“Just finished…am completely blown away!” GoodreadsA young woman, obsessed by a man she considers a predator, climbs a fire escape and thinks she sees a murder.Out of work actress Ava Beck, reduced to working in a West Village flower shop, starts to watch handsome, womanizing hedge funder Peter Greer, who lives near. He likes to romance his girlfriends with flowers.Ava notices bruises on his … flowers.
Ava notices bruises on his troubled-looking date named Chloe. Concerned, she follows them after work to Chloe’s studio, second floor in the rear of a brownstone. She hears them arguing, climbs up the fire escape just as Greer angrily sees her….and plunges into a world of stunning twists, murder and madness worse than any she could have imagined…
Advance praise for GIRL WATCHING YOU:
“What a fantastic thriller! The action starts with the first sentence and my heart was in my mouth with every page. This stand-alone thriller has such an unusual female character you just love and fear for. I so loved this book – five stars!” Alice Liddell
“Wow, I couldn’t put this book down. Loved the fast pace – no lulls! – and every time I thought I knew what was going on there was a twist. I was left open mouthed at the shocker ending…was reading through tears at one point. Loved this book!” Goodreads
“I just finished Girl Watching you and am trying to catch my breath. This suspense-thriller is amazing, it will have you guessing and second-guessing until the end. 5+ Stars!” Crime Book Club
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I have to say I’ve only just discovered this author’s excellent work. I don’t tend to read a lot of first person books but this one worked a treat for me. A psychological thriller not to be missed.
It was full of suspense and a page-turner that I read over a few days, in spite of my heavy work schedule. Joyce really does know how to keep her captive audience on their toes.
Ava, who works in a flower shop, in spite of being an actress has a suspicious mind that often gets her into trouble. Putting her nose into peoples’ business and suffering the consequences with foul things happen. A customer comes into the shop sporting bruises, she’s with her boyfriend Peter Greer, with her suspicions raised she tracks down the couple and ends up on their balcony, what she sees there shocks her…Her investigation leads her through numerous twists and turns that delivers several red herrings along the way.
Definitely had me fooled at the end. A expertly crafted book that is deserving of its five stars from me.
Great read for those looking for an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller.
I loved this psychological thriller from the first page. The writing was smooth, intriguing and sharp. Ava Beck’s intensity and compulsion was as addictive as it was reckless, drawing me into her troubled life and her belief that a womanising customer had killed his girlfriend.
But what to do about it – leave it to the police? Or get yourself into even deeper trouble?
The emotional level never dropped throughout the twisting story, which swerved and detoured before delivering a twist I didn’t see coming, leading to a heart-in-the-mouth climax. It just goes to show how easy it is to make wrong judgements.
All the characters were sharply drawn and convincing, pulling me into their often convoluted worlds. No one was quite who they seemed to be, leading to the edgy atmosphere that’s essential in a psychological thriller. As the pace and action picked up, I was never quite sure who to trust and who to dispel.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys intense and edgy psychological thrillers. I certainly look forward to reading more by JA Schneider.
The death of Ava Beck’s sister has been ruled an accident but Ava is convinced it was murder. Unfortunately, her sister’s boyfriend is influential, and Ava’s insistence on his guilt leaves her blacklisted from her profession as an actress. As Girl Watching You opens, Ava has become obsessed with men she considers to be predators and their supposed victims, and she develops a nasty, and at least borderline deranged habit of spying on them through windows.
Ava is convinced that Peter Greer is one of the predators and when his girlfriend, Chloe, is found dead, Ava makes her opinions known. Unfortunately, Ava’s obsessions are by no means secret, and when the accusations begin to fly, she has difficulty being taken seriously. What follows is a taut, action-charged thriller, where the good guys and the bad guys are easily confused. The characters are well-drawn and the plot, while over the top, makes sense. It kept me guessing until the end. Recommended.
I really enjoyed the book. This was a first time read of this author for me. I’ll definitely be reading more. I had so many guesses on who the killer was but never really guessed the twist at the end. Many times I said to the main character, girl are you crazy, you’re gonna get yourself killed!! Good psychological thriller!
Adrenaline and fear are J. A. Schneider’s stock in trade not only on the page but for the page-turning reader trapped in the story on the very first page. GIRL WATCHING YOU adds the dimension of obsession to the mix. As with all things, there are up and downsides to obsessive behavior. Like Hitchcock, the McGuffin looms large in her stories.
As in almost all of her books, this one has a distinct feminist feel. Her female protagonist is not without self-doubt but stands fierce and fearless in the wake of adversity. In other words, these women are all too human. They portray what many of us hope to achieve should we be faced with a deadly situation.
If you enjoy thrillers with female protagonists, GIRL WATCHING YOU is written for you. It is a standalone tale that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Girl Watching You is a dark and riveting psychological thriller. It opens with Ava Marsh, a movie actress who is not only stricken with grief over her sister’s murder, but she also seeks revenge, at all costs—even at the cost of both her career and sanity.
She starts a nutty habit of observing men she considers predators and trying to watch over their female victims by climbing fire escapes at night to peep in through their windows, as if she were some kind of spiderwpman — which attests to how low she has really sunk. She constantly revisits her own logic: “The man loves his children. The idea I had of him is changing, and I frown in confusion. Is this the same guy I called a narcissist monster?”
