Wasn’t any better than the book. Not for me I’ve tried this author multiple times and I just can’t do her writing

Fast-paced and captivating, Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 delivers a solid mix of twists, eerie atmosphere, and thrilling moments. The characters were a mixed bag—some, like Adele and her family, Cody, and Petra, were incredibly likable, while others felt less engaging. However, the side stories and character arcs were well-woven into the main narrative, adding depth and intrigue.

Lisa Unger's talent shines in her portrayal of the adrenaline-fueled reality socialite lifestyle, making it feel authentic and unsettling. The book also carries a powerful message about social media celebrity culture, which was both timely and well-executed.

That said, two elements felt like missed opportunities. Given the book's title, I expected more focus on the hide-and-seek gameplay, which could have heightened the suspense even further. Additionally, the abandoned hotel and the island's atmospheric setting were underutilized—leaning more into the eerie, almost haunted vibes could have amplified the tension dramatically.

I am thankful to have received a free complimentary advanced listener's copy (ALC) of this book from NetGalley and Harlequin Audio. I am voluntarily leaving this review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This has potential to be good but ultimately fell very flat. There was a lot going on that took away from the actual heart of the story, and eventually I just didn't care what happened.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this author’s last book and this one is no different! There is a lot going on here with the plot but the author wove everything seamlessly. Some moments surprised me, some made me hold my breath, all things that are the hallmark of a great thriller. To me, the authors seemed authentic and multi-faceted. The narrator also does a great job at differentiating the MCs despite being a solo narration. Definitely recommend picking this one up!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the premise - especially the concept of a "hide and seek" adventure that is unexpectedly dangerous. I did struggle with the number of perspectives the book dipped into. For the life of me, I kept struggling with the members of the Extreme Games crew and trying to keep track of them. However, I did find the book enjoyable - it was fun and some scenes really gripped me. Overall, I think it was a fun book. I would have liked a different approach to the same overall concept, but still found it entertaining.

This book had an interesting premise and felt really relevant to our current social media influenced world. I found that it just didn't quite do it for me though and I only held on through the end to give full feedback. I found things to be too predictable and honestly a bit confusing at the same time.

Thank you to Netgalley, Lisa Unger and Harlequin Audio for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Reading in Between the Wines book review #24/125 for 2025:
Rating: 2 ½ 🍷🍷🍷 (rounded up to 3)
Book: Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
Author: Lisa Unger
AVAILABLE NOW!!!

Sipping thoughts: This was such a cool premise, especially in this social media heavy world. I really wanted to love this book. I liked it enough, but I thought it was pretty predictable, and there was just not enough punch for me. This is not the opinion of a lot of the reviews that I skimmed, and that is okay because I did not dislike the book but was just wanting and hoping for more. I hate giving not so stellar review opinions, but I also appreciate reading ones that are honest and not mean, so here is mine.

Cheers and thank you to @Netgalley and @HarlequinAudio for an advanced copy of @CloseYourEyesAndCountToTen.

#CloseYourEyesAndCountToTen #LisaUnger #HarlequinAudio #NetGalley #ARC #advancedreader #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bokreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

2.5⭐ rounded down

A group of thrill-seeking individuals are lured into a deadly game of hide-and-seek by controversial internet sensation Maverick Dillan. One contestant, Adele, is a determined single mother, and is desperate to win for her kids. With her children's safety hanging in the balance, she must navigate a treacherous storm and outwit the ruthless competitors to survive.

This premise really really excited me, but unfortunately it didn't land. I found the dual perspectives between the contestants on the island, and Adele's children at home, to have incredibly inconsistent pacing. Additionally, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, besides Adele's children. Everyone just kind of bothered me, and Maverick was just the worst of the worst. The extreme hide and seek aspect of this was really cool, and I think would've worked if I had a reason to care about what was happening to the people playing the game. Very very meh.

I was provided an audiobook from NetGalley, but was not approved until after publication day. I like to have my NetGalley reviews done before publication, but that wasn't an option this time around. This is my unbiased review. #closeyoureyesandcountto10 #lisaunger #netgalley

Hide and seek gone wrong? What would you do if the last person who played went missing? Will they find her? I LOVED the premise of this story and was so excited for it. Sadly, I felt like the storyline was very scatted and all over the place. I found it difficult to keep on top of what was happening. The ending was predictable and didn’t thrill me.

