What would you do if you woke up in your home…But it wasn’t your home at all?

While You Slept got my attention with the tag line. What a terrifying idea to go to sleep in your home, but wake up somewhere else.

In While You Slept, Lily sees a man in her garden with a mask on of her daughters face. The intruder knows he is on the security camera and stares and waves. Obviously frightened Lily calls the police to come check on things, but they find no evidence of an intruder. The following morning Lily and her daughter wake up in an exact replica of their home, but are unable to escape.

Sounds creepy huh? I was initially expecting this to be like the movie The Strangers. If you haven’t seen the one with Liv Tyler. Please go check it out. But instead, this ended up reminding me more of Jodie Foster’s Panic Room.

Anyways enough about movie comparisons, onto my review…the beginning of this story and the end were both very good, but unfortunately I found myself getting lost thinking of other things in the middle. The middle seemed repetitive, the story started seeming too far fetched, and things started to drag for me and my attention was lost.

One thing I really did enjoy is this story really does a great job of grabbing your attention in the beginning, there wasn’t time wasted, things start to happen right away. I also liked the explanation at the ending of what happened, just not enough for me to be happy that I picked this one up.

I never want to tell someone not to read something as I see poor reviews on books I loved and vice versa. So give this one a shot if you loved the movie The Panic Room, and like tense fast paced reads that get right into the action.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and Harper Collins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While this book kept me interested and I was as much involved as Lily in finding out the reason for her and her daughter Maisie's kidnapping, I found too many things distracting:

How did the kidnappers have the resources to keep the charade going?
How were the kidnapper(s) available 24/7?
How were they able to replicate things so perfectly? We never do find out how, when, or if they were inside Lily's house.
How do you get a 5-year-old to cooperate like Maisie did?
Where are the clues that might allow us to guess what was happening?

I will admit that it kept the tension high and the first night I read this I was a little afraid to go to sleep! So, points for the creep factor!

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for an advance reader's copy for review.

This book begins with Lily getting an alert that her security system was picking up someone in the yard. As she looks at the image, she sees a man wearing a mask made in the image of her 5 year old daughters face. When she yells at him through the security system, he stares right at the camera and waves, before slowly walking to the wall and leaving her yard. The police come but there is no sign of her intruder.

Lily and her daughter wake up in the morning and everything seem normal until they start moving around the house. While checking her security app, Lily realizes that there is an intruder insider her home. She also realizes that she is not.

Set up to be a super creepy, heart in your mouth thriller, the next 70% of the book kind of dragged on as Lily and her daughter learn more about what her captor wants and the space they are living in.

The last third of the book is very fast paced as Lily tries to escape with her child and her kidnappers try to stop her.

The resolution would have made more sense if the reader had been given more backstory and the last paragraph was super creepy and would make a great ending to the story.

Great premise, a good bit of creep factor but the slow slog in the middle made it not a great read.
2.5 Stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I thought While You Slept started off well. After seeing a man in their garden and reporting it to the police, Lily and her daughter Maisie wake up the next morning in an exact replica of their home. They’re being held by the same man. A great start as you feel you’re in for a tense thriller of a book. However, Lily’s character soon grated on me. Her daughter is five years old yet she’s speaking to her and asking her to carry out tasks as if she’s much older. Also there’s no back story to Lily until the very end of the book which felt slightly rushed. Having read Room I think I was expecting much more. Thank you to NetGalley, One More Chapter and the author for the chance to review.

Lilly, a single mother has an expensive alarm system in her flat. One day it sounds while she’s at work and she sees a man in her walled back garden who’s wearing a mask with the face of her 5-year-old daughter. By the time the police arrive, the intruder is long gone. The next morning she and her daughter wake up in a house that’s an exact replica of their own, with decorations, food, books and toys, clothes all identical to those in their own home and even the cat looks almost the same. The only difference is that they’re locked up on the 10th floor in a derelict tower block in a completely deserted area. They have no clue if they’re even still in England. Who does this? What does he want? Why does he do this? Their kidnapper communicates through a phone with them, but they can’t communicate with anyone else. The signal is blocked. It’s quickly clear that they better obey their captor and that this is going to be a long term situation.

