Tracy Sierra's debut spine chilling, atmospheric psychological thriller makes a remarkable impact, well written, brilliantly plotted, making her a writer to watch in the future. In a remote old house, there is an unnamed mother and her 2 young children, a son and daughter. It is night time, outside there is a snow blizzard raging, then the mother hears the nerve wracking creaking sounds of footsteps inside the house that signal there is an intruder in their home, spiralling her into a state of horror and fear, what should she do? In this unbearable nightmare situation, her maternal instincts kick in, she must protect her children from danger, waking them up and taking them to a secret hidden place, trying to ensure they remain quiet until the unknown presence leaves.

However, it turns out the person in her home is familiar to the mother, this is no random break-in. In a gripping, edgy and intensely claustrophobic narrative that goes back and forth in time, there are twists aplenty in this story, of what it means to be a mother, that refuses to let you go right up to the point you turn the last page, I had to know what happens and how it all ends up. This is one for all those readers who love the darkness and sky high tensions of a great psychological thriller! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advance copy to read.

Nightwatching is a thrilling story of a mother trying to protect her two children from an intruder in the house during a snow storm.

I absolutely devoured this book. It was creepy, twisty and atmospheric. It had me guessing what was real the whole time. I really felt for the main character and her decisions she had to make to save her children.

Parts of it made me literally gasp and sit on the edge of my seat. It was like watching a suspenseful thriller movie in my head where you want to shout 'don't run upstairs!'.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks throughout the book which helped develop the main character and played into the intrigue of what is real and what is not.

Absolutely brilliant book.

4.5 stars.

I absolutely LOVED this book. I could not put it down and read it in one very gripping, very edge of my seat sitting. The total suspence and fear keep you gripped and it’s one of the best thrillers I have read in a very long time. I can’t wait for this authors next book, if it’s a good as this one it will be well worth the wait. Highly recommend if you like an edge of your seat read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance of this early copy.

The premise of this book was so good. Mum putting her children to bed at night and hearing a noise if somebody else in the house. Unfortunately it didn’t pack a punch for me. I enjoyed the in the moment parts of the corner creeping round the house while the mother and her children hide. There were a lot of reminiscing about her husband and in laws which I found irrelevant and distracted from the at times intense storyline. I did enjoy the fact the book left you questioning whether there had been an intruder at all.

This has to be one of the most creepy and cleverly written books I have read in a long time. I loved the separation between what was hapening and then the italics which told us what the main character was thinking. This really helped me to connect and understand her and the reasons why she made decisions she made.
The house is a character in itself and was the most wonderful setting for the story. I could not put this book down and was hugely satisfied with the ending. A full 5 stars. The sense of dread and fear reminded me of how I felt when reading Bird Box - I think if you enjoyed it then you will love this chilling read of what a mother will do to protect her children.

As a thriller this is pretty good, very creepy and horrible, although the pacing is off. I was kept off balance throughout in terms of knowing what to believe. The author does a good job of tricking the reader down different paths, and to the very end I didn't know how everything would be resolved.

It's also a great - if infuriating - illustration of the dismissive attitude people can have towards women, particularly if the woman is experiencing something they don't want to believe. Extremely annoying, extremely well done.

However. The author's choice to not name any characters is weird and distracting. The narrator has two children who she refers to very, very frequently, but instead of naming them they are referred to as eg. 'my little boy' or 'my daughter'. Why?! Maybe I'm oblivious to some very clever literary device that she's employing, and I'm almost certainly being unfairly petty, but every 'my little x' was like nails on a chalkboard after a while and this truly ruined the reading experience for me.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Wow this book is enough to give you nightmares. If any of this happened to me I would be selling the house and never returning. I could see this being made into a really creepy Netflix movie. If you like horror and dark creepy thrillers give this one a go.

Bloody hell! This book had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Absolutely the best thriller I’ve read and a fantastic debut. I look forward to more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra appears to be a debut novel, and if so this makes her an author to watch.

A remote house, an unforgiving blizzard raging outside, a young mother of two asleep alone until she senses that someone is in her home and awakens knowing she must protect her son and daughter from the malevolent presence within her home. As the prowler moves to the other side of the house, she takes the opportunity to waken her children and quietly take them to a small hidden closet in the hope they can stay hidden until the intruder leaves.

Then in a sinister twist as the burglar moves around the home the mother realises he is searching for them, not robbing her home. This is confirmed once the would be thief loses patience and starts to speak within the home trying to engage with the hidden family to convince them that the sooner they stop hiding, the sooner he will leave. However, it also becomes obvious that he knows the family so this is more than a random burglary, and the mother has potentially trapped her family until their secret location is uncovered.

Fraught and tense and with a feeling of an almost supernatural edge to it, the story is well paced, draws you in right up until the climax which unwinds the plot superbly.

A creditable ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me, and an author to follow.

Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.👍

"Don't you want to come out, little piglet?"
A blizzard outside, a mother alone with two small children, and a man in her hallway in the middle of the night.

I think this is a story that is too close to what could be real life to not be absolutely terrifying. It was claustrophobic, it kept your heart beat racing as you held your breath waiting for what comes next, eyes almost flickering to the next paragraph because you need to know what happens. I read it almost being completely still and silent, feeling like I was right there next to them.

I got annoyed at the past tense chapters throughout this book, there were family dynamics at play, little glimpses and memories of the mothers past as a child, and while relevant, it made the first half of this book feel disjointed. It would come when I was right on the edge of my seat and would then be a little anti-climatic to read through these at that moment. If these were written in at a different point I feel it would have made the reading experience much better. There were a lot of formatting issues throughout the book which also made it difficult to fully get into the story and I found this difficult to begin with, hopefully these will be fixed for future readers.

