Twisty thriller which alternates narration between the stalker (Sam) and the stalkee (Kate). Sam is just obsessed with Kate- totally over the edge. Kate's a professor who has had a tough couple of years, with her husband having left her and her writing career going sideways. She makes some choices you won't agree with but don't we all? Gehrman has done a good job of ratcheting up the tension and keeping the reader engaged with two characters who both have flaws. AND she makes Sam, who really shouldn't be, sympathetic in a way I wasn't sure I totally approve of. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good quick read.

Watch Me is absolutely excellent! The plot is so intriguing and gripping, and it changes from Sam's and Kate's point of view, which I thought worked very nicely. Sam's point of view is so unique - dark, raw, angry, sexy, poetic. It put me right into their minds, and I couldn't stop reading until I reached the end of the book.

The story is chilling, sexy and fascinating. It will make your blood go cold, but also, for a moment, you'll want their "romance" to work out. It's so full of passion and I was very impressed by it! It's the best dark psychological thriller I've read since Gone Girl.

I was lost in the creepy, open barren coulee with three of my Traveling Sisters reading Watch Me. We settled in a nice grassy sunny open spot all set to dive into this story of obsession. We soon felt a little exposed and uneasy as we were drawn to the depth of Sam Gist’s intense, obsession for older damaged Kate Youngblood. We started to sweat with the extreme unnerving creepiness we started to feel as we were pulled deeper and deeper into Sam’s mind. The hairs on the back of our necks started to rise and we wanted to run out of the heat and find a shadier less exposed part of the coulee. We became so fascinated with the story we couldn’t move but kept looking over our shoulder with an escape route in mind.

Watch Me is a highly entertaining, fascinating and disturbing story of the most intense obsession some of us have ever read. Our excitement and uneasiness had us hooked on this one from the very start and we didn’t let go until the very end.

The story is told by both Sam’s and Kate’s point of view. We had some different reactions to Kate that lead to an interesting discussion for us. Most of us enjoyed Sam’s point of view more and felt his POV was more interesting than Kate’s. Even though we were in the same coulee with this one some of us ended up on different sides of the coulee. We highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Jody Gehrman for providing me with a copy to read and review.

Traveling Sisters Review also can be found on our sister blog:
https://twogirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com/

I did like the suspense of the story but I just couldn’t believe how dumb Kate could be at times. Letting this lunatic in her house, going back to her house in the middle of the night...no. I did like how creepy Sam was...excellent characterization!!

Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood College, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.

Except one.

Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.

As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?



My Thoughts: Alternating first person narratives tell the tale in Watch Me. At first we see that Sam has a crush on Kate, his professor, and she is flattered by his attention. But with each page we turn, the darkness escalates until we are left with fear and angst.

Intense, dark, thrilling…all of the ingredients in a cat and mouse game that can only end badly, yet keep the reader glued to the pages. Will Kate realize the danger? Will Sam’s obsession lead to disaster?

What I did enjoy, aside from the intensity, was getting to know these two characters. Kate’s lonely and solo existence involves a lot of drinking at home, especially after her best friend Zoe has a baby and is no longer available for nights out.

Sam’s existence seems completely focused on Kate and the dream he has for the two of them. Even the persistent attention of a young sexy student named Jess is not enough for him to take his eye off his goals. We empathize a bit with him as we learn about his childhood and how he was dragged from place to place, putting up with his mother’s drug abuse and her series of abusive boyfriends.

Set in the small town of Blackwood, Ohio, the story unfolds in such a way that we never really know what will happen next. As writers, the characters could almost be creating fiction for us. Could any of it be really happening? We are watching them, unable to believe what we are seeing. The characters are as addictive to the reader as they are to each other. We turn the pages quickly in order to find out what happens next. In the end, we are stunned by it all. 5 stars.***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley

Thanks so much to NetGalley, St Martins Griffin, and Jody Gehrman for the opportunity to read and review this twisty thriller!

This book is all about obsession - both the good and the bad forms. Kate is a middle-aged college professor, teaching creative writing at a college somewhere in Ohio. She's divorced, struggling to write something worthy again after her first modest-success novel, and desperate to be seen and loved. Enter Sam, a student in her class - the most promising student she's taught. And he is obsessed with her. She feels alive for the first time under his intense watch and she both cherishes and fears those feelings.