Lily (and at the beginning myself as well) suspects her ex-husband, but there are just as many clues that point in other directions. Every time I thought about a new suspect, something happened that ruled them out as well.
- It’s someone that knows her well, but she doesn’t recognise the voice
- This thing started many years ago as the pictures date back to Maisie's first birthday
- They don’t seem to want to hurt her, it’s punishment
- The captor must have a lot of free time
At first, I couldn’t relate well to Lilly. She appears to be a helicopter mother, overprotective and rather unfair towards her ex and very quick to call police and courts. She acts as a stuck-up, entitled brat that doesn’t take any responsibility for her part in the divorce. It’s all Ewan’s fault. Despite her helicoptering, she’s a good mother though and seems to put her daughter’s well-being and safety first during the ordeal. I’m sorry for her but I can’t say that I like her much.
Maisie on the other hand acts and talks far too grown up for her age. If they didn’t say she’s 5, I would have thought she’s about 10. She adapts too well to the imprisonment. She doesn’t even mention that there’s no TV and internet or that she misses her favourite cartoons. She’s far too well behaved to be realistic.
The book moves very slowly. The only time the pace picks up is during their escape attempt. That part is really well written and suspenseful.
Three stars may be a little low. It was ok but not great and I’ve read far worse as well.

SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT:
I didn’t like the ending either. It was farfetched and not connected to the rest of the book. I don’t see how a man that can’t even whisper a decent farewell can have confessed the story 3 days earlier (he would have warned her about the threat than). The captor may believe it has happened but I doubt it and would advise a DNA test as well.

I thank Netgalley and Harper Collins, One More Chapter for the free ARC they provided; this is my honest, unbiased review of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
If you had ever wondered what it would be like to find your child and yourself trapped in a house that looks exactly like your house down to the photos in the family album on the bookshelf, then this book is for you! This book will keep you up at night in order not only to finish this crazy story, but also because it will make you uneasy to go to sleep. What happens when you are not even safe in your home?
This book had a creepy yet wonderful premise. I loved the details the author included in order the build up the tension and suspense. The characters are not fully flushed out, but enough information was given for the readers to feel Lily is a strong character and willing to do whatever it takes to protect her child, Masie. The way the author created a very realistic set of circumstances throughout their captivity made the story even better. That ending had a great twist that I did not see coming, but was not really sure about the family history of such events. This was not clearly expressed during the story. The pacing of the book was good. The book kept my attention until the very end. Overall, I recommend this book to those who love a good thriller. I look forward to reading more by this author!

What would you do if you woke up in your home… but it wasn't your home at all?

When a man wearing a picture mask of her daughter Maisie's face stands tauntingly in her garden, Lily Russell does the smart thing and calls the police. When she and Maisie wake up the following morning in an exact replica of their home, held captive by that same man, the police are no longer an option.

How can anybody not get reeled in with the above blurb? How completely intriguing!

I thoroughly enjoyed this nail biter, disturbing, mind-boggling story! The tension was high and I turned each page fearing what was coming next and wanting to know what happened next... Yup, the best kind of reading!

The plot is tense and intriguing, the pacing is perfect and the characters are fascinating enough to draw you into the intense and creepy play out of the story.

I was rushing through the pages to know what happened next, keeping me entertained and engaged.

I definitely recommend this thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While You Slept

This is a book that evoked the emotions I used to have watching scary TV programs as a kid. The type you just had to watch but, before the days of fast forwarding through the scary bits on demand, you had to watch between your fingers.

Lily, a newly divorced single mother, has an alert on her phone. On her security camera a man is standing in her garden wearing a mask of her daughters face.

Rushing home to meet the Police Lily picks her daughter up from school. Maisie is scared by the policeman but soon settles down.

The next day Lily wakes up with a hangover, but that’s the least of her problems, she’s at home, in familiar surroundings, with all her possessions, except she’s not. Somebody has in prisoned her and Maisie within a complete replica of their own home, and there’s no way out

The only thing that’s different are the photos in the family album. The ones that she and her ex, Ewan, took of Maisie have been replaced by ones taken at the same time, images that show Lily, Maisie and Ewan when the originals were taken.

When The mystery man from the security footage makes contact he tells Lily to obey his rules or she will be punished, and she is. The first time she annoys him he takes Maisie away for a night.

