Watch Out For Her

Watch out for this addictive domestic thriller!

I became a fan of Sam Bailey after reading her debut novel Women On The Edge back in 2019. Now she is back with her second novel Watch Out For Her and I'm thrilled that this new domestic suspense read exceeded my expectations. It is compelling from start to finish and left me reading well past my bedtime as I repeatedly lied to myself that I'd just read 'just one more chapter'.

This fast-paced thriller is relentless in its tension, smartly written and simply unputdownable. The story is set in Toronto and Vancouver in two timelines and is told from two perspectives - Sarah, a married, middle-aged woman and Holly, a 22-year-old woman from a privileged family that Sarah hires to babysit her son, Jacob. The two women quickly become close, sharing their personal fears, insecurities, and sense of inadequacy. But the friendship becomes threatened with secrets, omissions and lies leaving readers unsure of who is telling the truth. 

The switches between POV and timelines and the enticing micro twists at the end of several chapters keep the tension and the urge to keep reading very high. The reader witnesses hidden motives and manipulation by various characters and Bailey is great at throwing curveballs so just when I thought I had it figured out, I'd find myself suspecting another person.

With great flow, many possible culprits and a pervading and delicious creepiness, this domestic thriller is a pure page-turner that will keep readers on their toes and guessing until the final pages. Be prepared to devour this book in a sitting or two.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with a digital advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Samantha Bailey

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: April 19, 2022

Opening Line: I watch people.

Book Description from GoodReads: A tense psychological thriller about a mother who must keep watch at all times if she wants to keep her family safe—from USA TODAY and #1 national bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey.

Wherever you go…
she’ll be watching.

Sarah Goldman, mother to six-year-old Jacob, is relieved to move across the country. She has a lot she wants to leave behind, especially Holly Monroe, the pretty twenty-two-year-old babysitter she and her husband, Daniel, hired to take care of their young son last summer. It started out as a perfect arrangement—Sarah had a childminder her son adored, and Holly found the mother figure she’d always wanted. But Sarah’s never been one to trust very easily, so she kept a close eye on Holly, maybe too close at times. What she saw raised some questions, not only about who Holly really was but what she was hiding. The more Sarah watched, the more she learned—until one day, she saw something she couldn’t unsee, something so shocking that all she could do was flee.

Sarah has put it all behind her and is starting over in a different city with her husband and son. They’ve settled into a friendly suburb where the neighbors, a tight clique of good citizens, are always on the lookout for danger. But when Sarah finds hidden cameras in her new home, she has to wonder: has her past caught up to her, and worse yet, who’s watching her now?

A spine-tingling, page-turning novel from USA TODAY and #1 national bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey, Watch Out for Her is psychological suspense at its very best—a chilling look at trust, voyeurism, and obsession in the modern age, and how far we will go to watch out for those we love.