This story is told in third person and follows multiple characters. I started reading this one via ebook then switched to the audiobook to finish. I enjoyed both formats. The audiobook was narrated by Vivienne Leheny, who often narrates books by this author. I found her voice for the characters to be pleasant and distinctive as well as compelling enough to propel me through the story quickly.

The storyline revolves around a hide and seek style reality competition created by an extreme sport social media celebrity named Maverick who appears to have just as many enemies as he has fans. He has an entourage of partners/employees that work on his projects with a whole host of personalities. The story also follows one of the competitors in Adele, a mom raising two kids. Adele was married to a man that swindled a bunch of people then left her holding the bag so to speak, so she is no stranger to being controversial in the eyes of the public either.

I really enjoyed the history of the Enchantments resort and the atmospheric setting of Falcão Island. I was attracted to this story because I’m a fan of reality show competitions, but I found that this story had too much going on besides the competition. The characters were a mixed bag and it was a lot to follow with all kinds of secretive relationships, melodrama and controversies from love affairs, money troubles, suspicious locals, blackmail, missing persons, and much more. I found the ending to be a bit anticlimactic. Still, if you’re a fan of popcorn thrillers, give this one a try.

Thank you to Netgalley, Park Row Books, Harlequin Trade Publishing, The Hive, and Harlequin Audio for a copy provided for an honest review.

Thanks you NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for the chance to read one of my FAVORITE authors new books!!

There is something truly special about this Author, I have ALWAYS loved every one of her books and this one was no different for me, Not going to lie the premise of the book and all the different characters and POVs had me pretty worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. But it wasn't really that hard once you got to know who everyone was and compartmentalized who was in which group, Adele's family, the contestants and who worked with Extreme..(it helped me to kind of separate them in groups like that, sometimes I did mix up Violet, for some reason my brain kept telling me she wasn't who I knew she was)

Idk anyway other than that It was a very fast paced read, I was very interested in what happened with the game, obviously you can figure out pretty quick that it's rigged but that just makes you more intrigued on how and what happens next! Obviously, the main characters kind of being Adele's family makes you root for her but I was very interested in "Wild Cody" and was very happy with that part of the end and what else happened.. Trying my best not to give anything away here but Anyway the book is great.

It's very interesting to me making a book about a game we all played as a kid, Smart though, like everyone's played it, It makes you want to pick it up and go how the heck can you make this interesting enough to make a whole book out of it! Hopefully this will pull a lot more people in, I feel like she deserves a lot more attention as an author!

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 is the book I needed. Yes, its about hide and seek and yes its a little bit ridiculous, regardless, I couldn't put it down.

What an interesting thriller. Many thrillers lately have left me wanting but this revived my love for the genre. There is so much tension and the characters are multilayered. This is an edge of your seat thriller that I couldn't put down!

After 3 or 4 books from her I think it’s time to finally conclude that Unger just isn’t the author for me. I continue to be interested in her books because the premises always sound so good but the execution just never gives me what I’m looking for; I feel like her books reel you in with the premise to start but once you get into the story it starts going in a completely different direction (this is her 3rd book in a row i’ve read that this has been the case). The survival game show setting was SO promising but it just wasn’t that interesting ultimately.

I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. It was just so much going on all the time. I felt sometimes that made it too distracting from the bones of the story. Overall it was a good book.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

Something about this book never really came together for me. Loved the premise but it never even really came to fruition with all the outside stories. The back and forth narration could have been done a little better as well. All in all this just didn’t end up being at all what I expected.

An intense game of hide and seek for a large cash prize? Sign me up! This book was great! Thank you so much NetGalley, Lisa Unger and HTP for allowing me to read before its release!

With a tagline reading “an extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting new thriller,” I knew I’d be hooked from the start. And I was right!

This story was intriguing and I loved the high-stakes element and the constantly not knowing who we could trust.

I felt for Adele constantly, especially with her kids at home and a deep desire to support them.

I had the gift of listening to this on audio, and while the narrator did a good job and I was hooked, I was confused by whose perspective we were in constantly. With shifting narrators, I truly wish this had been narrated by a full cast, just to help listeners follow along with the story without feeling lost.

For me, I had a harder time connecting with the characters since I couldn’t tell who was who while I was listening sometimes. But even with moments of confusion, I enjoyed the overall story. It was action-packed and had a great premise. This wasn’t my favorite of Lisa Unger’s—which makes me sad because I truly LOVE her books—but it was still enjoyable.

This is one wild ride. Adele has two teenagers, and a husband on the run for embezzlement. Her son tells her about a chance to play a hide and seek game for the social media company Extreme, which has had previous challenges with large cash prizes. The game will be held on a lush, gorgeous island on the grounds of a ruined, once-luxurious hotel.

