I wanted to like this book but it was poorly written. A lot of telling and not showing. I couldn't connect with it at all.

This book is about Sienna Scott, a young woman who returns to her hometown in Wisconsin after living in London for ten years. She left after a woman was murdered on her college campus. Sienna has always been sure that it was a case of mistaken identity, that she was the one who was meant to be murdered. As Sienna reconnects and connects with the locals, everyone is shady. This is a good book and a page turner. Recommended.

The Look-Alike is a fantastic thriller that has a few good twists and turns. The writing is wonderful and the characters are well developed. A good book to finish out the year.

A well-crafted mystery with romantic threads that furthered the tension - as it was unclear who was the murderer.

Excellent read. Erica Spindler tells a story that flows easily and keeps you interested. After discovering a body of a girl dressed in the same type coat as hers and on a path she travel often after her late class. Sienna is wondering if it was she the killer was after? She is bonding with the much older security officer who heard her screams and came to her aid. Her father feeling it's not appropriate sends her away. She is also too focused on the horrible image of the dead girl she literally tripped over. She returns to her home town ten years later to find the same questions once again raised in her mind. Was the killer after her? They had never found the killer and now the.person in charge of the cold case is none other than the very officer who worked for the campus where it all happened and came to her aid that awful night. He now is an officer in the police department. Sienna moves into her family home to take care of her mother who has battled mental health issues since the birth of Sienna. Her father passed away and her only other living relative is her brother. A married but recently separated successful land developer. The new neighbor across the street from her home has caught her eye. He is a handsome carpenter who bought the house to fix and flip. She soon begins a friendship she hopes will grow. Things start to go wrong when threatening phone calls start, white van drive-bys are reported by her unbalanced mother. Are these just symptoms of her illness or is someone after Sienna. I recommend this book. It has drama, deception, beginning love, murder and keeps a good pace. Thank you NetGalley, Erica Spindler and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is my honest opinion.

I was absolutely hooked in right from the start and it kept getting better with the development of other characters in the plot. I liked how Jonathan’s characters played out in the whole plot and also as a boyfriend/suspect, I kept looking for clues. The clues to the murderer were available as bread-crumbs in earlier portions of the book but it was interesting as everything comes together only at the end. I did feel Sienna made quite a few stupid choices but her difficult circumstances can be considered as a justification

I read this one in two sittings so I can assure it kept up the intrigue level for me. The whole angle of - whether Sienna inherited her mother’s mental illness brought in lot of twists and confusion to keep the reader guessing on how far was Sienna and her family was involved in the murder.

It is a great fast-paced whodunnit mystery with good plot-twists and a little romance!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy!⁣

I enjoyed this thriller. My first book by this author. I thought i had it all figured out but no, It kept me guessing till the end. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All opinions are my own.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book. This is my first time reading anything by Erica Spindler. I enjoyed her style of writing, and had to know what happened next. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a curveball threw me off again. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to #netgalley for this ARC!

In The Look-Alike, we first meet Sienna Scott after she discovers the body of Madison Robie, brutally murdered after a snowstorm. After realizing that Madison was wearing the same coat she was, and on the same path that she takes, Sienna starts to think that she was supposed to die. After living in London for ten years, Sienna comes back to Tranquility Bluffs to take care of her mother. Upon learning that the murder case had been reopened, she begins to search for the truth.

This book was one of the most intense psychological thrillers I’ve ever read. I couldn’t predict who Madison’s killer was, and it felt like the twists just kept coming. It was very interesting to see a mother-daughter relationship revolving around a mental illness, even though some parts were very disturbing. I would’ve liked to see Sienna explore her mental health more, especially as the plot begins to thicken and we learn more about her family and friends.

If you enjoy a suspenseful thriller, The Look-Alike is for you. Check this book out in January 2020 - you won’t want to miss it!

Ack! What a fast-paced ride in Tranquility Bluffs! An easy and enjoyable read with a questionable cast of characters, any one of whom could be Madison Robie's killer. Looking back I would have liked more character development for some of the peripheral characters (and even Jonathan). The epilogue, while satisfactory, left me with a couple questions about Sienna's family. Guess you should bring her back in a future novel! Thanks to #Netgalley for the opportunity to preview #TheLookAlike by @EricaSpindler

I have read every single one of Erica Spindler's books. I am a huge fan and I always get very excited to see a new release from her, especially since apart from those, I finished all her previous books years ago. As always she holds the title in a fast paced, yet slow burning, atmospheric thriller. Sienna returns home after many years away. She left because she found a dead body and her mental health was drifting down toward mirroring her mother's fragile psyche. Not much has changed with her mother's mental health, if anything things have gotten worse. The case into the murdered girl she found has been reopened. This takes us on a wild ride of trying to figure out if Sienna was the target of the original girl that was murdered or if she is going down the path of inheriting her mother's illness. A lot about mental health and being the caretaker or loved one of someone with this particular condition is discussed and plays a well thought out central role in the book. Let's see if you can guess the ending or if you were wrong like I was. Don't miss out on yet another thriller by the Queen of Suspense.

Ten years ago, Sienna Scott stumbled onto a gruesome crime scene -- the body of another college student, brutally stabbed to death. The scene alone would unnerve anyone. But when Sienna realizes that the dead girl was wearing the same coat, and walking the same path that Sienna takes every Wednesday night, she begins to wonder if SHE was actually the target of the violent attack? Ten years later, Sienna returns to her hometown and begins to search for the truth.

