An excellent book - truly creepy. To know that someone is watching and threatening you and your children in your house but no-one believes you is a frightening premise and makes for a brilliant novel. Great characters and very compelling. I had to finish reading this before I could go to bed!

A thoroughly enjoyable read that has you guessing and second guessing throughout. Well paced with authentic characters I found this book very engaging.

Before I get into the meat of my review, let me just say that this book is utterly incredible, thoughtfully written, and best read knowing as little as possible going into it. Whilst this book will not get into spoilers for this book, I highly, highly recommend stopping reading this review here and just picking-up this book, you won't regret it.

Picture this: it is the middle of winter and you are home alone with two children when you hear a sound that shouldn't be there - footsteps - in the middle of the night and then you see him, there is a stranger in your house with you. This is exactly the situation that one protagonist of our book is faced with as she fights to find a way to keep her two children and herself safe. Sierra does an incredible job of building the tension and fear as our three characters hide as the mother attempts to form a plan to get help. The tension of the events within the house are cleverly interspersed with scenes that paint the picture of our protag's backstory and start to create a tapestry of a woman who is attempting to simply exist whilst the men in her life fill her life with micro-aggressions. I won't get into details but there is one particular flashback scene that takes place in a café that is so infuriating as it has such an insidious undercurrent...

This is a book that will make you angry but for all of the right reasons. There is a darkness at the heart of this story and it feels as though there are so many layers to the trauma that our characters face. What I think makes this book so well is that part of the horror lies not in the stranger in the house but in the responses of the people around our protag. I also really appreciate the slightly unsatisfactory nature of the ending of this book; it felt only right that this world not be a neat kind of story.

I am excited to read more from this author because this is one of the best thrillers I have read.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✔️ slow burn suspense
✔️ suffocatingly atmospheric
✔️ keeps you guessing

This book has a truly horrifying premise, a mother wakes in the middle of the night and hears an intruder in her home and proceeds to hide in the house with her two young children.

The book is stiflingly scary in moments and I really had no idea how this one was going to end. I do feel the book was overwritten in parts and some flashbacks were a little too long which lost the tension in some chapters.

Overall, this novel certainly provided a physical emotional reaction for me and I couldn’t possibly stop reading until I discovered the truth of the matter. I was very scared and worried for the children so the author absolutely succeeded in that aspect. Even if you don’t agree with every action of our protagonist, there’s no doubt she’s a mother trying her very best to protect her children - something many of us can relate to - which made it difficult to read in the sense that is was sickeningly scary. If you enjoy a slow burn build of tension, this is the suspense novel for you!

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for the review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. Then she hears a noise - old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar; it's the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs...in that split second she has three choices. Hide, run or fight!

'There was someone in the house' as the opening line is going to sends shivers down anyone's spine. We have all lived or stayed somewhere where regular house noises have sounded like something more sinister but in Nightwatching it's not creaky floorboards it is an intruder. As the protagonist spots a shadowy silhouette her first thought it how to protect her sleeping children. A real life worst nightmare coming true in fiction form is definitely scary. As we follow this mother make snap decisions you can't help but wonder what you would do in this situation. However just as the tension is becoming palpable it is cut through with recollections of the past. For me this meant that the book lost momentum as a thriller and instead became a study of a woman and how she is portrayed by everyone from her in laws to her neighbours. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it was not what I was expecting. As the book progresses, the back and forward combined with the way events unfolded left me both confused and annoyed by all the men in this story. Thankfully I did find the ending redeemed things as it was highly satisfying. Overall there were elements I really liked but I just didn't love it.

What if you wake up in the middle of the night, and hear someone in your house?

Nightwatching describes this scenario perfectly and definitely kept me up at night!

Fantastic, read.

Really keeps you on your toes.

It's amazing story. Keeps your reading from the very first page.

A mother alone in her home, in a blizzard, with her two young children. A noise in the house convinces the her that a stranger is in their home and she needs to protect her children. Luckily there is a hidden space within the walls where they can safely hide. The book was very suspenseful at times, especially when the stranger was trying to find the family. It was also a bit slow at times .
To manage to escape (having to leave her children behind) and go for help only for the authorities to be cynical and not really believe her would be extremely scary. Added to that the police have doubts about events in her past. I have to admit though that at times I did wonder myself if it was all real or just her imagination.
Fortunately the determined mother wins through thanks to the twist at the end.
Very much a page turner towards the end despite slowing down in the middle.

Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night.

