This started out as an interesting read and just went downhill from there. Seemed to drag out about what happened with her sister. Had a had time staying interested and wanting to pick this one up.


Thanks to net galley and the publisher for an early release of this book

I found this novel to be exciting at first and very draggy towards the middle and end. The concept was exciting and interesting, but as the plot unfolded, it became convoluted with many unrealistic twists. All in all, I enjoyed it. Although I don’t think I would recommend this title.

Thank you to NetGalley Mulholland Books and Laura Benedict for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Very different start to a story. Kimber Hannon comes home from a week away only to discover her locks are changed and that there is a stranger living in her house who somehow has managed to produce paperwork that she signed his lease to rent the house for 6 months.
I wasn't too much of a fan of this book. I found Kimber very VERY unlikable and I think because of that it made me not really enjoy the book that much. I was almost like "good she deserves this"

However, there will def be an audience for this book once it comes out so I don't think Benedict needs to worry about that!

**4 Stars**

In Laura Benedict's The Stranger Inside, Kimber Hannon's life seemed to be going smoothly until she returns from a vacation to discover someone has moved into her house and taken over essentially her entire life. She calls the cops, who are completely unhelpful. They tell her the person who is in her house has a valid lease, and that she will have to figure out somewhere else to live until the courts can get things figured out.

Shocked and having no roof over her head, she seeks solace from her best friend, Diana, who lives in a huge cushy mansion with her handsome husband and delightful young daughter. Things seem okay while Kimber is safely enclosed within the four walls of Diana's posh house, that is until she ventures out of the house and to her job. Things to start to deteriorate at work and in her personal life, making her wonder if someone - such as the person who has taken over her house - is intentionally trying to destroy her life. And just maybe Kimber holds some responsibility for this situation. 

If you enjoy books with an unreliable narrator and lots of shocking twists and turns, The Stranger Inside is definitely for you. It's well written and the suspense builds page after page. Thank you to Laura Benedict, Mulholland Books, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of the book!

Moved slowly in the beginning but picked up steam in the middle. Keeps you guessing until the end. Would have liked a happier ending but all in all it didn't take away from the story.

This is a solidly mediocre thriller about a woman who goes on vacation and comes home to find a random guy living in her house. The premise is really exciting, but unfortunately the story is slow and drags on for way to long. The conclusion is is a bit too wild and unbelievable for me. I didn't hate this book but I was so glad for it to be over.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 😀

I was originally excited about getting this book from netgalley because it sounded like a weird fear of mine- coming home to your house and finding out it’s not yours for some reason.
I zipped through it pretty quickly, as the house thing was only the top layer of the onion that is this mystery. (Banana? Something with peelable layers) I needed to know exactly how all of the many things that seem to have nothing to do with each other all fit together into a conspiracy I actually didn’t see coming.
I don’t mind a mystery where I can figure it out before the end, but I do love it when the twist is something I didn’t see coming.

The first chapter catapulted me into the story, and I had a very difficult time putting this down. The beginning scenario, as strange as it was, is almost believable. I could actually see something like this happening in real life. Then the story takes a few twists and turns, and you find out the victim is in many ways guilty of bad things herself. I don’t want to give anything away, you just have to give this book a try.

The author does an amazing job of setting the scene and making the characters come to life. My emotions were all over the place, feeling sorry for the main character, and then feeling a bit of total dislike for her. Other characters may be good, or they may be bad,; it's quite a ride to the finish when everything is revealed.

What if you came home from a weekend get away and find that your house key will not open your door? What if you find out that someone is now living in your house? This is what happened in The Stranger Inside.
This is a well written book and has a good flow for ease of reading. It keeps you thinking through out the entire book. Great read and author!

Amazing book. Can you imagine coming home from a vacation and someone is living in your house claiming that you allowed them to? Not only that they appear to have been involved in your life for years although you don't remember ever seeing them? This book kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more the whole time. Great plot and twists along the way

What a tangled web of deceit, lies and cover-ups Laura Benedict weaves throughout this book! There's a new twist & turn with every page and doesn't let the reader go until the end!

The Stranger Inside has a pretty enticing premise: Kimber Hannon returns home from a week away only to find herself locked out of her house. When she notices someone inside she calls the police, who get him to open the door; he produces the paperwork complete with Kimber's forged signature and insists that he's renting the house for six months. Overcome with frustration, Kimber rushes inside her house, only to have the man grab her and whisper in her ear 'I saw what you did.'

