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housedesignerking's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Wow.
I've never read a suspenseful drama quite like this one. I guess me and my fiancè picked up a good one.
Just, wow.
Alexandra Suzanne Carlson lives alone in a house her father built for her. It's an interesting house. The ground floor has a garage, a bedroom, and -- I assume, though it wasn't really specified -- a bathroom. The second floor is the main part of the house; living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, etc. Finally, the third floor is Alex's bedroom and master bathroom. I am not sure exactly how this house would look, but I thoroughly enjoyed trying to picture it.
At the beginning, she is throwing a party on the second floor of her home. A friend of her exhusband Joseph, David Sloane, calls claiming he wants to speak with her "husband." She informs David they are divorced and offers to give him her ex's number. He declines and makes it awkwardly obvious that he's more interested in her. She feels bad that he's in the area and alone and invites her to the party (a birthday party for Greg Otts). After the party, he tries to force her to have sex with him, assaulting her only, ripping her blouse, that kind of thing).
She hears noises, and slowly, she comes to the idea that someone may he watching her. One big sign is she comes home to find her bedroom had been ransacked.
A few of the characters are her, Detective Justin Holmes, Thelda Klump (her difficult neighbor who thinks Alex is a slut), Margie, Gunther (a cop who thinks the same thing as Thelda), Hawkins (the groundskeeper), her exhusband Joseph,and son Todd. The first time I read the Detective's last name, I wondered if Davis Luce had named him in some sort of nod to Sherlock.
Anyway, part of Alex's dilemma she's not getting the Reno police department -- especially the detective-- to believe her. There isn't enough evidence to support her claims, according to the Holmes, and they wonder if she is just filing false police reports because she's lonely and severely desperate for companionship. Saying anymore would mean delving into spoilers, I think.
Davis Luce did a really good job making you question who could be the stalker. Is it someone she knows? Is it someone she doesn't know? Me and my fiancè had a bunch of theories about it. (Spoiler: we were way off, but we weren't disappointed).
This is another one of those books you just don't wanna put down. 5 stars. Definitely going to be seeking out more of this author's books!
I've never read a suspenseful drama quite like this one. I guess me and my fiancè picked up a good one.
Just, wow.
Alexandra Suzanne Carlson lives alone in a house her father built for her. It's an interesting house. The ground floor has a garage, a bedroom, and -- I assume, though it wasn't really specified -- a bathroom. The second floor is the main part of the house; living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, etc. Finally, the third floor is Alex's bedroom and master bathroom. I am not sure exactly how this house would look, but I thoroughly enjoyed trying to picture it.
At the beginning, she is throwing a party on the second floor of her home. A friend of her exhusband Joseph, David Sloane, calls claiming he wants to speak with her "husband." She informs David they are divorced and offers to give him her ex's number. He declines and makes it awkwardly obvious that he's more interested in her. She feels bad that he's in the area and alone and invites her to the party (a birthday party for Greg Otts). After the party, he tries to force her to have sex with him, assaulting her only, ripping her blouse, that kind of thing).
She hears noises, and slowly, she comes to the idea that someone may he watching her. One big sign is she comes home to find her bedroom had been ransacked.
A few of the characters are her, Detective Justin Holmes, Thelda Klump (her difficult neighbor who thinks Alex is a slut), Margie, Gunther (a cop who thinks the same thing as Thelda), Hawkins (the groundskeeper), her exhusband Joseph,and son Todd. The first time I read the Detective's last name, I wondered if Davis Luce had named him in some sort of nod to Sherlock.
Anyway, part of Alex's dilemma she's not getting the Reno police department -- especially the detective-- to believe her. There isn't enough evidence to support her claims, according to the Holmes, and they wonder if she is just filing false police reports because she's lonely and severely desperate for companionship. Saying anymore would mean delving into spoilers, I think.
Davis Luce did a really good job making you question who could be the stalker. Is it someone she knows? Is it someone she doesn't know? Me and my fiancè had a bunch of theories about it. (Spoiler: we were way off, but we weren't disappointed).
This is another one of those books you just don't wanna put down. 5 stars. Definitely going to be seeking out more of this author's books!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Cursing
shannon_catherine's review against another edition
1.0
Should be zero stars.
Doesn't hold up in 2020. The "romance" which started with a man fondling her while she was barely awake after having two Valium seemed more acquaintance rapey to me. Also don't need to know that she "felt her nipples harden" in the middle of an attack. And, honestly, the overall reveal wasn't that great. Really dated.
Doesn't hold up in 2020. The "romance" which started with a man fondling her while she was barely awake after having two Valium seemed more acquaintance rapey to me. Also don't need to know that she "felt her nipples harden" in the middle of an attack. And, honestly, the overall reveal wasn't that great. Really dated.
wulfwyn's review against another edition
4.0
The story line was awesome...divorced female living alone is receiving harassing phone calls, somebody watching her and then actually being in her home with her! I may think twice about a sky light now. This book started out incredibly good. Then we got caught up in the romance between the cop and the victim. I don't oppose a bit of romance in a thriller. I just want the author to stay on track. I found it to be a creepy read that got almost predictable toward the end. I still think it is worth reading. I just feel that there were some scenes that were not needed but added because sex sells. That isn't to say the scenes were not written well. They were. There were also just filler for me. I wish the filler had been some scenes with some of the suspects, like the handyman and what he thought or did when he was hanging around the house or after he got fired. Overall though it is a fast, creepy read.
tinamoo's review against another edition
2.0
This book started off on such a positive note for me. A divorced woman is being stalked. Her house gets broken into, she was receiving silent and sometimes nasty phone calls. This was all quite creepy with a bit of excitement thrown in. From then on the book went downhill quite quickly for me. It seemed that every male that she met wanted to sleep with her. The policeman assigned to her case was with her constantly and never seemed to have any other work to do. The sex scenes in my opinion were unnecessary and did not add anything to the story. The only positive thing I can say about the sex scenes was that they allowed me to skip some pages without me missing any of the actual story. I thought that this could have been a good book had the story been better thought out.
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