This book was fantastic. It was so addicting and kept me intrigued the entire story. Sometimes if there are too many characters... I tend to get confused. But Lisa Jewell did a very nice job painting each character and how in the end the stories were brilliantly interwoven with each of the characters. How did Joey’s mother’s death impact her and her decision making? Why do you think she married Alfie? Why did she become so obsessed with Tom? Down the street is the new headmaster Tom Fitzwilliam, specifically brought in to rescue the local school from looming disaster. Tom is charismatic, charming, suave...well you get the picture! He makes all the ladies swoon. As well as some of the school girls too.

High on a hill in Bristol, England there is a street of colourful houses. The neighbourhood is called Melville Heights. It is here, in this affluent, innocuous location, that a brutal murder took place… The complexities of the marital abuse described in Watching You undermine some of the assumptions we often make about what gives someone power in a relationship. What power dynamics do we see in the various marriages in the novel? How do these fit or defy our expectations? Jenna Tripp lives in the lower area of the Heights her mom has been known to think that there are spies everywhere and that they are watching her and Jenna and filming them. Her reasons are confusing, you will have to read for yourself. This book was really all about perception and assumption, my opinion of each and every character in this book change from beginning to end.... made you realize you never really get the entire picture.... a wonderful book about the darker side of what goes on behind closed doors... Starred Review. Stellar domestic drama...Expert misdirection keeps the reader guessing, and the rug-pulled-out-from-beneath-your-feet conclusion' - coupled with one final, bonechilling revelation' - is stunning. Best not to bet on anyone. A compulsive read guaranteed to please fans of A. J. Finn and Ruth Ware." - Booklist

A seize-you-by-the-throat thriller and a genuinely moving family drama.” —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window He’s not old,” Bess replied. “He’s mature. Like wine. Like Cheese. I love him. I actually love him.” And what about Freddie, Mr. Fitzwilliam’s teenage son—is it possible he’s guilty of more than just watching all of his neighbors and chronicling their every move? Plans for Novellas in November #NovNov23 #NovellasInNovember #Fictionophile#novellas October 28, 2023

I loved how perspective played such a huge part in the storyline. Everyone seemed to be watching everyone else for one reason or another. Characters see things from their own vantage points, take things out of context and make assumptions based on their own beliefs. At times these collide with another character's view and sometimes things seem to perfectly align - causing us as reader's to form and reform our own beliefs as we read. I changed my mind so many times while reading, it felt like reader whiplash!Lisa Jewell is one of my go-to authors. In other words, I can trust I will like her books before I even know a thing about them. In the case of WATCHING YOU, though, I was initially afraid I made a mistake, that it was just going to be another MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell, a book I did not enjoy. Just who is Tom Fitzwilliam? Does anyone really know?To the outside world he is a handsome, popular, successful man, but is he really all that?Strange things always happen in the neighborhoods where Tom lives, and Melville Heights is no exception. There is spying in the neighborhood by his son, there are women in love with Tom, and there is a neighbor, Mrs. Tripp, who thinks Tom is the cause of numerous strange things happening to her and has remembered something about Tom that happened a few years ago. Could Mrs. Tripp be right about Tom and everyone else wrong thinking he is perfect? She doesn't give up.Tom’s son, Freddie, is definitely odd and frightening.There are other characters that play some major roles such as Joey who is a suspect in a murder investigation that occurred in the neighborhood and who has a crush on Tom Fitzwilliam. WATCHING YOU is definitely a study in human nature with nosy neighbors being the focus. It seemed that everyone was spying on someone with Freddie being the major one.As the book continues, the mystery about who Tom really is and who the murdered person is at the beginning of the book are slowly revealed.WATCHING YOU has a lot of unlikable and odd characters, but that is what made it good and typical Lisa Jewell. I was asking myself just who is anyone in this twisty, strange, but excellent thriller that had me wondering about all of the characters and what was happening.If you enjoy Lisa Jewell’s books, you won’t want to miss reading WATCHING YOU. The ending revelations are GREAT!! 4/5This book was given to me as an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Read more

His mum, like him, had no friends. It was as if they could tell, he thought, they could tell she wasn’t ever going to be one of them. She was always going to be trying, never just being.” It’s an innocuous room, bland even. A kitchen like a million other kitchens all across the country. A kitchen for drinking coffee in, for doing homework and eating breakfast and reading newspapers in. Not a kitchen for dark secrets or crimes of passion. Not a kitchen for murdering someone in.As described in the blurb, there is a set of estates called called Melville Heights and there is lots of watching going on between these houses. Tom Fitzwiiliam is the headmaster at the local school and just about everyone seems to love him. He is positive, sensitive, good natured, great with the kids and parents and even handsome, sound too good to be true? Maybe.