Catherine Steadman has done it again! Another really enjoyable, quick read! Her writing is always descriptive and engaging. While the plot was a bit predictable and also a bit odd, it was truly unique and a fun read. I wish that there had been a bit more tied together in the end - with one of the characters in particular. Otherwise, this is one that I would HIGHLY recommend.

This review was also posted on Goodreads.

Look in the Mirror
By: Catherine Steadman
4 🏡 🏡🏡🏡
Published: July 30, 2024
Publisher: Ballantine books

Imagine getting call that your father left you another home in another country in his will. Nina had no idea her father left her a huge home in the British isle. When she arrives the games begin. She had no idea her father was this wealthy.

Maria has answered an ad for a nanny to small children. However, when she arrives there is no one there and she questions what happened to the man and children. She starts to make herself comfortable.

How do Maria and Nina’s lives intersect. This novel goes us a house filled with secrets, alarms, warnings, and locked doors! What is behind this facade?

I love everything this author writes and I was thrilled to get an advanced copy.

Look In the Mirror is a mystery thriller that will have you wanting to know how it ends. This is my first Catherine Steadman book and it was entertaining. 3.5 stars! Review will be posted to Goodreads and The StoryGraph and will be posted March 28, 2024.

This book is told in multiple POVs at different times and all slowly become intertwined. One of our main characters is Nina, a 30-something year old university professor who has just gotten news of the inheritance of a house she had no prior knowledge of. While dealing with the grief of her father, she's now thrown into a new mystery of what other side her father possessed. Our second main character Maria is a struggling medical student who has taken time away in order to save up money from nannying jobs. Throughout the book we try to figure out how these two women are connected with the mystery of this house being the key point.

This book gives more mystery vibes then thriller as this book takes a turn in a direction I was not expecting. The role this mysterious house plays in the lives of our two main characters was more of a third main character rather than the setting in which this story takes place. There were a few questions I had that were either left unanswered or revealed in a way that felt unreal, but the ending was wrapped up nicely with hope for a better future for some characters. I also wanted to let everyone know that if I were in this situation, I would've died the second the first door closed.

If you're looking for a fast paced, architectural focused descriptions, multiple POVs, escape room type mystery plot, this ones for you. Also, if you judge a book by it's cover this one is definitely a winner because the cover is stunning.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Catherine Steadman for this ARC!

Look in the Mirror is a fast paced locked room thriller. Nina inherits a Caribbean home from her father and finds there are tons of mysteries in the house. She does not know who she can trust.

Look in the Mirror falls under the category of … buy the premise buy the bit. I struggled with the over all concept of what was happening in the story. It was just a little too far fetched and convoluted . That being said … I did want to finish it to see how it all wrapped up. Neatly with a bow , I would say.
Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This novel by Steadman was a riveting page turner. I loved Nina‘s character development and felt I knew her well by the end of the book. It was so excited to see it all unfold and couldn’t wait to see how it concluded, I was not disappointed.

The story revolves around two seemingly unrelated women. Nina, a 34-year-old Cambridge professor who unexpectedly inherits a mysterious house in the British Virgin Islands following her father's passing. The house is a modern marvel, shrouded in mystery and secrets that kept me guessing with each turn of the page. And then there's Maria, a medical student working as a nanny with ambitions and a penchant for adventure, who finds herself embroiled in a web of enigma when her latest gig takes an unexpected turn.

Look In the Mirror is by far the creepiest story I have ever read! If you like thrillers, look no further. This is one of a kind and will haunt you even in broad daylight!

Ugh, I'm not excited to leave this review. Catherine Steadman is one of my favorite authors. I have MULTIPLE copies of The Family Game, because I loved it so much and often gift it. But this book just missed the mark for me. In addition to having an unremarkable cover, this book was just meh, and at times boring and bordering on offensive (white woman saves the day, persons of color do not).

The first 20% had me riveted: When Nina's father dies, she learns he had another house (and maybe another life?) in a warm island somewhere. She goes to check it out and is flabbergasted. Did she really know her father at all? There were a couple clever twists/inserts but the two storylines didn't really help each other out (the secondary one could have been left out all together). At no point did I really feel connected to the character, nor did I care if she survived. In the end it kind of felt like one of those 'it was just a dream!' books.

I'll definitely read Steadman's next book--I've loved everything up until now--but this was a huge miss for me.

Thanks @netgalley and @randomhouse for the eARC of Look In The Mirror by @catsteadman in exchange for an honest review!

📖📖 Book Review 📖📖 Look In The Mirror is a juicy, multi person point of view novel that you will not want to put down! In the depths of bereavement, Nina must face her father’s death through the discovery of his hidden life… a secret home in the British Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, Maria is a struggling med student who is working to cover her debt as a stand-in nanny, far from the dreams she had for herself. These two women’s lives collide in paradise in a beautifully woven manner, so many twists and turns that will keep you engrossed until the very end.

Review is posted on Goodreads and will be on Instagram soon!

Wow! Entertaining from the beginning all the way to the end! This was such an unusual plot in such a great way. It definitely gave me Squid Games/Alice In Borderland vibes and I am here for it!

