Oh hi there female protagonist with substance abuse issues. I haven't seen you in a while...said no one ever.

Actually, I can think of one or two people who have probably said that.

Dr. Faith Finely is a psychologist, a radio personality and a soon-to-be bestselling author. She’s young, beautiful, and married to the perfect man, Liam. What could possibly go wrong?

This is a psychological thriller, yo-everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And you can be sure it'll be twisty and messed AF.

The setting was pretty perfect because it a small town just outside the big city. I love juxtaposition, so I felt the two areas worked well in adding to the suspense.

I will keep this short because one-it's a quick read so a psychological thriller lover will have to read it and two because I know I'll give something away if I keep talking/writing.

As suspenseful as this one was, it was also slow on the build up. But once it hits the main conflict, boy is it hard to put down.

Think Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window and a popular radio show.

Dr. Faith Finley is a respected author, psychologist and a cherished wife to Liam Finley, a food critic. One dark night coming home from a book signing, Faith’s life changes forever.

Faith wakes up in the hospital and Liam is gone. He has disappeared without a trace. Faith is certain he was in the vehicle with her coming home, but he was not found at the scene. The police suspect Faith has something to do with his disappearance and think she is holding back information.

Faith is beside herself and is trying to find Liam when notes start to arrive. Pages from Faith’s book are being sent to her and she has no idea where to turn for help. Who can she trust?

I loved this book by Seraphina Nova Glass. She wrote the story brilliantly and pulled the reader right into the mystery of the disappearance of Liam. Each page brought new clues and characters into the story and you are trying to figure out what happened right along with Faith. Thank you so much to the author, Ms. Nova Glass, Harlequin and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book to review. It was fabulous! All opinions expressed for this review are unbiased and entirely my own

Everything seemed to be perfect in Dr. Faith Finley’s life. She is married to Liam, a supportive husband and successful food and wine critic. She has a private psychology practice but also a weekly advice program on the radio and a best-selling self-help book. Then a scandal in her career and a car accident are the beginning of a downward spiral for Faith. Things get worse for Faith when it looks as if it’s not only her career as a therapist, but her life is in danger.

This story is told in the present and through flashbacks from Faith’s point of view. Both Faith and the reader try to figure out what really happened the night of Faith’s car accident. Things start to get creepy when Faith starts receiving pages from her book and Faith’s own words become threats against her. There are lots of red herrings in this book and although I had some suspicions about who was behind these threats, I wasn’t able to pull it all together. I was rooting for Faith, but she is sometimes her own worst enemy with the things she does which often just make things worse.

“Someone’s Listening” is more graphic, but it has the interesting characters and clever plot of a classic Mary Higgins Clark novel. The last few chapters especially just flew by as the tension really starts to build. The story really becomes scary before a dramatic confrontation leads to a resolution. There are a few more loose ends than I would have liked after the story wraps up, but this is a solid, entertaining suspense novel. I am looking forward to more by this author.

I received this ebook from NetGalley through the courtesy of Harlequin/Graydon House. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

I truly think Faith Finley would be thriving in 2020, because she took more hits in the span of this book than we have as a society and kept going.

I'll admit that I was initially interested in this book due to Faith having a talk radio show where she helped listeners, and since I'm still somehow in radio world, but the show was somehow just a blip in the book and the driving force behind EVERYTHING that goes awry in her life.

Faith is a messy, flawed woman. But honestly, her decisions and actions all make sense. She's confused and scared; her husband straight up dropped off the face of the earth after her book launch party. She feels like she can't trust anyone, and just wants to either find Liam, or just spend her days in a stupor to forget the world.

The twists just kept coming, and honestly, I feel like I need another book in this book universe to explain some things! Like Ellie, Faith's loving sister. I need a book from her perspective! She's honestly my favorite character in the story. And I'd love to learn more about Faith's former patient, Carter, too.

I don't want to spoil the story at all, but just know, the person you think is psychologically torturing Faith isn't who you'd expect at all!

A fun quick read, Someone's Listening will definitely give you a mystery to solve. I give it four out of five glasses of wine. Thank you so much to Graydon House for including me in this blog tour!

Seraphina Nova Glass' novel, Someone's Listening, is for readers who like to sift through clues and multiple possible suspects as to whodunnit.



The novel opens with psychologist and successful talk radio host Dr. Faith Finley celebrating the publication of her book, Someone's Listening. The book is a guide for women who want to escape from the clutches of domestic violence and predatory people bent on doing them harm.



