I was really into this book from the very beginning, and flew through the first third of it really quickly. Then I must have misread something because I thought something happened in the book that didn’t. That really threw me off. I think there was just too many storylines going on that it was hard to keep everything straight. It all came together at the end but I was very confused and it felt drawn out at points.

I like the reason for the title, an actress that has the unique ability to feel when someone is watching her and someone is watching her! An interesting psychological thriller. I do like this author!

I LOVEd about the first 1/3 of this book--the character was well developed and engaging. It was so interesting her background working in movies, and how it delved into that career field (I love learning while I'm reading!). I also love how the author did a great job addressing the MC having a daughter on the spectrum. It all felt very REAL, which I love in books. I also loved how there were 2 love interests, and how she weaved back and forth between them, adding intrigue. This book fell flat for me about 2/3 in. It just felt too easy, too predictable, and I found myself frustrated with the ending.

fast paced thriller that i couldn't put down

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy for review

I accidentally posted the wrong review here I will post an updated review as soon as it is ready. Thank you!

This was a letdown for me. I considered DNFing a few times but continued on side this was a ARC copy for review.

I found the multiple POV confusing and unclear. There were multiple side story lines that were similar and pointless for the plot as a whole. I think the book could have been a lot shorter and to the point without the story of Shelia, Cam and even Cooper. It became obvious who the stalker was not about halfway through so then I knew their story was pointless as they just served as a character for a distraction.

The last 10% of the book did have me on the edge of my seat so I will give the story some credit for that. Overall I do not recommend this book. I do thank NetGalley and Harper Collins for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I have enjoyed this author for quite a while. This book fell a bit short for me. The main character acts a bit dumb in places and it is overly dramatic in others. But, I did enjoy the suspense side. It does move quickly.

With My Little Eye
By Joshilyn Jackson
Review and Rating 3 ⭐️

Full disclosure, I am a big fan of Joshilyn Jackson and have loved her last several books, so I was so excited to read With My Little Eye. I’ve sat on this review for two months trying to come up with an appropriate rating.
With My Little Eye is about Meribel Mills, an aging actress, as well as a single mother to neurodivergent daughter Honor, who moves cross country to escape a dangerous stalker her daughter has dubbed Marker Man.
This was definitely not my favorite Joshilyn Jackson, but I think a lot of the bad reviews I am seeing are people going into this not realizing this is a psychological thriller, her last books have all been a little twisted!
No spoilers here, I just didn’t like the main character, which makes it hard to sympathize with her. Also, the story includes many POV’s and lots of storylines which makes the story confusing. However, it was a thriller and entertaining at times and I loved the daughter character, Honor.
Overall, while I probably wouldn’t recommend this particular Joshilyn Jackson book, if you’re thinking about it and have enjoyed her other recent psychological thrillers, it’s worth a read. 3 ⭐️

I want to thank William Morrow and #NetGalley for an eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.


Book Rating Key
⭐️ Not Recommended
⭐️⭐️ Readable Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Excellent Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Near Perfect Book
***Note*** I seldom give ⭐️or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings. If I feel a book is a ⭐️sometimes I just prefer to not finish reading it and not rate it. As for 5 ⭐️books, I think of those as books I would want to take with me to a deserted island 🏝️, and this means I read a whole lot of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️star books. Happy Reading!

I think that the plot of this book is good but it took a while to get me on the hook. I was a little bored during the first half but I am glad I hung in. The last half had a surprise that i didn’t forsee.
Many thanks to William Morr and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

WOW. With My Little Eye was a 10/10 on the creep factor! I think it truly says something about an author's writing when they are able to get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up while reading -- which was certainly the case for this book! Jackson did an exceptional job with character development and her detailed settings, I felt all of the anxiety that Meribel felt while trying to evade and then track down her stalker. A must read!!

Really entertaining read! It did start out slow, but it quickly picked up and I was into it all the way to the end!

Admittedly I got through the majority of this through audiobook, which I really enjoyed. I’ve seen a few mixed reviews with some complaints that the POV chapters are hard to differentiate since they aren’t labeled for each character. I didn’t have a problem with this as an audiobook, since there are a cast of narrators and you can tell who’s speaking. All of the narrators were great!

