This novel starts with a dead body, but then, other than the occasional short police interview transcript, jumps back in time a few months and shows events in the lives of three different people in the months leading up the murder. So not really a straight mystery or thriller but more of a psychological suspense novel. I was constantly making guesses in my head, some of which turned out to be right and some of which turned it out to be way off base, but the reveals were all interesting and even the surprising ones were satisfying. A really enjoyable, suspenseful read with lots of twists and turns. Only the second Lisa Jewell book I have read but definitely want to read more.

This was my first time reading Lisa Jewell, and I can't believe it's taken me this long! I'm very excited to read the rest of her novels.

I really enjoyed reading this book as it helped me escape and dive into the lives of all the characters. Since it's told from different perspectives, was continually interested in each story line, excited to find out what happened next.

I appreciated how the story was unpredictable and kept me guessing until everything is revealed at the end. I didn't see it coming!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

I hate these shallow characters. I am just not interested in people who spy on each other constantly and thrill at glimpses of slivers of bare flesh. I didn’t get to the murder. Frankly, I can understand killing all of them. This is my second, and last, attempt at this author. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I really enjoyed the multiple perspective aspect of this book. I feel like it really helped to elevate the suspense and made it more of a well rounded story. I loved hearing how different people were affected or touched by what was happening in the story. It was so interesting in particular, how each character related to Tom. They all saw him in such different ways and interpreted his actions in different ways. I also really loved the reveal at the end and how the story was wrapped up.

What a fantastic read. I have read several books by this author and I liked all of them but this one is my favorite. Well done! Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

I could not put this book down. I inhaled it in less than 24 hours. Lisa Jewell has written a book with psychological twists and turns, and you become engrossed with the behavior from all of her characters. If you're a fan of Jewell's other novels or "Gone Girl," you will devour this book.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

Another great story by Jewell. There’s always some key element she hangs on to until the very end. Love that she always incorporates multiple personalities and perspectives in her stories. Really shows that the dark side can come from anyone.

The setting takes place in Bristol, England in a rich neighborhood called Melville Heights. We learn early on in the story that someone was murdered. Secrets are kept in the past and end up haunting some of the characters. There are several creepy characters that are very unlikable but they aren't exactly what they seem to be and end up being likable characters in the end.

Everyone seems to be watching people, especially Jenna's Mom who is convinced that someone is stalking her. Her mental health has recently been deteriorating. Tom FitzWilliams is the headmaster at the school and is very well liked. Joey Mullen is his neighbor and is very infatuated with him and thinks it's a secret but Tom's teenage son, Freddie is one of the characters that watches people and finds out that Joey is behaving strangely around his father. One of Tom FitzWilliam's students, Jenna who lives in the same street that he lives on, thinks that he isn't what he seems to be since he has taken interest to her friend and classmate.

I was captivated into the story straight from the beginning and had a hard time putting it down. This was a very addicting thriller. Something happens and there is a murder and after that I had to find out what was going to happen next. You can tell right in the beginning that everyone has secrets. There are creepy unlikable characters, which I mentioned aren't who they seem to be at the end.

This was a very gripping fast paced read and it is so intense until the end when the secrets are revealed. I love this author. This is the second book that I read by Lisa Jewell and now I want to read all of her books.

This was a Traveling Sister Read and I loved reading their thoughts.

I want to thank Netgalley, Atria Books and Lisa Jewell for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Watching you was... Simply ok. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't a book that I think will stick with me for very long. It was entertaining while I was reading it, but I didn't really feel like it left me with much to think about once it was done (again - this is not necessarily a negative thing, sometimes thats exactly what I'm looking for from a book). This book was filled with drama and mystery. I was expecting a fast paced thriller, but this was more of a steady story that eases you through the creepy story line.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

Full disclosure: I LOVE Lisa Jewell's writing. As soon as I started this title, I was hooked. While there were a couple parts that were a little slow, the whole time I wanted to know how our characters would connect, who did what, and how things could get so out of hand! I enjoyed reading each characters' perspectives as that was the only way to get the full story. I can't wait for Lisa's next works!