I didn't enjoy this book. I think there may be an audience for this type of thriller, but it just seemed way too far-fetched for me.

Fast paced and action packed suspense thriller was a fun read.

A celebrity influencer and owner of Extreme Games and Insane Challenges, Maverick Dillan, and his team are setting up another challenging game and looking for just the right contestants. This will be a hide and seek type of game with a million dollars as the prize. Those selected travel to the remote Falcao Island to a run down, old hotel crumbling into ruin at the edge of a cliff. But, aside from the game that will be live on WeWatch, there’s a hidden agenda for this stunt.

Lots of interesting characters and points of view in the narrative with some time shifts. Some I liked, others were suspect, and a few I knew right off were bad news. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to go and I’ve read a few of these that feature influencers going somewhere to compete in a contest. I wanted to like it, and I did. The writing was good and the atmospheric setting descriptions created the right mood for the story. Some of what happens was predictable but there were some pleasant surprises along the way to a satisfying conclusion.

I listened to the audiobook while also reading the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. I enjoyed the narrator but she definitely lacked enough depth and range to do the many different characters. Most of the male characters all sounded the same and there were some sketchy accents, but in general, it was satisfactory. This is one of those that could really have benefited from a larger voice cast to enhance the production.

A Promising Premise That Falls Flat
I picked up this book with high hopes, drawn in by its intriguing premise—an extreme take on a hide-and-seek game that promised thrills and tension. Unfortunately, the execution doesn’t quite live up to the potential. As I’ve been reading, I’ve found myself struggling to keep track of the different points of view. I’m not sure if the characters’ perspectives simply aren’t compelling enough to hold my attention or if the narrator fails to distinguish their voices effectively. Either way, the lack of clarity has left me disoriented.
Adding to the confusion, there seem to be nonlinear timeline passages woven into the narrative. I say “seem” because it’s hard to tell for certain—another sign that the storytelling isn’t as sharp as it could be. Too often, I’m either puzzled about what’s happening and who’s speaking, or I’m simply bored. It’s a frustrating combination that detracts from what could have been an exhilarating read.
The concept at the heart of this book is undeniably cool, and I went in hoping for a page-turner that would capture the adrenaline of a real hide-and-seek game, amplified to an extreme level. So far, though, it feels like a missed opportunity. I’m still holding out hope that the story will pick up and prove me wrong, but as it stands, the execution falls short of the gripping, edge-of-your-seat experience I was expecting. For a book with such a dynamic premise, it’s disappointing to find myself more confused than captivated.

Adele and her teens are jaded by life when hubby Miller disappears after allegedly embezzling money from his business.

Son, Blake learns of an extreme hide and seek event, the cash prize being $1m. He encourages his mom to go since she’s a fitness guru with an online presence.

The story was intricately woven with mysterious side plots, to keep it exciting and I listened eagerly waiting to see the fallout from an extreme event gone wrong, including strong undertones about life on socials vs irl.

Definitely recommend this for thrill seekers.

With thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the advance listening copy.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the audiobook of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10.

I randomly discovered Lisa Unger way back in 2017 through Ink and Bone and instantly became a fan. I'm one who doesn't often remember books once their finished, but there are still bits of Ink and Bone that I can remember. That's saying A LOT! All of that to say, I can always count on Lisa Unger to give me a solid suspense ride.

Close Your Eyes was quite the adventure. Adele was courageous and badass FMC. She proved to be scrapy and able to put her fears aside to do what she was very afraid of, for her kids. I love when we get a female character that is able to successfully stand up to her fears and kick booty.

We also get the story from Maverick's POV. I'm not really sure if we're supposed to end up liking him or not; or seeing him as a misunderstood big kid. But I never did find it me to care about him. He didn't grow on me as he tried to talk his way out of his circumstances. He just kind of grated on my every nerve. So I guess feeling something for him was better than being indifferent. :)

I was not crazy about the narrator. She did grow on me after a while when she was voicing Adele and Petra. But I never did buy into her narration of Maverick. I don't know a thing about the inner workings of the audiobook business, but I think this audiobook would have been served so much better with a second, male narrator for Maverick.

