Wow this one was great! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I believe this one had a lot of originality and many twists and turns. Sometimes the different POVs were a little confusing but I'm sleep deprived so maybe it's just me.

A house in paradise.......

Young inhabitants with no ties...................

What could go wrong? The author does such a good job of endearing you to both Nina and Maria with their journeys to "the house". You become invested in seeing the outcome for both of them. I did not see any of the twists coming and enjoyed watching them unfold.

A fast paced page turning thriller, I sped through this in one afternoon.

This kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved this book and rate it 4/5, but I wanted more!! The ending felt a bit rushed? I was looking for more detail in the end. While I enjoyed the epilogue and it gave me a bit more of what I was looking for I still could have used more!

If you enjoy a fast paced thriller, I would still definitely recommend this one! I always enjoy Catherine Steadman and this one did not disappoint!

Thank you to Random House for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

JTH

Look in the Mirror tells the alternating story of two women. Nina’s father dies and leaves her a beautiful home in a tropical paradise. He wasn’t well off so Nina wonders where he got the money. Maria, a nanny, has acquired a job in a luxurious home with one rule – don’t go in the basement.
The book goes back and forth between the two women, and I sincerely wondered how in the world these two women were remotely connected. It was interesting but confusing. About halfway through it all comes together and takes off from there.
It keeps building, with a few more characters built in, to an exciting finish that I did not see coming.
This is a good one for psychological suspense!

2.5 ⭐️. I wanted to love this book, I heard that if I liked the ending of The Family Game I would enjoy this one so my expectations were very high. Unfortunately this didn’t work for me at all. Told in multiple POVs, you aren’t really sure about timelines, what connections are and it makes it pretty frustrating to get such little details early on, give me something at some point! The writing is also really weird and abrupt. Chapters start with many details following a present storyline only to end abruptly by telling what happened instead of showing it. My biggest gripe with this book is the unfortunate ending. Knee deep in the action it abruptly ends and time jumps years ahead in the next chapter. What a cop out!

I really did like the premise of this book - yes some spoilers ahead - but the execution fell flat. I wasn’t really sure what was happening in the first 20%, going in pretty blind. It should have been a quick read but I honestly kept falling asleep in the first half. The back half flew by in comparison. I liked the locked room premise, I pieced together how Maria fit in pretty quickly and was shocked by how her story ended. It all felt very squid games but make it an escape room and for some reason this didn’t work as well because it doesn’t dive in deep enough and feels really unrealistic. I’m pretty bummed on how this one worked out and wish it had a better ending with more flushed out characters. Also, I think there are some big plot holes the more I think about it.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Catherine Steadman for this egalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book grabbed my attention and kept me up late from the very first page. A story told in multiple perspectives with an escape room vibe. It started to lose my attention in the back half of the book. But overall very enjoyable and will definitely have me thinking twice about looking in the mirror! 😟 Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this book!

Although it took me a while to get into this book I am sure happy that I did. Look in the Mirror is the twisty tale of Nina and Maria. Nina just lost her father, he is her only family and really her only friend. She’s lonely and unaware of how to move on. She soon finds out her dad had a whole other life. Nina finds out she left him a gorgeous home on a beautiful island and she heads there to check it out. Nothing is at it seems and with each minute Nina is more and more confused. Maria is a nanny she works for the wealthy - having made her way through half of med school and a traumatic past Maria is happy to have a job on an island with 2 kids and a single dad- but the kids never show up. Maria doesn’t know what to do and in the end ultimately makes the wrong choice landing her in the middle of something she never expected. Twisty and thrilling this book had me on my toes. Though I didn’t get into the book until the 25% mark after that I didn’t want to put it down. 4 stars and a big thanks for the ARC.

This is an over the top, off the rails, and completely bonkers popcorn thriller, and fans of Steadman's last book, The Family Game, are going to love this one too!

This might just be my favorite Steadman book so far! Something in the Water hooked me and books like this just keep me wanting to read everything that will come next!. This one kept me on the edge of my seat, riveting!

