Should she hide? Should she run? Or should she fight?

What an impressive debut novel. A mother with two young children will do anything to protect them at all costs, but who is it she's hiding from? The story is told from the unnamed mother's point of view. This book is so much more than just a thriller. The mother and her two children were huddled together during a blizzard in their old, isolated home. She realised they were not alone in the house and gathered her children into a hidden room. We get an insight into the woman's thoughts and emotions. The narrative alternates between the present day, and flashbacks into the lives of the woman, her husband, and his family. We gradually learned more about the mother and her family, and I began to question her reality. This atmospheric read pulled me in before the end of the first chapter.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #PenguinGeneralUK and the author #TracySierra for my ARC of #Nightwatching in exchange for an honest review.

This is hard book for me to describe as although I did enjoy the read I did struggle at times to connect to the story. It’s a slow build of a book and as it progressed the tension mounted and sure as heck never quite knew where it was all going to end.
The writing is superb and the author did a fine job of keeping the reader glued to the page but for me there were times when I lost my way and wasn’t quite sure what was going on but it had a very good conclusion. So overall it was a good read and I’m sure I’m in the minority by giving it 4 stars.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wasn't able to finish this book due to time constraints but loved it, couldn't put it down unless sleeping. I will be buying it as soon as it is published, My apologies

Oh my!
This book really put me through the wringer. Tense is not enough to describe it. I also felt claustrophobic and anxious reading it. A great read.

Thank you for the arc.
I struggled to get into this novel I tried a few times but couldn’t connect.

Rather than leave a bad review for a book I clearly am not into I will leave a modest rating and allow others to make their mind up.

Thank you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

When a mother wakes and here’s an intruder in her house, she has to make a choice. She chooses to hide with her two children and listen as the intruder searches them down.

I’m in two minds about this book. It was a good read but maybe not my normal choice.

This book was written from the mother’s point of view and although mainly in the present, there were some flashbacks to relevant past events. None of the characters have a name in this book, not the mother, her two children or anyone. The only named character is ‘the corner’ the monster in the house. I found this quite weird if I’m honest. However on reflection this works well for this book. It helps to build the suspense and the spooky atmosphere.

The book has many twists and turns, and the conclusions I was forming as I read, were constantly changing. In fact the ending felt like a complete 360. The start and end chapters felt jam packed but the middle section was a bit slow and frustrating.

I think I enjoyed this, and I would recommend as I’m not interested in others opinions.

Up on Goodreads now, live on the blog on 29 January:

Man, what a book to end my bookish year with! I had no idea when I picked my last book of 2023, I’d be in for such a thrill fest! Nightwatching was such a claustrophobic read for me! It’s horribly realistic, and therefore absolutely terrifying. I was so glad I wasn’t home alone!

But our main character is in fact home alone with her small children, when there is a home invasion. They run, they hide, from what might be man or monster or both, and it gives the story a dark, nightmarishly glow. The alternating chapters offering glimpses of the past did nothing to relieve the tension, if anything they cranked it up, as you have to wait to find out what is happening in the dead of night.

At a certain point, and for quite a long time, I kinda lost the plot, not quite knowing which way was up, or what and who to believe. How reliable is our narrator? Is she a distraught mother, a fantasist or even a liar? I do love it when a thriller puts me through the wringer, making me question everything, including myself.

Nightwatching is a most excellent debut and it has definitely put Tracy Sierra on my authors-to-watch list. It had my heart racing and my fingers tapping the screen of my Kobo as fast as I could. I even denied myself that extra chapter in bed, knowing I wouldn’t sleep a wink if I did. Nerve-wracking and heart-breaking, I loved Nightwatching! Highly recommended.

Nightwatching is out in hardcover, digital formats and audio on 8 February.

Massive thanks to Viking and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

OMG !!

“There’s someone in the house “ Yep that’ll draw me in from the start .

This is a must read , telling the story of a mother and her children living in an old creaky house … full of twists and turns superbly paced and very cleverly told using flashbacks to fill you in on the characters .

“ Mama you said monsters didn’t exist “
She lowered her head feeling a great weight descend
“ I’m sorry she whispered I lied “

Superb !!!! Go add this to your tbr absolutely brilliant
Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to ARC read this book - Brilliant !! This is my Goodreads review superb !! Happy new year 😍

What an incredibly well written, tightly plotted, rollercoaster of a book! I was hooked from the outset and admit there were times when my adrenaline probably matched the action in the book. I don’t want to give away the plot etc but suffice to say there were times when I questioned who I believed and what I thought may have happened. A really enjoyable read and I’m definitely going to look out for more by Tracy Sierra.

Terrifying! I couldn't put it down at the start but found it genuinely disturbing and scary, after my first read of the early pages I wasn't sure I wanted to carry on. But I did something I wouldn't normally do - read some GR reviews to try and see why people had enjoyed it as I didn't think the hype would have been what it was if it continued to be quite so scary. I read that it developed from there and there were unepxected twists etc and this made me decide to keep reading. I enjoyed the rest of it and got scared again at the end!