Lisa Jewell continues to amaze me. This book was absolutely un-putdownable. This book was fast paced and full of twists and turns.

Melville Heights is full of people who just watch everyone else but when a murder shocks the little sleepy town suspicion falls on a number of people. There are a lot of characters in the book which makes following a long a little daunting. There are many twists that will have you thinking one way but then the book will suddenly throw another wrench in your thinking and at the end you will be in total shock of what the outcome is.

If you are looking for a book that is face paced that is readable in one sitting then you should pick up this book! I highly enjoyed it and would recommend it to thriller/mystery fans out there.

This is a story about a school principal formally accused of having a relationship with a student. Is this true? or was he innocent? This is a twisted tale about multiple families and how events wind through their lives and bind them together. A good read that will keep you guessing until the end.

I found this book a bit hard to get through, because the pace of the story is so slow for the first three-quarters of the book. There are so many characters in this novel, and their stories don't seem to connect, until near the end of the book, when suddenly they do connect.
I did enjoy the way the book ended, and I also was pleasantly surprised that I had been making incorrect assumptions through the first three-quarters of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review

Seriously that twist at the end did I just read that!! How can you ended there. Did she, did Nicola do what I think she did. She took that to the grave! Great thriller. This was a page turner. I couldn’t put it down. Everyone needs to read this one like right now!
One of Lisa Jewell's best books so far!! If you want spoilers you're going to have to read the book.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Another page turner by Lisa Jewell! This one quickly drew me in and kept me guessing until the end.

Bravo! Lisa Jewell delivers another nail-biting thriller that unfolds with the same alluring anticipation that all of her other books do! This always invites you to never put the book down. One thing I loved most about this story was that I never really knew who the center of the story was because there were so many interesting stories going on at once and one never lingered long enough for me to quite figure it out. It kept me guessing; On top of the guessing who has been killed!
We meet a group of people living in a town outside of London and get to know them. Intimately!

They get to know one anther intimately.
Some because they choose to, and some don’t even know they are being watched and someone is learning all about them.
I was left clapping my hands at the end.
5 Stars

Melville Heights seems like a charming, picture-perfect village, but behind the beautiful facades of the houses there is something more dark and sinister going on. Joey, who has just moved there with her new husband to live with her brother and his wife, soon develops an obsession with her highly respected neighbor, Tom. Tom's son is keeping a file of photos he secretly took of some of the girls in the neighborhood. Jenna's mom is convinced that Tom is a horrible person who is stalking her. Jenna is worried that her friend Bess has begun an inappropriate relationship with Tom. As the reader learns the secrets and lies surrounding the lives of those living in the neighborhood, the details of the murder opening the book are also revealed. This was an engaging and fast-paced story. There's just enough creepiness to keep readers turning the pages.

I just discovered Lisa Jewell last year when our book club read Then She Was Gone and all I can say is, thank you to the book club member that recommended Lisa Jewell's books. Watching You is the perfect mix of suspense and what I like to call the dark and twisty parts.

Joey Mullen and her newlywed husband have recently moved into Melville Heights to live with her brother and his pregnant wife Rebecca. While Joey's life seemed to be headed in one direction, she can't seem to get established now that she has moved back to England and can't stop herself from developing an infatuation with Tom Fitzwilliam, her married neighbor and school headmaster.

Melville Heights boasts an eclectic blend of characters, each adding their unique flavor to the cast - Tom Fitzwilliam's teenage son Freddie who likes to spy on the entire neighborhood as opposed to interacting with anyone individually; Jenna Tripp, a student at Tom Fitzwilliam's school, whose mother suffers from paranoid delusions and believes she is being targeted; Rebecca, Joey's sister-in-law, that is as detached as can be and has yet to develop any bond with Joey; Tom's wife Nicola who plays the perfect trophy wife. While Joey keeps going deeper into murky waters with Tom Fitzwilliam, Freddie and Jenna begin to suspicion that there is more to Mr. Fitzwilliam's squeaky clean reputation that meets the eye.

