“Tess has a bad habit. She can’t stop snooping through her guests’ belongings… When Tess is forced to rent out her late sister’s old room to pay the bills, the urge to rummage through her guests’ belongings overtakes her every thought. Teasing herself with forbidden glimpses into the lives of strangers is a momentary thrill, but it’s the closest she’s felt to anyone since the mysterious death of her sister, Rosie. After her newest lodger, Arran, takes the room, Tess finds his salaciously detailed diary, which chronicles his infatuation with a beautiful stranger. The diary, which appears harmless at first, slowly takes a darker, more menacing tone with each new entry. Is this a crush or an obsession? Her compulsion to know the truth leads to Tess shadowing Arran through the streets of London, hoping to catch a glimpse of this unnamed woman. And as she continues to peruse his diary, she can’t help but notice the similarities between the woman on the pages and herself, leaving her to wonder, Who has truly been watching whom?”
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Publication Date: May 11th 2023
Content Warning: Graphic violence, stalking
This is a book that I thought would be a lot better than I thought it ended up being, with the synopsis and the actual plot seeming too far apart for my liking.
I went into this book thinking that, by the synopsis, we would be seeing a lot more police/detective activity and it would be one of those types of stories where we get to the answer that way, but instead, I thought it went on for a lot longer than it had to and took forever to get to the point. So long that by the time it did eventually roll around, I forgot what I was even waiting for.
If you’ve been reading this genre of book for as long as I have, you know that the answer is not going to be who it is set up to look like, and in this case, the answer didn’t really amaze me. It felt very much ‘pick the answer out of a hat’ like. Personally, I don’t see how the person responsible could have been.
I was drawn to this one as I thought I’d enjoy rooting the main character on as she works alongside the police to figure out how her sister passed, but in reality, I couldn’t stand her. It has been a while since I haven’t liked the character a story is following, but there was just something so insufferable about Tess, and I feel like it only got worse as the book went on and was drawing to a close.
If you want to read the book that the synopsis is selling you, I wouldn’t recommend picking this one up, but if you want something different and completely unexpected, it might work for you!
Thank you to Welbeck Publishing for the ARC!
All the love,
Jade x
Tea Stains and Book Spines 