Kat was devastated when her daughter decided to go to University a few hours away from home. Even though they spoke & sent texts every day she struggles to get through each day. She is looking forward to Amy coming home for a weekend & when she doesn't send a message about her arrival she becomes more anxious than usual. By the time it gets to the next day she is frantic. Is she right to be worried or is Amy just taking advantage of her freedom?

As time goes on it is obvious that there IS something amiss! Kat's best friend Zoe, her daughter & Amy's friend & Amy's (ex) boyfriend haunt social media for clues. The police & Amy's step- father attempt to help, but nothing is enough for Kat. Has Amy's natural father got something to do with it? Or can she really trust husband Richard?

If I had been Amy I wouldn't have gone to Uni a couple of hours away- I'd be looking for a couple of time zones distance. Kat's obsession with her daughter is hard work. I know she had her reasons to worry when Amy was a toddler but it was not a particularly healthy relationship for her. I felt very sorry for Richard- who was the only likeable character for me! I guessed a couple of the 'surprises' & was engaged enough to read to the end which is why I gave it 2.5 stars evened up to 3. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- you can't love them all!

I found the first 8 chapters of this book intensely annoying as each one just repeated the former without adding anything to the plot. Yes I got it. The mother, Kat Ellis, needs to get a life instead of worrying incessantly about her daughter Amy who has gone away to college and hasn't checked in with her mother for a few hours.
However, after that dismal beginning, I was quickly drawn into the mystery of what had happened to Amy. There's a twist at the end which I didn't guess and was a bit on the unbelievable side but quite nicely explained everything. The plot overall is good but I think it could do with a good edit, especially those first 8 chapters.

I enjoyed this thriller! I thought it was just a little slow in the middle, but I read the last 40% in one sitting, it really ramped up! And I LOVED the ending! Finally! I won't give it away, but what I was hoping would happen finally happened. And the twists were great. Kept you guessing. Had be convinced one way and then went another way and that's always amazing.

An amazing thriller that depicts a mother's love for her daughter. Imagine a life where you are faced with the possibility of losing your only child and coming back from that. How far will you be willing to go to keep your child safe at all costs?!Then years later, when you think all is safe and all of a sudden your perfect life starts to crumble. A page turner until the very ending with an ending you'll never see coming!!

An exceptionally clever, gripping thriller that had me hooked from page one. 

One of the best books I have read this year. Excepional

OMFG this book is freaking awesome, After a rocky start, and when I say rocky I mean it was rocky for me. I really didn’t like Kat, Amy’s mom she really got on my nerves to the stage where I wanted to slap her. She irritated the hell out of me big time with her consent clinginess towards her daughter. I couldn’t help thinking I am glad my mom wasn’t like that.

BUT as much as I wasn’t a fan I began to realise that there was more to Kat than I thought and started to question why she was like that.Then the author introduces more characters and the plot thickens and I started to question everyone.

I found myself totally hooked and sucked into Kat’s world on the hunt for her missing daughter. I started to sympathise her, this is very parents worse nightmare. My heart went out to her when the author took me on a roller coaster ride. Throwing obstacles in the way and playing with my emotions.

The story is jam packed with twists and turns just when you think you have it all worked out the author throws another corker into the mix! This is a story full of lies and deceit making you not trust anyone.

I have read loads of books of the years but this book has got one hell of a twist, which I so expecting…. it threw me side ways. A full on OMFG moment, which blew my mind! and you know what, it is the best twist I have ever read!

I am sitting here lost for words because there is so much I want to say, but I don’t want to give anything away.One thing I can tell you is, this is Sue Watson’s best book I have read! she has totally smashed it.

If you like psychological thrillers, this book is a must read. I cannot recommend it enough giving it all the stars.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I'm at the empty nesting stage of life, so I really could identify with Kat and her anxiety about Amy being away at college. I get it, I do. and the premise of this book is fascinating--daughter who communicates daily with mother ghosts her and seemingly disappears off the face of the earth. The delivery is just soooo sloooow.
The first HALF of the book is all about Kat fretting about Amy, trying to get people to believe her that Amy is missing. I didn't like Kat at all, I thought she was awful and I think that the author did that on purpose, but things aren't exactly as they seem on the surface. There are secrets everywhere, which actually made this book better once things finally got going. The ending few chapters were exciting and flowed well, it was just getting there in the first place that was a chore for me. In the end, the wrap-up was great, so a decent read overall.

