Cover Image: The Sleepwalker

The Sleepwalker

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Member Reviews

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This book was absolutely amazing and I really could not put it down. Sam wakes up next to his deceased wife, Tessa, and his baby is missing. Having a condition that effects his sleep and causes him to be not only a sleepwalker but also violent, he assumes that he did something and does not remember. I figured out part of the story early on but the twists were amazing until the very last page. Great read!!!!

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. From the first chapter it gripped my interest and did not let go until the very end.

A father wakes to find his wife dead in bed next to him and his baby girl missing from her bassinet beside the bed, He harbours a dark side - he sleepwalks and has no recollection of what happens during the night when he goes into a sleepwalking state. He has also been known to do some bad things when he is asleep. Did he kill his wife? Where is his daughter? Will his past come back to haunt him? An unlikely ally shows up to help him figure out the mystery behind it all (someone has has not spoken to in years) - I questioned why they showed up and what was going to come out regarding the father's past.

This book had me questioning a lot of things. Was the father capable of hurting his family? Where was the baby? What bad things had he done in his sleep in the past? It did have a few jaw dropping moments, that's for sure.

At a few points in the book I thought I had it figured out but then a small twist would happen and throw me for a loop. It was a quick read but a very good one. I am looking forward to reading other books by this author.

I would recommend this book for a quick, twist read with a pretty shocking ending.

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Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever.

Sam Fulford is living a perfectly normal life, except for one little thing: a strange sleep condition that causes him to roam in the night and occasionally become violent.

So when Sam wakes one devastating morning to discover his wife dead beside him and his baby daughter missing, his whole world implodes. Did he accidentally kill his wife during a night time episode? If so, where is his baby?

Just as Sam begins to accept the possibility that he is guilty, he finds a photograph that makes him realise someone else may be involved, that he may be innocent and might yet find his missing daughter.

But there’s a complication. Sam has a dark secret that he just can't allow to surface. And it’s soon made clear to him that if he presses on with his quest to find out what happened that terrible night, his secret will be revealed to the world.

Leaving Sam wondering whether it might be better to confess to a crime he’s not even certain he committed. Faced with an unimaginable dilemma, Sam begins to wonder: would it be better for everyone if he was guilty?

Filled with shocking secrets and a sinister twist, The Sleepwalker is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end.

Holy plot twists. I thought this book was amazing. My first read and not my last by L C George. Will recommend to this story to those who love thrillers.

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I'll start with the prologue.
He shoved me into the seats.
I was horrified when I read the prologue.
A three-month-old baby is missing.
Dad crying.
Unfortunately, his wife was dead.
What happened to this family?
The prologue sounds terrible.
And this is just the beginning...


Tessa is married to Samuel (Sam).
After a miscarriage, she wanted to get pregnant again quickly.
She got paranoid as soon as her period came.
When she became pregnant after some time, she was delighted.
She was happy with the birth of her daughter.
On the other hand, her body was exhausted.
I suspected she had post-partum depression.
The storm of hormones plus irregular sleep give such effects.
It is known that newborns give their parents a hard time in the first weeks of their lives.

We meet Samuel at the worst moment of his life.
He woke up.
His dead wife lay in bed.
The three-month-old daughter has disappeared.
What happened to them?
We learn that Sam suffers from a terrible disease called parasomnia.
This is a group of many different sleep disorders relating to abnormal or undesirable behaviour during sleep.
Parasomnias include night terrors, nightmares, bruxism, sleepwalking, sleep talking or night paralysis.
Could it be that he killed his wife and took his own daughter away?
Will a hypnotherapist help with this?
Where has baby Cory gone?

You will also meet Linda.
She used to be Sam's girlfriend.
She is a manipulative and mentally ill woman.
He will not back down from anything.
She did everything to make Sam turn his back on his sister Claire.
Not only that, she did everything to cut him off from his friends.
They quarrelled very often.
How did Sam and Linda break up?
I didn't like Linda.
She is a very toxic person.
What happened to her?

I was very scared while reading this book.
I felt sorry for the main character.
I had some suspicions about the culprit.
I knew who the killer was.
I was 99.9% sure who the kidnapper was.
Were my suspicions correct?
You will find out by reading this novel.
It's worth reading.
It draws you in from the first moment.
It grabs you in its claws and doesn't want to let go.
An interesting plot, good action and extraordinary characters make this book flow.
I was shocked after reading it.
A very interesting psychological thriller with a surprising finale.
The perfect story for all thriller lovers.
Do you dare to read it?
Watch as Sam gets to the truth.
Will the truth set him free?
Or would she nail him further and send him to hell?
I encourage you to read this book.
The author portrayed her characters perfectly.
She described the problems they were struggling with perfectly.
If you have problems, don't be afraid to talk about them.