It should be a happy occasion, but there are clues that something is amiss. Her loving husband, respected newspaper restaurant critic Liam, seems angry, and people at the party appear to want to avoid Faith, not celebrate her success.



On the way home from the party, a truck veers right at them while Faith is driving, and she wakes up to EMTs strapping her to a gurney. She calls out for Liam, but there is no response.



As she comes to in the hospital, she asks for her husband, but the police officer in her room tells her that there was no one else in the car or anywhere near the scene. This confuses and upsets Faith.



Liam's body is not found, but it is discovered that he withdrew $6000 from their bank account and his passport is missing. Why would Liam leave? Is it because one of her former clients accused her of having an inappropriate relationship?



Faith is about to lose everything, and with her back against the wall, she begins to investigate what happened to her husband. She also starts receiving threatening notes, passages cut out from her book. Who is trying to ruin her life? There are plenty of suspects, and a careful reader may be able to suss out a guess at who did it and why.



Glass does a terrific job setting a scene, painting a visual picture for the reader. "The Sunday newspaper, in its plastic sheath, lies at the end of the driveway, half of it immersed in a puddle from last night's rain."



If you enjoy a psychological thriller where you can exercise your skills at detection, Someone's Listening is for you. Fans of the Lifetime channel movies will enjoy it as well.



Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Mystery & Thriller Summer Reads Blog Tour.

Do NOT read this book if you are susceptible to excessive alcohol consumption! I could almost smells the fumes emanating from the book! Seriously! And I am sure the theory is that Faith had her reasons to be imbibing so much: her husband disappeared (left her? dead?), a former patient has accused her of something horrible, and this is all along with dealing with her abusive childhood. But the reader doesn't get to know Faith until she is solidly popping pills and downing booze. It is hard to see her as someone with her act together and a good life. I would have liked that stable positive background introduced earlier instead of starting in the middle of the mayhem. Despite feeling off-balance for most of the book, it was an interesting and enjoyable book.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
After a car accident, where Faith was driving, she wakes up and finds her husband is missing. Eight months on and the police are not looking for him, they have assumed that he left of his own accord. In the beginning of the story, we switch between the past and the present. In the present, Faith is drinking heavily as a way to cope with loss, and in the past we learn about the event in her life leading up to the accident that destroyed her reputation and career.

I found Faith to be an unlikable woman. Even in the past before her life was turned upside down, she was not a particularly appealing character. She is a bit of a snob and the kind of person that knows best, ignoring sound advice of others to her detriment.

Someone’s Listening is a psychological thriller/mystery but it was a bit slow going early on. But by the middle of the book I was hooked. There were so many different clues leading in different directions and I was eager to see how it played out. The tension builds really well as Faith is being terrorised by an unknown person or persons as she tries to follow the leads to find out what happened to her husband. It ends with a violent, heart-pounding climax that made pushing through the slow parts worth it. This gets 3.5 stars from me.

Dr. Faith Finley is a renowned psychologist and is married to Liam, a famous food critic. Everything is good in her life until it isn’t. On her trip home after a book signing, Faith crashes the car and Liam disappears. The assumption is that she did something to him. Then she starts getting threats herself, photos of a woman bound and gagged with excerpts from her recent book. Faith seeks the help of her former boyfriend Will to protect her and to find out what happened to Liam and what is happening to her. Although this book stretches the realm of imagination, the author is brilliant in her depiction of Faith’s fear and all of the undercurrents of tension going on all at once. I don’t think I have read a book that kept my attention as well as this one did. I soared through the pages, wanting to know where Liam was, why Faith was being threatened and who could be trusted. Although the beginning was slow, the pace picked up quickly and raced to a stunning conclusion. Fans of psychological thrillers and suspense will enjoy this book.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

This is a textbook domestic thriller with an alcoholic narrator, a story full of twists and turns, and suspicious characters at every corner. I didn’t find the main character, Faith, to be all that likable but I did enjoy following along with her as she tries to figure out what happened to her husband, Liam. Glass also did a fantastic job of keeping me guessing at who was involved and I honestly thought it could have been any number of people. Which also speaks to how unpredictable the story was. There was so many layers of things going on and I loved seeing it all come together at the end. In fact, I think the ending was perfectly executed and really made everything come full circle. There are some major trigger warnings for graphic descriptions of domestic abuse and child abuse. That along with all the alcohol and pills that Faith consumes made this book uncomfortable to read at times so I just want to make you aware of that. I don’t think this book is for the casual domestic thriller fan but I do recommend if you are a hardcore lover of the genre.