So that was a great opening, but it's all downhill from there, I'm afraid. Which was more of a mess, the plot or the characters? Let's start with the latter: Kimber has to win some kind of award for being the most insufferable protagonist in literary history. I truly do not believe that a protagonist needs to be 'likable,' but they sure as hell need to be interesting or sympathetic or something to hook the reader, especially in a thriller. I could not have cared less about Kimber: she's selfish, remorseless, and emotionally immature, and why should I care that it all stems from a troubled adolescence when none of it is satisfactorily examined. At one point she befriends the wife of a man she had an affair with just because she thinks it would be funny to get back at him, without a second thought about the wife's feelings, and we're supposed to sympathize with her when she starts to realize this woman is actually a person? I really did not get the impression that Kimber was deliberately constructed to be a compelling antiheroine; I think she was supposed to be a flawed person who still deserved our sympathy, after everything. It didn't work.

The plot itself was all kinds of ridiculous, with varying degrees of success; at times it was ridiculous and fun but at other times it was just ridiculous and boring. There were just too many convenient plot devices and moments that demanded suspension of disbelief. The pace at which information was revealed was haphazard at best, and it was a shame, because even the moments that should have been shocking were neutered by weak storytelling.

Now I'm going to end this review by going into spoiler territory, which I don't often do, so that just goes to show how much the ending pissed me off. [spoiler] Regarding the twist that Kimber didn't actually kill Michelle: Why does Kimber deserve this narrative absolution?! She hasn't displayed an OUNCE of guilt throughout the entire book; at one point when she's accused of being a murderer, this is Kimber's reaction: "[S]he has never imagined her sister's death to be a murder, herself an actual murderer. In her head it's always I killed Michelle or I accidentally killed Michelle or I took my sister's life." ... how does that make it ok?! You literally pushed your sister off a cliff?!?! I'm pretty sure if I killed my (nonexistent) sister I'd be eaten up with guilt, regardless of how 'accidental' it was? Maybe the potential emotional impact of this ending could have been earned if there were even a hint of a possibility that Kimber cared anything for Michelle, but it felt like (literally) handing a get out of jail free card to a person you desperately want to see go to jail. Not even remotely satisfying.

Also, love that the mentally ill character turns out to be evil. Real original, that!! [end spoiler]

Thank you to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book! Couldn't put it down until it was finished. Will definitely be recommending to customers at my work!

This is my first time reading author Laura Benedict. This is a great edge of your seat thriller for 2019. I didn’t want to put it down until I found out how it ended. This book will keep you guessing, throwing twists in until the very end.
Kimber Hannon returns from a short vacation to find a stranger living in her home and the locks have been changed. How is this possible. The police don’t seem to be doing anything to help her. Kimber thinks things can’t get any worse, but she soon finds out that things do get worse. Is the person invading her home really a stranger. The murder of her sister resurfaces. Threats arrive. Lies and betrayals uncovered. The past intertwined with the present nearly tears Kimber’s life apart.

A quirky heroine and a refreshingly different mystery layered with suspense, a little horror and lots of family secrets. Set in a fictional Missouri town, the location is well-researched with echoes of St. Louis. The significant input from law-enforcement groups adds to Kimber's realistic and nightmarish experience, that begins when she returns to her house and finds herself locked out. A thoroughly enjoyable book and I look forward to more by Laura Benedict.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Mulholland Books/Hachette Book Group through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Stranger Inside by Laura Benedict was a great read. This was the first book by this author for me and I will be looking out for her other books. This story had so many twists and tried to steer the reader in so many ways. The main character was not the nicest of people but in this case I think it helped the story. It is a book that you need to keep reading, you just have to know how it ends.

Kimber returns home from a long weekend away to discover that her keys do not work in her front door. She tries everything and then she sees somebody inside. She calls the police and is shocked to find that the man in her home has a signed lease and has every right to be there. Who is this man and how did he get into her house? Hen he whispers in her ear " I was there, I know what you did", she realises that somehow this has something to do with her dark past that she's has tried so hard to bury. But now she needs to work out who he is and what he wants before he destroys her life. Told in 2 timelines between the past and present, we learn all the secrets and lies.