I also liked when things picked up pace at the end, our main character makes some stupid decisions that all main characters make because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a story. But I applaud how the book does this in such a self-aware way! Meribel had a logical reason for every decision she made at the end, and I think it worked really well for this book.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the copy in exchange for my honest review!

I really loved parts of this book. I enjoyed some of the points of view. I found Meribel a bit obnoxious, but I really loved Honor's point of view and the stalker's point of view was interesting. The book kept me guessing, but I didn't feel satisfied with the ending. It was still a gripping read though. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have enjoyed several of Jackson’s other books but this one was not for me. I found several of the storylines difficult to follow. The sex scenes were too explicit for my taste and didn’t add anything to the book. I will not be recommending this one. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was honestly just so-so for me. There were some great twists and turns that kept you guessing throughout the book, but very few of the characters resonated with me at all. I enjoyed Honor, the main character's daughter, but other than that I was indifferent to the other characters. And for me, if I don't connect or resonate with any of the characters, the rest of it just falls flat, and unfortunately, that's what happened here. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishing for an e-arc this book.

I finished this last night and had to sit on how I felt about this book.

Following Meribel on her acting journey, adopting her daughter, and dealing with a stalker while she is a stalker herself (she stalks her ex-husbands wife on instagram.) I found that to be a little bit mediocre at first.

While meeting the character Cooper, who lives on the same floor of Meribels building, I was very hesitant about him. To find out what was with him, damn, wasn't expecting that.

Joshilyn Jackson did an incredible job at throwing me for a loop at the end of this book. I wish I would have known the name of the stalker, but it was just some young adult who was obsessed with her character on Belinda's World.

Overall I give this book 4.75 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a readers edition of this title. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely given.
With My Little Eye is a thriller revolving around an actress who has an adopted child with autism, who is being stalked by an unknown person called the Marker Man. Having relocated due to the stalker they now reside in Atlanta and soon come to realize that the stalker has found them once again. The story will definitely keep your interest and is nicely paced with no slow moving, draggy parts. The characters are well written and made me stop and really think: What would I do in that situation? Good summer beach read.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

…I really wish there was an epilogue? Also, the audio was phenomenal. 5 stars to the narrators!!

I loved the setup of the story and the premise of all the drama. But there were two serious storylines plus a set of possible romances, and none of them were handled completely.

I despise cliffhangers unless they’re needed for a sequel…so maybe there will be a sequel? Otherwise this feels very unfinished.

The characters were well written. I thought Honor was written exceptionally well. The first 1/3 of the book, I definitely thought multiple characters could be marker man. But in the end, this needed a little more substance and explanation to wrap up the storylines.

With My Little Eye is the latest mystery/ thriller from stellar writer Joshilyn Jackson. The tale of a good actress with a very bad fan, it highlights the struggles women face in dealing with stalkers.

Meribel Mills is initially unphased by the obsessive, peculiar mail she receives. The letters are going to her agent, not her home, and disturbing messages are par for the course for even B-list actresses. The creepy missives, written in the fruit-scented markers popular amongst elementary school children, are mostly benign and simply get filed away in Meribel’s just-in-case folder. Then they begin to be not so harmless. The notes now arrive at her house and they include drawings of a naked Meribel tied up or chopped into pieces. When items start to go missing from her home and she smells a strange cologne on her bed sheets, Meribel decides she’s had enough. She packs up her bags and moves herself and her daughter Honor from L.A. to Atlanta, where she has been able to snag a nice role on a successful, zany sitcom.

Meribel has hated Atlanta, her hometown, since the incidents that made the place go from hopeful to hellish for her. But all that matters at this moment is that she and her little girl are safe. She tentatively starts to make friends and settle into her new life. But safety just might be harder to come by than Meribel thinks.