Overall, this was such a fun and wild suspense and thriller ride. The ending reveal was so surprising. I guessed a few of the small pieces of the ending, but I definitely didn't get close to correct with most of it. I love when I get clues throughout a story and still get it wrong! It makes the ending so much better!

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 was…fine. I didn’t hats it, I didn’t love it. It was a fast paced, adventurous, thriller. The story follows Adele, a strong, single mom whose goal in life is to make sure her children have it all. After her husband disappears following a scandal, life is a struggle. She gets the opportunity to join an extreme hide and seek challenge for a million dollars. What’s the catch? It’s on a decrepit and haunted island, and it’s ran by Maverick, an extreme challenge celebrity who is also a liar and a fraud. People are after him when a girl goes missing from
His previous challenge, and the hope is that this next challenge will save him. This was quite predictable and alot of the characters were insufferable, but overall it was an okay story. I feel as if people are either going to love it, or feel indifferent.

This was my second book by Lisa Unger and I liked it, but I felt it was missing something for me…I was really interested in reading about a game of hide and seek on a mysterious haunted island, but sadly this was a bit boring to me.

We are following social media influencers that go on a game show to win a million dollars. The influencers were not that interesting to me and the people that ran the game show were pretty boring characters with a lot of issues I didn’t care about. I think that I had the most problem was that the contestants were able to livestream themselves throughout the game, so everyone had access to their phones. It didn’t seem too high stakes, because millions of people knew their locations and could rescue them, so nothing seemed too daring or thrilling. I also thought some of the dialogue was kinda weird. When the influencers went live they would just talk weirdly, sounding like an older person trying to talk like a young kid. I don't know, some of it made me cringe a bit.

If you want a fast thriller, with a game show or a reality show premise then maybe give this a try.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Lisa Unger book to read and I anticipated it to be great based on what I've heard about the authors previous books. I really loved the premise of this book, an intense hide-and-seek game on the eerie and deserted Falcao island in which the last person found earns money. The book kept alluding to the start of the game ....and it never came. There were many POVs which were all separate stories that didn't really fit together. I was underwhelmed by the "twists" and the book missed the thrilling mark for me.

I listened to the audiobook and highly enjoyed the narrator..

I absolutely tore through Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten! I was seriously so intrigued by all the components and just had to know how everything was going to come together! Plus all the backstories and the multiple point of views were handled so well! I never felt lost, and every character had such a solid backstory that left me totally invested.

The plot? Think Survivor with a Hide and Seek mash up, but all for social media!Contestants are dropped on a remote island for an “Extreme Hide and Seek” challenge, for a million-dollar prize. Sounds intense right! But throw in a missing contestant from the last game, a location that is literally falling apart, and a massive tropical storm?!? I was hooked!

I really loved Adele! The love she had for her family was obvious, paired with her grit, determination, and perseverance was really so admirable!

This book fully explored social media, including the positive impact influencers can make, and the darker side with the negative impact of constantly being in the public eye.

The ending was not what I expected! Part of me loved the way it all came together, where part of me was left wanting more! But this book is definitely one I won’t forget anytime soon!

***Contained some MA language and a brief adult scene that was a bit more graphic than I personally prefer.

Huge thank you to @netgalley and @harlequin_audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook! All thoughts and opinions are my own

Lisa Unger is a fantastic author, but... this wasn't a fantastic book. Lots of potential with the creepy island but too many POVs.

Overall this was an entertaining read and probably appropriate for a long car ride. I thought the author, Lisa Unger, attempted to do too much with too many different POVs or story lines that were never fully developed ie) Adele's husband Miller - I'm not sure this was all necessary to the rest of the story. Additionally I thought the setting of the island was really under utilized and had much more potential especially clarifying what was going on with the inhabitants? Again - this is an example of two many elements included without enough development. The ending was satisfying which was gratifying after the long listen. I really appreciated the narrator - Vivienne Leheny - who is very skilled and used her voice successfully to help with differentiating between the many different characters. I would Lisa Unger another try and will actively look for another book narrated by Vivienne Leheny. Thank you to Harlequin Audio & NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for this review.