Oh my goodness I enjoyed this crazy, mind blowing story! Cassie is a bit lost after falling from grace in the corporate world and has since been forced to take a temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit in order to pay her bills. As she sorts through hundreds of emails a day, one email catches her eye, a totally private one between law partner Forest Watts and his captivating wife Annabelle, and once she reads it, she finds she can’t stop. She keeps peering into their life with a couple of clicks, and soon Cassie knows all of their secrets…. Cassie soon decides she wants this life more than anything, and decides she has what it takes to have that life as well as the tools to get it.

I will leave it at that because this one is WILD and I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say it is about so much more than you think. It twists and turns and when you think the plot is getting off track know that it is not, there is a reason for everything, it all ties together and your mind is blown. Obsessions, lies, haunting pasts and unreliable narrators, what more could you want?

Thank you to Ballantine Books and BookSparks for the gifted copy to review.

Cassie is a disturbed woman. She is also emotionally unstable. She also has an obsession with personal emails that she found while reviewing other emails at her job. She is unbalanced.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron is a psychological thriller about Cassie and her new temp job where she goes through correspondence for a fraud suit. While reading through all these emails, she ends up becoming obsessed with one of the firm's partners, Forest Watts. This story was over-the-top, and the twist didn't really work for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Well, this book shocked me. I went into it blind and I’m thankful I did. It reminded me of Fatal Attraction. A woman becomes consumed and obsessed with a partner at the law firm she temps at. Great twists! Solid thriller

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
2021-08-07CategoriesARC, Ballantine Books, NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - BallantineJust One Look, Lindsay Cameron, mystery, suspense, thrillerLeave a Commenton Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
Book Cover
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books

Date of publication: July 27th 2021

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible | B&N | WorldCat

Format Read: Unedited ARC

Received From: Publisher

Goodreads Synopsis:

A young woman’s escalating obsession with a seemingly perfect man leads her down a dangerous path in this novel of suspense brimming with envy, desire, and deception.

Eyes aren’t the windows to the soul. Emails are.

Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, Cassie finds the only way she can pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. The daily drudgery amplifies all that her life is lacking–love, friends, stability–and leaves her with too much time on her hands, which she spends fixating on the mistakes that brought her to this point.

While sorting through a relentless deluge of emails, something catches her eye: the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn’t read them. But it’s just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can’t look away.

Every day, twenty floors below Forest’s corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their apparently perfect life, Cassie finds renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks.

Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry, because she wants this life more than anything. Maybe if she plays make-believe long enough, it will become real for her. But when Cassie orchestrates a “chance” meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws the state of his marriage into question, the fantasy she’s been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn’t simply admire Annabelle–she wants to take her place. And she’s armed with the tools to make that happen.

First Line:

As I stepped off the elevator on the second floor, I found myself silently begging for a calamity.

Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
I was super excited to start reading Just One Look. The blurb did its job and hooked me. I needed to know what happened to Cassie and where her fixation was going with Forest/Annabelle.

Just One Look had an exciting plotline. Cassie is a disgraced lawyer who is now working as a temp in another law firm. Her job at the temp agency is to read through emails and see if they are relevant to the fraud suit. By accident, Cassie reads an email from a hotshot lawyer named Forest to his wife Annabelle and becomes obsessed. Her obsession takes her down a dangerous path, where she finds that not all is what it seems. That what is read in an email isn’t exactly the whole truth.

The plotline for Just One Look was medium-paced. There was a lot of time explaining the fraud case and the inner workings of firms (which I had zero interest in). That did slow down the plot at the beginning of the book. Cassie’s vague references to what happened to her months earlier also dragged down the pace for me. “The Incident” was not fully explained until halfway through the book. Until then, it was up to me to imagine what happened (and no, it was nothing like I imagined). There was also some lag in the middle of the book (right around when Dalton died). But that lag didn’t last long. The author was able to get the book back on track.

Cassie was a hot mess and she knew it. She drank too much and she obsessed over her ex-boyfriend. She also looked down on her coworkers (mainly because she was once a hotshot lawyer). I found her annoying and immature for most of the book. But, when her obsession with Forest/Annabelle started, I knew I was in for a ride. And man, what a ride it was.

The mystery angle of the book was well written. What happened and who killed Dalton took me by surprise. There were also two twists in the plotline that made my mouth drop. I called one of them but the other I didn’t.

The stalker angle of the book was very creepy to read. I understood why Cassie latched onto Forest/Annabelle. But as that storyline progressed, I was mentally telling her to stop. It didn’t surprise me when that storyline ended the way it did. It made for some great, tense reading, but no surprise on my end.

The end of the book was anti-climatic after the explosive ending to the stalker and mystery angles. I didn’t quite understand why the author chose to go the route she did, but in the end, I was happy she did it. I like seeing what happens after a character goes through what Cassie did. But it also showed that no matter how much someone tries to change, they are the same person deep down.

I would recommend Just One Look to anyone over the age of 21. There are sexual situations, mild violence, mild language, and alcohol use/abuse.

