There was so much to enjoy about this book. I was invested in the characters and the premise - a Hide and Seek challenge broadcast online - seemed like something that could happen in the future. There were bits of the background subplot that felt forced. But I loved the relationship of her and her kids. Recommended for fans of mystery - who like nonlinear plots and a "locked room" vibe.

Why am I surprised when I instantly get pulled into a Lisa Unger novel? Every time I pick one up, it takes about a chapter, maybe two, before I am feverishly flipping through the pages. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10 is no different.

In her signature style, Unger delivers action, suspense, and beautifully complex characters. This time around, she tackles social media influencers and extreme gaming in a way that is as candid as it is entertaining. Though Adele becomes the stand-out character for me, there is a cast of men and women who help make this thriller go from a chance to win a million dollars to see them trying to just make it out of this alive.

What I loved about this book is how the reality of who each character is slowly comes out. Choices are made. Actions are taken. It is all completely addictive, but it is more than just an action-filled thrill ride. There is depth and layers to the Adele, Maverick, Angeline, Cody, Malinka, Tavo, and Hector. And as they are peeled back, truths are revealed at just the right moments. And then you have the balance of Adele’s children, Violet and Blake, at home. They ground the craziness of what is going on at Falco Island and add even more tension and emotion to the already fraught situation.

All in all, this was one great book. If you liked THE LAST ONE by Will Dean, this is definitely a book you will want to read.

Audiobook Note: I will be honest. I spent only about a quarter of the time listening to the audiobook, but it was not because narrator Vivienne Leheny was anything less than wonderful. Her pace and elocution brought the story alive, especially in the end chapters. If you are an audiobook listener, this is one not to miss.

2.5 stars

I have read, and loved, many books from this author in the past, so I was excited to check out this one. However, it fell flat for me. I enjoyed the setting, but there was too much focus on Adele's missing husband. That, along with so much of Adele's backstory, really did not do anything to further the story. It would've been more beneficial to have spent more time developing and exploring the contestants. I never really felt a connection to any of them. Overall, it just seemed like there was too much going on, and while I enjoy multiple POV's, it didn't work well in this story.

I liked the complexity of this thriller. I felt like there were multiple storylines with the actual part of the book the ultimate hide and seek challenge being a backdrop instead of the main focal points.

With all of these storylines there were also a lot of points of view which worked ok.

This wasn’t my favorite by her. It felt too busy.

So twisty! This is a story about secrets and lies, rumors, resilience and redemption, the difference between true strength and an appetite for power...How our true selves can be shined up for display on social media to the point where hiding behind the facade feels better than "real life". Paired with a dark, stormy island setting, you might just find yourself turning the pages late into the night as you try to solve the many mysteries that unfold.

I really enjoyed reading Close Your Eyes and Count to 10, I felt like I was watching a reality program happening in live time. I instantly felt for the main character, Adele, with her family struggles and was rooting for her to win the million dollars. There were also other characters that were integral to the story, some of which I liked more than others lol. The character development was excellent in this novel. The story was fast paced and unique so that I really did not know how the storyline would develop and end. As someone who spends a lot of time alone on remote trails, I felt like Lisa Unger did a great job capturing the spookiness of remote locations. This was my first book by Lisa Unger and will not be my last.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten,” by Lisa Unger really grabs you in and is very present day. I’d like to start off by saying that this story follows multiple viewpoints and has many main and side characters that get their own chapters. It is heavily relevant to today’s social media standards as social media plays a big role in this book and in the storyline. Various platforms of social media are used to develop this story.

This story follows a social media competition in which there is an extreme version of hide and seek that takes place on a remote island in a dilapidated hotel that is scheduled for demolition. The contestants will get to explore the hotel prior to the start (urban exploration) to scope out hiding spots and the last hider to be found by the sponsors of the contest is to win one million dollars. Just before the competition starts, a superstorm is getting ready to hit the island and locals are advising them to leave but the sponsors and participants choose to stay. The game quickly becomes a game of survival.

