I’ll Be Watching You by Courtney Evan Tate #bookreview #thriller

Title: I’ll Be Watching You

Author: Courtney Evan Tate

Publisher: MIRA

Publication Date: March 26, 2019

Page Count: 336

My rating:   3 1/2 stars

About the book:

IT’S EVERY MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE…BUT ONE SHE WILL NOT ACCEPT

In an unthinkable flash, Emmy Fisher’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Leah, seemingly drowns close to shore one summer night—at least that is what the police report says.

In deep grief, Emmy needs time and courage before she can enter Leah’s bedroom. But when she does, she finds something at first bewildering, then unspeakable, as she begins to understand the full implications…

She uncovers evidence that Leah had been secretly involved with someone, someone perhaps older, someone with dark appetites.

Bit by bit, the last few months of Leah’s life unfold in a terrifying way that Emmy can hardly imagine.

All she knows is that she has to find the person who took her sweet daughter’s innocence. No matter the cost.

The truth will set her free. Or bury her.

I’ll Be Watching You by Courtney Evan Tate is a thriller that begins with the unthinkable, a mother losing her daughter in the blink of an eye.  The story is told in the present from the mother’s point of  view and flashing back a few months in the past to get the point of view of the daughter.

Emmy Fisher and her fifteen year old daughter, Leah, live in the Florida Keys at the Inn  that was passed down to Emmy from her family. Living on their own private beach in the Keys Emmy has often joked that her daughter is part fish so she didn’t think anything of Leah swimming alone that night until she didn’t return from the water.

Once the police rule Leah’s disappearance as an accidental drowning Emmy finds herself trying to cope with her grief. However once Emmy begins to  go through Leah’s  things she finds she didn’t know her daughter as well as she thought. When it looks like Leah was in a  relationship with an adult Emmy vows to  find out who and see them punished for being with a minor.

I’ll Be Watching You by Courtney Evan Tate for the most part was an enjoyable thriller that was easy to follow despite the time jumps and POV changes. The ending of  this one did mostly take me by surprise despite not having a ton of suspects although I had my suspicions on part of it.  The thing that lowered my rating to 3 1/2 stars was I didn’t find it realistic for Emmy to  shrug off some things, I’m the  reader and know things are never how they seem but a grieving mother should follow the clues a  bit more than she did.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Courtney Evan Tate, author of Such Dark Things, is the nom de plume (and darker side) of Courtney Cole, the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the Beautifully Broken series and the Nocte trilogy, among other fiction. She spends her days dreaming of new characters and story lines and surprising plot twists, and writing them beneath rustling palm trees in Florida.