First I would like to say a huge thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️ For me

Cassie Woodson is working as a temp at a Law firm due to get being recently fired from her last job as an associate. Cassies job is to scan emails that have keywords flagged for a certain case and mark them as important or not, and so on. She stumbles across some personal emails between a higher up, Forest Watts, and his wife Annabelle. She instantly becomes obsessed with the two of them- stalking them online and in real life. They consume her whole life, and she makes her mission to find out every little detail about them. And she does...but things start to go wrong when one of her work associates is found dead. Cassie discovers somethings that she wasn't supposed to and it could mean more trouble than she thinks.

things I liked- I liked how crazy Cassie was- Girl on the Train meets Behind her Eyes crazy. The whole book is told in first person, so you get to be inside Cassies head while she's making these insane decisions and thinking they are logical. I loved how the author revealed a little more about her past at a time because it really kept me interested. Why was Cassie fired from her last job? Did she get caught stalking over her last boss? It was very interesting to read from the perspective of someone completely obsessed and consumed over someone they barely know.

What I didn't love to much was lack of dialogue. Yes, there is some..but not enough. I like a book where people have interactions and you're not just reading their thoughts or actions the whole time. I also wish there would have been more conflict between Cassie, Forest and Annabelle. I was honestly expecting WAY MORE interaction between Cassie and Annabelle to the point of danger. She was completely obsessed and I think it should have been more intense between them. There was also a random side story which the author tried to tie into the main plot, but it ended up being very messy and distracting. There was definitely not enough suspense and drama in this story for me.

Down-on-her-luck Cassie takes a temp job at a ritzy law firm because it appears she has nowhere left to turn after her own personal and career woes. While reviewing emails for a big case at the firm, along with an assembly line of temps, she comes across private emails between a handsome, rich lawyer and his beautiful, cultured wife. Cassie gets swept away by the emails that depict their enviable lives and their romantic love for each other. If only she could have that life, things would be perfect.

The emails entice her to start her own investigation into their lives beyond the emails. This quickly turns into obsession where she's basically stalking them virtually and in person. Will she get caught? Will she discover any insidious secrets while on the prowl?

From the start, this thriller debut drew me in with its succinct yet highly descriptive writing. You'll get the goods on the lifestyle Cassie covets. You get a peek into the very unglamorous life of a legal temp. You wonder what may really be going on in Cassie's mind. The suspense builds and builds while Cassie gets dangerously close to her "targets". Every page encourages you to turn to the next one and so forth. I found it exciting and a great read.

My only issues were some storylines that were not resolved with Cassie and found the epilogue a little too far-fetched. Despite this, I thought this was highly entertaining and perfect for those looking for a new suspense novel after exhausting all the other more famous writers in the genre. This author will be one to watch. I really enjoyed this book and was thankful to receive it.

Cassie Woodson made an impulsive and grave mistake at her last job and now is working as a temp in the lowest level of a law firm editing corporate business emails. You see, Cassie was a rising star in another prestigious law firm and she now has a destroyed career and her savings are almost depleted and had to take any job willing to overlook her tarnished legal reputation. This position is mindless and mundane until the day she happens upon a personal email from one of the partners and starts to fantasize about about this man Forest Watts and his wife Annabelle and what their life might be like. Only Cassie can't stop there as she continues to read more emails and wants to see this man, Forest in person and as time goes on Cassie realizes that she has to find a way to be in his life and show him that he needs her and not his wife Annabelle.

What a page turner. I just loved this book with all the craziness that never stops. Give me More! I just. couldn't decide if I felt sorry for Cassie or just couldn't stand her and her devious tactics that she thought were normal if she wasn't caught doing them. It's just so creepy to think about how many people have access to one's personal emails and the sender or receiver are in the dark about having any knowledge of this complete invasion of privacy. This fact truly gives me a case of the "Willies". This is up there on my list with being one of the best stalker books that I have read and Believe Me, I have read quite a few. And if all this wasn't enough the book took a fantastic and clever twist (Wow) that sent the story in another unforseen direction. Last but not least "The Ending", oh yes, what a great and so appropriate ending. Lindsay Cameron has written a superb and well-written book about stalking and how one could never imagine how such a normal and nice looking man or woman could be very unstable and capable of dangerous and secretive devices to get what they want and need while the victim hasn't a clue why a stalker would choose them. Sooo Creepy! Just think, the next stranger you smile at could be YOUR Next Stalker!

I want to thank the publisher "Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books" and Netgalley for granting my wish request and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone.

I highly recommend this suspenseful book and have given a rating of 4 1/2 CREEPY and FABULOUS 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠 STARS!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I was definitely intrigued by this book enough to keep turning pages, and it was a wild ride, but it also felt like a "You" knock-off & that book is hard to beat. Of course, the female obsessive was a nice twist, and the end was a bit unexpected, so still worth a read!

Well, to say Cassie is mentally unstable would be an understatement. Sure, she had a difficult childhood, but her actions as an adult are psycho-style crazy. Her over-the-top obsession with a partner at the temp job she is working doesn't take much time to turn into full-blown stalking. It was an entertaining read, and the epilogue was brilliant!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Are you wanting a creepy, cringe worthy read? Well, start reading Just One Look and believe me, be prepared for some interesting, suspenseful twists! To sum it up….a psychological thriller is certainly what you get when reading Just One Look.
The main character, Cassie, is need of psychological help. She is a bundle of chaos and craziness waiting to explode.
Not a favorite read for me but one that did keep me engaged. The big twist at the end was eye opening.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are my own.

Whoa- what a ride! I don't know how to review this one without spoiling the whole story.

General synopsis: girl starts job, girl reads law partners emails, girl creepily falls in love with and stalks said lawyer, bad things happen.

Lol- this is a shitty synopsis but it's basically as general as I can get without spoiling anything.

This book keep me super engaged and weirdly I was rooting for Cassie even though her behavior made me cringe every other sentence.

4.5/5 stars from me!

Thank you to Net Galley, Lindsey Cameron, and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this one in exchange for my honest opinion!

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of Just One Look by Lindsey Cameron, in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I am a total sucker for thrillers that showcase OBSESSION and creeptastic stalkers. Even better when said stalker gets more than they bargained for. Just One Look fits the bill!

"He has no idea that I have access to every corner of his life. Even the dusty ones." Oooooo, intrigue.

Cassie Woodson is a lawyer who is in the process of re-inventing herself. Part of the process involves is getting back into law at the bottom of the barrel. She soon falls into a partners email, uncovering intimate conversations between him and his wife. Cassie soon becomes obsessed and filled with envy. Naturally, as these stories tend to go, things are not always as they appear and we are reminded that we never truly know what goes on behind closed doors. Now, this was super quick and enjoyable read, but unfortunately felt a bit run of the mill for me. Still a fun summer thriller and definitely worth a read!

A young woman's escalating obsession with a seemingly perfect man leads her down a dangerous path in this novel of suspense brimming with envy, desire, and deception.

couldn’t put it down cover to cover. read it in a day. YOU/HIDDEN BODIES/YOU LOVE ME meets GIRL ON THE TRAIN. brief synopsis: Cassie Woodson is a new temp at a law firm when she encounters an alluring lawyer Forest Watts & his wife by reading their email(s) as part of her job. she becomes obsessed & stalks them. twists & turns through the end. I do not want to glorify stalking, & I think that the way this book portrays it is ultimately well done. Cassie is both a sympathetic character and an unreliable narrator. her narration is extremely creepy at times. But she’s ultimately sympathetic and a product of misfortunes in her past. book implies subtly that if Cassie applied her obsessiveness & research skills toward a worthier cause — which she could do if her human needs for love and respect were fulfilled at an early age — she’d be a more productive member of society. exceedingly well written, paced, & plotted. if you’re up for a stalking thriller, JUST ONE LOOK is for you!

Cassie, the MC is crazy! In all the good ways crazy girls are. Not only does she have me changing my passwords but now I’m considering all those emails I’ve sent to Hubby over the years. Oops.

She is fantastic and such a riot to read. She reminds a lot of one of the MC’s in Robyn Harding’s HER PRETTY FACE.

The best parts of this book are being privy to each of her interactions with other characters in the book which will make you feel better about any social inadequacies you may have.

She is so much fun..

Thanks to @netgalley and #randomhousepublishing #ballantinebooks
For this earc in exchange for my honest review!

JUST ONE LOOK by Lindsay Cameron is out today!

Snag yourself a copy, and come back here so we can chat about it.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me. I thought the narrator was cloying, and while I did appreciate that this was a slower burn and I usually love reading about when someone gets publicly shamed, I couldn't connect to Cassie and her delusion. That said, I think this was part of the point. There is only 1 POV, and it got tiring being in her head. I knew she was making bad decisions, but they weren't fun to watch. It was more of a oh honey kind of thing, and she never really got the agency that I was hoping she would. I also questioned the sharing of so much personal information via email, but hey. We do forget who's watching sometimes...

Overall, around 3 stars from me.

Well now, this one takes "stalking" to a whole other level with some great twists thrown in for fun!
I was not sure about this book at first, but I ended up really enjoying it - as much as I did not like how Cassie Woodson behaved, I understood it and at times empathized with her which surprised me!
Cassie just wants to be in love. Sometimes she takes risks to get there and becomes a little, shall we say, obsessed. A very different read and very engaging especially after the first 1/4 of the book.
Thankful for the ARC!

Cassie's story was intriguing, fast-paced, refreshing, and interesting. A former attorney trying to pay her bills as a legal temp in a law firm. Then something happens and she discovers some interesting things about Forester, a partner in the firm and things really get ongoing. It was a refreshing read from my normal tropes and genres, it definitely had me entertained but I wished it was a bit more developed, sometimes I felt it was a bit rushed and others dragged. Overall I recommend this thriller. If you like You by Caroline Kepness, then this is right up your alley.

Thank you for my review copy.
This was not a good idea for me. I am putting it down. I feel somewhat misled by the synopsis. I'm not sure what I thought I was getting.....but this was not it. Sadly.

Just One Look is a page-turning thriller, exactly the type of book I love most! It offers a glimpse into the mind of a stalker, and just how she got so deeply obsessed with her target. You may find yourself thinking you have everything figured out, but there are plenty of twists to keep you guessing where the story will go!