The main characters include two of the sponsors who are a couple, Maverick and Angeline. Maverick is very controversial in the social media world as his last extreme challenges ended up with a missing person. The main character who is a contestant is a single mom, Adele, with two children in middle and high school who was down on her luck as her husband was on the run from the police for fraud and embezzlement. She wanted to play as she needed the money due to her husband’s crimes.

I really enjoyed the story. There were a lot of twists and it was hard to figure out who to trust. I had enjoyed how present day it was with the presence of social media hitting our younger generation these days. I also liked that the story included urban exploration elements. The elements that got a bit confusing were having so many main characters (but they were well developed) and a few pieces of the story don’t feel like they were completely wrapped up in the end. But overall I’d say it was a 4.75. I loved it and would definitely recommend it to others!

A very gripping thriller that kept my attention and showed how far people will go to protect their family and/or their friends and companies.

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and the author, Lisa Unger, for providing me with the ARC of the book for free in exchange for an honest review.

this is an engaging story that really draws you in. The author does an excellent work in depicting the protagonist's emotional journey, making the characters feel genuine and relatable. The writing is smooth, and the pace keeps you hooked.
Some twists were a bit predictable but the book is worth reading as it's engaging and well thought
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 has every making of a great thriller and turned out to be so gripping and heart pounding I couldn’t stop reading.

Struggling but resilient single mother, Adele decides to join a social media stunt hosted by charismatic daredevil Maverick Dillan on remote Falcao Island, playing a game of extreme hide and seek with other influencers, all competing for the prize of a million dollars.
However, from the time she arrives on the island, things begin turning strange until she realizes she’s fighting for survival against not only the raging tropical storm that has quickly moved in, but also another unknown, but deadly threat.

The oncoming storm, the threats Maverick was receiving, he and his team’s dubious ideals surrounding the competition, and the warnings from the island’s inhabitants all combine to create such an ominous feeling that settled over the island as the game went on.
While the first half was a slow burn of introductions and building, the second half becomes an adrenaline fueled fight for survival against several dangers. As people disappear, the storm rages, and Maverick’s obsession with fortune and fame grows to a sinister level, you begin to wonder if anyone will come out of this competition.

In addition to being a fantastic thriller, Lisa Unger also did a beautiful job creating the setting and atmosphere of Falcao Island, exploring the impact of social media and reality entertainment, and detailing the lengths a mother will go to fight for her children. I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row and NetGalley for this eARC.

I wanted to love this—the premise was great. The eARC had terrible formatting issues that made the book difficult to enjoy, sadly! I hope this is corrected in the final digital version.

You can always count on Lisa Unger for unique plots and tense stories.

Single mom, Adele, has had a tough go at life recently. Her husband has disappeared after being accused of embezzlement of funds at his company, money is tight, and she’s slowly built a following on social media platform WeWatch as she works on herself after her marriage fell apart. With her children’s encouragement, she agrees to participate in an extreme game of hide and seek hosted by influencer Maverick and his team at Extreme to try and win the prize of $1 million. But when she arrives for the challenge on a super remote island, things start to fall apart and her chances of winning the money seem to be slipping.

I really liked the premise of this one and I thought it had a lot of potential to be a real thriller. In true Lisa Unger fashion, there are lots of POV’s and intertwining plot lines within the story. I thought it worked well overall but there were some aspects that seemed superfluous and incomplete and the story didn’t need them to be exciting.

But this is a solid thriller and I enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the digital ARC. My review is honest and voluntary.

An extreme hide and seek game at an abandoned resort on a remote island with a prize of one million dollars. Sounds intriguing and exciting and Adele, a single mom with two children could really use that money. She is selected, along with two others and to make maters worse, a storm is brewing and the organizers of the even won’t leave or allow his contestants to leave. Now it becomes a battle for survival. And that’s not all, we learn more about why Adele needs the money, how the organizers need this game to play out and so much more. This makes for a fascinating locked-room mystery and adventurous thriller The suspenseful novel is one I could not put down!

