ONE OF POPSUGAR’S BEST NEW BOOKS TO DIVE INTO THIS SUMMER ONE OF CRIME READS’ MOST ANTICIPATED SUMMER CRIME BOOKS OF 2020
A house with the darkest of secrets. A woman who is the only one who knows. It’s another bright, sunny day in Venture, Illinois, the sort of place where dreams come true and families can get a fresh start. Cecelia Holmes deserves it after the home invasion that … true and families can get a fresh start. Cecelia Holmes deserves it after the home invasion that shattered her previous life. Now everything seems perfect – her high-security SmartHome, her doting husband, her sweet daughter.
Until she begins to feel spied on. Her husband doesn’t believe her. Her neighbors ignore her. So when she discovers a shocking secret about the prior occupant of their house, she feels that she has no one to turn to. And now Cecelia must face her fears alone…
Following a home invasion, Cecelia and Scott move into a high -security SmartHome. It’s totally automated and programmed to their specific needs. They even have microchips embedded in their body to coordinate everything for them.
But all is not perfect. Cecelia feels that someone is constantly watching her. No one believes her … not her husband, not her friends, and certainly not her new neighbors.
She’s worried, but her worry becomes fright when the house starts malfunctioning and calling her Lydia. Who is Lydia? Why does no one in this new community want to talk about her?
Cecelia’s angst and fear are palpable, starting from the very first page. I found myself almost forgetting to breathe as I read… it’s quite a page turner. It’s hyped as a domestic thriller, but I would classify it more of a sci-fi. The plot, and the details involved, are quite complex with characters that stand out. The ending was unexpected.
Many thanks to the author / Grand Central Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
This was a slow-burning psychological thriller that had a big twist at the end. I could have guessed the twist if I had been paying careful attention to the subtle clues, but I didn’t, so it was a surprise to me. I don’t think that any of the characters was particularly likable. I couldn’t even really sympathize with Cecilia and her problems living in her million dollar mansion. She seemed like a lazy, entitled mother to me who should have been taking better care of her daughter and watching what her little three year old had on her screen every day. That was a pet peeve of mine about this book; Cecilia had the option to be a good mom and wasn’t. Fans of contemporary fiction will enjoy this book.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I checked out a copy of this book from my local library on the Overdrive App. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.
This is my first book by this author and wow! What a page turning story perfect for today’s tech controlled world. The author weaves a brilliant web of connections and heart-pounding action full of gasps. I find most complex storylines to be confusing to follow, but not this one, as it was so well done. I can’t wait to read more books by Nina Laurin.
Scott and Cecelia have been selected to be testers and live a new type of home built by IntelTech. It has SmartHome technology which means it is totally automated and programmed to fit their individual needs. They even have microchips embedded in their body to coordinate everything for them. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Taryn, who can be difficult for Cecelia to handle at times as she throws a lot of temper tantrums.
One night when putting Taryn to bed, Cecelia looks out her window and notices what looks like someone outside taking pictures of the child through the window. This shakes her up because it brings back memories of something violent that happened in their previous home. This is another reason Cecelia relishes living in this new safe and secure home. But things start going wrong in this new house and when when the SmartHome technology starts calling her Lydia, she is really frightened. What is going on and why?
I really hate to give a DNF to a book so I kept on with this one trying to figure out what all this was about. Good grief. Sometimes you have to wonder if everyone is screwed up. I certainly felt that all of the characters were at least a bit nuts. This could almost be listed as a Sci-Fi genre. I found it wearying and can’t say that I would recommend it unless a reader had empty time on their hands. I am, however, giving the book 3 stars because the author certainly has a vivid imagination.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Brisk, intense, and clever!
A Woman Alone is a suspenseful, psychological thriller that introduces us to Cecelia Holmes, a young wife who after suffering a traumatic experience moves with her husband and three-year-old daughter into a new home in Venture, Illinois, a smart community where your every whim and need is controlled by AI technology and your safety and security is at utmost importance until the day the computers begin to malfunction, secrets begin creeping out of the woodwork, and danger lurks around every corner.
The writing is crisp and edgy. The characters are unreliable, distressed, and secretive. And the plot is a disturbingly eerie tale of control, betrayal, obsession, deception, familial drama, isolation, revenge, violence, and murder.
Overall, A Woman Alone is a twisty, creepy, sinister page-turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish and is a wonderful reminder of just how vulnerable and susceptible our dependence on technology truly makes us.
After a brutal home invasion Cecelia is having a hard time feeling safe in her own home, so her husbands solution is for them to move into a home with a top of line security systems. She has her reservations about the move, but decides it might help make her feel a little safer… that is until mysterious unexplained things start happening around the house. As Cecelia starts to investigate she learns some disturbing things about her new home… and begins to wonder what they just got themselves involved in!
A Woman Alone is spine-tingling little page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. You couldn’t help but feel for Cecelia and what her family had went through with their home invasion, that kind of trauma would definitely shake you to your core. But then they move into their new home hoping for some solace and wind up getting themselves involved in a whole other disastrous situation. As Cecelia began to search for answers and investigate all the weird things happening around their home all, she had my full attention, and had me a little rattled too. As we all know this very digital world we live in nowadays can be scary some times, and this just proves you can’t always trust things as they are…. wow what a thriller! I really enjoyed this one, so much so, I devoured it in one sitting… I just couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend!
I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.
Thrillers can be hit or miss for me. I’m happy to say A WOMAN ALONE was a complete hit!
Cecelia has moved into a SmartHome with her husband & daughter, thinking she would be safe. Unfortunately, this technology proves to have a hidden secret, and Cecelia won’t rest until she uncovers it.
“I get the luxury to be a housewife—if you can call it that, considering that machines and futuristic gadgets do everything for me.”
Cece wasn’t too keen on moving, but after being a victim of a home invasion and being approached by IntelTech to live in their secure high-tech SmartHome, she relents. Let me tell you, I was totally for the SmartHome. It does everything for you! It even prepares you a bath to the temperature of your liking! Unfortunately, this house starts “malfunctioning”, calling Cece a name that isn’t her own, messing up her coffee, her playlist, her bath, etc. That’s when her quest to find out who lived in the house before her starts.
This novel definitely had me on a wild ride. We have an unreliable narrator, which heightened the suspense and thrill for me. My head was spinning in circles, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I was so not expecting what happened and the secrets that came to light! I ended up reading this in a day! It completely sucked me in from the first few chapters.
Overall, A WOMAN ALONE is an intense, addictive, heart-pounding page-turner you won’t want to miss out on!