3.5 Stars!

The title of this book sold me!  Since I’m facing my own Empty Nest in August, I thought I’d be able to relate to Kat and her situation.  Oh Lord, I so hope not and know not on so many levels!  

Kat and Amy are close, Kat brings helicopter parenting to a whole new level.  After a bad first marriage and an health scare for Amy, things seem to be sunny and happy when Kat marries Richard.  She and Amy are BFFs with another mother-daughter duo, Zoe and Jodie.  Tragedy soon strikes again when Amy turns up missing.  Kat follows her mother’s instinct and calls police immediately.  The story follows the search for Amy.  

So much is going on in this book.  A missing child, scary ex-husband, false acquisitions, friendships exposed, overbearing parents, teenagers!  I found most of the characters very annoying (to the point I wanted to slap most) and situations extreme with no major surprises. But, the writing spins the tale quickly and sucks you in for a fast read especially good on a crisp fall day with a hot apple cider and blanket.  First book by this author and would definitely read her again. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.  Opinion is mine alone!


****Also reviewed on B&N and Amazon.

This is a book that is really enjoyable if you are familiar with English writing (UK) . it is about a mom who believes her gut instinct no matter what the facts are saying. I think this book leaves you with a lot of mystery and keeps you ready to find out more of the story. It is a bit long for what it is so i think it would rate higher if there wasn't as much empty pages.

A gripping suspense thriller that keeps you guessing till the end!

This was the first book I've read of Sue Watson and it will definitely not be the last! I find the writing style very easy and the storyline gripping from the beginning. 

"A heavy blanket of silence folding around me, a slow ache of loss in the pit of my stomach."

Kat's daughter has gone off to university in Aberystwyth instead of a nearby university, and she is struggling with not having her close. Amy has been her everything and they have struggled through a lot together. Then one weekend Amy doesn't come home like she's arranged. Richard; Kat's husband; thinks she is overreacting when she tries to convince him something is wrong but what would he know? He is only the stepdad. There is no trace of Amy on social media and she is not answering her phone or messages. This is very unlike her because she would message her mom every day. Kat's best friend Zoe steps in to support her although she is also convinced Kat is overreacting. Finally Richard gives in and they phone the police to report her missing. 
Zoe; her daughter Jodie; and Amy's ex boyfriend Josh helps Kat to get through the days. The police can't find any trace of Amy. Does it have anything to do with her ex husband that she's been keeping away from Amy or are there more sinister reasons for he being missing? 

This is a story every mother with a grownup daughter can relate to. How do you deal with your child leaving the nest? Can you always trust your gut feeling? 

A definite must read for everyone who enjoys mystery thrillers!

Thank you to #netgalley and #bookouture for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

❕review❕
So I really enjoyed this book. It is roughly about a "over protective" mother's journey with lots of twists and turns...very phycological.
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The book Starts very well. As a mother I could relate to the woman's feelings though it's a little extreme. The book hints at something unknown and sinister which made me need to know what happened in the past?
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These little hints keep popping up making me really want to devour the book! .
From very early on, I couldn't fathom Richard or Zoe out, I was trying to evaluate if they were good or bad...
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The story delivers well and hit me repeatedly with twists! it's hard to review this book due to the twists, I don't want to give anything away!

The Empty Nest by Sue Watson is a recommended psychological thriller.

Kat is very close to her only child, Amy, so when Amy leaves for a university hours away, Kat struggles and lives daily for any contact Amy has with her. When Amy doesn't arrive home for the long weekend as she had said she would, Kat panics and is sure something is wrong, especially when Amy doesn't contact her and doesn't reply to calls or texts. Her friend Zoe tries to support her, as does her husband, Richard, but Kat is inconsolable and wants to check out Amy's room at the university and contact the police to investigate her disappearance.

Kat is a mother who is over-the-top obsessed with her daughter to an unhealthy degree and it is extremely difficult to relate to her. Extremely. It is also difficult to understand Amy who apparently texts her mother several times a day. (I am very close to my adult daughter, but this relationship seems off and unhealthy - even for an only child heading off to college.) I tried to set aside the oddness of their extremely close relationship and understand Kat's certainty that something was wrong with Amy and they needed to look for her immediately. When it eventually became clear that something was wrong, the story actually became more intriguing.