This story is told in third person and follows multiple characters. I started reading this one via ebook then switched to the audiobook to finish. I enjoyed both formats. The audiobook was narrated by Vivienne Leheny, who often narrates books by this author. I found her voice for the characters to be pleasant and distinctive as well as compelling enough to propel me through the story quickly.

The storyline revolves around a hide and seek style reality competition created by an extreme sport social media celebrity named Maverick who appears to have just as many enemies as he has fans. He has an entourage of partners/employees that work on his projects with a whole host of personalities. The story also follows one of the competitors in Adele, a mom raising two kids. Adele was married to a man that swindled a bunch of people then left her holding the bag so to speak, so she is no stranger to being controversial in the eyes of the public either.

I really enjoyed the history of the Enchantments resort and the atmospheric setting of Falcão Island. I was attracted to this story because I’m a fan of reality show competitions, but I found that this story had too much going on besides the competition. The characters were a mixed bag and it was a lot to follow with all kinds of secretive relationships, melodrama and controversies from love affairs, money troubles, suspicious locals, blackmail, missing persons, and much more. I found the ending to be a bit anticlimactic. Still, if you’re a fan of popcorn thrillers, give this one a try.

Thank you to Netgalley, Park Row Books, Harlequin Trade Publishing, The Hive, and Harlequin Audio for a copy provided for an honest review.

Thanks you NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for the chance to read one of my FAVORITE authors new books!!

There is something truly special about this Author, I have ALWAYS loved every one of her books and this one was no different for me, Not going to lie the premise of the book and all the different characters and POVs had me pretty worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. But it wasn't really that hard once you got to know who everyone was and compartmentalized who was in which group, Adele's family, the contestants and who worked with Extreme..(it helped me to kind of separate them in groups like that, sometimes I did mix up Violet, for some reason my brain kept telling me she wasn't who I knew she was)

Idk anyway other than that It was a very fast paced read, I was very interested in what happened with the game, obviously you can figure out pretty quick that it's rigged but that just makes you more intrigued on how and what happens next! Obviously, the main characters kind of being Adele's family makes you root for her but I was very interested in "Wild Cody" and was very happy with that part of the end and what else happened.. Trying my best not to give anything away here but Anyway the book is great.

It's very interesting to me making a book about a game we all played as a kid, Smart though, like everyone's played it, It makes you want to pick it up and go how the heck can you make this interesting enough to make a whole book out of it! Hopefully this will pull a lot more people in, I feel like she deserves a lot more attention as an author!

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 is the book I needed. Yes, its about hide and seek and yes its a little bit ridiculous, regardless, I couldn't put it down.

What an interesting thriller. Many thrillers lately have left me wanting but this revived my love for the genre. There is so much tension and the characters are multilayered. This is an edge of your seat thriller that I couldn't put down!

After 3 or 4 books from her I think it’s time to finally conclude that Unger just isn’t the author for me. I continue to be interested in her books because the premises always sound so good but the execution just never gives me what I’m looking for; I feel like her books reel you in with the premise to start but once you get into the story it starts going in a completely different direction (this is her 3rd book in a row i’ve read that this has been the case). The survival game show setting was SO promising but it just wasn’t that interesting ultimately.

I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. It was just so much going on all the time. I felt sometimes that made it too distracting from the bones of the story. Overall it was a good book.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

Something about this book never really came together for me. Loved the premise but it never even really came to fruition with all the outside stories. The back and forth narration could have been done a little better as well. All in all this just didn’t end up being at all what I expected.

An intense game of hide and seek for a large cash prize? Sign me up! This book was great! Thank you so much NetGalley, Lisa Unger and HTP for allowing me to read before its release!