The start of this story is more women’s fiction than mystery, with the stalker known as Marker Man only in the background and Meribel’s acting career with its adjacent workload barely present. She is on hiatus when we meet her, and stays that way throughout the text. As a result, Meribel comes across as a very relatable stay-at-home every-mom, the kind who serves uber-healthy meals and worries whether her mildly autistic daughter Honor can make friends. She is also concerned about Marker Man of course, but it is initially a low-key, backburner issue for her since she is convinced the move has brought her safety. I liked Meribel, who is presented as a kind and caring person with a warm and sunny personality.

The author does a nice job with Honor as well, who is a bright, articulate but occasionally challenging child. She has fewer struggles than most neurologically diverse kids would face and has a level of intelligence that anyone would envy, but I appreciated that along with that. she has difficulties recognizing faces, meltdowns when presented with too many challenges, and labors to recognize emotions.

Another well-executed aspect of the tale is the battle faced by Meribel as she attempts to deal with the stalker. She pretty much has nothing but a set of letters to work with, evidence that gives the police zero leads. Her frustration at a system that can offer her no protection along with her helplessness when it comes to figuring out exactly what to do to make it end is very relatable. The story shows how vulnerable anyone not living in a gated community or part of a building with a concierge with security guards and doormen is.

Which segues nicely into my quibbles with the tale. Quibble one is the move. Other than to show us Meribel getting closure on issues from her past, the move to Atlanta is rather ridiculous. Once she starts filming, she will be on screen and Marker Man will be able to locate her since the city the show is filmed in is public knowledge. Moreover, a halfway decent celebrity stalker could follow her on IMDB. Casting announcements would tell what shows she’ll star in next long before they air. So the upheaval of moving across the country would, at most, have bought Meribel and Honor a few months. Additionally, Meribel is dating a security consultant in California but doesn’t turn to him when things go awry with her stalker, which made zero sense to me.

Quibble two comes from the fact that the interesting secondary mystery doesn’t come up until a little more than halfway through the book. Obviously, I can’t talk about it much given its location in the text, but it is at this point that we get some startling and fascinating insights about a secondary character and the narrative becomes riveting as we try to figure out what they will do and why. Unlike with Marker Man, we are given a clear psychology for this particular person’s psychosis and this villain has a lot of depth and layers that make them fun to read and it is intriguing to wonder if they will be caught

However, that leaves the reader slogging through a good sixty percent of a book that, until that point, is a pretty average mystery. It wasn’t bad per se but it doesn’t stand out in any way either.

I will add that there is no real closure to the story. We are left at a moment in time where our heroes have won something of a victory against their respective adversaries but we don’t know the price they will pay for the actions they had to take to get there. Frankly, rather than the long rather mediocre beginning I would have preferred a richer, more detailed ending.

Another very minor quibble is that at one point Meribel complains that bruises left on Honor due to self-harm were reported by a neighbor to social services. She is upset the neighbor didn’t speak to her first, which is ludicrous. Of course you would speak to social services rather than talk to a possibly abusive parent. Abusers have their excuses neatly lined up long before anyone can question them, and the safety of the child depends on the proper authorities being informed.

Trigger warnings would include the obvious violence against women as well as a casting couch scenario in which Meribel is treated in a dehumanizing manner, mild drug use by teens, and self-harm. None of this is graphic in nature.

There is a romance here but it is very low-key. It plays into the mystery, so I won’t give anything away here except to say that the love story is mostly background noise and there isn’t a whole lot to it except for its role in the suspense portion of the tale.

Ultimately, With My Little Eye is a mixed bag of a story. At the start, it lacks the tension necessary to be a taut, engrossing thriller, but those willing to stick with it will be mostly pleased by the latter portions of the novel. I would recommend those unfamiliar with the author start with Never Have I Ever or Mother May I, both of which are stellar works. This tale will probably only appeal to already existing fans, who will find it enjoyable but probably not list it among their favorites.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC. This was my first read by this author and unfortunately I wasn’t a fan. I really enjoyed the autism representation and the mention of DND, both don’t get enough spotlight in books. Honor was the only character I really liked and I found the others, especially the FMC to be very annoying.

The plot started strong, but went in too many directions by the end. I don’t like the abrupt ending either.