I raced through this book told in alternating chapters between Kate and Sam, letting us glimpse the happenings from both of their points of view as well as getting some background information.

How far can obsession go? Where will it take you? This story is full of suspense with a lot of twists in the plot. Parts of it are spine chilling and haunting.

Watch Me is a stunning psychological thriller that centres around obsession and what can occur when it becomes out of control. It is my first novel written by the author, Jody Gehrman, and ideal for fans of dark and twisty fiction.

Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.

Except one.

Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.

As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?

A gripping novel exploring intense obsession and illicit attraction, Jody Gehrman introduces a world where what you desire most may be the most dangerous thing of all.

The story is told from a dual standpoint - alternating chapters from the POV of either Kate or Sam. I enjoyed both of these characters as they were both as developed as they needed to be to tell a convincing tale. I found myself particularly liking Sam due to his darker, more troubled life. As most of my book buddies know, I am a huge fan of creepy books - the darker and more disturbing the better (usually) and would've definitely welcomed a further heightening of atmospherics throughout.

Having read a load of thrillers with a number of them featuring the topic of obsession, I feel a valid way to differentiate this from the others would've been to make everything decidedly dark, dark, dark and much stranger with these things being blamed on the underlying obsession and the obsession blamed on insanity! There also could have been more of a backstory focused in on Kate's character and further utilisation of the situation to create more drama. That said, I found it an exhilarating and well-paced read and I would recommend it as a stand-alone psychological thriller.

I would like to say a big thank you to Jody Gehrman, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest, impartial review.

I enjoyed Watch Me, the characters distinct voices propelled the story along and a good pace and the steady build of tension worked well, it was little too on the romantic side for me though, so only 4 stars but I will definitely be recommending it.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press, the author and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is about Kate Youngblood, a college professor and an author who is having difficulties producing other successful novels. Kate feels her life is not going as planned. Her husband left her for a younger woman. She feels she is getting to that age where men are not attracted to her until Sam, one of her students come into her life, making a shamble of it.

Although the story gripped me from the beginning, there were some parts that were a bit unbelievable and some predictable.

I liked this book, however I couldn't help spotting some issues with it.

Kate is an creative writing professor in a small college and a writer. She had written a fabulous debut novel but couldn't produce anything remarkable since that and stuck within academia, depending on a job as she cannot rely on book sales. She is recently divorced, and her only close friend is having a baby, meaning she will not see her as much as she did before. A sea of babies and mums will get between the two.

Then one day, Kate meets Sam Grist. Sam is an extremely talented creative writing student and he is very keen on what he wants...and HE WANTS KATE!!! There is a sexual tension and attraction between the two however Kate cannot escalate their relationship as she is his tutor. Then Sam begins to intervene Kate's life. In a way that will change EVERYTHING for both of them.

I really liked Kate's observations about the other woman, especially ones with children, her character is greatly portrayed. You can feel the depression of a fading youth and career Kate has, and the loneliness that comes with being a clever women. She is really too good for Raul's of these world!

Sam on the other hand doesn't feel complete. Where is all that confidence coming? His mental state didn't spook me, I couldn't feel him as a sociopath really. I think the aim was him being a creepy character, he is in a way but only with actions. Not with his psychological state, unfortunately I didn't feel his mental state on the pages. He keeps repeating 'God, how I ....' and that doesn't help. This repetition really was an arrow to the knee for the storytelling.

Overall I liked this, however it could have been a bit shorter, and the character Sam could have been portrayed better.

I would like to read this author again.

Watch Me is dark interesting psychological thriller that revolves around two main characters of the book- Kate and Sam. You will see these words in all reviews for sure- dark, creepy, scary, chilling, and so damn engaging. This book is about obsessive love, lust and attraction, illicit relation of professor and student, privacy invasion, and a dark psychopathic crazy intentions.