Ava must fight through her own obsession and realize the mistakes she makes out of an abundance of suspicion, in order to come whole at the end. This story is more than a who-done-it mystery — although it’s a gripping one at that — it’s a journey. You will be rooting for her to find not only the killer but also to find a peace of mind.
Wonderfully written.
Five Stars.
Girl Watching You is fast-paced and suspenseful but what really makes it stand out is the main character, Ava. She’s impulsive and deals with her sister’s murder with unorthodox behavior that gets her into trouble. Ava’s courage and empathy for others make her a likeable character. The children in this book are adorable and will have you rooting for them to heal from trauma.
The author skillfully takes you from not liking a male character, to admiring him and realizing he’s a perfect foil for the impulsive Ava.
Highly recommended!
4.5 Stars
Ava is an actress (unemployed at the time) working at a flower shop, still trying to deal with the death of her sister, two years ago. It was decided to be an accident, but Ava knows it wasn’t and her abusive boyfriend killed her. Because she went after him physically, he had her blacklisted.
She’s become very aware of abusive men and when a couple walk into the flower shop, she notices bruises around the woman’s wrist. Not hard to think that since the man she’s with is a known womanizer.
Thinking about the woman all day and comparing her with her sister, she decides to keep check on her. Dressing all in black, and climbing up the fire escape to watch them, she sees the two having one heck of an argument. But when the man glances through the window, he sees Ava.
Ava is plunged into a nightmare .. worse than anything she’s ever known. When she discovers that another woman was killed a few years earlier … a woman known to be dating the womanizer.
How many more women are going to die by this man’s hands? When he confronts Ava, is she going to be the next on his list?
This is a well-written thriller filled with suspense, murder, and twists and turns that lead to an unexpected ending. The characters are finely drawn and credible. Lots of action turns this into a real page-turner.
Many thanks to the author for the advanced digital copy of this psychological crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Ava Beck watched her Sister go thru an abusive relationship so when she sees Peter Greer, the womanizing rich guy from the neighborhood with his current girlfriend with bruises, she follows them to see if she is right about him. Next thing you know the girlfriend is found dead. Did Ava witness Peter about to kill his girlfriend or did someone else do it? This is a fast paced page turner that doesn’t disappoint! Many twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Girl Watching You opens with a black-balled movie actress, Ava, who is grieving the murder of her sister, Kim. The movie producer blackballing Ava is the man she is convinced murdered her sister. She wants revenge, at all costs. This consumes her rational judgement and in order to feel like she might stop the next victim before it happens, she starts climbing fire escapes to see if she can thwart a vulnerable woman from injury or death. This ‘peeping’ leads her to another powerful man she sees as an abuser.
Ava has her own demons to overcome. She is likeable character from the standpoint that she wants to help others, and is fighting for Justice for her sister while being wronged herself. The decisions she makes are questionable and it makes for a page turner to see what kind of trouble she will put herself in the middle of next.
While there is a mystery to solve, the reader also wants Ava to find some peace for herself and justice for her sister. A great psychological thriller.
Wow, what an amazing read. This is my first book by JA Schneider but I’ll read more. Girl Watching Me is an expertly plotted novel about a young woman who’s life has been detailed by the brutal murder of her sister by a powerful movie mogul. Ava Marsh, a former TV actress (currently blackballed from the industry) currently works at a flower shop In New York. She is a peeping Tom of sorts, who believes she witnessed the death of a young woman. Ava further complicates this situation by befriending the wife of the murderer and then becomes intimate with him. The author takes us through an expertly crafted plot with unexpected twists and turns. The story is complex, well-written and riveting.
All in all, an excellent psychological thriller with an ending I didn’t expect. Highly recommended. Easily five stars!
My first book by J. A. Schneider, but definitely not my last. It’s one of those books you wish you had someone to sit and talk to about, which makes writing this review so hard. There are so many things you want to discuss, expand upon and brag about. The characters are so cleverly crafted and weaved into the plot that you find yourself literally holding your breath as you turn the page. Who is the killer? Is Ava making a horrible mistake? Should she back off? Is she crazy?
Ava’s life is destroyed with the murder of her sister, Kim. Although tagged an accidental death, Ava knows it was murder. She wants Justice for Kim and revenge for herself. But powerful men have powerful lawyers and justice is fleeting. With no criminal case to prosecute she goes after Moore in civil court, with the help of her soon to be ex-husband Alex.
But that isn’t enough. Another powerful man crosses her path. Peter Greer. Another innocent girl murdered and Ava witnesses the battle before her death. Risking her own life she becomes obsessed with proving Greer murdered Chloe, and his former girlfriend. But did he? Everyone around her seems suspicious, including her friend/boss, Joe and his sister Mel. Even her soon to be ex-husband isn’t above suspicion as he prosecutes her sister’s case. Assaulted by Greer’s brother-in-law, the danger increases, and the truth is close to being revealed if Ava can survive.
A definite 5* read and highly recommended.
Girl Watching You by J.A. Schneider is a very exciting, suspenseful thriller. Ava’s sister Kim dies due to domestic violence. However, criminal charges aren’t brought against the attacker, so Ava files
a civil case against him. She has made it a personal vendetta to stop domestic violence and goes to great lengths to stop it. At one time or another, almost all of the characters seem guilty of something. Girl Watching You keeps you guessing right up until the end and suspicious of everyone except the killer.