Look In the Mirror was an interesting read for me. The pacing was good, the premise was unique, and there were some twists and turns I enjoyed in the end. I loved The Family Game by this author, so I was excited to read this one! As mentioned before, the idea was quite unique. In some ways, it reminded me of the short story by Bradbury called The Veldt where you have this system in a house that is not quite what it seems and a bit sinister. Catherine Steadman did a great job of making the setting feel very claustrophobic in some scenes which is what I think she was going for. It did get very repetitive especially towards the end, and some of the plot lines were rushed to the point of it starting to seem far fetched and unrealistic. Still, it was a fun read and I enjoyed it! Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

An interesting and different concept for a suspense novel it was well written and engaging. I sped read it quickly and wanted to like it. When I was finished, I felt it missed my criteria for a masterful mystery. Yes, it was suspenseful, yes it was clever, yes there were unexpected twists but no they did not come together to create a winner. If such a perverted game depicted in the book exists, I am appalled. The world is filled with depravity and perversion but I could not imagine one such as this author created. Maybe that was the problem. It was so out of the ordinary I could not suspend enough disbelief to like it. The characters just did not have enough development and the romantic element was far fetched.

This was a book full of surprises. You start off thinking one thing and wondering who the other woman was (Maria) in the house Nina suprisedly inherited when her father passed. Around the middle of the book everything changes and there are some huge surprises. It definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat. This was a very good book and I love it when a book has an ending that doesn’t leave you with a bunch of questions This was only my second book by Catherine Steadman but I definitely will read more! Great read!

This book started out so strong for me, I was hooked, but the looming basement and constant reminders about it felt redundant. It felt like a lot of talking/thinking about something but not a lot of action. The addition of the third pov threw me off as well. The middle was slow for me and I wish there had been more action in alot of those moments. The end was okay, kind of expected.

This book is for you if you love thrillers that take place from different points of view. I loved how each character's perspective drove this novel and the different ways their stories interweaved with each other. The ending will leave you saying out loud "What???"

Dual POV with present Nina and past Maria really drew me in as I tried to figure out if/when/how their stories were going to overlap--and that in and of itself kept me motivated to keep reading.

The covert identities of several characters really keeps the reader on their toes and adds to the thriller element of the story. There are so many turns that this one could take, and it's tough to try to find the right path. Are some items a bit far fetched? Yes, but they definitely can fit in the world of possible. The pacing was a bit off in spots, but still the story kept moving and I never felt that it became a chore to continue reading.

My personal gripe with the story would be a spoiler, so I can't express it, but I'll leave it as "How wasn't a warning OF SOME KIND given?!?!"

Overall: 4 stars (I really liked it)

I'll tell my students about: language, violence/gore/murder, alcohol, trauma

**Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Ballantine Books for my ARC.

In a single word—WOW! This is a definite page turner that kept me guessing and riveted right to the end. The plot is refreshing and unique. So unique it makes the story difficult to review without giving away spoilers (this review contains zero).

Nina’s father has just died. A brilliant man who built wind turbines, he was also an academic who loved puzzles of the mind, strategy, and games of chess. Nina grew up in his world of academics and is a professor herself. After his death, she receives notice that her father owned property in the British Virgin Islands, which she has now inherited. More than a little confused by the discovery, she books the next available flight to meet with the solicitor handling her father’s estate.

After some discussion, Nina is given keys to a house, overlooking a private beach. Built on a cliffside with pool, terrace, and state-of-the-art security plus in-home technology, the home is not obscenely large but luxurious in a minimalist fashion. The views are breathtaking, the setting is pristine.

Still reeling from the shock of this estate her father never told her about, Nina tries to settle in. There is, however, a strange, locked door on the lower level, and in time she learns a lot of stone was removed from the cliffside during the construction of the house. The emphasis on this had my mind spinning in numerous directions.

Nina’s story is narrated in third person POV (present tense), but hers isn’t the only tale taking place. Running parallel is the third person POV (present tense) account of Maria, a nanny who has been hired to look after two small children of a client in the British Virgin Islands.

She arrives at the cliffside house to find it empty but is assured the client (a single father) and his children will be there shortly. Maria is given a tour of the property, and told she has free reign of the house—with the exception of a locked door on the lower level. Sound familiar? After several days, Maria’s client still hasn’t shown, but a brief power failure has caused the lock on the lower-level room to disengage.

This is the point where it’s difficult to say more without giving away spoilers. There are a few other third person narrators (all present tense) in the book, but Nina and Maria get the most attention and both had me mentally gnawing my fingernails as the plot played out. At one point, I thought I’d guessed the direction the story was headed, only to be proved wrong. There’s also a surprise tucked at the end, which while not jaw-dropping, is clever and slickly done. The author gets a bravo from me.

I found this an original story with believable, well-written characters, and the kind of pacing that made it hard to set my Kindle down. I finished the novel in two days, and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a suspenseful read with original twists. I would most definitely read this author again. Five glowing review stars!

Great suspenseful read with a twisted plot. The story caught me right away with the 2 main characters and it just kept rolling. Another winner by this author.

I'm a fan of Catherine Steadman. She writes unusual storylines and Look in the Mirror is easily my favorite. This story follows two women: Nina, who discovers her dead father left her a house in The British Virgin Islands, and Nina, a nanny who gets a job at the same house at a different time awaiting the arrival of a father and his children. Mysterious things happen to both woman: warnings through notes to leave the house, security features acting on their own like they're alive, and an ominous overall feel of danger.
This secluded state-of-the-art house is a mansion on a cliff; full of cameras and a top-notch security system. There is one room that is not accessible to either woman, a locked room that they both must decide if they want to enter even though they're told not to.
This novel turns freaky fast. Dual narrators and timelines add to the fast-paced puzzle mystery. Tons of action and fatal risks are around every corner. Terrifying and crazy, though hopefully totally unrealistic, this novel will have you biting your nails with anxiety.
Can anyone survive the house?
Well-crafted, original, and thrilling.
Thanks to NetGalley and PenguinRandomhouse for a digital review copy

I really enjoyed this locked-room thriller set on a tropical island. The beginning of the book drew me in with two different points of view. The ending was action-packed and satisfying.