this is a thrilling suspense novel, a very gripping, well told tale!

I first stumbled across I Am Watching You, the newest release by Teresa Driscoll, in a co-worker’s Goodreads newsletter. After reading the synopsis, I was captivated by the idea of this story and I knew I would have to add this one to my TBR pile. After binge reading it for a couple of hours, I am pleased to say that I Am Watching You is absolutely worth your time, folks!

The novel opens with Ella, a woman riding the train, overhearing two young men flirting with a couple of teenage girls on the train. Listening in to their conversation, her maternal instinct is put on high alert after one of the men reveals they are fresh out of prison. However, she decides, against her better judgment, not to say anything. After all, it is none of her business. The next day, she is horrified to find out that one of the girls, Anna, has disappeared. A year later, Ella is still wracked with guilt over what she should have done and, as the anniversary of Anna’s disappearance approaches, Ella begins to receive threatening letters. Someone is coming after her.

The concept of the plot was what really stuck out for me with this story. I read a lot of mystery/thriller novels and they all sort of start blending together so when I come across a story that FEELS different, it really excites me. The thought of second-guessing a decision or not intervening because it is none of your business/it would be uncomfortable to do is such a common thought process and I was drawn to the fact that this could really happen to anyone. More often than not, people go through their day-to-day routines people pleasing or trying to avoid conflict, what if that intervention could save someone’s life? This novel had me thinking before I even turned the first page.

The novel is told in alternating perspectives between Ella, the witness from the train, a private investigator, Anna’s father, Anna’s friend (Sarah) and The Watcher. I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives; I am a sucker for a novel that narrates from all angles and I felt like Driscoll did an amazing job at ensuring that each perspective of the tale was told fully. I also loved the build up to the reveal of “whodunit”. I was so on edge by the end of the novel and when Anna finally had her chance to narrative and reveal her fate, I was completely drawn in.

The only thing that irked me about this story was the amount of side plots; several of the characters have personal issues and side relationships that didn’t really make a lot of sense in relation to the story. I found this to be a little distracting. I mean, I am all for a well-rounded character, but I didn’t find some of the information relevant to Anna’s story.

Regardless of these minor issues, I really ended up loving I Am Watching You and would recommend it to fans of authors like Caroline Mitchell and Lisa Jewell perfectly paced, perfectly bingeable and a completely entertaining.

This was a very good thriller!

I felt for Ella, even though sometimes I didn't precisely like her. And I was so involved in what exactly happened to Anna. There were a lot of twists and turns - so much to keep me guessing!

The solution to everything definitely surprised me. And, happily, it wasn't a cheat. The author did a good job of providing clues, yet leading the reader away from the truth.

I'd happily read the author again!

First off, let me just take a minute to say how much I LOVE this cover. I find it chilling, and it drew me in immediately. Well done!

Now, I have tried at least half a dozen times to write this review. No matter how hard I try, nothing is coming out the way I want it to so I'm just going to get on with it. I didn't care for this book as much as I thought I would. I was expecting a page turning thriller but I got more of a slow, "where are we now?" type of book with a little bit of "oh yeah, this girl is still missing". I found there wasn't a whole lot of focus and I was confused as to what was going on and why. I thought the multiple POV's would irritate me, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, the flipping between 3rd and 1st person POV made no sense to me at all, especially since I really didn't feel that there was a main character in the book although I suspect it was supposed to be Ella.
I also found the dialogue very dry. I think that made it even slower for me. There was no emotion where there should have been (Sarah and her sister's conversation, for example) so I had a real hard time relating to a single character.
I'm not going to pick away at every single criticism I have, there are quite a few, because even with all the things that annoyed me or didn't make sense in this book....it wasn't bad. It definitely was NOT a thriller but it was a fairly decent mystery. I mean, I had no clue how this was going to end and I never would have expected it.
I would rate this book at a 2.5-3. It was ok. I do see some promise here though, so I will be on the lookout from more from this author.
I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

This book is trying to be a thriller. There was a lot of fluff and not enough substance to rate this book higher than 3 stars. I was bored half way through the book and the only reason I hung with it, was to find out who it was.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but it had a slow start and I almost gave up on it, but am glad that I didn't. Ella is listening in to 2 girls talking to 2 men. The conversation gets more intimate and Ella overheard that the men have prison connections. The next day Ella sees a picture of a missing girl and immediately recognised that the girl, Anna, is the same girl she saw talking with the men. She reports what she has seen and heard and then Ella is in the spotlight. She tries to get back to her normal every day activities, working in her flower shop and being a mother and wife, but then she starts receiving mail that someone is watching her. A year later the frightening mail is still arriving and Anna has yet to be found. This thriller is well written and keeps you intrigued until the end. I thank Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC.