The writing is good, but it would have helped to get to the intrigue sooner, as once the complications, rumors, and suspects are added, the novel became much more interesting. I can't say there were any shocking surprises, but at least it moved beyond Kat's constant mantra that something was wrong with Amy. I'm not sure that it needs to be said, but there really isn't a likeable character in sight in The Empty Nest; Kat is especially annoying. The one thing that saved the novel was the ending twists, which you may see coming, but it was still a satisfying ending.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Bookouture.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/11/the-empty-nest.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3036755773
https://www.librarything.com/work/23870546/book/175023946

The Empty Nest by Sue Watson is one of those books on my shelf that I had really high expectations for from having read this author’s work before so imagine my excitement when it lived up to my own hype. Described as “A gripping and suspenseful psychological thriller with more twists and turns than a rollercoaster and an ending that will blow readers’ minds.” is quite a lot to live up to too and when finished I wouldn’t complain at all about that tagline either.

Of course everyone should be  familiar with the term “Empty Nest” in which the kiddo/s of a family have grown up and left their parents home for the first time. Kat is now experiencing her own empty nest since her daughter started college a few hours away from home. Truth be told Kat isn’t doing so well with the separation but thankfully her daughter always stays in touch… until she doesn’t.

Kat had just spoken with Amy when she checked in and told Kat she would be coming home for a long weekend. When Amy doesn’t arrive like she had told Kat or answer any calls or texts Kat just knows something is wrong. Kat’s friends and family however tell her she’s young, she’s just busy with friends, you’ll hear from her soon. But as  time passes the police are called in and Amy has vanished.

Boy there’s nothing I love more than a book I can’t trust from page one. How does one react when the narrator can’t be trusted and no one around seems to ever tell the truth? Is Amy missing? Is Kat overreacting? Flip a coin and read as fast as you can until the book whiplash settles in from all the twisting and turning.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

*The Empty Nest by Sue Watson *⁣
⁣
‘Sometimes we can’t see what’s right in front of us, Kat. Everyone has secrets, even the people we love, the people we live with…’⁣
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Well, that was genuinly the most annoying character I've ever come across in a book! Dont get me wrong, I completely understand and relate to concerns she was having but she drove me mad...and I kinda understood why there was a chance Amy would maybe have run away!⁣
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I guessed most of the twists coming before they happened. Especially one of the big twists at the end! ⁣
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Saying that, I still enjoyed the story and wanted to know what had happened to Amy. I feel I would have enjoyed the story a lot more if I didnt find Kat so annoying 😂⁣

Eh. I really wanted to like this book. I think that the last 40 pages or so were great and kept me interested but the first 4/5 of the book were whiney and repetitive.

I have been a fan of Sue's work for a little while now.  I first read her romantic comedies, before starting on her psychological thrillers.  I have read and loved each and every book that Sue has released.  I read the synopsis for 'The Empty Nest' and it certainly sounded like just my kind of read.  I wasn't wrong either.  'The Empty Nest' is one stonkingly fantastic read but more about that in a bit.
I can honestly say that I didn't warm to Kat at all and in fact she annoyed me quite a bit.  She is extremely protective and obsessed with her daughter.  I had over protective parents but compared to Kat, my parents were extremely liberal.  Kat is very protective, ultra obsessed and to be blunt she stalks her daughter.  She needs to know what her daughter is doing 24/7, who she is with and where she is.  I wouldn't have blamed Amy for feeling rather stifled or smothered by her mother's obsession with her and I wouldn't have blamed Amy if she had rebelled.  It was at this point that I could quite cheerfully have slapped Kat silly with a wet flannel.  Never mind driving Amy mad, she drove me mad.  That said, Kat sensed that something wasn't quite right with her daughter and the fact that she hadn't been in touch for a while but nobody seems to take Kat's concerns seriously.  Will anybody take Kat's concerns seriously?  What has happened to Amy?  Is there a twist to the tale?  Well for the answers to those questions and so much more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
Oh my word, 'The Empty Nest' certainly proved to be addictive reading.  I would pick the book up only intending to read a couple of chapters but I would still be sat there reading over half a dozen chapters and a couple of hours later.  I wasn't able to binge read the book over the course of a day because real life seemed to get in the way but I was able to binge read the book over the course of a couple of days.  The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to establish the truth steadily grew and grew.  All too quickly I reached the end of the book, which I was disappointed about.  I don't mean that in a negative way but I was enjoying the author's writing style, the characters and the storylines so much that I just wanted the book to continue.
Sue Watson has done it again and she has written one hell of a stonkingly good read.  Sue has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with.  She draws you into the story from the start and she keeps your attention throughout the book by keeping the storylines interesting, the characters intriguing and by frequently introducing twists and turns that certainly keep you on your toes.  The story doesn't start at a particularly fast pace but much like a snowball rolling down a hill, the story gathers pace building up to a tense and dramatic conclusion.  Sue writes so realistically and uses such vivid descriptions that I really did feel as though I was part of the story myself.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Empty Nest' and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers.  I will definitely be reading more of Sue's work in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Sue Watson! WOW! What a clever, addictive, dark, and twisted thriller! Kat is a helicopter mom trying to figure out her new reality after her only daughter Amy leaves for university. When she doesn’t hear from Amy the night that she is supposed to return home and then the following day, Kat is convinced that something is wrong. But her husband, her best friend, and everyone else seems to think Amy is just blowing off some steam and that Kat is once again overreacting. Mothers intuition is seldom wrong, and as more days pass the police are involved and the search begins for Amy.