The story of the intruder and the woman and her children hiding in the house. The characters are never named, which can be frustrating for a reader, though in this case the author handled it in a way where the story never felt awkward because of the lack of names. In part, that was because the book has very little dialogue and it doesn’t alternate perspectives.

I really struggled to read this. I found it very slow and actually didn't feel compelled to finish it unfortunately.

Thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for ARC.

A widowed mother hears a noise, goes to investigate, finds something that makes her blood run cold, makes a split second decision about what to do to keep her children safe. The opening is spooky and gripping and the subsequent events are all too plausible.
It's baggy in places, with a lot of flashbacks; for some these will detract from the forward propulsion in plot and for others it will be a necessary break from the horror and suspense, and provide some rationale for the protagonist's and others' actions.
The house and the surroundings are characters in their own right, and I found myself reading on into the night a couple of times.

I thought Night watching was absolutely thrilling and kept me questioning the whole way through. No characters are named in this book, and the story is told solely by the mother. She has suffered so much trauma and when she sees an intruder in her house, where she's alone with two small children, her sense of terror is visceral.

But as she recuperates in hospital after escaping, doubts begin to creep in, and she even questions her own mind.

The quality of the writing is sublime and I did not want to put this book down once I began. This would make a fantastic film and it played through my mind like a movie reel.

I love a thriller that keeps me guessing and isn't predictable, and this definitely ticks those boxes.

A razor-sharp thriller about a mother forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder. The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I’ve been hearing great things about Nightwatching so my expectations were high and happily, I can confirm it is just as full of high stakes, nail-biting tension as I’d hoped. Perhaps unwisely, I read this mostly at night, alone in my house, and it had me jumping at every shadow and at any hint of noise. The first half of the book especially is almost unbearably tense and will undoubtedly shred the nerves of any reader. Nightwatching is also deeply compelling and harrowing in terms of themes such as loss, gaslighting, fear and the fallibility of memory. It makes you question everything and everyone as a truly terrifying ordeal turns into an anger-inducing aftermath as our main character is made to feel that she is unstable and dangerous. It is a dark and unrelenting read which I could not put down. I would highly recommend this to any thriller readers and I will be extremely eager to read whatever this talented author writes next.

A gripping opening chapter and a brilliant hook that is unfortunately let down by unnecessary flashbacks that don’t lead anywhere, instead they distract from the action and massively slow the pace of the story down. I continued reading to find out what the resolution would be without really enjoying the book and the ending was predictable with a predictable twist. They were just too much telling and not enough showing for my taste.

I really enjoyed this book, I was so eager to keep reading to find out what was going on! Tracy Sierra did a great job of balancing the suspense of the current timeline with a storyline going back giving more background information. Everytime I thought I was confident in guessing the twists, I was wrong! Would recommend reading if you’re after a thrilling suspenseful read.

It's not very often a book gives me the absolute chills, but Tracy Sierra has achieved it with Night Watching. You've heard the saying read it with the lights on? Well, I highly recommend you do.
I hate giving too much away plot wise with thrillers/psychological suspense books as I feel like it doesn't have the same impact if you know exactly what to expect.
What I will say is that a mother is pushed to her absolute limits when she realises that there is an intruder in her house. Both physically and mentally, she will have to dig deep in order to keep those she loves safe.

Night Watching isn't for the faint of heart, which is exactly what I want from books like this. It says a lot that when I finished this book, I went and checked on my children genuinely.
Tracy has managed not only to write a book full of suspense but also made her main protagonist so real. The sense of place, the timing, It's all on point, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

A storm. A mother and her children. And a intruder. I had the chills from the first page and read it with the lights on and my heart in my throat. I was glued to the pages even though I was terrified.

Wow! This was actually recommended by another book lover/book blogger friend . I immediately started reading as the description grabbed me. It was genuinely one of the most unsettling books I've ever read, and I couldn't put it down. It starts with a home invasion on a snowy night, where the mum protects herself and her children by squirrelling them away within the walls of her home. Her Home is filled with multiple staircases and routes, with various entrances and she is terrified that she will be discovered. Eventually her motherly instincts override her own fear to save the children, she flees through the woods, to a neighbour house, who calls the police and reunites her with her terrified children, from where she is taken from hospital. But once she returns from hospital, no-one believes what has happened to her and her family. Surely she's not imagined it all? Soon, she works out how she might prove this intruder exists. She spots small disturbances in her home, that only she would spot. This was brilliantly spooky, unsetting and terrifying!

Never has a book had me so breathless with fear!! Just wow! The tension was solid and my heart was pounding throughout. This would make a great film, I could picture it so well!