I thought the second half of the book would be boring going into it, but it was actually my favourite part of the book. It felt more put together, flowed well and it kept the tension of the first half but in a different way. By the time I was 2/3rds of the way through the book, it was one that I really just could not put down.

The mother herself was really well written, reading it from her point of view was definitely the right call, being inside her head, going back and forth, her thoughts being a little fragmented, already onto her next train of thought before the other was completely finished made me feel anxious - as if I could feel what she was going through. It wasn't completely my cup of tea in the end, but I think a lot of thriller book lovers are going to adore this book.

Nightwatching is the authors debut novel and just WOW, this book was gripping from start to the end. I was literally hooked, the suspense, the thrills, twists and turns.. everything about this book was out of the world just like i said all i can say is wow.

Nightwatching follows a mother who is awake during a snowstorm in her isolated old home, her two young children sleeping. As she is tending to one of her children she hears the creaking of the steps but thinks this is due to the old home and old homes tend to make noises but with no this is different and what she is hearing is footsteps. With the mothers alertness and first priority is her children and knowing their is an intruder in her house the novel sets of straightaway a psychological thriller that has you on the edge of your seat with your heart beating just trying to imagine the situation.

The novel follows along the nail biting present as well as the flashbacks which we meet other side characters such as the husband, the father in-law and police officers. Throughout the timeline we get into the main characters thoughts and overall state of character and i truly felt for the mother as she battling alongside people who think she is just imagining what happened to her and the mother is so head strong that what happened to her did happen and she's going to prove it.

Tracy Sierra did an amazing job on her debut novel, the tension never stopped, there was some twists that i never saw coming, the terror and fear of the characters was right there upfront and overall everything about this novel was out of this world.. i was so engrossed and couldn't stop reading though i have to say reading this book on a night like i did will make you think when you hear a noise in the dark. Truly an amazing read that every reader will enjoy, one of my favourite novels of this year by far.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree for the copy of this arc in exchange of my honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this book but sadly as much as I tried it just didn't hold my attention and I lost interest.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the ARC

When you’re a mother, you’re aware of every noise a house makes in the night. You know when something isn’t right. When a newly widowed mother hears noises that are unfamiliar in the middle of a snow storm and sees a man at the top of her stairs, her instinct is to pick up her children and hide. The old house has a secret hiding place, an access room for the chimneys. There she hides with her children while the intruder taunts them with threats of violence and a promise to smoke them out. More scary is the aftermath when the mother isn’t believed, the police thinks she’s made the whole scenario up. This was a swift read I couldn’t put down. For a debut novel the tension was palpable and unputdownable. I genuinely didn’t know if we had an unreliable narrator or not. Thanks to netgalley for the advance copy prior to publication in February 24. One to add to your list!

Wow. I read this in one night. Such a twisted and twisty narrative that I couldn't put it down.

The narrative was so atmospheric that it filled me with a deep sense of dread. Such a terrifying premise, such a thrilling read.

Was she crazy or was she not? I was never quite sure.....until the end!

Compulsive reading with a strong feminist message screaming quietly within its prose.

I had high expectations going into this book which unfortunately were not met. The beginning was promising with the creepy atmosphere but the book couldn’t keep it up for me.

Nightwatching opens with a terrifying scene where a woman, alone with her two young children, realises an intruder is in her house—and things just get more tense and frightening from that point on! As well as the mounting sense of dread and terror, there is also some beautiful, almost poetic, writing. Recommended if you like a slow burn thriller (even if this book will have you double checking that all the doors are locked…)

This is a very atmospheric thriller. The first third of the book is amazing. Totally draws you in.
It gets a bit slow then but improves towards the end.

This thriller kept me gripped. Nicely done without leaning too heavily into the haunted house or the hysterical woman.

I absolutely loved this. I can't sing the author's praises enough. It was gripping, scary, twists and turns at every stage. A truly terrifying story - for the first time in a very long time, I felt genuinely afraid while reading this. It taps into every mother's fears - monsters really do exist and the lengths that mothers will go to protect their children. I read this in one sitting.

As soon as I started hearing this about this one, I knew I instantly had to read it. Something I did as soon as this gem landed. Well this is terrifying and guaranteed to send chills down your spine.

We’ve all been home alone, thought we’d heard something and had a melt down. However, this takes that fear to a whole other level. This is a mother, home alone with her children and desperate to keep them safe from the intruder.

That’s where this really starts to unfold. We follow them as they seek safety in a little private spot. I have definitely has shivers as I’ve been reading this one. I definitely felt the intensity and angst on the pages of this gem.

My heart went out to the poor little ones. Woken from their beds and told to remain quiet so they aren’t found. I’ve just wanted to scoop them up and cuddle them. Sierra has done a brilliant job at showing the intensity and emotions of this situation.

As this unravels, you become even more hooked. This definitely pulls you down the rabbit hole. I have devoured this book. It’s written in a way, I’ve felt as though I’ve been watching this play out. I loved every moment.

This is a creepy and addictive debut that everyone should have on their radar. This is haunting and original, guaranteed to keep you awake far too late at night. Whether that’s, due to the terrifying events unfolding or because you can’t put this one down.

This has been a superb read. I’d go as far as saying this is one of the best debuts I’ve ever read. I cannot wait to see what Sierra has in store for readers next. I already know it will be something I need to read.

This is a must for the TBR.