I’m always here for an unreliable narrator, so I was eager to get to this one.

I liked Faith well enough. She’s struggling with an event that blows up all sorts of things in her life. I do wish we could have known a bit more of Faith before everything happened as it felt like I was dropped into the middle of a story I should have already been familiar with. There are other characters, but I’m not going to mention them.

Plot wise, it was good. I really liked the then/now format of chapters as it was a great way to show instead of tell. And with Faith’s constant drinking and pill taking, I was left wondering how much of her memories were actually truth. There was a good amount of tension and enough suspects to have me second guessing everyone.

Overall, it was a quick read with a satisfying ending. I’ll definitely be looking at other books from this author.

FYI: child abuse, alcoholism, drug use

**Huge thanks to Graydon House for providing the arc free of charge**

Someone is Listening by Seraphina Nova Glass was a twisted and mind-boggling read, which featured a complex cast of characters and had me guessing throughout most of the story.

This was my first experience with the author, and I have to say she impressed me.

The story introduces Faith, a happily married psychologist, author and radio host. However, beneath all the success lingers remnants of an abusive childhood. All appears to be going well until she’s accused of an unspeakable crime; from that moment her life began spiralling out of control. Her husband went missing under mysterious circumstances. Her friends abandoned her, and she has resorted to drinking and self-medication. The police refused to listen to her concerns regarding her missing husband. Besides, why would they believe the utterances of drunken and drugged up woman. Then she began receiving notes taken from directly from the book she authored. Does this have anything to do with her husband’s disappearance? She takes it upon herself, despite numerous warnings from her lawyer and the police, to to investigate who was behind the notes and to determine if and how they tie in with her husband’s disappearance.

Faith proved to be the most unreliable character. I could not trust her judgement because of her love affair with alcohol and drugs. Even with the mysterious notes, I still wasn’t sure if I could trust her. The fact the story was told solely from her POV added to the complexities of uncovering the truth.

I found the secondary characters, who aided in driving this intense story interesting. I could consider all of them except for the police suspects. I didn’t know whom to trust.

I found the story to be well written. It had me turning the pages. I needed to know the outcome. I thought I knew the route the story would take, but I was sorely mistaken. It wasn’t until near the end I had it all figured out. Wow! Talk about shocking, I never saw it coming until it was too late.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Someone’s Listening is one of those stories that will keep you reading way into the wee hours. A fitting story for fans of psychological suspense.

I'll be honest, what initially drew me to this one was that Faith was a talk radio psychologist whose show was called Someone's Listening. Um, hello, HUGE Frasier fan here! Sign. Me. Up.

Just as Faith was at the top of her game, she was doing multiple morning show appearances and had an upcoming book signing, a patient of hers came forth with accusations that Faith took advantage of him as a minor. Almost instantly the claims cause Faith's life to crumble. Her professional reputation is nearly beyond repair and her marriage is on the rocks. A car crash one evening lands Faith in the hospital and her husband - who she claims was in the passenger seat - is nowhere to be seen.

The book quickly launches into a cat-and-mouse hunt, first with Faith as the main suspect until letters and emails are discovered: was her husband having an affair? Why did he give a bartender $6,000? And why does Faith's mother, an abusive alcoholic who has never met Liam, suddenly have his wallet and license? Most frightening of all, who's leaving the anonymous threats taped to Faith's door?

Someone's Listening unfortunately wasn't the taut, gripping thriller I was hoping. Instead it was more of a Saturday afternoon movie - entertainable enough, but nothing that'll stick with me. Mere days after learning her husband was found dead she kicks off a relationship with an old high school boyfriend and starts a flirty friendship with a neighbor. And of course has to make it clear to the reader that she hit the gene jackpot, that although her husband was a food critic, she was able to eat anything she wanted and not gain an ounce. Throw in a full-fledged addiction to alcohol and a dependency on Klonopin and I really wasn't invested in Faith as a character. Yawn.

A good thriller that kept me on the edge till the end.
It's gripping and entertaining, the story-line is good and the characters are fleshed out.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Whoa!! Talk about a sleight of the hand, and it is author Seraphina Nova Glass who came to my forebrain. The subtle clues and blind alleys all spoke of a socked mind which could think of such a plot.