Excellent!! I was hooked from page one. The characters were wonderfully written - realistic, believable and sympathetic. I was not expecting the ending twist and enjoyed it immensely. Good job!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a mother's nightmare though when a child disappears. Should Ella have intervened? Could she have protected Anna if she had? This story keeps you guessing until the very end! Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

This novel is told from quite a few character’s points of view but the author was able to split them seamlessly. When two girls, best friends Anna and Sarah board the train for a highly anticipated trip to London, they are soon joined by two men fresh out of prison. Having never been to the big city before, the girls are flattered at the attention they are receiving. Flirting ensues and plans begin to form. Overhearing this a seat away, our witness Ella is sure these young teenage girls don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. Anxiously going back and forth about whether she should call the girls parents as she’s sure they’d disapprove, Ella eventually decides it’s not her affair after discovering some raunchy behaviour by one of the girls and the young convict. She puts it out of her head until soon after it is reported that Anna has gone missing. Fast forward and no concrete evidence pinpoints Anna’s disappearance we see that Anna’s Father, Sarah her best friend are not coping well at all with the loss. What has happened to Anna? When inconsistencies begin, and Ella our witness starts to receive sinister things in the mail we realize someone knows where Anna is. I didn’t have my aha! moment until quite near the end. Teresa Driscoll does an excellent job of taking this wild ride with her. Bravo! Thanks in advance to the publisher and Netgalley for my free copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Merce­r for a copy of "I am watching you" by Teresa Driscoll, in exchange for an honest review.
If you like a good mystery then this is definitely the book for you. This story is like a knot, every time you think you are getting somewhere, another knot appears. This kept on going throughout the book, and on approaching the end, I got to a point where I couldn't forsee any possible conclusion at all. I started to wonder whether the ending was going to be a bit of an anti climax, - but no, not in the least. Just as you think you've unravelled all the yarn, there's just one more thread to untie.

I really enjoyed this book. It had lots of unexpected twists which kept me guessing throughout and until the very end.

This book started out a bit slow for me, but it quickly picked up and drew me into the story of these two missing girls. The writing was good and the storyline was great as well. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly the twist in he story was, and that for me, makes a good book!

Ella is on the way home when she overhears two men flirting with two teenagers in the train. Her amusement turns to concern when she learns the two men have just been released from prison . She thinks about warning the girls but at the last moment decides to mind her own business. The next day to her horror she realizes one of the girls , Anna Ballard , is missing and nobody knows what happened to her . A year later there is still no trace of Anna and Ella is racked with guilt about not warning the girls off. The police still don’t have clue but when an anniversary special about Anna airs on TV, Ella starts getting threatening letters and hires a private detective Matthew to get to the bottom of it. When Matthew starts investigating different things come to light and everybody including Anna’s father and her best friend have secrets to hide.

An interesting story line narrated with different POV’s in third and first person . A good enough mystery with a lot of suspects but for some reason I could not relate to the characters. There was a lot of backstory and details about the flower shop that was unrelated to the plot which made me skip through some pages. Overall 3 ½ stars as the suspect was a complete surprise

Many thanks to a Thomas & Mercer, Kindle First & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

Teresa Driscoll’s latest novel “I am Watching You” is a novel filled with high suspense involving the disappearance of a young girl on a holiday in London with her closest friend. The reader is offered several viewpoints from the different characters involved with the girl and each one is dealing with a secret that lends the reader to guess what truly happened to the missing girl. Ms. Driscoll writes in a manner that keeps the reader enthralled from beginning to end with this roller coaster of an emotional joyride. I was given an advanced copy of this book, and all of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book was just ok. It didn't wow me, it didn't seem like there was much of a plot; more like a bunch of people's daily lives which didn't contribute to the storyline of the missing girl, Anna. There were too many POV's, and too much tense-switching to be able to follow the storyline very clearly.

When two teenage girls head to London on the train for the weekend nobody expects that everything would change. They were supposed to be enjoying one of their first tastes of freedom. They were supposed to be having innocent conversations with young boys they met on the train. They were supposed to go to the theater. But nothing happened as it was supposed to. When a woman who watched the young girls on the train comes forward with information her life is also changed. While she wrestles with her conscience for not trusting her gut, she never imagines her struggle is just beginning. This one event turned so many innocent lives around, but all they want is answers. Lies are discovered and pieces begin to get put together, but the truth was something nobody expected.


I am watching you is a refreshing mystery that is anything but predictable. It managed to creep me out and left me looking over my shoulder more than ever before. Lock your doors before you dive into this one!


Post Live November 1st

I Am Watching You - Teresa O'Driscoll
Published by: Thomas & Mercer (1st October 2017)

ISBN: 978-1542046596

Source: Author provided review copy

Rating: 5*

Synopsis:
When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-eyed Anna Ballard—has disappeared.