I loved Catherine Steadman’s book The Family Game so I was excited to get a chance to read Look In The Mirror. This book is told in alternating POV’s, the main one is Nina who has recently lost her brilliant father and is surprised with a phone call telling her she has inherited his house in the British Virgin Islands. Nina travels to check out the house and the necessary paperwork but this trip starts revealing more questions than answers.
The other POV’s are Maria and Joon-gi. Maria was a nanny hired to take care of some kids in this same house a few weeks earlier and Joon-gi is an electrician who has worked on the house.
This book was a quick read with short, well-written chapters but it disappointed me. I feel like I have read books and watched shows so similar over the past few years. I knew immediately what was going on,
There was no suspense or intrigue to me in this book.
Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC to read and review.

Catherine Steadman writes very thrilling and captivating books. I like that her books are different from a lot of the stories that are out there. She’s great with building characters and suspense and Look In The Mirror did not let me down. Very well written and wrapped up.

Catherine Steadman has done it again! All of her books have hooked me from the start and are nearly impossible to put down.

This book definitely had a fast-paced psychological thriller feel that I loved! I loved the storyline as well as the characters. The alternating chapters helped to develop suspense and slowly connect the characters.

I wasn’t sure what direction this story would take at the start but was very pleased at the end, the extra twist in the epilogue added that extra mmph that made it a great read start to finish.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman is a fast paced thriller. This was my first read by Catherine Steadman and it definitely won’t be my last. I started reading not having a clue what the book was about, other than a thriller. The Cover and title caught my attention and I’m extremely glad that it did.

Nina, still grieving her father's death is astonished to discover that he had a luxury home in the Virgin Islands which she has now inherited. Curious as to how her father managed to build and pay for this luxury home, she travels to the island to get answers from the solicitor's office and the locals. What she discovers there just may cost her her life.

The story switches between various characters involved with the luxury home and the secrets buried beneath it. Each character has a complete story line which all meld together by the end of the book. Readers will encourage each character, cringe when they make a wrong move, and develop a sense of foreboding as the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place. Excellent pacing as the pages turn and the tension builds in a game of life or death.

This book kept me guessing until the end. I really enjoyed the wild ride while reading this book. It took me a while to figure out how the two main characters were connected. I will definitely read more from this author. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Two woman, one house, different timelines. The story alternates between Nina and Maria. There were some good twists in the story and moments that had you yelling at the characters.
I had a hard time with the story unfortunately. I found it somewhat hard to connect with the characters.

WOW! I loved this book. The story has 4 or 5 main characters so it's easy to remember who does what and how they are connected. I was postive I had the plot figured out but I did not. I'm very impressed with this book. It's very different and I loved trying to figure out the riddles. I will definitely re read this and that's saying something!!

BOOK REVIEW



Look In The Mirror

By Catherine Steadman

Plot: Nina and Maria both have different reasons for entering the house, one just inherited the property from her dead father, the other is set as a nanny to the super-rich. Both enter with questions and instead of answers, get sucked into a twisted game where not everyone survives!

Review: Catherine Steadman does it again with a twisted mystery that keeps you guessing. The book only contains a handful of characters, which can be problematic as far as character dynamics. “Look In The Mirror” however does some incredible work with such a small group. Just when I thought I had figured it out, we gained new information and I was left trying to piece together the puzzle. As a fan of puzzles, word games, and escape rooms, this was the right book for me! I would recommend this book to anything with a mind for puzzles. The writing is superb and Catherine knows how to really get you into the mind of each character. This is another knockout read that is going to have everyone looking into their own mirrors!

Look In The Mirror is out July 30th, 2024! Thank you to Catherine Steadman, NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC copy of Look In The Mirror in exchange for my honest review!

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Look in the Mirror, by Catherine Steadman, feels like a fresh take on a locked-room mystery set on an exclusive island. Very twisty and suspenseful, a smart psychological thriller that I couldn't put down! They're almost a little horror to the novel, but saying any more would give too much away. I loved getting to know the 2 main protagonists, Nina and Maria, and was completely wrapped up in their drama until the very last page. highly recommend!

Look in the Mirror is a puzzle-type mystery that will keep you guessing (or at least, hurt your brain). The story is centered around Nina who inherits a mysterious Caribbean house from her recently deceased father. But this house holds unknown and hidden spaces.
There were lots of riddles and chess references that help the characters to solve the puzzles within the house. For me, this got a little exhausting. It was not a relaxing read, you definitely had to pay attention to fine details to understand what was going on. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC in exchange for my review!