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I thought this looked and sounded like a good psychological thriller.

From the beginning of the book, I was emotionally invested. I wanted to know what had happened to the characters, and I wanted to know why.

The characters in the book felt real to me, and I felt like I connected with them while I was reading. It kept me guessing, and had me turning the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

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What a fantastic debut novel. Sam has a great life with his lovely wife and beautiful baby daughter. Sam suffers from a sleep disorder and one day he wakes up to find his wife dead and his daughter missing.
Told from multiple character points of view and multiple time lines the story us well written and very engaging. Sadly i gueesed rhe twist about half way through and this did spoil my enjoyment a little as it became slighly predictable. The ending and final twist were good but i felt too many loose ends were tied up too quickly. I wanted more.
Thank you to net gallery and the publisher for the arc. Look forward to the next novel.

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First off I want to thank @netgalley, @inkubatorbooks for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy it, but I just didn't. I was intrigued by the premise but it somehow fell apart for me. It just wasn't giving me the thrilling feeling I look for in a thriller.

The characters were not likeable in my opinion, I didn't feel anything for them. The concept of parasomnias was interesting but fell flat. I felt it was slow and I couldn't get into the story. It took me a while to get through it.

This just wasn't the read for me, but it could be for you.

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If there’s one thing that I like doing, it’s discovering new authors, and L. C. George is certainly a new author for me. I read the synopsis of ‘The Sleepwalker’ and it certainly sounded like the sort of psychological thriller that I particularly enjoy. I couldn’t wait to start reading and so without further ado, I grabbed a cup of tea, grabbed my Kindle and settled down for what proved to be an interesting afternoon of reading. Overall I did enjoy reading ‘The Sleepwalker’ but more about that in a bit.

I have to be honest and say that it took me a little while to get into ‘The Sleepwalker’ which had a lot to do with the fact that I couldn’t take to either of the main characters because in their own way they irritated me. I realised that not liking the characters wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I did eventually get into the story and from then on I found it hard to put the book down for any length of time. I developed my own theories as to what was going to happen and so I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I had wandered in the opposite direction. The more of the book that i read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. All too quickly I reached the end of ‘The Sleepwalker’. I found ‘The Sleepwalker’ to be a gripping, tense and dramatic story, which certainly kept me guessing.

‘The Sleepwalker’ is well written. The author has one of those easy going writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. The author certainly knows how to draw the reader into what proves to be a tense read. For me, this was more of a slow burn type of story, The story starts off slow but then the pace of the story gathers momentum and leads to a dramatic conclusion with one hell of a twist. The story is written using a dual timeline. One timeline focuses on the events leading up to the death of a character and the other timeline focuses on the present day and focuses on the spouse of the deceased and his journey to find out the truth. I did think that perhaps that would prove confusing but I needn’t have worried because the different timelines interlink well and the story flows seamlessly as a result. I love the way in which the author makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action.

In short and overall I did enjoy reading ‘The Sleepwalker’ and I would recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of L. C. George’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

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I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review as part of the book tour hosted by Zooloos Book Tours.

The Sleepwalker is a gripping psychological thriller that twists and turns right up until the end. Sam seemingly has the perfect life - married to the woman he adores and finally having a baby after years of trying to conceive. But when Sam awakens one day to find his beloved wife dead beside him and his three month old baby missing, Sam worries he's done something he can't recall. Sam suffers from a sleep disorder called parasomnia, which means he often sleeps and can not recall what he's dreamt. He's on occasion hit his wife in the face and the abdomen whilst she was pregnant with their miracle baby. Sam naturally fears he has killed his wife, and he requests hypnotherapy to see if he can retrieve any recollection through doing so. When the sessions don't bring anything to light, his therapist suggests delving into his past and childhood to see if this brings anything to light. Sam begins to think he should just confess to his wife's murder to save his most hidden secret from being unveiled. But when he then discovers a photograph that could give him the proof that he is innocent, Sam is left with a dilemma he must decide quickly on to decide his fate. This book was cleverly plotted and executed and left me pondering just who the killer was, and what Sam's secret was that could be so bad he didn't want it unearthing. I couldn't read this fast enough, and I enjoyed reading about and learning more about the sleep disorder parasomnia, too.

