April 15, 2019
A lonely woman's efforts to find friendship reveal the nasty underbelly of social media. Heavily pregnant Taylor Watson has moved from California to London with her British husband, Jake, in an attempt to heal their marriage after his affair. Taylor finds it hard to forgive Jake, especially since his travels for his job often leave her alone. In an effort to make new friends, she joins a walking group, where she meets Simon, an ethical hacker who works out of his home as he takes care of his aging father. Simon's a bit odd but seems harmless. A more appealing potential friend is Anna Jones, who's also pregnant and who has a husband off working in Qatar. Taylor helps Anna decorate her rather sad apartment, and they begin to spend more time shopping and lunching together. When Taylor's neighbor Sarah asks her to join a book group, she brings Anna along to meet the other member, Caroline Hughes-Smith, who went to school with Jake. Sarah, setting her cap for Jake, uses the excuse of arranging a birthday party for Taylor for a night out with him, arousing Taylor's suspicions. Interspersed chapters present the thoughts of an unidentified person stalking the hated and despised Taylor online, where both she and Anna overshare details of their lives. Meantime, Anna insists she's being watched, perhaps by the person who dropped a baby rattle through her mail slot in the dead of night. She confesses that she's feared the unknown ever since her roommate was raped and murdered while Anna slept. In Jake's absence, Taylor relies more and more on Anna, who feeds her doubts about Jake and Sarah. When a crisis arises, the agonized Taylor can't decide whom to trust. Kantaria (The One that Got Away, 2017, etc.) has produced a psychological thriller that will make your hair stand on end as you join her heroine in guessing which of her new friends is really her deadly enemy.
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April 22, 2019
Pregnant Taylor Watson, the narrator of this engrossing domestic thriller from British author Kantaria (The Disappearance), has been consumed by loneliness since she moved with her husband, Jake, from Southern California to suburban London. Jake, whose job keeps him away most of the time, jokes she has “exactly three friends: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.”
Desperate to meet people, Taylor joins a local walking group, one of whose members is Anna Jones, who’s also pregnant and new to the area, and whose husband is also often busy, working in Qatar. The two women start a fast friendship instigated by Taylor, who virtually stalks Anna online, and Taylor’s then brought further into the town fold after an invitation from a neighbor to join a book club. The seemingly benign story about finding new friends subtly takes dark and darker turns as it becomes clear that everyone has secrets to hide, and tension rises after an unknown stalker begins following Taylor and her friends a little too closely on social media. A stupendous twist will catch readers by surprise. Kantaria is definitely a writer to watch.
May 1, 2019
Taylor Watson is pregnant and in need of friends. She and her husband, Jake, moved back to his hometown in the London suburbs in an attempt to repair their marriage, which was damaged by his infidelity. While Jake works long hours, Taylor relies on social media for connection, obsessively Instagramming and Tweeting in an effort to present a happy face to her friends back in America. But when she joins a local walking group, things begin to look up. She meets Simon, a kind loner, and Anna, a fellow newbie who is also pregnant. Taylor vets Anna on social media, then decides they need to be friends. Between chapters of Taylor's attempts to settle in are letters, clearly sent from a stalker with dangerous intentions. Kantaria weaves in so much suspicious behavior?Simon's hacking abilities, Anna's long-distance husband, even Taylor's adeptness at internet stalking?that it's hard to tell who is the victim, much less the villain. This fascinating, compulsively readable domestic suspense will absolutely appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and B. A. Paris.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)