I enjoyed this! The ending was unexpected and the twist was entertaining and the pacing throughout is good. I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Terri Parlato,Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

The first 3 chapters are great for learning bits about the 3 main characters who’s POV we’re reading from. Eve, a psychiatric doctor, new wife and first time mother who is stressed about juggling those three titles. Nathan, devoted father, new husband and works a job he isn’t married to. Rita, our hero detective. The introductions were not rushed, not choppy, the different POVs made everything nice and smooth. We got a feeling about what each character is going through right off the bat. I did not realize this was a part of a series, this worked out great as a stand alone if you have not read the other Rita Myers books. I’m always wary of reading a book that's a part of a series worried that I’ll be lost & won’t understand the character dynamic. Did not have that issue at all with Watch Your Back. The way we get introduced to Rita, we get enough of her professional and personal life for it to feel natural.
As mentioned, Eve is struggling to juggle all the different titles that she carries. She wants to be a superwoman and feels like she is falling flat at one aspect or another in her life. Nathan comes off as a loving father right off but also as a neglected husband. SPOILER, we find out Nathan has been cheating on Eve because of how much time she works. He feels crappy about it, but he still does it. The couple were lucky enough to find a nice older lady to watch their daughter for them. From the outside, everything looks great. No one needs to know all the little secrets between the couple. Until Rosewynn, Eve & Nathan’s baby girl, goes missing at the babysitter’s house.. Eve & Nathan start being targeted, stalked and attacked. They live mundane, domesticated lives - who would be out to get them? Their little secrets start coming out. Eve feels like she is losing her mind and trusts no one. Nathan is racked with guilt. It’s up to Rita to find out who is behind the kidnapping of Rosewynn and the other attacks the couple endured after the kidnapping.
The start is a little slow, as it progresses you get more and more hooked. The end had a few great twists that leave you saying WTF? If you’re like me where you sit back and reflect on what you just read, you start to see the little clues leading up to the end. I was left with a couple of unanswered questions from the red herons sprinkled throughout. All in all, great book. I definitely look forward to reading more from Terri Parlato.
Thank you Netgalley & Kingston Publishing for the ARC and the opportunity to end my year with such a great read!





This review will be getting posted on my blog, facebook page, instagram and goodreads. It can currently be found on Goodreads. The other sites reviews will be getting published 12/31.

As a mental health doctor, you can expect a certain amount of stress in your life. But does that include having your baby kidnapped?

Nathan and Eve Thayer appear on the surface to have a near perfect life, even though they seem mismatched - with Eve being a doctor, and Nathan a mechanic.

And when their baby goes missing, everything falls apart, exposing not only the cracks in the Thayers' marriage, but also unexpected secrets that they are keeping from each other.

The question is, who would steal their baby? And why? This domestic thriller was entertaining if a little far-fetched, and ends with an unexpected twist.

Although this was the 3rd book in Detective Rita Myers series, it could be read as a standalone. In fact I had never read Teri Parlato books before and thoroughly enjoyed the book. It kept me intrigued and guessing the characters intentions, some admirable while the other narfarious..

Read this if you like:
-psychological domestic thrillers with police procedural mixed in
-multiple POVs
-unlikeable characters with questionable motives -‘did they do it?’
-twists and turns with a satisfying ending
-red herrings
-multi layered story with interconnected plots
-the psychiatric setting
-picture perfect marriages that aren’t what they seem

My rating:
4 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this eARC that will be released December 24 2024.

Watch Your Back is the third installment of the Detective Rita Myers series, I read it as a standalone and it was SO GOOD. It kicks off with a jaw-dropping first chapter. One of the characters wakes up from a coma in a hospital and doesn’t know how they got there and believes someone is trying to kill them. I was completely sucked into the story. It was tense and at no point did I guess any of the reveals. This is the perfect read for domestic suspense lovers!

Thank you Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Thank you Netgalley & Kensington Publishing for an eARC of Watch your Back by Terri Paralto. 3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4 for NetGalley & Goodreads.

Love reading Paralto’s books set in Boston as I myself read in the New England snowy winter. A recently married couple, Eve and Nathan, met at his shop after another car ran her off the road. They live in the suburbs with a beautiful baby girl. Things start taking a turn, quickly, with a local neighborhood break-in, and issues at the psychiatric facility where Eve works. Then, the accidents get closer to home. Is Eve being targeted? Is she behind all of this? What about Nathan?

I enjoyed this one, but it wasn’t my favorite of this author’s. I felt some repetition, but enjoyed the ending and thought it was well plotted.

Thank you so much to Kensington Books for the ARC!

This is my third book by Terri Parlato and all of them have been based around Detective Rita and her cases. She's really becoming a favorite detective character for me!

This one started off INTENSE right off the bat and I was totally enthralled in the story and the characters! A husband falling (or pushed?) down the stairs and in the hospital, a baby missing from her crib and that was all just in the beginning! I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

I didn't trust anyone in this story and that made it so fun!