Characters-
Kate was everything that defy social conventions. Ambitious, independent, never wanted children, functioning alcoholic, and sex was very important in her life and marriage. She was wrack after her divorce; anxious as she couldn’t get any inspiration for her new novel; her best friend, Zoe, was pregnant so there was visible transformation in Zoe from best buddy to be pious mother and committed wife that meant less buddy time. All this made Kate lonely, there was no one around to comfort her anxiousness and share a drink. I think that’s why, maybe, someone’s constantly following eyes and adorable caring attention attracted her to the obvious risk and danger. She was a good character to whom lot of bad thing happening lately. Though I couldn’t deny her stupidity, she was so desperate to see a light in the darkness till the end that I couldn’t understand.

Sam– What I say about him. He is downright disgusting and creepy right from the first chapter. I literally hate him. He, his actions, his thoughts, his reasoning all was so freaking scary and dangerous that it made me constantly worrying for Kate. He sickened me to the core whenever he said ‘I love you for this and love you for that’. I tell you, you won’t forget this character for very long time.

Zoe was one uplifting character in whole book, I liked her. People’s priority change when they have responsibility of someone so delicate and that doesn’t define her under ‘not best friend anymore’ tag that Kate was tagging her in her thoughts. This was one thing I didn’t like about Kate but by the end of the book I’m glad she improved a little in this.

Brilliant characterization! No character in the book was perfect. Even the small peculiar details of secondary characters were interesting.

What I liked-
This book was a perfect example of ‘obsessive love of Psychopath’ or ‘a psychopath in love’.

First thing I noticed in the beginning of the book- Sam is repulsive scary stalker whose thought are only about ‘things I want to do to you’. Sick! Second – Kate is no better, she sounded so desperate but obviously not in repulsive way. Definitely normal human with flaws. Third and remarkable- dark witty thoughts of characters in so much tensed novel. To be specific, Kate telling about her love for babies and parties. 😉

The story was narrated alternatively in ‘Watching You’ and ‘Watching Me’ i.e. by Sam and Kate. Sam narration told about his observations while watching Kate, sometimes making weird haiku, and imagining all the things he dreamed with her (mostly lustful thoughts). It also told about his past, his mother, his intentions and how far he has gone in his obsession, plus we also get glimpse of Kate’s life through his narration- her novels, where she lived, what she likes and dislikes. It was very unique and interesting style. I liked that classroom discussions on writing.

Sam’s insanity behind the mask of sanity, the way he made himself easily blended with normalcy, his foul real language yet great literary writing- everything he was or showed outside was very contrary to his real inside. This was one twisted psychopath that made everything creepy without excessive violence and blood. Kudos to author for creating such a mind blowing, chilling character. He felt so realistic that scared me even more.

Kate's narration said about her life and her knowledge as author- the way she saw Sam’s writing, her close observation on Sam’s behavior- I was impressed how she could see his practiced expression, her feelings for him and the way she felt around him. I liked the Kate’s independent thoughts, her style of living-careless and free, I could imagine her lively cheering life before her divorce.

I admired her for not following conventional rule of society and that showed the judgmental face of society in the book- how people think about lonely woman who likes to drink and have fun, even though she is doing a decent job; what people think even though she had a decent sober date or meeting, even police which was very shocking.

There was constant tense and curious feeling while I was reading the book. I couldn’t guess Sam’s next step until the hint was given. It was very unpredictable to guess what Sam will do next, how Kate will discover Sam’s true intentions, how she will react when she discovered the truth, and what she will do at the end. It was very engaging.

Brilliant climax and very unpredictable end. It was remarkable and I just loved it. This was my first book by Jody Gehrman and so liked it that I would love to read more books by this author.

why not 5 stars-
Climax to end and this in between portion was little long. I thought after climax the end won’t be too far, but it was many pages away than I expected. And Sam was so out of character at the end, thoughtless and reckless, not his usual way. Kate, as I said that feeling she had for Sam, it was very complicated, I couldn’t understand her reasons, maybe it’s just me other reader may find them reasonable and okay. She was good till climax and all those revelations, but after that I couldn’t understand her stupidity. I just couldn’t fathom how anyone can find Sam attractive or miss his scary eyes even after knowing the truth.

Overall, bone-chilling creepy psychological thriller with brilliant and creative characters. so interesting that i couldn’t out it down but I assure its not for faint-hearted people.