I absolutely loved this book! I was so anxious the whole time reading it! Fast paced, smart and very intriguing.
100% recommend!

DNF at 20%

There is potential with this but I’m just not vibing and I really wanted to like it.

The constant flashbacks pulled me out of the tension and I struggled to then get back into it. I found myself skimming over the flashbacks which is when I realised this isn’t for me.

I think if the flashbacks had been reduced quite significantly this would have been an amazing book. Just need to work on keeping the suspense going.

Nightwatching Tracey Sierra

4 stars

When I am doing my reviews I usually jot down the names of the main characters so that if I forget someone I can check back on the name. This is the first book that I have ever read where there are no names at all.

The woman in the book is a housewife with two young children, a son and a daughter of 10 and 8, who lives in a remote area. To begin with, we are lead to believe that her husband is away so when she hears strange footsteps in her house and the shadowy image of a huge man her first reaction is to hide with her children in a hidey hole. She hears the intruder searching systematically through the house and realises that he will eventually work out where they are. Therefore when she hears his footsteps at the top of the house in the attic she takes the opportunity to escape to get help telling the children to stay completely quiet and wait for help which she promises she will bring.

Absolutely terrified and unsure if she is being pursued she runs to the nearest neighbour’s house which is a few miles away injuring herself really badly on the journey. She wakes up in hospital but her children have been rescued, however there is no sign of any intruder.

I enjoyed this book and was desperate to know how it ended but I did not relate to the non-existence of any names and if anything it detracted from the book as it was difficult to picture the characters. I also thought it was a little too long with too much detail about her previous life and I found her father-in-law, also nameless a very unpleasant person and was amazed that he was allowed to look after the children.

However if you like this kind of psychological thriller it was well worth the read.


Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net Galley

Wow! Absolutely great book. The storyline is brilliant. I was never sure of what was real and what wasn't and the ending was superb! Highly recommended.

I love a good psychological thriller so I was looking forward to reading this book which is out on 8th February 2024. I received an advance copy in exchange for a review, thanks to Penguin General UK and NetGalley for this.

The book has quite a creepy opening, the protagonist thinks someone is in her house, so takes her two young children and hides with them in a secret space behind the fireplace. There’s a blizzard outside and her nearest neighbours aren’t close by. Eventually, the police are alerted but no one seems to believe her. Did she imagine the whole thing?

For me, the first half of the book was so slow and after initial curiosity I got quite bored. Most of it is the main character being hysterical behind a wall. It does pick up a bit in the second half but it was quite a slog to get to that point.
There are seemingly random flashbacks which do give you a little background on the characters but I felt they made the story quite disjointed.
I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, none of them had names which I found strange. The intruder is nicknamed ‘the Corner’ which annoyed me, I kept misreading it as Coroner. It didn’t make sense to me, even Corner Man would have been better.
The main character really grated on me for some reason. I do sympathise with what she’s been through but couldn’t warm to her at all.
I wasn’t sure how realistic the conduct of the police was, they seemed to totally disbelieve her and wanted to catch her out.

It’s billed as a terrifying and gripping psychological thriller but at no point was I terrified, gripped, or thrilled.
I had hoped to enjoy this book but it wasn’t for me unfortunately.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book started well, full of suspense but then it kind of dragged along for a while. I thought about giving up at one point.

I wasn’t sure what kind of genre the book was going to be - suspense, horror, supernatural….in then end it was a bit disappointing.

Sadly this was not for me. Consisting mainly of the internal ramblings of an unreliable narrator / main character, there was little dialogue or interactions to enjoy. There was also little to no character development and with all the characters referred to as "husband", "girl", "boyish policeman" etc it was really hard to connect with or care about what happened to them. The only thing that kept me reading was to see what the author's ultimate intentions were (that and I hate not finishing a book) but sadly that didn't help.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra is a solid and enjoyable debut.

A woman who lives in a spooky old house wakes in the middle of the night and realises that there is an intruder. She bundles her small children into a secret “priest hole” like space behind a fireplace and tries desperately to work out what to do next. At least half a mile from another house, with a heavy dump of snow outside, she listens in utter panic as the man goes from room to room. Worse still, somewhere at the back of her mind, she thinks she knows where she has come across him before …

The start of this book is high octane, thrilling and utterly claustrophobic. It is difficult to read it and to remember to breathe! It is reminiscent of the Jodie Foster film Panic Room but with a much trickier scenario. The ending is similarly edge of your seat incredible.

The middle part of the story feels a little stodgy. There are a lot of flashbacks and filling around the edges of the family story and dynamics. There is also a credible, if not a little forced, effort to cause the reader to question the credibility of some of the protagonists.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK/Viking for an advance copy.

This is one terrifying, tense and seriously well executed thriller. This one really did give me nightmares for a couple of nights after finishing it - in the best possible way. Can't wait to see what Tracy writes next