Book Review 📖🔒🔪

thank you so much partner @htpbooks @htp_hive #hiveinfluencer for the gifted eARC!

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
by Lisa Unger

About the book 👇🏽

Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.

Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.

🔒My thoughts:

Secluded island? High stakes game of hide and seek?? Say less. As soon as I started reading, I knew I was going to be hooked. With social media influencers being really big right now plus reality TV always being popular, I found this to be extra* fun! This has several POVs and all were easy to follow. This is more of a slow burn thriller and with the secrets and characters, it’ll hold your attention and provide quite the experience! If you enjoy reality tv (or reading about them), secluded settings, and locked room thrillers, this is a book you’ll want to keep in the forefront of your brain when you’re looking for new 2025 releases! Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 is out 2/25/25!

Happy reading! 📖🔒🔪

What starts as a game turns into a battle of life and death. Who will survive?

Follow Adele a single mom determined to win so that she can give her children a better life.

Suspenseful and gripping! Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Publishing for an advanced digital copy for an honest review.

Thank you to Lisa Unger and Park Row Books for this book! It was such a fun story about influencers invited to an island to play the ultimate game of hide-and-seek for a cash prize. Hosted by extreme adventurer Maverick, the players gather and a fun game quickly turns to a game of survival. While the hiders arrive, a storm is brewing. And not just a tropical storm, but a social media storm of angry viewers. Because at the last hide-and-seek game a girl disappeared and was never found. Winning is just the beginning, but survival may be the real prize.

Thoughts: This was such a fun story! It was a survival story about influencers with a big social media component. It was a reality show gone wrong with lots of POV and tons of secrets. I liked the way it felt like a locked room mystery and how there were a lot of things going on with each character.

I thought there were so many good ideas but they weren’t necessarily fleshed out. There could have been so much done with the creepy and spiritual island and cult leader/shaman. I thought there were so many possible ways the story could have gone, but it just went the one way that was obvious. There were breadcrumbs that something interesting might happen, but then it was just straightforward which was disappointing to me. 3-stars for this one.

This book started out as very engaging. After a while, the chapters were from different points of view and became a bit repetitive, and some of the story just didn’t seem to flow well. Overall it was a good premise and I did like the ending.

This book never really grabbed me, and I thought it was just ok. The whole setup of the reality show competition never really went anywhere, and that was what I was most interested in. Instead, many other complications arose, which I found both less interesting and confusing to keep track of. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the beginning, I was sucked right in to this adventure of a thriller. As the story unfolded it became somewhat confusing to follow. A couple of times I really had to make myself keep reading. While I generally appreciate a multiple POV novel, this one seemed repetitive and the points of view were somewhat unnecessary. In the end, the mystery turned out to be precisely what I presumed.

3/5, a decent read, but not my favorite.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and net galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had so much fun with this book! It was twisty, atmospheric, and impossible to put down. While the plot does take a minute to unfold, there is action and twists throughout, so I disagree with other reviewers who have labeled this a slow burn.

The cast of characters was developed so well. Getting to read from multiple perspectives elevated the plot and pulled me into the story. There were people I loved and hated, resulting in a dynamic cast that would translate beautifully to a TV show or movie.

If you like One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware, you will love Close Your Eyes and Count to 10. Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy!

This book started off really strong for me. I flew through the first 100 pages. I loved the premise of the book, and I was intrigued the most by what was going on with the Wewatch group. However, after that initial section I started to disengage with the book. A lot of the book just felt so repetitive. I don’t mind multiple POVs in a book but this just had a little too many. I would have cut out maybe two and it would have been fine. There was also so many subplots and additional details in the story that just never really amounted to anything. For example, the whole Petra thing, and Adele’s husband. I really wanted more from the competition aspect of the book too. We never really actually get to do the hide and seek challenge which is supposed to be a huge driving force in the book. Overall the book was okay but I’m not sure who I would recommend it to.

A page turning suspense novel with wonderful character development that will have you hooked from the beginning. What is real and what is scripted for content? Follow along as the characters in the story work to figure that out, with multiple plot twists and turns along the way.

I had high hopes for this one as I really loved the premise! An extreme game show on a remote island? Sounds great! Unfortunately it fell a little flat. It was almost like two separate stories that didn’t really flow together. I hoped for more from the contestants and didn’t love how it was more about the host.

I did like some of the twists and it did keep me guessing and turning the pages quick!

Unger knows how to make POV's work to tell a complete story. It was a bit slow paced in the beginning, but once I was about half way through, it picked up and held my interest. I enjoyed how Unger takes each character and gives them each their own story line, but also ties them all together into the main story. Her ability to make each person have a separate voice is amazing. I was never confused on who each chapter belonged to. Even secondary characters were fleshed out well.
In the first half of the book she really like the word fecund. I felt like it was in every chapter, and while I understand its use, it was getting pretty repetitive.
It lost points with me because I didn't find it all that suspenseful. I had pretty much figured out who one of the "bad guys" was pretty early one. The rest just wasn't that jaw dropping. Unger gains points though, in that every part of the story is wrapped up. There are no "but what happened with this important character?'" moments AND they made sense which is a plus.

3.5/5

Thank you @parkrowbooks @htp_hive #partner for the gifted eARC!

