‘Night Watching’ by Tracy Sierra was a terrifying, hide under the bedclothes read, aided by the anonymity of the characters. A mother hears noises in the night and discovers an intruder in their house - she is determined to protect her children. Whilst hiding, it becomes apparent that the intruder has been stalking them for months and knows exactly what he wants. When the mother manages to escape, the police begin to question her version of events and as the story unfolded, so did I! After a marathon read, I found it hard to get to sleep!

This was a really gripping and creepy atmospheric read. Had you doubting the story at every twist and turn. Fully recommend

A woman and her two young children are home alone during a snowstorm.
The mother hears noises and then sees the silhouette of a man at the top of the stairs. With no electricity or telephone to get help Shen hides her children and looks for way to get them out of the house.
A very creepy story that kept me on the edge of my seat.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me completely gripped!
It is chilling and shocking and I was fully immersed from the moment I turned the first page.
The author puts you inside the central character's head which is a tangled and messy place to be, so you're never quite sure what is real.

This really is a cracking debut and I would love to see it on the screen.

Disturbing, gripping and frightening in all the best ways.

Thanks to the author, to NetGalley and to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

This story takes off from the first page with the reader never to sure whether the events were truly accurate - but I will say no more!
The tension ramps up and I flew through the pages, desperate to find out what would happen next.
The ending was good in that it all came together well and didn't just drop off unsatisfactorily .
A really addictive and thrilling read

I enjoyed this thriller, the home invasion aspect to it is something everyone can find scary as it could happen to anyone. Isolated with vulnerable children to protect would be a nightmare situation and I like books that have a feel that the odds are stacked against you.
I enjoyed reading about the lengths this mother would go to to protect her children.

Something that infuriated me about this book though was the gaslighting policemen that treat her like she is crazy, I never enjoy that in a book as it always makes me mad and it goes on for most of the book.
I also don't like the nickname she calls the intruder, which is a bit nit-picky but I just don't find 'the Corner' scary and I also just don't feel like an adult would constantly say this instead of referring to them as a person.

The ending came pretty quickly too and didn't compare to how good the book was at the beginning.

All in all it was entertaining but had enough flaws that it just didn't reach 4 stars for me.

Freaky, scary and so very real book. I read this in a day. Couldn't put it down. The way it was written was just brilliant... you could actually bring in this situation. Everything felt so very real. Twists and turns all the way. I did have to put it down a few times as I couldn't imagine what was going to happen next.

Made my heart pound. This book definitely deserves to be turned into a movie or series.

Haunting.. frightening.. so very real. Please read this. Highly recommended.

This book was extremely frustrating. The opening chapters were taut and tense and had my nerves wracked. But the constant back and forth between past and present day had my head spinning. A slow burn suspense with one hell of an ending. 3.5 stars.

A young mother hides her two children in a secret room in her house when a man breaks in. He prowls the home, searching for her ten year old daughter, whispering about all the things he'll do if he finds them. Suddenly, the tension slams into a brick wall when the story delved back in time to detail the mothers past. After a few pages of boredom, the story came back to the present, the fear and tension. I was sure they would be found any minute. Unfortunately, at the height of my fears, the next chapter changed the pacing and I wanted to throw my kindle. To make matters worse, most of the 'past' chapters had absolutely no relevance to the story.

The home invasion story line was only a small part of this story and barely lasted 20% of the book. I thought I was reading an edgy crime thriller but really this was an intense character study of women and how they are treated in dangerous situations. I thought all was lost until that ending. Wow. I really thought it was going another way. Tracy Sierra's writing is strong and I look forward to more from her in the future.

<b>**I recieved a free arc from Penguin General UK via Netgalley.</b>

This books gets right into it straight from the start. The tension throughout this book was unbearable at times but in a keeps you hooked way. I was desperate to see what would happen next and how the story would play out. This story progresses quite cleverly and at times I was unsure whether the version of events was 100% accurate. This is a real mind bender of a read. The ending has everything knit together. There was a few bits that just seemed a bit too far fetched and I did question a few aspects. Overall though this is a very addictive and tense book with plenty of hold your breath moments.