Thanks to Mullholland Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

I can't quite put my finger on what was missing for me. I was hooked in the beginning and by the middle I lost interest and just wanted it all to wrap up. The characters didn't really grow very much during this time. I read another book today where it felt like there were too many side stories going on for me to appreciate the book as a whole and I think that is part of the problem with this book.

However, I did enjoy it and found it to be interesting at time. I did go and look on Goodreads to see if others felt the same why and there are a few that share my same opinions, (glad I am not alone on that).

Overall I would recommend it but it is not a winner of a thriller to me.

When Kimber Hannon returns home from a weekend in the Ozarks, she is shocked to find the locks on her house changed. Her surprise and confusion grow when a man answers her front door claiming he is renting the house, and that Kimber is the one who agreed to let him stay. Unable to return to her normal life and work because of her displacement, Kimber becomes obsessed with evicting the man living in her house. As the story unfolds and increasingly frightening events start happening around Kimber and her friends, it becomes clear the mysterious man may have something to do with the tragic events that led to Kimber’s sisters’ death years earlier.

The Stranger Inside is a solid domestic thriller from award-winning novelist Laura Benedict. Filled with nosy neighbours, complex characters, and a series of entertaining plot twists, it’s sure to please fans of the mystery genre. The book’s chapters alternate between a present-day storyline and another that explains the events leading up to Kimber’s sisters’ death in high school. While her current situation is easy to sympathize with, Kimber is revealed in the past storyline to be anything but innocent, and as more of her backstory unfolds it becomes clear she may not be as trustworthy as she seems.

The major mysteries in The Stranger Inside will keep readers guessing until the end, although there are some smaller plot lines that will be easy to guess early on. While it’s not the most riveting, absorbing or original novel in the mystery/thriller genre, The Stranger Inside is a pretty solid book. It does start to drag a bit towards the end, but for the most part the characters and storyline are enjoyable and interesting. Kimber is a compelling lead with her wit, snarky commentary, and complicated history.

If you love domestic thrillers you should give The Stranger Inside a try, but if this isn’t your normal genre or passion I probably wouldn’t recommend spending your time on it.

The more I read of this book the more I felt that the main character, Kimber, deserved what was happening to her. I didn't like Kimber as a child, she was an annoying and selfish brat. As an adult I also found her to be a selfish brat. I do have to say that Kimber finally grew on me when everything started to be revealed towards the end. I can't say that I didn't see some of the twists coming but I was still overall surprised with what happened towards the end and what Kimber ended up finding out. I am going to leave this as a bare bones review because I don't want to spoil anything but I would recommend reading this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Stranger Inside.

Wow, this was an insufferable read, mostly because I couldn't stand Kimber.

Here comes another story (I think this is the third book I've read with this premise) in which the protagonist comes
home to find a stranger living in her home.

Does she know him? As she investigates this stranger, she realizes he is connected to her deceased father, who left after the death of her elder sister, Michelle, a death Kimber harbors a devastating secret about.

It's all Lifetime downhill from here; the convoluted plot just snowballs like the explosions in a <i>Michael Bay</i> movie.

There's adultering, felons, a mentally ill ex-bf, a plot stemming from Kimber's idiot father and his wandering peen.

Told in two timelines; the past is in Michelle's voice, Kimber's older sister, as she investigates their father and the secrets he's been hiding, and the present, as Kimber deals with the stranger living in her home.

Most of the characters are unlikable or easy to ignore but Kimber is heinously detestable; she is selfish, cruel and an adulterer herself. In many ways, as she notes, she is very similar to her father.

I take personal exception to the scene when Kimber is told about her father Ike's secret family, the person relaying this information excuses her father's behavior by calling it 'restless.'

This pissed me off! Seriously?

Dude, Ike was a bigamist and adultering, lying scum. We already have people making excuses for their predatory and reprehensible behavior in real life; now fake characters are doing it, too! Come on!

Even though Kimber eventually owns up to her self destructive behavior, I never sympathized or empathized with
her. She is a terrible person, both as a woman, a daughter and a sister.

I didn't care about her, her job, her family, her relationships, the ridiculously overwrought story about revenge, a jealous sib and money and the truth behind Michelle's death. Sheesh.

Why not just pick a theme or two and run with it?

There was so much drama here, I felt like I was watching an episode of Jerry Springer.

I did like Mr. Tuttle, the dog. No surprise since animals are better than people most of the time.