A psychologist with a best seller book on how to escape the predator, Faith soon found her life turned upside down. A wrongful charge, missing husband, suspicious cops, and threatening notes tightened the noose around her neck. A race against time to save herself, she had to find the starting point which was the end too.

My first book by this talented author, I loved being led down a merry path. The writing turned darker with each chapter, suspense coating the words. Faith was absolutely unreliable, I couldn't trust her. How would the cops?

I did don my Detective's hat to get to the perp who was playing games, but Ms. Glass played me well. I was left dithering over my choices, then realized the best way to be right was to suspect everyone.

I love it when the plotlines and red herrings keep me stuck to my kindle despite a narcissistic heroine. Certain subplots could have been polished more. But that didn't distract me much from the story.

Complexed nuances of other characters were etched well with their secrets hidden. The story read fast in the latter half where the suspense was at a high cusp. Wanting to know the identity of the perp kept me glued to my kindle.

Overall an entertaining read, I enjoyed it before my afternoon siesta. Off to bed, now.

Despite a horrifying childhood, Faith Finley is a successful author, psychologist and host of a popular radio program. What is more Faith is a happy wife. However, one night after returning home from a book signing, she wakes up after being in a car wreck. Not only does she not know how long she was unconscious, she cannot find her husband Liam. One moment she was on an icy road. The next she wakes up in a hospital. Still no Liam. What's more, no one believes that he was in the car with her. Something is dreadfully wrong.

Time passes. A lot of time. Again, still no Liam. Gone without a trace. No one, especially the police, will listen to Faith's concerns. Amidst Faith's fear and worries, she begins receiving notes. These notes actually come out of the book she had written, ones that begin to appear like threats. Faith is determined to tie these notes to Liam's disappearance, but must act quickly because her very life is soon to be on the line.

As this book continues, Faith becomes more and more like an unreliable narrator. She self-medicates to deal with the pain of her past and I couldn't help but wonder if I was siding with the police when it came to the fact that they did not believe her. Was Faith hiding something, and was her use of medication and alcohol a way to keep secrets buried? But then the threatening notes coming into play further complicated things. Yes, this book takes the reader on a wild ride of truth and lies.

Someone's Listening is a well-written book that was impossible to put down. It was a one-sitting read for me as the story hit the ground running, had some wicked twists and turns which kept me guessing from the very start and managed to leave me reeling after a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Many thanks to Graydon House and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Dr. Faith Finley has written a bestseller and then finds herself embroiled in a scandal that threatens her credibility. She also becomes a suspect in her husband's disappearance. Her life unravels and she is left to put it all together as her life might be in jeopardy.

Piece by piece, layer by layer, I was sucked into the story. I didn't see the turn of events coming. A good thriller.

Thank you, Netgalley, Graydon Books for this good read.

I loved it.

This was the first book I've read by Seraphina Nova Glass, and I enjoyed it thoroughly! The characters were well developed, the plot was intricately woven, and the pacing was perfect.

Admittedly, I was a little worried when the opening lines of the story had the main character waking up (a taboo cliche), but the story quickly improved with great imagery and layered questions.

Multiple places throughout the story, the author had me gasping out loud and feeling my own anxiety ramp up.

While the main character was quite complex, there were times when I wanted to reach through the story's pages and shake her, hard. She made a lot of dumb choices for a professional therapist, and her heavy-handed purchase of a gun pulled me out of the story world.

Nonetheless, expert writing and story pacing kept me glued to the pages. The plot was resolved in a satisfying climax, and the reveal of the villain was well justified.

I look forward to reading more books by this terrific author!

Favorite passages from the story:

"Maybe that primal need for your mother when you're in pain, because no matter how abandoned she's left you, no matter how many years have passed, you still carry an illogical hope that maybe ... maybe she'll be there this time."

"It seems impossible that I can go out in the world and find and lose jobs, fall in love, make unforgivable mistakes, hurt people, get my heart broken, develop wrinkles and cynicism, and change so completely from who I was in this house, and come home and that little Christmas globe hasn't moved, probably not even to be dusted, through all of this -- through a person's whole life."




[I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion.]

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Someone’s Listening

Author: Seraphina Nova Glass

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: mystery, thriller

Publication Date: July 28, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Recommended Age: 16+ (stalking TW, kidnapping, gaslighting, slight violence and gore)

Publisher: Graydon House

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Faith Finley has it all: she’s a talented psychologist with a flourishing career, a bestselling author and the host of a popular local radio program, Someone’s Listening, with Dr. Faith Finley. She’s married to the perfect man, Liam Finley, a respected food critic.