‘Nightwatching’ is Tracey Sierra’s impressive debut novel. When an intruder breaks into a woman’s isolated house one night, all she can think about is shielding her children. There is no one she can rely on other than herself. Sierra’s presentation of her terror, her determination and her practicality inspires enormous admiration from the outset. Readers cannot help but wonder what they would do in her position. The primal desire to protect as the mother, her young daughter and son hide in an internal bunker is incredibly well depicted. The woman’s thoughts and flashbacks to previous experiences are woven cleverly into the here and now. We feel her pain as she bangs her head; we acknowledge her pragmatism as she turns the spare nappy into a makeshift potty; we applaud her need to reassure her children in the most horrid of circumstances.
Sierra reminds us that the fairy story bogeyman is alive and well through the meticulously detailed depiction of this living nightmare in which time slows, felt through the writer’s detailed descriptions and musings on past experiences. She also encourages us to consider the imbalance of power in everyday life. The second half of the novel recognises and explores the need for women to have to be that little bit braver and more determined in order to flourish in a gender-biased world.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

The first half of this book was ABSOLUTELY TOP NOTCH.. I loved it.. I loved the suspense I loved the premise I loved the flashbacks and thought processes it was all FANTASTIC and really set the book up well.. I loved the underlying subtle references to how women experience life in a completely different way to men. Really thought that was so refreshing to read.
Into the second half I found this a bit slower and I was holding out for a banging ending that unfortunately for me didn’t come.
The ending of this book really felt rushed, anticlimactic and didn’t match the first half of the book, almost like it had been changed maybe from an original ending?

Thank you so much for the early copy but this one wasn’t for me. (I don’t share negative reviews on my platforms so won’t be sharing my views on there)

I really struggled with this to start with. Tough to get into and couldn’t see where it was going (which obviously turned out to be a good thing)
I’m really glad I stuck with it because it got loads better and had some really good twists throughout.

I was absolutley hooked with this novel, from page one you are thrown straight into the darkness and tension of this remarkable thriller. The palpating fear that the character feels is only heightened by your own anxiety as you question everything from the characters sanity, the motive and reliability of a mothers choices in trying to protect her children.

I simply could not put it down, it was a rollercoaster of emotions that kept me guessing. When I thought I knew how this story was going to go a twist would rise up out of the dark and forcing a hard reset. I sympathised with the main character but at times found myself shocked at the betrayal of my own thoughts towards her as I was torn from understanding everything she did to questioning if it was all real.

A very clever read that plays on the natural human fear of being alone in the dark with something hunting you, wanting to hurt you and in your own home, a sanctuary to most, a haven, the safest place on earth. Absolutely worth 5 stars!

A disturbing horror thriller!
A mother hides herself and her children in the dead of night to escape an intruder.
Her scattered thoughts reveal a life of being discriminated against, and belittled. She questions her own sanity.
A thought provoking thriller with a terrifying plot, which has you questioning how victims are perceived.

This was very enjoyable and gripping. I liked the feeling of claustrophobia, and the uncertainty of whether the main character could be imagining the whole experience. The way the author used an inner voice reminded me of Stephen King, in a good way. Recommended,

Nightwatching is a tense and claustrophobic read of a mother and her two young children trapped by a man in their house. .

A dark family domestic noir thriller that is told from the mothers’ point of view throughout, in a natural timeline. The author cleverly never reveals ANY names of the characters. This I found a little clunky early on in the novel with the constant same variants of her description of her children (the little boy, etc), but eventually adjusted to it. In fact I think it adds to the style of the book, and less emphasis is on the people and more on their situation.

A very different and refreshing take on a very common theme, and I really enjoyed it. Think ‘Room’ and you’ll get my meaning.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a difficult one to review! Both the story and writing were excellent and really well crafted. But there was just something that didn't gel with me as a reader. I maybe didn't feel as enveloped in the story as I would have liked. I felt quite removed and aware I was just 'reading' as opposed to being immersed in the book.

But still excellently done.

This book starts in the thick of the action. A mother and her two children in an isolated house, a blizzard outside and an intruder! I honestly did not think it could keep up the pace but it really does!!! Taut, atmospheric, spine tingling. I was living on my nerve’s reading it!

A thriller with building tension which I enjoyed reading although I didn't particularly like the writing style. Certainly grabs the reader's attention with it's intense storyline and probably not a book to read at night before going to sleep, especially if one lives in an old house! Plenty of twists and turns, suspense and anything else to keep on reading to find out how it all ends, even in the darkest moments. Some of it I worked out before the book divulged but wasn't sure how it would get to the same place, however, I didn't really get into the characters as they all seemed a little remote. Throughout it makes the reader question as to who to believe at certain moments.

Phew, what a corker! This is one of those books where you have to hold your breath because it is so full of unbelievably intense tension. The writing is absolutely fantastic and I was living the nightmare with the mother. I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack, and at times I had to put the book down and make a cuppa so I could calm down. A fabulous heart-pounding read, and an ending that I was praying for! Fantastic. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this absolutely unputdownable book!