The way that things wrapped up was... interesting. I will say that I was tracking to rate this book 4 stars the whole way and then the ending had me kind of 🤔🤔 I will say I definitely didn't see it coming, so there's that 😂

Overall, a fun and quick read with less than satisfying ending for me. I still think it's worth the read though!

Good twists. Good plot. Good thriller if they are your favorite you’ll like this! I would recommend this to my friends!

Potentially good plot points and storyline, but unsuccessful execution. Basic and repetitive writing. Twists that were really trying too hard and pulled together too neatly to actually be enjoyable.

✨ Book Review!✨
Watch Your Back
By Terri Parlato
Published: 12/24/24
Genre: Thriller

This was a solid domestic/police procedural thriller with plenty of drama and suspects. I thought I had it figured out early on, but I did not! I enjoyed the many layers of this story and the multiple points of view. There was a whole lot going on all the time, which really kept me turning the pages. I give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Thank you @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for the opportunity to read the digital arc of this novel!

#watchyourbackbook #thrillerbooks #december2024books #kensingtonbooks #terriparlatoauthor #netgalley #arcreview #bookreview #bookthoughts #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

Watch Your Back
Eve and her husband Nathan seem to have the perfect life- a grand home, a sweet baby girl and fulfilling careers. Then their daughter is kidnapped .Someone is out to destroy Eve and Nathan’s life. But who and why?
A very intriguing domestic thriller full of many twists and turns.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc copy of Watch Your Back. The first book I read by this author was What Waits in the Woods. That book was good and had me going crazy. I was really into it, as I was into this one. This author is really good at delivering suspenseful stories. This was a 4 stars for me. I would recommend it..

Thanks to #NetGalley and #KensingtonPublishing for the book #WatchYourBack by #TerriParlato. Eve and Nathan have been together two years. In that time, they have gotten married and had a little girl. Eve works a lot and isn’t home much. But lately, some strange things have been happening around Eve’s life and there are cracks in her and Nathan’s relationship. Is someone targeting her or is she responsible for the terrible things happening?

An intriguing plot-driven story told from multiple POVs with some interesting players. Eve and Nathan married not long after meeting and had their daughter Rosewyn. Now they realize they might not be as compatible as they thought with Eve's all-consuming job as a lead psychiatrist taking up most of her time. To complicate their situation further, someone is after them. They don't who, and they don't know why, forcing them to rely on a detective named Rita to piece it together before it's too late. Fans of domestic and revenge thrillers will enjoy this book.

Thank you Netgalley, Kensington publishers and Terri Parlato for the eArc of Watch Your Back.

This is the 3rd instalment of Detective Rita Myers series but it can be read as a standalone. Watch Your Back is a domestic psychological thriller with elements of Police protocol. Our main characters, Eve and Nathan have a fragile relationship and after their child goes missing, it's up to our DCI Rita Myers to put the pieces together. I found all the characters well rounded and human, including their mistakes and character faults. I have read the pervious books in this series and I really love Rita Myers, her thought processes and of course, her ability to be able to build in sketches as she investigates. I found this really endearing and unique and it also helps with her investigations.

I enjoyed the pacing of this book, it does open with a punch, slows down a little and then builds back up again which makes it medium paced. There is some nice foreshadowing and even though I picked up on these, it only added to the twists, the tension and the direction of the book.

4.25 stars for story graph and 4 stars for other review sites.

This is the third book in the Detective Rita Myers series and I really like her as a detective. The beginning of this one definitely caught me, but it slowed down quite a bit. It was full of twists but they were pretty intense and tested believability, but I enjoyed the ride. Dr. Eve Thayer and her husband Nathan have fallen into routines that show how out of sync they are. Eve works long hours and Nathan is picking up the slack with their young daughter and the home. But they have secrets and when their daughter is kidnapped more than their secrets come to light. I do hope there are more in this series.

This is a new-to-me author, and this was a very twisty story that defies you to determine who is behind what is the happening to Eve and Nathan. Is it one person, more than one? What could possibly be the motive? And even when some of the pieces started falling into place, there was still more to come. It was different having the story told from three points of view - Eve's, Nathan's and Detective Rita Myers.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was able to read this in a few days. It started off with a huge bang and I was absolutely loving the plot for the first 50% of the book. The second half fell a little flat for me as I was expecting things to truly get crazier but the momentum remained stagnant for me. There were a few decent red herrings but no true elements of foreshadowing before the big twist. I loved the first part of the twist because it was truly unexpected. This would be a great read for beginners of this genre and a good palette-cleanser for the vets!

A great story filled with twists. I didn't see that end coming. Highly recommend, if you're looking for a thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Many thanks for my gifted copy.

I love a good twisty thriller and this one does not disappoint! Eve is a successful psychiatrist with a husband she loves and a surprise baby she never knew she wanted when one day the baby goes missing from the babysitter's home. She finds out her husband has been cheating on her and her world turns upside down. Someone is out to get them and the police are stumped. Could it be the babysitter, a patient, someone at work and it has Eve and Nathan questioning everyone around them including each other. I'll be looking for more Terri Parlato books in the future!

Thank you to Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC! #netgalley #watchyourback