Until the night everything goes horribly wrong, and Faith’s life is shattered forever.

Liam is missing—gone without a trace—and the police are suspicious of everything Faith says. They either think she has something to hide, or that she’s lost her mind.

And then the notes begin to arrive. Notes that are ripped from Faith’s own book, the one that helps victims leave their abusers. Notes like “Lock your windows. Consider investing in a steel door.”

As the threats escalate, the mystery behind Liam’s disappearance intensifies. And Faith’s very life will depend on finding answers.

Review: Overall, the book is pretty good. The character development was pretty well done and the book had a lot of promise for the story.

However, the book was really slow pacing wise. I felt like the book just dragged on and on throughout and it took a long time (52% for me) for the plot to pick up and get interesting.

Verdict: It’s ok, maybe it was me.

Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

Over the last few months I have noticed a theme has emerged that is giving my reviews a certain flavour, shall we call it?

This theme is that it’s hot. I’m hot and not like the strutting down the beach in my beachwear, turning heads with my confidence that makes me desirable, yet approachable.

No, I’m talking about the constant sweat stains, the film of oil that has permanently settled on my face and the raging headaches I get from overheating. Yeah, that kind of hot.

So, when I’m sitting in the semi-dark cave that is my shoebox-sized apartment, the portable air condition unit working overtime just to get the temperature down a few degrees, reading a mystery/thriller in my skivvies that is set during the fall/winter, I rejoice.

Call me biased, but it gets a few brownie points by giving me the mental break from the third heat wave my hometown is having since the end of June.

Also, a certain type of mystery/thriller is just more atmospheric with gloomy weather as its backdrop.

The Details

The protagonist, Faith, is a bit of a mess. And she finds herself in a bit of a messy situation, which doesn’t bode well.

I appreciated reading the story of a relatable character. She is still suffering from past trauma, practices some unhealthy coping strategies and isn’t shy to talk about her anxiety and panic attacks. All this while managing to become quite successful in her career.

She is stubborn and sometimes her decisions and the subsequent actions she takes makes the reader want to cringe a bit as they look like a train wreck in slow motion.

Yet, she isn’t afraid to take matters into her own hands. Good for her!

She isn’t perfect and her decisions are at time questionable, but her heart is in the right place.

There are also plenty of secondary characters that make you wonder about their intentions. How do they fit into this story? Why are they here? And what could it all mean?

Each character had their specific role without appearing to be just that: a means to an end. They enriched the story without cluttering it.

The story is narrated from the first-person point of view, which works very well for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it adds to the mystery surrounding this story. The reader will always doubt the first-person narration, because it is difficult to determine how much we can trust this character.

This seedling of doubt spices up this particular story and keeps us guessing right up until the last chapter.

Secondly, in the past I have come across stories narrated by the protagonist that got caught up in the minute-by-minute description of their every thought, feeling and wrinkle in their sweater. It gets tedious after a while and distracts from the story.

Having a story that is told through the protagonist’s perspective and that doesn’t lose itself along the way is a treat. And this story nailed it.

The plot, generally speaking, was very straight forward as I look back on it now. But while I was in the middle of untangling the mystery, I scrutinized every suspect and puzzled over every possible outcome.

The Verdict

Overall, I have to say this was a great read. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I wanted to keep reading. I was invested. This was a mystery/thriller after my tastes.

The twists and turns throughout, the protagonist and the atmosphere all made for a great reading experience.
I highly recommend it to any mystery/thriller fans.

I so wanted to love this book, but I didn't.

The story alternates between "Now," which is Faith's present day life, and "Then," which is Faith's life with her husband prior to the accident. Pacing is extremely uneven. The story opens with an intense scene. Then we get kind of a background information dump that slows everything down, without adding much in the way of character depth or plot complexities. About midway, the pace picks up as we get to the heart of the story, with the last quarter feeling too rushed.

My major problem was Faith, our main character. She's an incredibly unlikable, self-involved, deceitful psychologist who drinks too much and constantly pops pills. It makes me cringe to think people were relying on her for help with their mental health. I'm so tired of substance-abusing, neurotic, unreliable female main characters. If she's been at all likable, so that I could empathize even a little bit, the story would've been far more enjoyable.