Twisted, disturbed, obsession, stalker...all of these describe what is going on in this book and more. Kate is a little known author but Sam sees her picture on the back of her book and is captivated by her. This sets him on his quest to have her. Sit back and hang on, the crazy is about to be unleashed!

**Received this ARC from the publisher via NetGalley**

It was an OK story... I didn't really care for the lusting after a college student... But overall a good read

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I started this book twice and just could not get into it. I rarely give up on a book, but this did not hold my interest at all.

This book is categorized as a psychological thriller. In fact it is more psychological than thriller. At the start it felt creepy in an enjoyable way but after a while I was a little bored about hearing the same thoughts over and over without the story really going anywhere. The two different POV were ok, but while Sam's was believable I found Kate's chapters a bit more hard to relate to. The explicit language was fitting for a young male, not so much for a thirty-something female with some culture, and the fact that they used a similar language made it sometimes difficult to remember who was speaking.
There is a certain point where the novel pace speeds up a little, and things start to happen. I think it was about half way through, and at that point you will start to understand how it will end. I won't comment about that because I want to avoid spoilers, but while the second half was more enjoyable and I could't put the book down, I was reading every page hoping I was wrong about how it will end. It turned out I wasn't wrong. I didn't figure out the complete ending, but I was right about the most important outcome. I was hoping for some big twist but there was none.
Overall it wasn't a bad book, the psychological analysis was original and interesting, the pace was good and the story was completely original and different from all those trivial psychological thriller coming out every day, but it didn't fully convince me.

The premise of this book is remarkably similar to a book I read a couple of years ago entitled Killing Cupid by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards. In both, the main character is a woman who has published a work of fiction to wide acclaim, but their sophomore attempts somewhat fizzled before they then find work as writing instructors at a college campus. It is here that they catch the attention of a male student, whose infatuation with them leads to dangerous obsession and stalking. Both books alternate chapters being told from the teacher’s POV to chapters from their stalker-student’s POV, but what sets these books apart is the manner in which the authors develop their plots.

Where the plot for Killing Cupid quickly devolved into absurdity, Gehrman’s is dark, well thought out, and well written. The main character, Kate, is closing in on 40, her ex-husband cheated on her with a much younger woman, and she works as a creative writing professor, surrounded by co-eds that remind her of her younger days, when she, too, could capture the attention of any man she wanted. While feeling inadequate and invisible as her youth fades, she desperately tries to convince herself that her best days are not behind her, while she struggles to write another successful novel that proves she’s not a one-hit wonder, without much luck. So when she notices Sam, one of her handsome and promising young students, staring intently at her throughout class, she is ashamed to admit she likes the attention. Unbeknownst to her however, Sam has spent the last five years orchestrating how to get into Kate’s class so they could meet, fall in love, and begin their perfect life together. Told in alternating chapters, the reader sees into the darkness of Sam’s mind while he continues to work towards his disturbing goal, then also read of Kate’s internal conflicts as she wrestles with her fading place in the world, her attraction to Sam, her professional ethics, and over time, her growing alarm as she begins to question who Sam really is and what he’s capable of, which leads them down a collision course that results in a satisfying conclusion. 4.5 stars

St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley kindly provided me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is hard to review. I didn't agree with our heroine Kate most of the time. It's an obsession psychological thriller with two narrators. The fatal attractions atmospheric novel with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right to the end.

Watch Me has been something of a fiercely intense  and creepy sort of read, it had me turning the pages pretty quickly wondering how things between the two main characters Kate and Sam would develop and what the outcome would be for them both.

I liked that the story was told from both characters as it gave you a chance to get into Sam and Kate's minds and to get a real feel for them both. I thought both characters were really well written. 

Whilst reading this, I felt that the storyline was really good and had a lot of promise, it was certainly enjoyable enough to keep me reading right to the end, but with that said I did feel like it lacked something, there were no OMG moments, no shocking moments or twists throughout the story and as for the ending of the book, I found this to be disappointing, as was expecting a lot more.

Overall it was still a highly good read and I'm very glad I read it as it was definitely worth the read.