   Kat was such a relatable character. Anyone who has ever been the parent of a teenager or older adultchild knows that feeling when you cannot get a hold of your kid. When my oldest went off to university/college he was not the greatest at returning text messages, but he did always respond when I texted him are you alive? I was completely sympathetic of Kat’s situation. I was stressing out right along with her. As the story progressed I felt so bad for her, I wanted to be that friend whose shoulder she could cry on. The story was so well paste, the tension was ramped up just at the perfect times. I was suspicious of everybody as the story unfolded, so many secrets, so many things I did not see coming. And that ending! Well played Miss Watson, well played!

This book in emojis: 👩‍👧 🚁 ☎️ ⏳ 

*** Big thanks to Bookouture or my copy of this book ***

Wow..while reading this book I felt I was reading my own journal,  especially at the beginning of this story. The close relationship she had with her only daughter and the feelings of loss and anxiety surrounding her daughters safety after leaving home was me to the  T.  Yes I too was a helicopter mom who talked to her daughter every single day while she was away from college and so if I didn't hear from my daughter I would have reacted just like this one did in the book. I loved this story not only because of the similarities in my life but because of how she was able to pull you in and make you look at all different possibilities and then pull a fast one on you at the end. It was a surprising ending that I think everyone wont expect.  I recommend this 4 stars

First, I want to thank Sue Watson, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review.

The Empty Nest is the first book I have read for Sue Watson. She has an unbelievable gift for this genre by building up the characters in the storyline pulling on your heart strings. Then when she had them pulled so tight, she puts the twists and turns that you never saw coming in. Some I was incredibly shocked by! 
For The Empty Nest originally the book cover was going to be of a broken picture frame of a Mother Daughter holding hands. I loved the cover. However, after reading the book I am glad they decided to change it. The newer cover is more appealing to the eye.

There is one major theme in this book that you can’t deny it is a Mother’s love for her daughter. Kat loves her daughter Amy more than anything in this world.  They both had a very strong relationship. Sue did an incredible job throughout this book showing us not just telling us how much at what great lengths she loved. However, midway through the book her love for Amy became a tad bit obsessive on how much she missed her daughter living it home. It was to the point where I was getting very annoyed with the character.

What I didn’t know and find out later was the real reason she was so protective over her. Then It all made sense. My heart went out to her at that moment. 

One aspect that I really loved that I have not seen in many psychological thrillers is the use of social media to help a case. This day in age we all use Facebook for various different reasons. This was the perfect platform to get any information anyone had on the disappearance of Amy. 

Sue came up with this idea of the book when her own daughter Eve left home to go to the university. She loved Eve and protected her all of her life. Now she is living with a house full of strangers. 

She would like to thank Sarah Hardy for reading this at the early stages and giving her the benefit of her thriller-reading wisdom, and razor-sharp eye for detail. 

Sue would also like to thank her daughter Eve, for always calling to let her know she is safe-and saving the sanity of this helicopter mother.

After reading this book I am now a fan of Sue Watson. I would love to read and review for her again.

Kat’s daughter, Amy, has grown up and moved away from home to attend college.  Kat finds it difficult to live in a house that has grown so quiet and she looks forward to Amy’s daily phone calls.  But, one day Amy doesn’t call.  Kat knows something is desperately wrong, even though her husband and friends think she is overreacting.  It’s a mother’s worst nightmare.

The Empty Nest is another homerun for Sue Watson.  Full of suspense, unexpected twists, and unbelievable tension, this book is a psychological thriller in its finest form. Readers will find it hard to put down until the last page is turned and the final secret revealed.  It has been described as a roller coaster ride and I whole-heartedly agree!  

Hats off to Ms Watson for such an enjoyable and well-written book.    

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.