This one is a high stakes game of adult hide and seek! Yep! You heard me right. 😅 Maverick Dillan (epic name!) is an extreme adventurist and he’s invited players to Falcao Island as a part of social media challenge that turns quite deadly quick. There is an impending storm which adds even more stress to the game. One of the main characters, Adele is quite possibly one of there most dedicated and determined person in this book as she has a one and only shot to try and dig herself out of the debt her ex-husband left her in. That is, before he just up and left her high and dry one day never to be heard from again. This competition is a way out of that mess and she puts on a brave face to try and outsmart, out wit and win the game! It turns out to be a high stakes competition of survival and she doesn’t know who she can trust!

First things first, can we talk about how amazing this cover art is?! It’s gorgeous! Sold on that alone! I have been a long time fan of Lisa Ungers so jumped at the chance to read this one! This book is made for people who are fans of locked room thrillers, the show survival or any one who likes adventure game shows! The things I loved about this book was the premise of the hide and seek game, I liked the eerie locals and the operation itself how it seemed so loosely put together and not to be trusted! The part I felt like I struggled a bit with was the amount of characters POVs and I had a hard time keeping them straight. I feel like a little more depth with the characters could have made it easier to keep track of and maybe a little more interesting. Overall, I love Ungers books and although this one wasn’t my favorite by her I will absolutely continue to grab them and read them!

There is a lot going on in this book, a podcast, a mystery, reality tv and a game show. A surprise ending will be a hit with Lisa Unger fans.

The book starts out a little bit slow – more than that, as I was reading the first 10% or so, I was kind of confused. Am I really reading the book I was supposed to be reading? Is it really the same book – the one with the blurb I just read? But it all falls into pieces later on. The beginning makes sense, and it sets the scene. And then the speed picks up and the book turns into a claustrophobic whirlwind of EVERYTHING. And somehow, as I kept reading it, this turned into something way better than I expected it to be.

A reality game on an island. What could go wrong? I feel this was definitely more character driven. Adele felt like the main focus of this book, her need to protect her kids as things went crazy. Overall, I really enjoyed it!!

Book review 📖

📜Close Your Eyes And Count To 10
✍️Lisa Unger
📠Harlequin Trade/Park Row
📚Mystery/Thriller Fiction
🗓️Pub date: February 25, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and @parkrowbooks for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨Maverick Dillan invites you to a survivor-like extreme game of hide-and-seek. Originally intended as a social media stunt, it’s quickly become the ultimate game of survival as a storm blankets the island and an even deadlier threat stalks the contestants.

✨Adele, single mom, enters the challenge as a means to an end. Tired of her son being bullied in school and figuring this is a way to make a large sum of money if she wins, Adele has no idea the ride she’s in for and that soon she’ll be fighting for her life.

✨I felt like the book moved a little slowly, especially towards the beginning when other characters have their POV narrations—takes away from the suspense.

#netgalley #closeyoureyesandcountto10 #lisaunger #harlequintradepublishing #parkrow #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagrammer #winterreleases #thrillerfiction

This was a very exciting book. It gripped me right from the start. It says a lot about the times we are living in with social media, virtual reality and extreme reality shows coming into question. The story really has two protagonists; Adele a single mom of two teenaged children who’s husband has gone missing after being wanted by the FBI for fraud and embezzlement and Maverick Dillan a “WeWatch” celebrity who has several extreme challenges and reality shows. He and his friends/employees are setting up for one last extreme challenge. Adele has a WeWatch channel of her own and does what she can to make money since her husband left.
Adele’s teenage son, Blake suggests that she joins Maverick’s latest challenge taking place in an abandoned resort far away on an island in the middle of the ocean. She agrees because the prize is 1 Million dollars and she needs money for her family. The challenge is to be the last among the contestants to be found on the island. Her son Blake gets bullied and he escapes in a virtual reality game where he has more power than real life.
Lots and lots of things go wrong of course. A major storm is about to hit the island and a wise old woman and her strong men warn them to leave or else bad things will happen. Maverick has lots of demons and his body has taken some beatings. As the game is about to begin lots unfolds among Maverick and his staff and Adele and the other contestants.
There is a question of whether or not anyone will survive before the game even begins. Loyalties are questioned and death is only a wrong move away. All while being broadcast on social media. The book has plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.
I enjoyed this ARC very much. Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row Books.

Thank you Park Row Books for the gifted digital ARC!

This one unfortunately wasn't my fave from Lisa Unger. I'm kinda over the whole influencers doing bad things storyline, it seems to be popping up in thrillers constantly these days.

The plot was entertaining enough that I didn't ever feel like DNF'ing, so that is one positive. Without spoiling anything, there were what I would consider to be two different storylines, and I kept expecting them to intertwine in some way, and they never really did. There's also something that happens at the end that seemingly came with no explanation at all.

Ultimately I still can't wait to see what Unger comes up with next!

A new genre of thrillers is emerging and Lisa Unger’s “Close Your Eyes And Count To 10” is an amazing example of this. With a fresh storyline surrounding a reality adventure game show set in a remote place in an old and condemned hotel; this locked door mystery kept me in the edge of my seat.

I absolutely loved this book and the idea of a social media/influencer company hosting a dangerous game of hide and seek. The game contestants are social media influencers, each with their own agenda and things to hide.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. I highly recommend this book and expect it to make the list of top thrillers in 2025. #CloseYourEyesandCountto10 #NetGalley.

I was a little torn at first on how to rate this one but I’m confident with giving 4⭐️

The story is told from multiple POV’s but I found it easy to figure out who was who very early on. I love the idea of mixing reality TV with books because I love a good trashy reality show. I did figure out one of the twists about halfway through but there were others that took me by surprise. There was also a story line that I found to be unnecessary. All in all a good read!