However, things are not as they appear on the surface. Everyone has secrets, and the Extreme crew and the contestants might not be the only ones playing a dangerous game.

Cue a tropical storm rolling in, strong enough to flood the roads and shut down all avenues of escape..

What would you do to keep a deadly secret, especially if you knew you’d be ruined if it got out?

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row for an advance copy. My review is entirely voluntary.

This is my first Lisa Unger book and it’s certainly not my last.
I love thrillers and more specifically mystery-who-done-it? Thrillers !

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 originally drew me in with the catchy title. it’s about Maverick inviting a few influencers on a remote island where they must compete in a game of survival, during this huge storm. t this novel is told in a bunch of point of views. Adele, a single mom wanting to protect her children. Angeline, Alex, Tavos, and a few other members.

This book was fast paced and kept you enthralled until the end. The short chapters and suspenseful nature of wanting to know who the killer is , keeps you anticipating the next page until you realize you only have a few pages left.

I did find the multiple point of views distracting at times, especially once Adele’s children were brought in. It felt excessive. The ending seemed abrupt as well. Overall, a fun read!

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review !

This was a fast paced, fun and interesting thriller! I loved the game aspect and the social media part. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and the reasons why the contestants chose to play the game. There were twists and turns and I really loved the ending. Overall, a great thriller that I would recommend adding to your tbr!

Thank you so much for the advanced copy! Lisa Unger is an auto-buy author for me. HIGHLY recommend you check this out!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows an extreme hide and seek game run by a famous influencer. A group of people enter the competition to win a million dollars. However, everyone had secrets and things quickly unfold.

I liked the concept of this book and I enjoyed the audiobook. I think the cover is amazing too. Adele was a great character to follow and I liked her badass attitude.

Unfortunately, this book had too much going on. I think there were so many point of views and way too many secrets and things unfolding. I wish a few things were cut out and I would have liked it more. I think this book focused on the wrong things.

Overall, this book was not bad but I don't think it focused on the right things and I wish it was a bit different.

This is an excellent book and when first starting it, I thought of Ruth Ware's book from last year, One Perfect Couple, but once in the thick of the book it became a book all its own. I enjoyed the character development, as well as the setting of the story. The main character, Adele, who is a single mom was a very strong character who had amazing character development by the end of the story.

As far as mystery, I could guess what was going to happen later in the story because there was obvious foreboding of what was coming. I enjoyed that however I believe the story would have been stronger if parts of the story were concealing what was to come better if that makes sense. Otherwise I thought it was enjoyable and I did not guess all elements of what was to come so there was still some intrigue there.

I really enjoyed this story and believe fans of Ruth Ware, Caroline Kepnes, and of course Lisa Unger will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Lisa Unger’s Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 starts with a killer premise—literally. A deadly game on a creepy island? Sign me up. But while the suspense is there, the pacing sometimes drags, and a few twists feel more forced than shocking. The whole premise is this huge game of Hide and Seek on a secluded island, but the lead up to the game starting is so long. Sometimes I thought the game started only to realize... no, it STILL hadn't. Once the game actually begins, it's over. Still, if you like survival thrillers with a reality-TV-meets-pure-terror vibe, it’s worth the ride—just maybe not a full five-star one. More like a two-star one.
Despite my lackluster review, I thank NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row for allowing me to read an arc of this new book that is out today.

Huge thank you to HTP Books for the ARC!

I love Lisa Unger as a person and an author!

I'm sorry to say this one was a little more of a miss for me than usual and I think a lot of that is personal issues because I have read SO many stuck on an island thrillers this year alone (it really seems to be the theme of every 2025 thriller, sadly), so I just wasn't as sucked into the story as I hoped I would be.

I did enjoy a lot of the characters, especially the mother/daughter dynamic in the beginning and wished more time was spent with the two of them.

Overall, I'm sad this was a miss for me, but I will always read Lisa's new books and hope for this one's success!

This is out now!

Boasting an intriguing premise, I found this to be a quick, enjoyable read, albeit not quite the “edge-of-your-seat” thriller I was expecting. Still, it offered up some intense moments, despite some pacing issues and a parallel storyline that felt a bit disjoined and flat. That said, I remained engaged in this story from start to finish, even though there weren’t any major revelations that took me by surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this book.
3 Stars
Lisa Unger is one of my favorite authors.
I love Lisa's writing and can't wait for her next book!

I think that what I wanted from this story and what I got didn't quite align. I was hoping that this story would be sort of an over-the-top thriller, with a fun not overly serious cast of characters, with a compelling thriller/mystery aspect. And the story largely delivered, however, I think that it just took itself so seriously that some of the potential fun and interest was lost. I never really connected to the story, or the characters, but that could have just been a me problem. There was some interesting social commentary, but it was a bit wasted on me at that point, and it wasn't saying anything that other thrillers with similar themes haven't already beaten to death.
This was okay.