Watching You is like a spider web of storylines that keeps you guessing up to the very end. This was a five star read with many twists and turns along the way. Highly recommend!

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Atria Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Voyeurism was a form of control, like mental abuse, like rape, like bullying. It was nothing to do with the physicality of the action, and all to do with the feeling of power it gave the perpetrator, the balancing out of delicate ids and egos.”

After reading Jewell's previous novel, Then She Was Gone, last month, I was immediately hooked on to her as an author. I am so happy to have begun reading her work, and Watching You only further enhanced that feeling. The book starts out with a juggle of characters, all of whom seem mysterious and somehow connected. We are immediately told that a murder has occurred in Melville Heights, a posh string of gorgeous houses overlooking the rest of town. Joey Mullen is introduced, alongside her husband, brother, and sister-in-law; they all live next door to the charming Tom Fitzwilliam, esteemed school headmaster and supposed family man. Alternating between the POV of many characters, including those who see right through Mr. Fitzwilliam and his polished self, suspicion is raised - is Tom really as squeaky clean as they say? Is he inappropriately close to his students? Disloyal to his wife and son? And who, among many possibilities, has committed this small-town murder?

Despite a long string of characters, Jewells manages to weave them all together through intricate storylines full of lies, secrets, and doubt. What I loved about this book is that I was constantly questioning how I felt about certain characters; my opinion on Tom Fitzwilliam must have gone back and forth about ten times. The study of each character was impressive and never dull, despite the slow climb. There wasn't a single character I found to be irrelevant or used as a red herring. I especially loved Jenna Tripp, a young teenage girl with a schizophrenic mother, somehow thrown in this domestic mess of a situation. She was relatable and I empathized with her the whole way.

The police transcript sprinkled throughout was a nice touch as well; it reminded the reader where this was all going, that someone here is not to be trusted. I formed my prediction about halfway through, and I have to admit that I was correct in predicting the murderer, but not in who they actually murdered. That didn't come until about 80% in, when I was met with a satisfying twist and a rush to finish it off. I have to say though, while I was pleased with the ending events, I was not too keen on the final execution. I won't give anything away, but the formation of some of the reveals could have been a little more theatrical and a little less blunt. BUT the final, haunting scene brought me back in, and for that I remain impressed and excited with Jewell's latest thriller.

The elevator pitch:


Bristol is the new Monterey: a British paranoid Big Little Lies.

What I liked about it:

Watching you is a gratifying page-turner. The characters that are well drawn, so flawed and confused that you would like to offer them lots of tea and cut the crust from their sandwiches. And tell them: 'Oh sweetie, are you sure?'
Almost every crime novel I read lately uses multiple POV's—not an easy thing to do. It's annoying when you get pulled out of your favorite character's world, but in Watching You, each storyline is intriguing and almost too real.
I did figure out what was going on, halfway through; it wasn't that well hidden; the 'whodunnit' aspect is a vehicle to show us what is going on behind every door. Lisa Jewell flings open the doors of this wealthy neighborhood and probes all the stupid dreams dying behind them; the longing, the fear, the kinks in the minds of fraught people, and she does it lovingly. That is the real investigation going on.

What it's about:


Somebody has been murdered in an affluent neighborhood in Bristol. Joy Mullen is not like the rest of the inhabitants; she moved there to live with her brother and work a shitty job. She is newly married but almost as a distraction develops an obsession for the new guy on the block. Tom Fitzwilliam, a hotshot headmaster (only in Engeland), with a checkered past. Apart from her stalking Tom (the infatuation gets a little too intense); there's seem to be a lot of spying and paranoia going around. Tom's son is 'observing' the girls in the neighborhood. One of them Jenna lives with an unstable mother. Who is also obsessed with Tom, and claims to be privy of his sins. Anyway, read it and see how you will get on after with your nosy neighbors.