Book Review: I Am Watching You by Teresa Driscoll


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Title: I Am Watching You
Author: Teresa Driscoll
Pages: 302 pages
Published: October 1st 2017 by Thomas & Mercer

GoodReads Description: "What would it take to make you intervene?

When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-eyed Anna Ballard—has disappeared.

A year later, Anna is still missing. Ella is wracked with guilt over what she failed to do, and she’s not the only one who can’t forget. Someone is sending her threatening letters—letters that make her fear for her life.

Then an anniversary appeal reveals that Anna’s friends and family might have something to hide. Anna’s best friend, Sarah, hasn’t been telling the whole truth about what really happened that night—and her parents have been keeping secrets of their own.

Someone knows where Anna is—and they’re not telling. But they are watching Ella."

MY REVIEW:
I almost gave this book 5 stars just because it was such a fast and readable thriller! It was completely engrossing and entertaining. I didn’t want to stop reading! Lots of cliff-hangers at the end of chapters. Well-played Teresa Driscoll – I blame you for my lack of productivity the last 2 days! And when my husband asks why the house looks like a tornado blew through it I will say, “Don’t ask me – ask Teresa Driscoll!” … and then quickly leave the room to begin my next book.

However, it falls just short of five stars simply because on reflection, you start to think, maybe a couple of the characters could have done with a bit more development. Particularly the “villain.” Ha, that conjures images of Maleficent and Jafar, but I don’t want to give it away, so villain is an appropriate word choice.

Overall, though, the characters had good complicated stories. I liked Ella – the witness, the florist. She kind of annoyed me sometimes, but then she would drop gems like this:

‘I read somewhere that by your forties you are supposed to care more about what you think of others than what they think of you –so why is it I am still waiting for this to kick in?’

Or this:

‘I just need to relax more and stop going over everything. I sometimes wonder if I would be a different kind of person if I could just learn the trick to do this. To stop with the analysing and concentrate on one thing at a time. But my brain simply doesn’t work like that. Never has. I’m always thinking, thinking, thinking. A million things competing all at the same time. Constant and exhausting buzz.’

And I realized she kind of annoyed me because she is me. Ha! But I thought her predicament was interesting and I liked how her story ended.

There were a lot of perspectives, but I thought each was completely distinctive from the last so I didn’t have trouble keeping them straight. They all had plenty of drama and heartache, which to me is essential because the real world has drama and heartache aplenty. I honestly can’t stand when even one person has a seemingly perfect life in a story. Kill your darlings! Stephen King said. And I totally get it because no one is immune.

To sum up, I actually was really busy or I would have read this in one day – so definitely read this – you’ll finish in about 24 hours and it will be an entertaining and twisty ride!

MY RATING:
Entertainment Value: 5
Characters 4.5
Voice: 5
Plot: 4
Overall: 4.625 stars! But we’ll say 4.5 for the sake of simplicity. Or 4.75 take your pick...

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review! 


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