Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: November 16th, 2016
296 Pages
Synopsis: Tara Logan lives a quiet life with her husband, Noah, and two children, teenager Rosie and eleven-year-old Spencer.
But her peace is shattered when she wakes up in her neighbor Lee’s bed, with no memory of how she got there or what happened between them. And worse–he has been stabbed to death.
Convinced she didn’t kill Lee, Tara stays silent, fearing the truth will rip her family apart.
But as her daughter spirals out of control, and her husband becoming increasingly distant, Tara soon realizes that someone in her life knows what really happened to Lee. She must get to the truth before they do.
Tara made a mistake…but will one night cost her everything?
While You Were Sleeping begins with an exciting premise, and the story follows through in some respects. I did have some issues though. The main one involves the actual police investigation, which to me is an absolute joke, and took much of the enjoyment out of the story. Tara, winds up waking up in the bed of her murdered neighbor after consuming several glasses of wine, yet she leaves no forensic evidence behind? Maybe I watch too many crime shows but all I could think was: “What? No hairs? No fingerprints? No clothing fibers? No DNA whatsoever?” And what about the wine glasses? Tara briefly worries about them, but then they’re never brought up again. Instead, you have a lead detective who relies solely on his “hunches”. Maybe this is because of my OCD, but this drove me a little crazy. I also found incredibly annoying, the complete and total lack of parenting skills shown by both Tara and her husband Noah in regards to their seventeen-year-old daughter Rosie. Without giving away any spoilers, there’s something seriously wrong with her psychologically, yet beyond the occasional visit to a therapist, they have a completely hands off approach. Neither have any backbone when it comes to dealing with her and even when Rosie becomes a prime suspect, this doesn’t change. What did work for me though, was the pacing and all the twists and turns in the story. Literally every single character at some point or another is a suspect but when the murderer is actually revealed I can honestly say I was shocked. I wound up reading this in one sitting because I just had to know who the killer was! While You Were Sleeping is the first book I’ve read by Kathryn Croft and I enjoyed it enough that I am interested in trying some of her other novels. Although this wound up not being a perfect read for me, it’s received plenty of positive reviews including some right here on WordPress, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to check them out.
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