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I'm still in shock after reading this book. This is a book that will stay with you for a very long time. L. C. George debut novel checks all my psychological thriller boxes. I found some parts of the book to be expected, thinking that those parts are anticlimactic, but when I got to the end of the book, I knew that this is a masterpiece. This is no ordinary thriller. The Sleepwalker should be read and studied learners of English everywhere for the amount of English idioms used in it can transform your English to a whole new level. Thank you Netgalley and Inkunator Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I already added L. C. George to my favorite authors. So looking forward to your next book, Ms. George.

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★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)

"Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever."

This thriller is so good I can't believe it is a debut! And despite knowing the direction it was taking from the beginning, I thoroughly enjoyed the fast pace and short snappy chapters coupled with the multiple narratives from both the past and the present. Conjuring up a wealth of secrets buried deep within parasomniac nightmares, Laura George has penned a disturbing thriller that really leaves you wondering just what he is hiding.

Sam Fulford has the perfect life...now. After a disastrous relationship from which he barely escaped unscathed, he found love with Tessa, they married and after years of trying to conceive, the couple are finally blissfully pregnant. There is just one thing that threatens their blissful happiness and perfect lives. Sam has a sleep condition that is so unusual and unique, known as parasomnia, in which he will often sleepwalk, have bizarre conversations, experience vivid nightmares or terrors and even becoming violent and striking out both physically and verbally. All while he is asleep. Sam is completely oblivious to his behaviour during these times though he is well aware that it happens. And it has become something of a problem for Tessa.

Tessa loves Sam with her whole being. She loves being married to him and that they have created this new life together. She knows he will be a fantastic dad to their child. But she can't help but be just a little bit afraid of him. Not of him, as such, but of the person he becomes during a parasomniac episode. If the experience unnerves him, it terrifies her. On occasion, Sam has already lashed out and struck her in his sleep, remembering nothing when he awakes to find her cradling her abdomen and trembling with fear in a panic attack. Now she fears him harming their unborn child. This fear creates a growing distance between them which is only exacerbated once their baby is born and Tessa will stop at nothing to protect her child. Even if it means staying up all night to ensure Sam does not harm their baby during one of his episodes.

And then one morning, Sam's entire world implodes when he wakes to discover Tessa dead beside him and baby Cora missing. Against all odds, Sam worries he may have struck out and harmed Tessa in his sleep, having no knowledge of what happened when he woke. But that doesn't explain three month old Cora's disappearance. And yet there is no sign of a struggle or a break in. So who killed Tessa and what has happened to baby Cora?

Naturally, the police's first instinct is to work on the assumption that the husband did it...after all, that's what usually happens in cases like these, isn't it? But try as he might, Sam professes his innocence all the while at the back of his mind wondering if he really did have something to do with it. But then, where is Cora? Desperate for answers, Sam even suggests to police that he try hypnotherapy to see if they can unlock the doors to that night, jogging any memory of what may have happened. And yet despite not wanting to believe he had anything to do with Tessa's death, Sam harbours a secret that could change everything should it be discovered. And it leaves him questioning if he really is guilty...

And then, just when all hope seems lost, he finds a photo which propels him back into a past he has no wish to revisit...a photo which may hold a vital clue to prove his innocence and explain everything...

Wow! THE SLEEPWALKER is an addictive read from beginning to end with short snappy chapters that kept the pace moving, ending on a cliffhanger and making the reader want to read "just one more chapter". It is a chilling tale that is disturbing and compelling cleverly plotted with complex issues surrounding sleep disorders, trauma, mental health issues, grief and abuse - to name a few. It is a thriller that certainly packs a punch that leaves you, on some level, feeling deeply troubled. The scenes of parasomnia were incredibly chilling and disturbing at best.

There are a handful of characters to this spine-tingling thriller - some of whom you love to hate - which kind of narrows down the suspect pool. The narrators are unreliable and the tension is palpable throughout. And yet despite knowing the direction in which the story is going and correctly figuring out a major plot twist from the beginning, it didn't affect my enjoyment in any way. The story is so cleverly crafted that you are immediately drawn into the tangled web with no way out until the jaw-dropping end. And just when you thought you had it all figured out, the author throws in yet another unexpected twist that even a thriller connoisseur like me didn't see coming and I'm left with...what the heck? Seriously? I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending as it's not how I would have liked it to end. But nevertheless, it was a very clever twist. Well done, Laura George. I can't wait to see what you offer up to us next time.

Overall, a brilliant debut with a killer twist that even I didn't see coming!