The Look-Alike was a captivating thriller. What I liked most about this book was the lack of predictability. Erica Spindler sprinkles countless red herrings throughout the book, making her reader second guess every move. This was a great read with lots of twists and turns!

I love a good mystery. I generally avoid books where mental illness is a big part (my mother suffered from mental illness). This book didn't bother me though. The storyline was good and I fell victim to guessing the killer and being wrong more than once. My only struggle was how quickly the main character fell in love.

Interesting read. It was dark and creepy! And full of twists and turns I never saw coming!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I have always been a huge fan of Erica's books so I requested this book without even reading the premise of it, and with that being said, you will not be disappointed! This is Erica at her finest, an interesting main character in Sienna, the unstable mother and caregiver brother that bring her back to her hometown after being away for a decade after witnessing a murder. The plot goes back and forth between present day and a decade earlier and they intertwine seemlessly with interesting characters that tie both timelines together. With Sienna back in town, the murder investigation is reopened and once again she wonders if she was the intended victim after all... definitely worth the read.

Hot Take:
The prologue was really, really good. Unfortunately the rest of the story failed to live up to that one masterful paragraph. It was short, well-written, and intense. Everything else was a little too trope-reliant for me. I don't know how much more "am I mentally ill because I look just like my mentally ill mother everyone says so" I could have handled. Probably none. I would have preferred several times fewer than I got, honestly. Look, I get that hereditary mental illness is a terrifying prospect - truly. But damn, Sienna! If you're really so worried that you might be suffering from a mental illness TALK TO THAT PSYCHIATRIST YOU KEEP SEEING ABOUT/WITH YOUR MOM. Mental health scares as plot devices are kind of frustrating, y'all.

That being said, outside of my misgivings about her another is she just imagining all the things mystery story, the writing is pretty solid. The story is well paced, and I never found myself bored. Although while I'm here, I did find the constant "bro," " sis," and "sib-" ing between Sienna and her brother really bizarre. Do people really do that? I have both a brother and a sister, and I have never even considered addressing either of them so...weirdly.

My Rating:
2.5 out of 5 arbitrary items of rating. it was ok, but ultimately relied on some plot devices that I find tiresome. If you like books about ladies who don't trust themselves because there's a possibility they might be mentally ill, but they would rather find out based on external validation by random happenstance than go to a mental health professional this might be the book for you. Ultimately, it just wasn't really for me.

Unfortunately, I did not love this book. The writing was nice and it sounded like a book I would enjoy. However, I found this book to be a little disturbing. The main character's mother is extremely disturbed and makes some awful comments in the book. I thought the writing was predictable. The story isn't awful by any means. It was a very easy reading book.

Sienna returns from London after a ten year absence, having been sent to live with her grandmother after a gruesome murder in which she might have been the target. Her mother suffers from a severe form of delusion in which she thinks someone is after her all the time.

As the story unfolds, Sienna tries to unravel the still unsolved case. With enough red herrings and leads that don’t pan out, this is an easy and pleasant read, despite the fact that I really didn’t find the characters relatable.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

Excellent and well written story!

Sienna comes upon a murdered school mate, and based on the location and what the girl was wearing, Sienna thinks maybe she was the intended target. Many years later the case is reopened and there are many possible suspects, including Sienna's mom, who suffers from mental illness.

This book kept me interested and I did not figure out who the killer was until the very end. So glad I got the opportunity to read and review this book!

Psychological thrillers have always interested me. I enjoy reading them, trying to get into the characters’ heads and solve the mystery. So, when I was offered the opportunity to review The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler, I jumped at the chance.
Sienna Scott’s mother has been suffering from paranoid delusions from the day Sienna was born. It was one reason she was sent away to live with her grandmother in London. Another reason, was the unsolved murder that Sienna stumbled upon while in college. The fact that the Madi, the young victim, was wearing the same style coat as Sienna and walking the same path home that Sienna always took after studying did nothing to lessen those paranoid delusions. In fact, they grew, with her mother – and eventually Sienna herself – believing that somehow she might have been the intended victim.
Now, a decade later, Sienna has returned to her hometown…returned to her mother and her paranoid delusions…and returned to that unsolved mystery that has been recently re-opened. Sienna’s dream of returning to her old stomping grounds to make a fresh start opening a new restaurant in town are shattered as she realizes her mother’s illness has not gotten any better and her finances are not what she expected them to be. Couple that with a mysterious stranger that she finds herself drawn to and the unsolved murder that has come back to haunt her and Sienna finds herself on the verge of moving back to London.
The longer Sienna stays, the more the past catches up with her and she begins to second guess her sanity. Could it be that she is not only her mother’s look-alike, but that her paranoid delusions have passed from mother to daughter? Or are Sienna’s nightmares about the killer’s intended victim be true?
When I started this book, I thought I had the murder mystery solved right away, but then author Erica Spindler had to throw me for a loop, throwing in characters who are hiding secrets, making the brother less than likeable, adding in jealousy factors and some violent tendencies with the mother. While still in the middle of the book, I was so confused (in a good way) that I had no idea who the killer was. Three quarters of the way in, I thought, “I got this!” But then the author said, “Nuh-uh!” and threw in another twist.
Needless to say, The Look-Alike definitely had my attention from start to finish…a credible finish at that which took me full circle to the person I originally thought was the killer. Not to shabby on my part! The Look-Alike is a great page-turner with interesting characters, plot twists, a little romance and more. Can’t wait to read more from this author.