No more spoilers, this is an original and brilliant story.

If I was to liken it to any other writing I’d say it was like a cross between Stephen King and Dean Koontz at their best.

The story follows Lily as she tries to escape and tries to work out whose holding them. She examines her own memories dragging her thoughts back to things she’d rather forget.

I really did read this in two sittings, I really did read this holding my breath for way too long at times, but most of all, I really really did enjoy this book.

Pages: 257

You wake up, with your daughter, and you are in your house - but it's not your house. It's a replica, with the exact details of your house but you can't leave. You are being held captive.

While You Slept is creepy but failed to create any sort of thriller or tension for me. It felt both rushed and somewhat slow. The daughter is a weird 5 year old - overly mature and beyond weird. The 'who done it' aspect of the book was boring, to be quite frank.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This book was TENSE. It was so fast-paced I raced to finish it and find out what was really going on.

Unfortunately, what was going on made.... well, almost no sense. It felt like the author came up with a bunch of reasons, wrote them all down, put them in a hat, and picked one out. If there was more backstory to prop up the ending it would probably have been fantastic, but I don't really feel like there was any indication.

My other main issue was with Maisie, the supposed five-year-old, as a lot of other reviewers have pointed out. She did not read as a five-year-old at ALL, and it really kept pulling me from the story. I can't imagine a five-year-old saying "I want to go now. I don't want to be here any longer".

Having said that, I can see this translating into a fantastic thriller movie with a couple of changes.

creeepy. Definitely messes with your head - waking up a prisoner in your own house. I read it in the daylight so I wouldn't be up all night listening to every sound in my house LOL.
I only wish for a more BOOM of an ending. Fell somewhat flat for me.
Well written and nice sleek, simple cover!

Thank you for my free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The absolute stuff of nightmares. I was engrossed from beginning to end. Excellent thriller material but don't read while you're home alone!

I was immediately taken with the creepy premise of this book so couldn't wait to get stuck in.

Now this did get the adrenaline pumping, it gripped me and had me turning the pages as quick as possible.... (and here it comes) BUT...

There were just too many moments of utter disbelief and too many things that felt wrong!

Firstly, Maisie acts like a child of at least 10 or so years old but is supposedly only 5. Maybe as I have a daughter of that age I just couldn't find it believable but come on... no distraught 5 year old would act like a tween!

Secondly I couldn't get to grips with having no backstory, you never actually find out anything about the characters or their background and with the ending I feel some back story is most definitely needed (no spoilers).

Thirdly everything just felt sudden... all if the time! Every action was quick, the plot was quick, the ending was quick...

Lastly the ending made no bloody sense! Full stop.

Errrrrgh it just frustrated me so bad because I wanted it to be so good!

I'm giving 2* because it did keep me gripped the whole way through and I HAD to finish it.

Thanks to netgalley and Harper Collins UK (One More Chapter) for the ARC.

What I do enjoy about reading a Richard Parker novel is that he is not afraid to take a subject which is a little outside of the norm and spin it into a story that will keep you entertained to the very last page. He has certainly done that with While You Slept, a story that has a very strange appeal but rather dark undertones too. I won't lie - this isn't as dark as some of his other work so you aren't going to find anyone duelling with a mobility scooter here. The threat and the dark edge are far more subtle than that.

You are thrown into the action right from the off with the opening scenes showing protagonist Lily watching a man in her garden via her home security set-up. So far so normal - that's what those kits are for. But this man is wearing a mask of her young daughter's face - and this, whilst troubling, is probably one of the most straightforward problems she faces throughout the whole book. The police can do very little - there was no actual break in after all. But when Lily wakes up the next day it is in surroundings that are both familiar and unsettlingly wrong too. Whilst she and her daughter were asleep, someone has taken them and moved them to an exact replica of their home - with one small difference. This is a home from which they can never leave.

There is a constant sense of unease throughout the book, for obvious reasons. The only communication that Lily and Maisie have with the outside world is with the man who abducted them, a man who proves time and again how easily he can get to them and potentially hurt them. It does kind of make your skin crawl, that constant sense of being watched, not knowing if the food they have been left with has been tampered with but knowing that the intent is to keep them there, completely isolated, for a very long time. You do get a sense of the panic within Lily and the despair within Maisie and the chilling way in which their captor slowly lays out their intent.