A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella is wracked with guilt over what she failed to do, and she’s not the only one who can’t forget. Someone is sending her threatening letters—letters that make her fear for her life.

Then an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna’s friends and family might have something to hide. Anna’s best friend, Sarah, hasn’t been telling the whole truth about what really happened that night—and her parents have been keeping secrets of their own.
Someone knows where Anna is—and they’re not telling. But they are watching Ella.

Review:
Oh WOW! It's almost 4.30 in the morning and I've just finished reading I Am Watching You. I've got no idea where the last few hours have gone - I've been utterly engrossed. Gripped. I'm in shock. What an ending! Teresa Driscoll you are a sorceress!

Each character in this book is so integral in their own way, and they are all so brilliantly written. I could waffle on for ages about each of them, but that would make such a long (and boring) review...I'll just mention that I adore Ella, she's so beautifully written.

I really like how the story unfolds throughout the book, and how we learn more about each of the character's involvement. There are some real surprises along the way, the story is intelligently written and you just have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Hands down, I Am Watching You is the best book I've read so far this year. It's utterly compelling. I urge all my fellow crime fans to read it! Special thanks to Teresa Driscoll for providing the review copy.

With a main character consumed by guilt with the fact that she saw something that made her feel not quite right and didn't say anything, we are launched into a story of intrigue and suspense over what might happen next.

I liked how the book was told from different perspectives because it allowed the story to have a stronger sense of realism than if was just told from one side. The inter-connectedness of the community members and their distrust and skepticism of one another was something that I enjoyed reading because it begged the reader to ask the question: Who can you really trust here?

Highly recommend and thank you for allowing me to review!

3 Stars - Anna and Sara lied to their parents and instead of going to watch a movie, they were seen in a train. That night Anna was missing and Sara couldn’t remember what happened. But there is a witness who saw them in the train with two men who got out of prison. Ella, the witness, heard their conversations and wanted to call but she was distracted at that moment and sometime later she saw Anna’s picture as a missing girl. One year later, Anna’s still missing, Sara still can’t remember and Ella feels guilty and blames herself for not calling. And let’s not forget about nasty notes she receives, like:

WATCH YOURSELF.
I DO…

It was an okay read for me. It was real slow. But my main complaint is the author wrote more about the characters’ personal life and less about Anna’s missing or the mystery. It’s told in multiple POV (both in 3rd and 1st person) and one of them was a private investigator that Ella was hired but I really didn't understand his role in the story because until the first 70% he was with his wife and his newly born daughter, like all the time! Anna’s father most of the time thought about his past with his father and his past with his girls! Ella was stressed out about her son! The Watcher’s POV was too short and actually it didn’t have anything to say, it wasn’t even thrilling! Sara was involved with her personal life! So there was less about Anna and her missing! The characters’ personal life was a bit too much in this story for me! But it was unpredictable!

Thanks to Teresa Driscoll, Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced digital copy in exchange an honest review.

So this book begins on a train ride where, Ella, overhears a conversation being had between two sixteen year old girls and two very handsome men that, as of that day, were just released from prison. The conversations are flirtatious. So much so that one of the girls, Sarah, and one of the ex-cons decide to have a quick romp in the train bathroom and Ella is completely beside herself. Now Ella’s motherly instinct kicks in and she wants to intervene. Make the young ladies call their parents but she doesn’t and instead she moves to another part of the train to create distance. The next day she hears on the news that one of the girls is now missing and she is completely devastated that she didn’t listen to her intuition and now feels she is to blame.

Okay, so, when I first started reading this I thought of myself as a 16 yr old and how I would react to a complete stranger demanding me to call my parents. Uh, I wouldn’t have taken it so well and probably would have told her to go screw. Now, as an adult and mother, I can understand Ella’s concern but that still doesn’t make me too thrilled with the slut-shaming that happens. She is so incredibly horrified and disgusted that one of these girls would have sex with a complete stranger in a train bathroom but she insists she is not a prude and, maybe she’s not, but she is very naïve. Being that she is a mother of a 17 year old son she definitely has no clue as to how teenagers behave. I’ll admit that this beginning didn’t hook me because I was annoyed with Ella and her train of thought but I persevered and I’m glad I did because this book has a ton of SECRETS and man do I love those!

This book follows three perspectives. There is the aftermath of Anna’s family dealing with their missing daughter, Ella whose name was leaked to the media and she has now been publicly shamed by nearly everyone for not intervening, and we also have Sarah who is Anna’s best friend and travel companion during the night of the disappearance. What really happened to Anna? You’ll have to read it to find out!

Quick chapters that all leave cliff hangers and more puzzle pieces until you’re able to see the big picture. This is why I kept flipping the pages! Very entertaining.

Oh, and what is the likelihood of two ex-prisoners being released from prison on the same day and BOTH are model gorgeous?!?!? That’s some good fiction right there!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.