I would like to thank #LCGeorge, #Netgalley, #InkubatorBooks and #ZoolooTours for an ARC of #TheSleepwalker in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

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Sam Fulford is living a perfectly normal life, except one thing: a strange sleep condition that causes him to roam at night and occasionally become violent. So, when Sam wakes one devastating morning to discover his wife dead beside him and his baby daughter missing, his whole world implodes. did he accidently kill his wife during a nighttime episode? If so, where is the baby?

What a good read this book was. The story is told from multiple points of view. The story has dual timelines that switch back and forward between Sam in the present day and Tessa's past. Then we get Lindy's past and Sam's in the present day until the past catches up. Secrets were revealed. This is a well written, descriptive and engaging read. The pace is fast with a few twists. The story is character based. The story was a little drawn out and predictable in parts, but it soes not take anything away from this domestic thriller. The story has an open ending with a final twist on the last page. That alone was worth reading this book for.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #InkubatorBooks and the author #LSGeorge for my ARC of #TheSleepwalker in exchange for an honest review.

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A book where your worst nightmare comes to life. I loved this suspenseful thriller, it had me on the edge of my seat from the first chapter, the contrasting timelines were really interesting and added to the suspense and mystery. The middle of the book did drag slightly and I found myself skimming but the first and last thirds were really fast paced and intriguing with lots of twists, turns and cliff-hangers that left me needing to read on and find out what happened to Tessa and Cora. This is my first read by this author and I thought it was so well written and interesting I will definitely be checking out more of her books.

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Holy wow! This book kept me guessing until the very end. One of the top thriller of 2023 for me! What’s worse than sleepwalking, nightmares and this book brings your worst fears and nightmares to the center. Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this! If you love edge of your seat thrillers, this one is for you!!!

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The story of The Sleepwalker was told by Sam and Tessa. They are a married couple with a new baby Cora. Sam has an history of sleepwalking and one morning he awakens to find Tessa dead and baby Cora missing. The story explores his search for his daughter while being a suspect in Tessa's murder. The story goes back and forth from before the incident to the present day. Tessa, desperately in need of a friend meets her new neighbor Bella. Their friendship is strange as Tessa is pregnant, and Bella shows distaste for anything relating to a baby. There are several good twists, and the book moves along briskly, however the characters never truly feel real. It was a quick read but not a great one. I liked it but definitely didn't love it.

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Sam suffers from a sleeping disorder called parasomnia. It causes behavior that he can't remember when he's fully awake. After a broken relationship with his former girlfriend Lindy, Sam is cautious going into another relationship. When he meets Tessa, he falls quickly in love. Tessa and Sam are both deeply in love and want to start a family even though Sam's nightmares scare Tessa. She is lonely as she has never really formed lasting friendships; and she wishes she had someone to talk to. Fate brings her into a friendship with Belle, their neighbor. The three of them each have secrets of their own. When tragedy happens, will the truth be discovered? This was my first book by this author, and I found this book to be very exciting from the beginning to the end. As the secrets unfold, more discoveries are made as the story builds to a shocking climax. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author. Thank you to Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

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This was an interesting thriller. The main character, Sam, has a rare condition called parasomnia where is prone to being violent while sleepwalking. He wakes up one morning next to his dead wife Tessa and with his 3 month old baby Cora missing. He doubts himself, wondering if he committed an unthinkable act while asleep. I am always interested in the idea of a person wondering if they actually committed a crime while they were drunk, drugged, etc., so this was a new twist on that. The story alternates between present day with Sam trying to figure out what happened and where his baby is, and the near past and Tessa's struggles. Some of the twists were a little out there and perhaps not entirely believable, but the chapter cliffhangers kept me racing through to the end.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher and author for allowing me to read this ARC. I have never read this author, but will be looking for other novels by her. This had me believing what I thought was going to happen, then doubting it, then changing my mind.......very fast paced thriller.

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⭐️Rating:3 /5
✍🏼Author: Laura George
📖Genre: Mystery/ Thriller

This story is about Sam Fulford who suffers from episodes of sleep walking. He's happily married to Teresa and they have a baby (Cora). His sleepwalking episodes are intense and he becomes the complete opposite of what his character normally is. He wakes up to find his wife laying dead beside him, and his daughter is nowhere to be found. Sam cant recall what happened and tries to plug in the missing pieces to try and find his daughter.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I have high expectations for Mystery/Thrillers this was definitely a page turner!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are that of my own.

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This was a very quick read with multiple pov’s and timescales. So the plot should have moved along quicker than it did up but there is a lot of repetition which fills out the book too much.
The most interesting part of the story for me was the husbands search for his daughter. Cora. Beyond that I didn’t feel any tension.

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