What we do not know is the motivation behind the abduction, something that is revealed quite late on in the story and, to be honest, from out of nowhere to a degree. There is no hint of it throughout the rest of the book which makes the targeting of Lily seem even more random and , in a way, chilling. There are element of this book though where you will need to suspend disbelief a little, certainly as Lily and Maisie make a bid for freedom. The whole abduction lasts only a matter of days, but they are certainly eventful one as the abductor keeps his captives on edge. I enjoyed the story for what it was though, a short sharp, relatively fast paced read that I completed in a single evening.

If I had one niggle though, it was with Maisie who for five years old seemed to have too strong a vocabulary and sense of awareness. No I am no expert - not a parent, don't even go there - but I have a lot of nieces and nephews and I don't recall any of them being quite so strong and adult in character as Maisie. It may just be me - perhaps I am selling young children short. I know there is literally no telling what will come from some of their minds at times, but I think if her age had been just a little older, how she behaved, how she spoke, would have been more believable.

All in all a good story that I'm sure fans of the author will enjoy.

Okay, so I love love love creepy thrillers and I cannot believe I haven’t read a book by RJ Parker previously!! I’m going to be ordering more books by this author in the future. If you’re a fan of thrillers, this is the book for you. This book was intense, I was desperate to get to the end of it just to find out the ending. I was hooked from the start and finished it within a few days. I love the way the author writes, it makes you feel so emotional, like it’s happening to you! So intense! Love it!!

RJ Parker writes some creepy thrillers and I can’t believe I wasn’t reading this author sooner. This is a must for thriller fans, and I’ll be reading more of this author as soon as I can.

After recently reading The Dinner Party by R J Parker I was really excited to read his next book Whilst You Were Sleeping.

It tells the story of of Lily Russell and her five year old daughter Maisie who one day discover a man in their garden wearing a mask of Maisie. After a few creepy visits the pair go to bed one night and then wake up in a complete replica of their house, unable to leave.

Unsure what has happened Lily is only fed information through the male voice on the the phone, helpless to do anything but wait for his calls.

This story seemed to have so much premise but unfortunately I was slightly disappointed. The first 60% of the book sets the scene and builds the tension nicely and I flew through it but I felt that the latter half just lost its way a bit and was slightly rushed and thus ended up being a little unbelievable. I must admit I never saw the twist coming (don’t think many would as if is slightly ludicrous!) and the cliffhanger was maybe a little unnecessary. It was an ok read though and after The Dinner Party this wouldn’t deter me from reading any further books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins and One More Chapter for the advanced reader copy.

Well.... shiiiiit. This book was crazy. From the first page I was hooked and couldn't put it down. What an emotional rollercoaster.
Lily and her daughter Maisie find themselves trapped in an exact replica of their home, with their every move watched and no way out.
Having been stuck in lockdown for just over 100 days and feeling a little claustrophobic myself, this book really got me in the feels. It felt so real.
Definitely one I would love to see become a movie. It had great potential.

I didn't love this thriller. I found it to be a bit too predictable and that diminished my enjoyment of it.

I was so looking forward to this book as I really enjoyed The Dinner Party by this author but this book took me a while to get into the story line and I wasn't keen on the characters.

Unfortunately it didn't hold my attention for very long and I was glad when I got to the end, strange as it was.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins (OMC) for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I want to say thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh. Where to begin. This book was absolutely not for me. The synopsis of this book truly is intriguing, and that is why I was excited to review this to-be-released thriller. However, that is as exciting as it got. The first few pages had those "oooooh yes!" moments that trillers often do to hook you into the story, but it dies off fairly fast (I mean like 15 pages in fast).

This thriller extremely repetitive, and the characters were a really odd mix of over done and under done. Maisie is supposedly a toddler who acts and articulates things like a 13 year old who is going on 30.

Twists and twisty endings are necessary for a good thriller, HOWEVER this thriller gives you a twist that is bizarre. Of course we would never guess the ending because it was rough and made zero sense.

I think a good round of edits and manipulating the storyline to fill in some holes and maybe make some of these "twists" a bit more realistic would make this a pretty okay book.

Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy.