Thank you Penguin Randomhouse Canada for the opportunity to read this book before publication. I love Kelley Armstrong as she is a Canadian writer and I am a Canadian reader. In fact, I was lucky enough to find a signed copy of her book at a thrift store. This is completely on me but I didn't realize Someone Is Always Watching is a YA book. I'm not a fan of YA and decided to discontinue reading. 5 stars for a DNF as I cannot comment on the complete quality of the book. However, what I did read was extremely well-written... It is just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada/Tundra Books for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Blythe and her friends know something weird is going on. Gabrielle isn't herself, and when an "incident" at school has her under psychiatric supervision, her friends start to ask questions. Siblings Tanya and Tucker, the latter of which Blythe has been told to stay away from, are on the case to figure out what's happening to Gabi, but there are more layers than any of them can imagine. Connected through the workplace their parents all share, the teens start to realize that not everything they know is true - and someone is always watching.

The title is intriguing for sure, and the book immediately launches into an aspect that connects clearly with that title. From there, it gets deeper. As the reader, you are given more information than the characters in the story have, but not enough to have everything figured out. It's a gripping story, and as it unravels, you find yourself wanting to know more and more.

The ending wasn't what I expected, but that adds to the mystery!

CW: violence, blood/gore, institutionalization, death, mentions of suicide, gaslighting, gun violence

I am a fairly huge fan of Kelley Armstrong so I was thrilled to receive this ARC of her new stand alone book. The story is unraveled slowly as we (the reader) learn what is going on along with the main characters in the story. Basically, this is a YA novel that introduces us to a group of teenagers in a private school who begin to realize that something is going on when one of their own has a break down.

This book held my interest and had me wondering exactly what was going on. The pacing helped to build the suspense as more and more things began to be revealed. After all of the build up, I will admit being less than impressed with the final climax, but it didn't take away from the level of investment that I had already.

I did feel that the character development with the main MC's was done well. Tucker was my favorite character and I continued to want him to be okay and for people to just give him a break. Bliss was okay as the straightlaced neurotic female MC and their siblings were also well developed secondary characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone.

*3,5 stars

This book is perfect for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder.

It starts as a very freaky story about a few high schoolers, where one of them suddenly snaps and kills their teacher - but the one witness doesn't remember it happening. It then starts to unravel a big plot about the group of teenagers, involving a neuroscience lab in the same town.

I want to start with the good things, I absolutely loved the unraveling of the backstories, how little pieces got brought together and we finally got to pick up on some clues. I especially loved Tanya and Sydney's clues. I do have to say that, if you pay attention to the personality of all the characters (Sydney's nightmares, Tanya's coldness, Tucker's love for his sister, and especially the way Blythe is overprotective of her younger sister) you can make the puzzle yourself the moment you know what kind of crimes are involved (I immediatly guessed Blythe was also part of the program when they mentioned a girl killing her younger sister, for example). But, that just shows that the characters are well formed, and I feel like casual readers might not pick up on those clues.

Talking about clues, this is my biggest annoyance with the book, and why I had to lower it to 3,5 stars instead of keeping it at 4. When your twist of memories being implanted to hide a crime only gets revealed in the last half of the book - maybe don't put it in your synopsis. It made this book a whole lot less exciting and thrilling to read, seeing as I already knew what was going on with these kids.

The ending was also a bit.. anticlimactic for me, I expected way more behind the CMT, a big old evil plot, but we never even got to know anything about the lab.

But, overall, this was still an enjoyable read, and young adult thriller fans will surely love this book!

I may have neglected some household tasks to finish this. Wow, what an amazing story! I didn't want it to end. This story is about a tight-knit group of friends and one of them is starting to feel an increasing sense of paranoia to the point she snaps. The question is, is it paranoia or is it something else? A definite page turner and I couldn't put it down. Kelley has yet again written another incredible book! Some trigger warnings might be needed at the beginning though. But I love this so much!

So I have read everything this wonderful author has ever written.

So when I saw she has written this gem I have to ask for it. If a book was a film this is that book, you get that feel of reading a film as you follow the characters stories from having no member to it slowly return and the ace rep was written so well and it make me happy to see it as ace is hardly written in a respectful way.

Teens and their actions and reactions are the main part of this story. Things are starting to happen within a friend group and they don't understand what and why their friends are behaving in certain ways and some of their actions lead to a lot of questions for the others to try and figure out what's happening. Dreams and memories are being triggered with these teens that don't coincide with what they think they know. A good book with strong writing, would have liked an epilogue for down the road. Thanks NetGalley.

Promising novel, intriguing plot, makes you think about what's right and what's wrong, the nature-nurture debate, ... But you have to make it halfway through before you arrive at what's described in the synopsis on Goodreads (and you won't read much that isn't yet described in the synopsis). So don't read the one on Goodreads but head over to Bookbub for the synopsis (as shown below).

~~~
Synopsis :
Their lives are a lie. Their memories may not be real. A new psychological thriller by #1 NYT bestselling author, Kelley Armstrong.
Blythe and her friends—Gabrielle, and brother and sister Tucker and Tanya—have always been a tight friend group, attending a local high school and falling in and out of love with each other. But an act of violence has caused a rift between Blythe and Tucker . . . and unexpected bursts of aggression and disturbing nightmares have started to become more frequent in their lives.
The strange happenings culminate in a shocking event at school: Gabrielle is found covered in blood in front of their deceased principal, with no memory of what happened.
Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing, threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t even trust their own memories?
~~~

Now a bit more into detail. When I saw Kelley Armstrong was going to publish a new book, I really wanted to give it a try because 1 I've enjoyed reading her books when I was younger and 2 the (Goodreads) synopsis sounds absolutely promising. The synopsis immediately brings me to the thing that annoyed me the most: it takes the main characters way to much time to start figuring everything out. As a reader, you basically know what will happen in 75% of the book just because of the Goodreads synopsis, but the main characters need the entire book to figure it all out. Only the details and the ending are new for the reader, all that happens in between is basically nothing new. Nevertheless the small plotwists are well written, the search of the main characters to figure everything out too. The plot is original and really appealed to me as a criminologist (the way CMT tries to rehabilitate the kids, the nature nurture debate, whether you could do all this in a deontological correct way, ... But don't worry, this book isn't an in depth analysis of all this, it just skims the surface very quickly). Once you get past 50% the pacing is good as well. You also empathise with the characters. The ending could have used a little more retaliation in my opinion, everyone still seems to get away with everything quite easily (plus the last two chapters felt a little bit rushed), but nevertheless all pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly at the end.
There was just one other thing that felt a bit strange to me. In the beginning, the context of the school is sketched, but soon that fades into the background. Along with the daily lives of the main characters, that also disappears. Suddenly, all that matters is unravelling what is going on with CMT. That there are only 24 hours in a day, that there are other obligations, all that falls away. This makes the story feel somewhat detached from reality at times. By this I do not mean that every time the characters have to eat or go to the bathroom, it has to be described. But a slightly better balance between the two extremes would benefit the story.

So overall I did enjoy the story, it offered some food for thought, is well written and sometimes keeps you on the edge of your seat. I also really liked the main characters. But I think a more limited synopsis that still reflects the gist of the story but without giving so much away from the beginning would benefit the reading experience. For example by using the one on Bookbub everywhere, that one would be a lot better, instead of the one on Goodreads spoiling everything. Hence 3,5/5 ⭐, because most of the story had already been spoiled before it even started, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Someone Is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong in exchange for an honest review. I seriously think Kelley Armstrong can do no wrong, no matter the genre, everything she writes is gold. She could write about fluffy, pink bunnies taking over the world and it would be interesting and thought provoking, just like this book. It's not about bunnies, but it was really intriguing and pulled me in to the last page. There were even moments I shouted "wahoo!". I really liked the premise and I'm not sure how to explain it without giving stuff away, so I'll just say it was a teen drama, psychological twister, murder mystery and it was awesome.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded really interesting, and I know that from reading Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, she can deliver a solid story. However, this one fell flat for me. I continue to struggle with her one offs and young adult books. I agree with another reviewer that a lot of the reveal moments are spoiled by the summary for the book.

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors. Her books are always a hit! What an interesting premise for this one! We’ve got a small corporate run town with an even smaller private school. What’s happening to these kids? Are memories being changed or controlled or suppressed? We don’t know but this band of not so merry teenagers are determined to find out what’s happening to them. Who is complicit? Do their parents know? This one will keep you guessing until the very end!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a free E-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Someone is always watching by Kelley Armstrong is a Young Adult Mystery book. The story revolves around a group of friends, who try to find out what is wrong with their friend.

I haven`t read a book by Kelley Armstrong before, so I had no idea what was waiting for me. But the story delivered what I was hoping for. The writing was easy for me to read. You only have one point of view even if the book revolves around a group of friends. i am not quite sure if I liked the style of changing point of view to reveal some key elements of the story. Some reader might like it. It was not my cup of tea, but that is fine.

The idea of this book is amazing, but I think in the blurb and premise of this book too much of the story was revealed. It took some of the gasping "WHAT?!?!?!" - effect of the mystery. It was for sure a quick and nice read!

Loved the premise but it really fell flat on execution… character stereotypes behaving in completely implausible ways to a fairly damp conclusions.

There is a reason why Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors! Someone is Always Watching is top-notch!!

I love Kelley's adult books but this is the first teen/young adult title I've read. I really enjoyed it. I would be interested in seeing this tie into Rockton somehow. It gives me the same vibes.

I’ve always been a fan of Kelley’s books. This was a YA mystery that for sure will get your attention but I felt like as I read on it became very slow and did not really go anywhere big for me. Some parts felt rushed and others just went on for to long. Perhaps I’ve just read to many other major thrillers so this one just wasn’t for me but may be perfect for others! I would mention though that this book entails some things so just know trigger warning wise there is talk of sexual assault and abuse and gun use.

There were many shocking twists and turns in this book that I did not expect! This book was so good, I couldn't put it fish and read it in one sitting

I received this ARC for an honest review. Kelley Armstrong wrote an impressive mystery. I don't know what to say about this book because anything I say might give too much away. This story is about a group of teenagers (names are Bliss, Tucker, Tanya, Devon & Callum) that are trying to figure out what is wrong with their friend Gabi. The only hint I will give is that all their parents work for the same company CMT.
You think Kelley Armstrong is guiding you down one path then you realize you gone down a completely different path. I love the quality of writing in Kelley Armstrong's books. She knows how to pull you into the story, and you don't want it to end.
This story isn't just a YA novel it's also a mystery. I enjoyed trying to figure it out. Kelley Armstrong knows how to write believable characters. You can see yourself reacting like her characters.
I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it immensely.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this book even though I spent 70% of the book trying to decide if I was reading Pretty Little Liars, The Butterfly Effect, or just some wild goose chase that was going nowhere. 😂

I especially loved the friendships, sibling bonds, and even the romance throughout the book. It's a true testament of friendship for the characters to be able to stick up for one another.

The thing I'm most disappointed about: reading the synopsis. This book would have been 20x better if I had went in blind without knowing anything. No one likes spoilers in the book description.

SOMEONE IS ALWAYS WATCHING is a YA Mystery that will have you hooked from the very beginning. I was. It follows Blythe, Tanya and Tucker as they try to figure out exactly what happened when their friend, Gabrielle, suffered what looked to be a psychotic break and then disappeared. The four of them had been subjects of an experimental memory wiping program, because what do you do when four young children had witnessed or caused a horrific death that should have changed their lives? But then the memories came back, and now there are questions and they want answers, but first they need to find Gabrielle, and that is not an easy feat.
This book pulled me in from the very first page. It hooked me and I couldn’t get enough of it. It led to many late nights where I’d want to keep reading, but I knew I needed to sleep. It was such an intriguing story, because what do you do with young children who have done such horrific things that remembering is more painful than forgetting?

There was not one second I wasn’t interested. I haven’t felt this excited about a book in a long time. Blythe, as a character, felt real to me. Her motives, her attitudes. I loved her and I loved following her journey as they try to figure out just what happened to them. Tucker interested me from the moment we got to meet him, because he was a quiet, understanding boy who had a heart of gold, and I can’t get enough of boys like him.

These characters were well rounded and I enjoyed reading about them. I liked how they stood up for themselves, even if that got them labelled as angry or violent. I liked Tanya, who had a ‘does not care’ attitude and owned it. The plot twists added so much to the story and felt natural. They only begged me to read on more.

The writing was easy and simple to read, while having a depth to it that added a whole other layer to the story. As soon as I finished this book, I went onto Amazon and pre-ordered the hardcover copy, because I enjoyed it that much.

The only thing I have to say is that I wish we got more of Sydney. It was sad when the reader got to know her own backstory but then we never witnessed her learning about it, or even a bit afterwards to see if she was going to be okay, after what she learned.

I would definitely read another of Armstrong’s YA mysteries, if she ever writes another one. This was captivating from the very beginning to the end and I’m so glad I got the chance to read it early.

Thank you, Netgalley, for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.